US PGA champion Justin Thomas came out on top after a thrilling final-round shootout to win his fifth tournament of the season in the Dell Technologies Championship.
Thomas carded a final round of 66 at TPC Boston to finish 17 under par, three shots clear of Open champion Jordan Spieth in the second of four FedEx Cup play-off events.
The 24-year-old went into the final round in a tie for the lead and carded two birdies and an eagle in a front nine of 32, but remarkably still lost ground to playing partner Marc Leishman.
In a whirlwind of low scoring, Leishman birdied the first, second, fourth, fifth, seventh and ninth to race to the turn in 30, matching the outward nine of three-time major winner Spieth.
Spieth had started birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie to bring back memories of the four-hole stretch he played in five under par during the final round at Royal Birkdale, with a 'dry spell' of two pars then followed by another birdie on the seventh.
3-shot win. pic.twitter.com/PbIggWHxUw
— Skratch (@Skratch) September 4, 2017
All that meant Leishman took a two-shot lead into the back nine, but the Australian carded a hat-trick of bogeys from the 10th to effectively ruin his chances of adding to his victory in the Arnold Palmer Invitational earlier this season.
Thomas and Spieth were also not immune to mistakes on the tougher back nine, but it was Thomas who responded best to a bogey on the 11th with birdies on the 13th and 15th.
Spieth's bogey on the 14th left him two shots adrift of his good friend and another dropped shot on the last allowed Thomas to enjoy a relaxed finish that was hard to imagine just an hour or so earlier.
Leishman finished a shot further back in third after bogeys on the last two holes completed a back nine of 40, with England's Paul Casey and Spain's Jon Rahm sharing fourth on 12 under.
Meanwhile, Kevin Chappell claimed the final automatic qualifying place on the United States' Presidents Cup team by just 0.073 points from Charley Hoffman.
Hoffman began the week in the 10th and final qualifying berth, just 23 points ahead of compatriot Chappell, but could only finish in a tie for 47th at TPC Boston.
Chappell's bogey on the 72nd hole looked set to prove costly, but a share of 35th meant he and Hoffman amazingly finished with 4,369 points each, with Chappell just getting the nod when decimal points were taken into consideration.
"I was nervous and excited and unaware of what was going on," Chappell said. "It's something I wouldn't wish on anyone, but I've also had to make a four-footer to keep my job, and that was way worse."
US captain Steve Stricker will select two wild cards to complete his 12-man team on Wednesday, with Hoffman and Phil Mickelson - who has played on every Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup team since 1994 - the favourites to join qualifiers Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler, Daniel Berger, Brooks Koepka, Kevin Kisner, Patrick Reed, Matt Kuchar and Chappell.
The International Team was also decided on Monday, with captain Nick Price adding two wild cards to the automatic qualifiers of Hideki Matsuyama, Jason Day, Adam Scott, Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel, Marc Leishman, Branden Grace, Jhonattan Vegas, Si Woo Kim and Adam Hadwin.
The United States have won nine of the previous Presidents Cup matches, with one tie. The 12th edition of the biennial matches gets under way on September 28 at Liberty National Golf Club in New Jersey.
