Why not?

For Craig Perks, it was all about the finish.

Never mind that he had four bogeys in the front nine to fall out of second place; that he missed putts shorter than a foot for pars on the 12th and the 15th; or that Perks hit only four fairways on Sunday of the PGA Tour's finest event (keeping in mind that the four majors are run independently of the PGA Tour), the Players Championship.

How's this for a finish? Perks flirted with water on the right hand side with his second shot on the par-5 16th hole, but chipped in from the rough for an eagle and a sudden one-stroke lead over Stephen Ames, who had fired 65 earlier in the day and had been waiting to see if 6-under would hold up. Perks, 35-year-old New Zealand native, then safely found the green on the diabolical island green on the par-3 17th, and drained the 28-footer for a dramatic birdie and a seemingly insurmountable two-shot advantage.

On the finishing hole, the most difficult on the course and perhaps on the entire PGA Tour, Perks inexplicably hit a driver off the tee and missed the fairway to right. After pitching out to the short grass, Perks missed the green with his third.

All he had to do was to bogey the hole, but from the back rough, even a double bogey to force a playoff wasn't a certainty. Jean Van de Velde's spectacular collapse at the 1999 Open Championship-where the French man blew a three-stroke lead on the last hole of the championship, and lost to Paul Lawrie in a playoff-must have come into Perks' mind.

Whatever was on his mind, Perks perhaps didn't think he was going to chip in from that thick rough-which he did for a par and the most unlikely victory in the TPC history.

To use only one putt and go chip-in eagle, birdie and chip-in par on possibly the most treacherous finishing holes in golf, and to do it to win cool $1.08 million (all figures U.S.)-Perks' performance will go down as one of the most dramatic finishes in golf history, especially given the magnitude of the tournament and the difficulty of those three holes.

Thanks to the TPC win, Perks will get a lot of, um, perks. Aside from that lucrative winning check, Perks will be fully exempt on the Tour for five years, will be invited to all the World Golf Championships events this year and will play in this year's U.S. Open and the PGA Championship, next three Masters and next four Open Championships.

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