Victorian Steve Allan has joined a select group of some of the greats of Australian golf with a third PGA TOUR Champions win of the season at the Boeing Classic.

Trailing former Open Champion Stewart Cink by four strokes at the start of the final round in Washington, Allan didn’t take the lead until he got up-and-down from the bunker for birdie on the 18th hole to round out a 7-under 65 and post 15-under par.

It was then a waiting game, Cink making par at both of his final holes to come up one stroke short and secure Allan his third title in his past 13 starts in just his second year on the seniors circuit.

Given he hadn’t won anywhere since the 2002 Australian Open in his home state, it’s a run the 51-year-old is finding hard to fathom.

“I can’t explain it actually,” Allan said immediately after his victory.

“I would have probably laughed if you told me I would have won three times. I definitely thought that I had a win in me, but I wouldn’t have said three.

“I think I found a bit of a groove with my swing. I think I’m more aware of what I’m doing wrong when it goes wrong.

“I had a fairly tough few years there so when things do start to go wrong there, I’m not panicking anymore.

“Beginning of last year I had a few tournaments where I didn’t play very well, so I’m going into today, just let it happen.

“I’m not trying to force it, I’m not trying to push it, I’m just trying to play.”

Allan becomes just the fifth Australian with three or more wins in a single season on the Champions Tour, joining Peter Thomson (nine wins in 1985), Bruce Crampton (seven wins in 1986, four wins in 1987), David Graham (three wins in 1997) and Graham Marsh (three wins in 1997).

Allan’s earlier wins came at The Galleri Classic at Mission Hills in March and the DICK’S Open last month in New York, his latest victory taking his prizemoney haul for the year past the million-dollar mark.

Given the quality of company he now keeps on the Champions Tour, Allan began the final round with few expectations that a third win was in the offing.

“With Stewart being in that position, he could win by just having a really good round and we just have to sort of play well,” he added.

“In some ways it frees you up because you’re not really thinking about winning, you’re just trying to have a good round.

“When I birdied the ninth I saw that he hadn’t jumped out ahead, so it was going to be a chance so just had to knuckle down and played pretty well on the back nine.

“A couple long putts were really good to help me make easy pars after not good approach shots and then rolled in a few birdies.”

As Allan added to his winning tally, David Micheluzzi made a welcome return to form on the DP World Tour.

With just one top-20 finish to his name since the Hero Dubai Desert Classic in January, Micheluzzi bounced back from two early bogeys to shoot 1-under 71 in the final round of the Nexo Championship in Scotland and move up eight spots into a tie for 10th.

Jason Day is the lone Aussie left in the FedEx Cup Playoffs after the FedEx St Jude Championship saw Min Woo Lee and Cam Davis both bow out.

Dropping from 37th to 44th, Day now has work to do to qualify for the Tour Championship reserved for the top 30 after the BMW Championship, Kiwi Ryan Fox needing a small jump from his current position of 32nd.

Photo: Stephen Brashear/Getty Images

Results

PGA TOUR FedEx St Jude Championship TPC Southwind, Memphis, Tennessee 1 Justin Rose 64-66-67-67—264 $US3.6m T50 Ryan Fox (NZ) 72-71-68-69—280 $49,300 T50 Cam Davis 69-72-67-72—280 $49,300 T56 Jason Day 71-68-71-72—282 $45,800 T68 Min Woo Lee 76-72-72-70—290 $41,200

DP World Tour Nexo Championship Trump International Golf Links, Aberdeenshire, Scotland 1 Grant Forrest 71-66-71-72—280 €401,607.28 T10 David Micheluzzi 71-71-75-71—288 €43,783.07 T31 Elvis Smylie 73-72-75-73—293 €17,095.15 T42 Jason Scrivener 76-71-77-70—294 €12,756.94 MC Kazuma Kobori (NZ) 74-78—152 MC Danny List 78-79—157 MC Daniel Gale 83-78—161 MC Brett Coletta 80-82—162

LIV Golf LIV Golf Chicago Bolingbrook Golf Club, Chicago 1 Dean Burmester 68-65-71—204 $US4m T13 Marc Leishman 71-69-70—210 $311,250 T25 Lucas Herbert 69-71-72—212 $187,500 T29 Cameron Smith 71-73-69—213 $165,000 T47 Ben Campbell (NZ) 73-70-74—217 $121,500 T49 Matt Jones 75-69-74—218 $60,000 51 Danny Lee (NZ) 72-71-76—219 $60,000

Ladies European Tour PIF London Championship Centurion Club, England 1 Laura Fuenfstueck 67-70-72—209 €192,997.13 T25 Momoka Kobori (NZ) 72-71-74—217 €14,950.84 T30 Amelia Garvey (NZ) 72-75-71—218 €12,030.16 T49 Kirsten Rudgeley 73-74-75—222 €5,194.84 T49 Kelsey Bennett 71-73-78—222 €5,194.84 T59 Sarah Kemp 75-74-75—224 €3,924.28

PGA TOUR Champions Boeing Classic The Club at Snoqualmie Ridge, Snoqualmie, Washington 1 Steve Allan 68-68-65—201 T14 Brendan Jones 69-73-67—209 T14 Steven Alker (NZ) 67-68-74—209 T30 Michael Wright 71-73-69—213 T30 Stuart Appleby 69-73-71—213 T37 David Bransdon 72-74-68—214 T62 Richard Green 71-71-79—221 T65 Rod Pampling 70-76-76—222 T71 Mark Hensby 77-74-73—224 T73 John Senden 73-76-77—226 DQ Greg Chalmers 69-71

Korn Ferry Tour Pinnacle Bank Championship The Club at Indian Creek, Omaha, Nebraska 1 Christo Lamprecht 67-67-65-66—265 $US180,000 T18 Harry Hillier (NZ) 65-68-68-73—274 $13,538 T28 Rhein Gibson 68-70-68-71—277 $6,491

HotelPlanner Tour Irish Challenge Killeen Castle, Co. Meath, Ireland 1 Oihan Guillamoundeguy 71-67-69-70—277 €48,000 MC Hayden Hopewell 76-70—146 MC Sam Jones (NZ) 76-73—149 MC Tom Power Horan 77-76—153

LET Access Series Ahlsell Trophy by Destination Jonkoping Gränna Golfklubb, Sweden 1 Amaia Latorre 72-70-66—208 €7,200 T13 Abbie Teasdale 74-71-71—216 €831.60 T45 Belinda Ji 73-75-76—224 €279 MC Justice Bosio 77-74—151

Sunshine Tour FNB Eswatini Challenge Arabella Country Club, Eswatini, South Africa 1 Michael Hollick 68-64-68—200 T19 Austin Bautista 69-66-73—208

PGA TOUR Americas BioSteel Championship Ambassador Golf Club, Windsor, Ontario 1 Michael Brennan 61-65-65-64—255 $40,500 MC Tony Chen 68-68—136 MC Grant Booth 69-70—139