Furyk victory has anti-climatic ending

Jim Furyk's playoff victory over Brian Davis in the Verizon Heritage lost some of its luster yesterday when it was decided by a rules violation. On an entertainment scale of 1 to 5, Oldgolfdawg would throw it 3 1/2 dog biscuits.

Davis called a two-stroke penalty on himself while playing out of the a greenside hazard on the par-4 18th on the only playoff hole after touching a loose impediment during his backswing (Rule 13-4). Furyk (69) and Davis (68) finished regulation at 13-under 271. Furyk parred the first extra hole to record his 15th victory on the PGA Tour. Davis was trying to post his first PGA Tour victory.

Down by a shot playing the final hole of regulation, Davis took dead aim at a precariously placed flag and nearly hit it before watching his ball stop about 20 feet from the hole. He made the ensuing birdie putt to force the playoff. On the extra hole, Davis attempted to hit the same shot into the green that he hit on the 72nd hole, but he pulled it left into the hazard that separates Harbour Town from the adjacent Calibogue Sound.

After watching Furyk putt to about 4 feet with his third shot on the playoff hole, Davis decided to play his ball from the packed sand, pitching over rocks onto the front part of the green. But shortly after doing so he motioned for rules official Slugger White and informed him that he feared he might have clipped a loose impediment on his backswing. It was ruled that he did and as a result he was hit with a 2-stroke penalty. After missing a 40-foot long bogey putt, Davis conceded victory to Furyk, who was told to putt out just the same.

"To have the tournament come down that way is definitely not the way I wanted to win," Furyk said. "It's obviously a tough loss for him and I respect and admire what he did."

The victory is the second of the season for Furyk, who won the Transitions Championship during the Florida swing. Furyk moves to No. 2 in the FedEx Cup standings, 175 points behind leader Ernie Els, the only other two-time winner on the tour this season.

Davis, who climbed to No. 37 in the FedEx Cup standings, equaled his career-best PGA Tour result, having also posted runner-up finishes in the 2007 St. Jude Championship, 2008 Legends Reno-Tahoe Open and 2009 Byron Nelson Championship.

The playoff, the 10th in Heritage history, was the first since Stewart Cink outlasted Ted Purdy in 2004. Furyk improved to 3-7 in playoffs while Davis lost in his first attempt.

Information from ESPN.com, PGATOUR.com and the Associated Press contributed to this post.