Southport, N.C. – Standing in a fairway bunker on the 71st hole of the eGolf Gateway Tour’s Championship at St. James Plantation on Saturday afternoon, Drew Weaver of High Point, N.C. trailed T.J. Howe of Osceola, Pa. by two shots with a hole-and-a-half to play.

Needing a miracle finish to have any shot at a playoff, Weaver did one better, finishing birdie-birdie over his final two holes – including a dramatic lip-hanging putt at the last – to post 12-under 276, good for a one-shot victory over Howe and the event’s $13,000 first-place prize.

Weaver, who made waves in the amateur ranks when he claimed the 2007 British Amateur championship, opened his week at St. James’ famed Reserve Club with rounds of 71-68-70—209 to sit at 7-under through 54 holes – two back of Howe and tied with Ryan Nelson of Charleston, S.C. entering the final round.

On day four, Weaver was the first to strike, following up a Howe bogey on the par-4 fourth with birdies on Nos. 5 and 6 to take the lead at 9-under par through a third of the round.

“I got off to a really solid start, making some easy pars out of the gate. I hit one close on No. 5 and tapped in, then made a good 15-footer on No. 6,” he said. “I was able to hit some good shots without worrying too much about what was going on.”

Down by one, Howe answered quickly, birdieing the par-5 seventh and the par-4 eighth to reclaim the outright lead at 10-under par – one shot clear of Weaver at the turn.

Drew Weaver

On the arduous par-4 10th, Weaver three-putted from 25 feet for his first bogey of the round, dropping back down to 8-under par and suddenly two shots back of Howe.

“That three-putt on 10 was really my only whiff of the last couple days, but that kind of got me going a bit,” said Weaver. “I just said, ‘Let’s keep the mindset positive.’ I’m an emotional player out there sometimes, but I’ve learned to get past that, and I think it really helped me today.”

The 2009 U.S. Walker Cup team member hit his third on the par-5 12th to 5 feet for a rebound birdie to jump back up to 9-under par, only one back of the lead.

Matching pars on 13 and 14 brought the dueling twosome to the par-4 15th – far and away the hardest hole on the Jack Nicklaus-designed course.

Howe made a miraculous birdie on 15, thanks to an approach that hooked 20 yards around a cluster of trees and onto the green.

Weaver, to his credit, matched Howe by punching a 9-iron to 5 feet and converting a downhill curler to keep pace at 10-under par.

“T.J. made a pretty unlikely birdie and I was able to counter. That was big for me,” he said.

T.J. Howe

On the par-3 16th, Howe drained a 15-foot birdie putt to jump to 12-under par and in outright control of the title with two holes to play.

The former Penn State star entered the week as one of the country’s top developmental tour players, posting five wins over the past two years – including the tour’s last stop at the Nova Tax Group Open in Huntersville, N.C.

To think Weaver had much of a chance with 17 and 18 to play was mere fool’s gold to the vast majority of onlookers. Thankfully for Weaver, he failed to realize the odds.

A poor layup shot on the par-5 17th left him with one of golf’s more awkward approaches – a 90-yard shot from a fairway bunker to a pin tucked over yet another bunker.

From there, the 27-year-old stuck his third shot to 4 feet, setting up a short birdie try to move up to 11-under par on the week.

“That was one of the best shots I’ve hit in the past four or five years,” he said. “I just talked myself into hitting a good shot there, and I was able to just land it beyond the hole and spin it back to 4 feet.”

While Weaver was shining, Howe was crumbling.

From 30-feet, the 54-hole leader left himself with 4 feet for par, and watched in disbelief as his par attempt horseshoed around the hole and out.

Out of nowhere, the two players were tied for the lead at 11-under on the tee of the 440-yard par-4 finishing hole.

“I didn’t expect him to make bogey on 17, but I knew I had to just keep plugging,” said Weaver. “I was able to keep myself calm walking between 17 and 18, and I wound up hitting three perfect golf shots at the last.”

After both players found the fairway on 18, Weaver laced a 7-iron from 154 yards into the wind to a front-right hole location, spinning the ball ever so slightly off a mid-green tier down to just 10 feet from the hole.

Howe, needing to give himself a good look, hit his second shot to the back-middle of the green, roughly 35 feet above the hole.

When Howe rolled his birdie putt down to 2 feet, Weaver eyed a left-to-right breaking putt for his fifth career tour title.

With perfect speed, the ball trickled down towards the hole and spun around the back of the lip, hanging for two seconds before plunging in for a closing birdie and a dramatic fist-pumping reaction from the tournament champion.

“Come on! Let’s go!” belted Weaver in front of the St. James crowd.

The putt wrapped up a final-round 67 for the former Hokie, who earned $13,000 for his tireless, never-say-die efforts.

Ryan Nelson

“I’ve yet to win a tournament where I’ve hit that many good shots in succession under the gun. I’ve never made a winning putt like that, where you know exactly that this is it,” said Weaver, citing the win-or-playoff nature of his final birdie putt. “It feels really good to get it done. My heart certainly stopped a little bit when that ball sat on the back of the hole.”

The win was further continuation of a solid 2015 season for Weaver, who now has three top-3 finishes, including a T3 at Palmetto Hall and a playoff loss at Mid Pines last month.

The Atlanta, Ga. resident was the tour’s leading money winner in 2012 thanks to a pair of wins and four runner-ups, but admittedly slipped in 2013 with a subpar follow-up campaign.

In 2014, Weaver bounced back with five top-10s, including career win No. 4 at the Spring Creek Classic. He finished sixth on the season-ending money list with $47,035 in earnings.

“It feels really good. I haven’t felt this confident since 2012. It’s an inner-sense, or a calmness, that I know I have the game to contend,” said Weaver after his round. “There are so many good players out here, so that’s pretty hard to do sometimes. This has been a great first quarter of the year – I’m really excited for the rest of the season.”

The runner-up was more evidence of dominant 2015 play by Howe, who earned $8,000 on the week.

The Charlotte, N.C. resident now owns five top-10 finishes in six starts this year across the tour’s east and west coast series, including the Nova Tax Group Open win and a runner-up at Trilogy Golf Club in Phoenix, Ariz.

Nelson and former PGA TOUR member Nate Smith of Daniel Island, S.C. finished in a tie for third place at 8-under 280. Both players earned $5,500 for the week.

For Nelson, the T3 marked the first top-10 of his season after a stellar 2014 campaign in which he won the $300,000 Tour Championship and the tour’s money title with $112,851 in earnings.

Nate Smith

The finish tied his career-best at St. James, dating back to his tour debut at the 2011 event where he held a share of the lead with nine holes to play before falling two shots shy of current PGA TOUR member Jason Kokrak.

Smith, who won on the Web.com Tour in 2010, birdied the 10th to surge into the mix at 8-under par, but double-bogeyed the short par-4 11th to fall out of contention with seven holes to play.

The California native and former Duke University “All American” posted a season-best T31 at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am during his lone year on golf’s biggest stage before losing his card and bouncing back down to the Web.com Tour for the 2012 and 2013 seasons.

• A special thanks goes to the members of The Clubs at St. James Plantation for allowing the tour to use their fantastic facility this week, and for providing such excellent volunteer help, fan support and housing for our players. The tour would also like to thank St. James general manager Ken Kosak, assistant general manager Dave Flinchbaugh, director of golf sales Gary Downing, Reserve Club head golf professional Barry Walters, and their respective staffs for their help in arranging this tournament and assisting the tour during the week. The Reserve Club was in PGA TOUR-like condition, as always, proving beyond doubt to be one of the top venues on the eGolf Tour yet again. Thank you to director of agronomy Conrad Broussard, Reserve Club golf course superintendent Dockery Steed, and their crews for offering a fantastic golf course and for working around the clock to assist the tour staff.

• The tour will be off for the next two weeks before returning to action with the third annual Sedgefield Classic, to be contested at Sedgefield Country Club – Dye Course in Greensboro, N.C. on April 22-24, 2015.