Sep 14, 2008 - 5:33 PM
0 shoutsCONOVER, North Carolina (Ticker) -- R.W. Eaks again had an enjoyable trip to the Tar Heel State.
Eaks pulled away from the field Sunday en route to winning the Greater Hickory Classic for a second straight year.
Tied with Tom Jenkins atop the leaderboard at the start of the day, Eaks was the picture of consistency over his final 18 holes, shooting a 1-under-par 71 to finish at 16-under 200 overall. He won by four shots over Jenkins and Tom Kite (67)
"I don't know how many times people defended titles, but it's harder to do than you could ever imagine," Eaks said. "I took all of last week off on purpose so I could come here and be absolutely as fresh as I could. It happened to work out. I don't know if it will work out again doing that. But it seemed to just kind of be destiny this week.
Jenkins never was able to recover from an opening bogey in stumbling to a 75.
Eaks, who claimed his second title of the year and fourth career, started his round with six straights pars before a birdie at the par-5 seventh hole. By the time the 56-year-old Colorado native endured his first bogey at the par-4 13th, Eaks already had built a four-shot lead.
"I can say that, and just played a nice, safe game today, and things might work out, and just happened to do that," Eaks said.
Eaks recovered from the miscue at No. 13 with a birdie on the next hole, then finished with four straight pars on his way to claiming the $255,000 first prize.
"I don't know how many times people defended titles, but it's harder to do than you could ever imagine," Eaks said. "I took all of last week off on purpose so I could come here and be absolutely as fresh as I could. It happened to work out. I don't know if it will work out again doing that. But it seemed to just kind of be destiny this week.
Jenkins, who was seeking his first Champions Tour title since 2006, was even through his first five holes before a double-bogey at the par-5 sixth followed by a birdie at No. 7.
However, Jenkins struggled badly on the back nine, with bogeys at Nos. 11, 12 and 14.
