WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS — Jeff Overton went into the final round of the Greenbrier Classic with a three-stroke lead, and turned around and shot a 3-under 67 Sunday.

It should have been enough, right?

But he didn’t account for a scorching round by Stuart Appleby, who fired a 59 to win the tournament by one stroke.

“I take my hat off to Stuart,” Overton said. “I got beat by a 59. What can you say? I played great and I hit a lot of great shots.

“I had my opportunities early and just didn’t do it.”

A lackluster front nine helped the field catch the leader as Overton only scored one birdie — on hole 5, but immediately carded a bogey on 6.

It could have been a lot worse early on. On his tee shot on No. 1, Overton sliced it left and the ball zoomed toward the gallery.

But when he walked down the hill and onto the fairway, Overton discovered his ball laying on the edge of the fairway — the right side of the fairway.

His ball struck a tree and ricocheted off miraculously.

Coincidentally, D.A. Points, Overton’s playing partner on Sunday, also hit the same tree. But his ball went backward about 50 feet.

“I was thinking, ‘Man. Maybe it’s my day,’” Overton said with a laugh.

The back nine was a different story for Overton, as he birdied 10, 11 and 16.

But he couldn’t convert birdie opportunities on 17 and 18 that could have tied or won the tournament for him.

On 17, a 3.8-foot shot for birdie lipped out. A disappointed Overton looked down inside the hole in disgust and ripped off his visor.

He calmed down enough to sink a putt for par.

“I thought I put a good stroke on it,” Overton said. “I thought I put it right down the center. It just went hard left. It happens. Late in the day it gets bumpy.”

Some thought that a spike mark may have altered the ball’s path.

“There was definitely a spike mark there,” Overton said. “I don’t want to make excuses though. I missed the putt. It didn’t go in. I was in the zone. Usually when you hit putts and you’re in that state of mind, it’s hard to deal with. You’re like, ‘Wow.’ But it happened.”

Down by one stroke heading into the final hole with thousands of fans in a packed gallery on 18 waiting in anticipation, Overton smacked his tee shot to the front of the green.

A hump stood between the ball and the cup, some 52.2 feet away for a birdie and a tournament tie.

His putt rolled smoothly over the hump and just missed the cup, stopping about 10 inches past the hole.

The gallery gasped.

Overton looked down.

And Appleby likely broke into a smile.

“I had a good read on it,” Overton said. “I thought, ‘I can make this.’ I put an awesome stroke on it. When it went over that hill, I thought it was going to go in. Right at the end, it just straightened out.”

A tap-in putt placed Overton into second place. Still a good pay day at $648,000, but no cigar.

Considering Appleby took home the $1.08 million tournament purse for the winner, a couple of errant putts cost the second place finisher $432,000.

“You can’t win golf tournaments when you putt it that bad,” said Overton, a 26-year-old, sixth-year pro from Evansville, Ind. “We had three three-putts and you just can’t do that on Sundays.”

Appleby was playing two pairs ahead of Overton.

So when Appleby started making a move and sinking shots, the sound of a roar from the galleries alerted Overton to his success.

The scoreboards on the course also told the story of the Appleby rally.

“I heard the roar on 17, so I knew he’d made birdie to get it to 21 (under),” Overton said. “Then I’m like, ‘I got to get this close; I got to make birdie here.’ I hit a good shot and then I got about six feet up the hill and I heard another roar, which meant he must’ve hit a close shot on 18.”

“But I heard two roars,” Overton continued. “So I figured that he or the other guy that he was playing with — both of them must have hit it decent. So I was like, ‘He just birdied. He’s going to birdie 18, too.’ So you knew I needed to make birdies there.”

It changed his strategy, Overton admitted.

“I kind of went into the state of mind that I needed to birdie all three holes,” he admitted. “I made the putt there for birdie and went to the next hole and hit two great shots. I don’t think that that first putt was going to be as slow as it was. I thought I made the second. You really can’t do anything about it.”

“The last hole I had a little extra adrenaline going,” Overton admitted. “I was a little scared of hitting it over the green with a 9-iron. I just kind of caught it a little I think and it came up short. But then that putt, I’m like, ‘I’m going to make this, I don’t care.’

“It just didn’t go in. It was close, but it didn’t.”

“I had programmed myself to birdie 17 and 18,” Overton added. “I hit it, I mean it was all over the flag today. I just hit it a groove low.

“The putt I hit (on 17), it looked like it was in all the way. As soon as it came off my putter, I just about jumped out of my pants. It just rolled over the edge.”

Overton shot a 64 on Old White in the opening round on Thursday, 62 on Friday and a 66 on Saturday to take the lead at 18-under after three rounds.

Overall, he took it in stride.

“You know, I’m having a great year,” Overton said. “I’m playing great golf. It’s tough to beat 59s. You know, hopefully I can continue to sharpen up my game a little bit and hopefully shoot one sometime in my career.”

Overton has been on a hot streak of late. He has finished inside the Top 12 in seven of his last ten starts. During that stretch, he has three runner-up finishes, the others being the Zurich Classic in New Orleans and the HP Byron Nelson Championship.

He also has two third place finishes, the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial and the AT&T National.

“There’s another tournament next week and the week after,” he added. “One of the main reasons I came here was to get more points and hopefully get on that Ryder Cup team. I got some points for that and now I can get ready for PGA.”

Despite the outstanding scores he posted this week, Overton fell short. But Old White wasn’t to blame, he said.

“If you look at other tournaments, 18-under usually wins most tournaments,” he said. “What did it take? Twenty-two-under here? I don’t think that the course was the easiest course in the world. If you hit some bad shots off the tee you can really get into trouble. At the same time, it’s kind of fun. You get on a driver rhythm and you have some shorter shots in.”

— E-mail: jworkman@

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