HARARE - Zimbabwean Brendon de Jonge shot a two-over 290 over the weekend at the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, North Carolina.
De Jonge shot rounds of 74, 71, 72 and 73 to finish tied for 48th place at the tournament that was won by PGA Tour rookie Derek Ernst after a playoff with Briton David Lynn.
Ernst, 22, who sank a four-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to tie for the lead, won his first PGA Tour title with a tap-in par at the par-four 18th after Lynn, runner-up at last year's PGA Championship, got into trouble off the tee in sudden death.
Ernst and Lynn were both tired for at eight-under 280 at the end of the $6. 7m tournament that saw some players pull out due to the cold weather that damaged the greens at Quail Hollow.
Phil Mickelson led by a stroke going into the last three holes but bogeyed 16 and 17 to fall one shot short of joining the playoff. The big left-hander finished third at seven-under 281 after a 73.
Two strokes off the pace at six-under were Englishman Lee Westwood (72) and Robert Karlsson of Sweden (72).
At five under par were Americans Kevin Streelman, Ryan Moore, Bo Van Pelt and Kim Stanley, one shot better than a group of six that included world No 2 Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland and England's Ross Fisher.
For de Jonge, it was a marked improvement after he missed the cut at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans at the end of last month following opening rounds of 72 and 71.
The 32-year-old, who is the reigning Zimbabwe Sports Person of the Year, however he had a better outing at Quail Hollow over the weekend.
It was de Jonge’s 12th cut in the 15 PGA Tour tournaments ha has participated in taking his earnings in 2013 alone to $821 229.
The next stop for De Jonge will be the Players Championship which tees off this week in Florida.
World number 1, Tiger Woods has confirmed that he will be taking part at the tournament after missing the Wells Fargo Championship.
It will be the first time Woods has played since finishing fourth at the Masters.
Woods usually takes three weeks off after the year's first major. The Wells Fargo Championship came only two weeks after the Masters.