Bogota, Colombia – Skip Kendall, playing in the final foot birdie putt on his last hole Sunday to shot win at the Colombia Championship.
The shot concluded his round of even-par 71 and put Kendall at 10-under-par 274. He shared the third-round lead with Andrew Svoboda, but Svoboda struggled to a one-over 72 and ended in a tie for second with Andres Gonzales (68).
James Hahn (70) and Kirk Triplett (72) finished in a tie for fourth at eight- under 276.
Kendall won for the fourth time on the Nationwide Tour, and for the first time since the 2007 Louisiana Open. Svoboda just missed a 20-foot birdie putt on the last and lost out on a chance for his first Nationwide win.
"It was one of those putts that you could get a good line on and I had a really good feeling over it," said Kendall. "Fortunately I hit a good putt and to see it tracking towards the middle of the hole was pretty special. In a way, I'm glad I went first and made the putt."
With the leaders midway through Sunday's round, Svoboda held a two-shot lead over a logjam of players at nine-under. He had two birdies and a bogey on his front nine to move to 11-under.
Kendall was in that large group of players, having bogeyed his first two holes before getting a shot back with a birdie at the eighth.
"In a way, it relaxed me because I figured I got my bogeys out of the way," Kendall said. "I thought, let's just move on and try to hit solid shots. I knew Andrew was ahead of me all day at 11-under so I figured if I could hang on to his coattails and try to catch him that I'd be in pretty good shape."
The leaderboard started to change when Svoboda, playing in the final threesome along with Kendall and Triplett, bogeyed the 11th to fall to 10-under.
He also fell into a tie with Hahn, who was playing a group in front of the leaders and used birdies at four, nine and 10 to match Svoboda in the lead. Hahn then dropped out of first with bogeys at the 13th and 15th, but Kendall took the opportunity to take his place at the top of the leaderboard.
Kendall birdied the 13th to get to 10-under, and was tied with Svoboda for the lead at that point. But while Kendall got through the next hole with a par, Svoboda stumbled to a bogey to fall a shot back.
At that point is was Kendall's tournament to lose, and he nearly did after recording a bogey at the 16th. That put him back into a tie with Svoboda, and also opened the window for other players to win the title.
Gonzalez was the only one to take advantage of the opportunity, making a birdie at the 18th to match Kendall and Svoboda at nine-under. Hahn couldn't rebound from his ill-timed bogeys and went into the clubhouse at eight-under.
However, a playoff never came to fruition after Kendall birdied the last. Triplett needed an eagle to match Kendall at 10-under and settled for a par, while Svoboda couldn't match Kendall's birdie and had to settle for second place.
NOTES: Kendall is tied for ninth all-time for wins on the Nationwide Tour, in a group that also includes Tom Lehman...Brenden Pappas, last year's champion, shot a 75 on Sunday and ended in a tie for 66th at seven-over 291...On March 1, the Nationwide Tour returns with the Panama Claro Championship, which was won last year by Mathew Goggin.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.