Robby Shelton wins Knoxville Open, moves atop The 25

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – For the second time in three weeks, Robby Shelton came out on top in the state of Tennessee, as the 23-year-old posted an even-par 71 to claim the Knoxville Open title with a 15-under total.

Shelton, born and raised in Alabama, donned an orange winner’s jacket to celebrate his victory at Fox Den Country Club. The win came 14 days after his first Web.com Tour win at the Nashville Golf Open Benefitting the Snedeker Foundation.

“Bear Bryant is probably turning over in his grave right now,” said Shelton, a former All-American at the University of Alabama. “Coach (Jay) Seawell is probably looking at me and laughing. He’s probably happy that I’m the winner, but to be wearing this, I didn’t think I ever would, honestly.”

With the win, Shelton becomes the first player to win twice in a 14-day span since Michael Putnam in the summer of 2013. As the first multi-event winner of the season, Shelton can now turn his focus towards the “Three-Victory Promotion” for the remainder of the season. When a player wins three times on the Web.com Tour in a season, they earn immediate promotion to the PGA TOUR for the remainder of the season. The last player to accomplish the feat was Wesley Bryan in 2016. The achievement has only occurred 11 times in the Web.com Tour’s history.

“I did know about the three-win promotion” said Shelton. “I’m not going to stop playing and hopefully I can get one more. That would definitely get me to the PGA TOUR sooner than waiting until October.”

Shelton got off to a rocky start, earning pars on his first three holes before back-to-back bogeys on the fourth and fifth holes. But perhaps reminiscing on a similar cold start in Nashville, Shelton birdied Nos. 7, 11 and 12 to retake the lead down the stretch and outlast Mark Anderson by one stroke. With the win, Shelton jumps Xinjun Zhang for the top spot on the Web.com Tour Points List.

“I think that’s when I play my best, honestly,” said Shelton. “I won a lot in college coming from behind and that’s just where I’ve been putting myself after the first couple of holes lately. The putter’s been a little shaky early and all day today actually. I hung in there and I knew with the wind, the scores weren’t going to be too low today.”

Even after winning two weeks ago, Shelton had extra motivation this week in Knoxville. He had yet to win a professional tournament in front of his parents (despite winning in Nashville and last year on the Mackenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada). His parents were able to follow him all weekend after being unable to do so for much of the season; his mom was diagnosed with a tumor in February and recently underwent chemotherapy and radiation.

“For her to walk all 18 holes today is a huge step,” said Shelton. “She’s been struggling the past couple of months, but having her here was definitely the highlight of my week.”

Anderson, who was also seeking his second win of the year, birdied the 18th hole to reach 14-under 270, then watched as several players posted bogeys down the stretch. In the end, Anderson finished one stroke outside of a playoff, but the solo runner-up finish was enough to secure him his PGA TOUR card for the 2019-20 season.

Tim Wilkinson, Xinjun Zhang and Mark Hubbard rounded out the top five at 13-under 271.