Sloan downs Fathauer to win Nova Scotia Open

Halifax, NS (SportsNetwork.com) - Canadian Roger Sloan parred the first playoff hole on Sunday to defeat Derek Fathauer and win the Nova Scotia Open.

Fathauer, who played two groups ahead of Sloan, closed with a 5-under 66 to get in at 11-under-par 273. Sloan, who led entering the final round, carded a 1-under 70 to force a playoff.

The duo returned to the 18th at Ashburn Golf Club for the extra session. Fathauer's tee ball found the right trees, before Sloan hit his tee shot down the middle of the fairway.

Fathauer's foot slipped as he hit his second shot, and his ball hit several branches and stopped in the right rough. Sloan played his second to the front edge of the green.

With his third, Fathauer found the back of the putting surface. Sloan's birdie try came up about four feet short before Fathauer nearly drained his long par putt. He marked his ball and watched Sloan knock in his par putt for the win.

"I love being a Canadian and it means so much to win here on my home soil. It's very special to win here," Sloan said in a televised interview. "I played one shot at a time. I didn't look at a leaderboard, I had no idea where I was the entire day. Finally on the last hole there, I asked my caddie what I had to do, and he said 'up and down gets you into a playoff,' so that was nice.

"It was a tough day. The wind was tricky. We just focused on one shot at a time and got it done."

The final 36 holes of the tournament were played on Sunday as the remnants of Hurricane Arthur wreaked havoc on Halifax on Saturday.

John Mallinger stumbled to a 2-over 73 in the final round and he ended alone in third at 8-under 276. Kyle Thompson (69), Henrik Norlander (69) and Zack Fischer (67) were one shot back at minus-7.

Fathauer had a dominating front nine that looked as though it would be enough to give him the title. He had one birdie and three pars in his first four holes.

He birdied the par-3 fifth to kick off a run of five consecutive birdies. That spurt moved him to 12-under par and the top of the leaderboard.

Fathauer birdied the par-5 12th to move to 13-under. However, he bogeyed two of the last three holes, then had to wait and see what Sloan would do.

Sloan parred his first five holes, then converted a birdie try on the par-4 sixth. After a par on seven, he bogeyed the eighth and ninth to make the turn at minus-9.

The Canadian moved back to even-par for his round with a birdie on No. 10. Sloan erased a bogey on the 12th with birdies at 13 and 14 to get to 11-under. As Fathauer stumbled late, Sloan closed four pars in a row before claiming his first Web.com Tour title on the first playoff hole.

NOTES: Sloan earned $117,000 for the win and he moved to 12th on the money list with the victory ... Fathauer moved to eighth on the money list and he has the second-most amount of money earned this season without a win. He is just behind Justin Thomas in that category ... The tour will be in Utah next week for the Utah Championship, where Steven Alker won last year.