Brice Garnett’s 21-under total is good enough to win the Web.com Tour’s Utah Championship as the leader fades in the final round

Farmington • Just enough people surrounded Oakridge Country Club's 18th green to deliver the news of his Utah Championship victory to Brice Garnett.

Preparing for a possible playoff Sunday evening, Garnett heard the response to Rob Oppenheim's tying birdie attempt as he stood on the nearby driving range. "From the sound of it," Garnett said later, "it was pretty close."

That's fair to say. Chipping from behind the green, Oppenheim watched his ball catch a lot of the hole and spin away. He flipped his wedge and just smiled good-naturedly. "Gave it a chance," he said.

When he wobbled in the middle of the round, Oppenheim let a bunch of people into the tournament and Garnett emerged. He claimed the $126,000 check for his first Web.com Tour victory, clinching a return to the PGA Tour with a 21-under-par total that nobody figured would be sufficient — including the champion himself.

Such a winning total sure seemed impossible as of Friday, when the leader (Kyle Wilshire) stood 16 under, or even midway through the final round, when Oppenheim was 22 under. In the end, even after allowing two 61s during the week, Oakridge proved to be a decent test and provided a dramatic finish in the first year of the club's three-year agreement as host.

Garnett started the day three strokes behind and closed with a 6-under 65, two strokes higher than his target number to have any reasonable hope of winning — or so he thought. Thanks to birdies on Nos. 15 and 16 that followed a bogey on No. 14, he caught and passed everybody. He finished one shot ahead of Oppenheim, Abraham Ancer and Austin Cook, and he understood how it happened.

"It's hard to close out tournaments on this tour; there's so much at stake," said Garnett, 33, a former Missouri Western State golfer and a close friend of former Web.com Tour player B.J. Staten of Cottonwood Heights.

Garnett's girlfriend was home in Georgia, so the shouting heard around Oakridge came from Staten's wife, Alisha. The Statens housed Garnett during the week, and they all celebrated a victory that seemed unlikely when Oppenheim moved to 4 under for the day and 22 under for the tournament through seven holes.

When he holed an iron shot from 139 yards for an eagle on No. 1 (No. 10 for club members), Oppenheim figured, "Maybe this is a special day."

That theory almost proved true four hours later, but he just missed in his bid to force a playoff. His downfall came via a three-putt bogey from the fringe on No. 9 and a messy double bogey on the par-3 No. 11. He missed the green to the right with an 8-iron, pitched his ball across the green and into a bunker, blasted out and two-putted.

He recovered only partially, with a birdie on No. 14. An errant drive kept him from birdieing the easy par-5 No. 15, just as Garnett was posting his score. "This tour is so difficult," Oppenheim said. "When you've got a chance to win, you want to be able to pull it off."

Oppenheim earned $52,267 — basically doubling his season earnings and moving to No. 30 on the money list. The top 25 players in the regular season will earn PGA Tour cards for the 2017-18 schedule, beginning in October. Garnett is No. 12 and comfortably inside the top-25 projections, so he'll return to the PGA Tour. The first time he got there, he did so without a Web.com Tour victory, making Sunday's achievement even more meaningful.

"I worked my butt off for two years," Garnett said, "and to be going back is really, really special."

kkragthorpe@sltrib.com

Twitter: @tribkurt