Wilcox wins by 4 in Georgia

Valdosta, GA – Will Wilcox carded a 1-over 73 on Sunday and cruised to a 4-stroke victory at the South Georgia Classic.

Entering the final round with a 7-stroke lead, Wilcox managed his way through lengthy Kinderlou Forest Golf Club and secured his first Web.com Tour victory by finishing at 15-under 273.

"This is just surreal. I've been dreaming about this my whole life," said Wilcox. "I've made some really big changes in my life and that's obviously what I needed to do and continue with."

Monday qualifier Zack Sucher fired the low round of the day, turning in a 7-under 65 and jumping into a tie for second place with Michael Putnam (70) and D.J. Brigman (70) at 11-under-par 277.

First-round leader Ryan Spears shot 1-under 71 on Sunday. The Web.com Tour rookie ended in a tie for fifth place with Alexandre Rocha (67) and Andrew Loupe (70) at minus-10.

Camilo Benedetti (70), Daniel Bowden (70) and Tyrone Van Aswegen (70) shared eighth at 7-under, while second-round leader and University of Georgia product Hudson Swafford (74) tied for 11th with three others at minus-6.

Wilcox was afforded ample breathing room thanks to Saturday's career-best and course-record 63. And although the 26-year-old experienced an up-and-down final round, his lead never dipped below four shots.

He opened with a par and birdied the second before tripping to bogeys on Nos. 3 and 6. Wilcox bounced back, however, holing a wedge from 135 yards for eagle on the par-4 seventh and then parring the last two holes of his outward nine to take a 6-stroke lead around the bend.

Another par followed on the 10th before Wilcox experienced his biggest misstep, a double-bogey 7 on the par-5 11th. That gaffe reduced the leader's margin to four, but he promptly bounced back with a birdie on the following hole.

"I was being too aggressive and just snapped it into the hazard," he said of the 11th. "I took a drop, but was on some rocks and lost my footing and hit it into the hazard again. I had to take another drop, hitting five from 188 yards. That came up 70 feet short of the green and I putted that to 10 feet and canned it. It was a good double, I mean people were clapping for me making seven."

Wilcox then parred his next five holes to maintain the advantage and he entered the last with a chance at history. A birdie on No. 18 would have given the Alabama native the tournament record and a par would have ensured him a share of the mark, but Wilcox instead carded a bogey and settled for a 4- stroke South Georgia Classic victory.

"I relaxed when I saw nobody was making a move," Wilcox said. "The walk up 18 was sweet."

NOTES: The tournament record of 272 belongs to last year's champion Luke List, who graduated to the PGA Tour. With his third-round 63, Wilcox did manage to best the course record of 64, most recently set by Woody Austin in 2012, and the 54-hole record of 204, last set by List in 2012 ... This was Wilcox's 49th start on the Web.com Tour.