Ryan Palmer drained a 10ft birdie putt at the final hole to end a six-way tie and win the PGA Ginn sur Mer Classic.
Palmer, 32, carded a final-round 71 and finished with a 72-hole total of 281 for his second career victory.
"I've never practiced the way I've been practicing," he said. "It has been a lot of sweat, and it's great to finally show it. I knew it was coming."
Palmer had gone into the penultimate event of the year outside of the top 125 guaranteed Tour cards for 2009.
His hopes of a big jump appeared to take a hit when he had to call a penalty on himself at the 10th, where he made bogey.
He then promptly hit his tee shot into the water at 11 en route to a double-bogey.
But Palmer rallied to finish one stroke in front of George McNeill (69), Nicholas Thompson (69), Vaughn Taylor (70), Ken Duke (71) and Michael Letzig (73).
Overnight leader Letzig had a chance to force a playoff with a birdie at the final hole, but couldn't do it as the rain-disrupted round finished in fading light at the Ginn Hammock Beach Resort in Florida.
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