Ben Curtis became the first American player under 30 to notch three PGA Tour victories when he won the 84 Lumber Classic on Sunday.

Demonstrating that his surprise 2003 British Open victory was not a fluke after all, Curtis produced a steady final round, breaking clear with two late birdies to clinch a two-stroke victory over Charles Howell III in demanding conditions at the Mystic Rock course at Nemacolin Resort.

"I've got no more (monkeys) left," Curtis quipped after carding 70 to finish at 14-under-par 274.

Curtis' performance came too late to earn a spot on this week's Ryder Cup team, but he probably wouldn't have played anyway, given his wife's condition.

After winning the British Open in one of the greatest surprises in the history of golf, Curtis set himself a goal to win once a year, but it took him nearly three years to post a follow-up victory.

The talk now is not about whether he was a one-hit fluke, but whether he can consistently become one of the game's best.

This was only his second top-10 finish of the year, so consistency is not his greatest strength, something he blames on putting.

"I feel good about my swing and where that's at," Curtis said.

"I still need to improve on the putting. This was a good week for putting, but overall I still need to work on getting more consistent.

"I wish I could putt like this every week, even though I missed some short ones today and yesterday. I need to get rid of the three-putts. That's one of the hardest things to take as a player. I'd like to hit it a little longer too, but if you hit the fairways out here you're OK, as long as you putt well."

Curtis and Howell started the final round tied for the lead, with 11 others within three shots, and for the longest time nobody was able to break clear of the field in the testing winds, which followed three days of almost complete calm.

Curtis finally stepped up and birdied the par-4 15th to go two shots clear. He also made an unlikely birdie at the par-5 16th, where he sank a 50-footer for a three-shot cushion.

The long birdie gave Curtis the luxury of bogeying the 17th and still cruising to victory.

"I got a little lucky there," he said of the 16th. "I hit a bad wedge shot and a great putt. I was concentrating on getting good speed and I was lucky it went in, because it looked like Charles was going to make (eagle)."

Howell, however, missed a 15-footer and had to settle for birdie en route to his seventh runner-up victory on tour.

"I didn't putt good enough today," lamented Howell, 27, who was rated a potential superstar when he turned professional in 2000, the year he won the NCAA Championship.

But Howell wasn't as upset with his putting as with the decision of officials not to allow preferred lies, something they allowed the first three rounds, due to the wet state of the course.

"That was a bit of a suspect decision to play the ball down today," he said. "With the amount of mud the balls were picking up, I think we all struggled getting the ball close to the hole.

"The game is hard enough as it is to drive it in the fairway and not have half your ball covered in mud. We all hit some shots today that were bizarre, and I'm not just speaking on behalf of myself, but everybody."

Howell, 27, always knew it was going to be tough to beat Curtis, who he has known since he was about 13.

"The success he's had has never surprised me at all," Howell said.

Curtis, however, will not get to defend his title, because the tournament is not on next year's schedule.

"That's a shame that we can't come back," he said.

Collated final-round scores and totals (USA unless stated, par 72):

274 Ben Curtis 66 69 69 70

276 Charles Howell III 67 69 68 72

277 Brett Quigley 69 70 68 70

278 Robert Garrigus 67 70 68 73, Ted Purdy 66 72 73 67

279 Charles Warren 70 72 66 71, Kent Jones 69 68 75 67, Ryan Moore 68 67 71 73

280 Hunter Mahan 67 71 67 75, Steve Stricker 70 67 70 73, Jeff Overton 72 68 71 69, Greg Owen (Eng) 69 68 68 75, Briny Baird 73 67 67 73

281 Will MacKenzie 66 73 69 73, Richard S Johnson (Swe) 72 72 68 69, Paul Goydos 69 73 71 68, Justin Rose (Eng) 69 71 70 71, Jeff Gove 72 67 69 73

282 Charley Hoffman 70 70 70 72

283 Michael Allen 72 68 68 75, Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 66 71 70 76, Marco Dawson 67 76 72 68, Robert Allenby (Aus) 75 70 66 72, Harrison Frazar 71 71 69 72, Jason Gore 73 70 70 70, Jesper Parnevik (Swe) 72 69 71 71

284 Scott Piercy 72 70 71 71, Greg Kraft 66 74 66 78, Brent Geiberger 74 69 71 70, Alex Aragon 72 71 69 72, D.A. Points 71 67 73 73, David McKenzie (Aus) 71 72 68 73, Ben Crane 73 72 65 74, Vijay Singh (Fij) 71 71 68 74, KJ Choi (Kor) 74 68 69 73, Tim Petrovic 68 74 69 73, John Huston 71 70 70 73, Nicholas Thompson 64 72 71 77

285 Duffy Waldorf 68 76 66 75, Chris DiMarco 74 71 70 70, Jason Bohn 69 70 69 77, D.J. Trahan 73 69 69 74

286 Chris Smith 72 73 71 70, Mathias Gronberg (Swe) 72 72 70 72

287 Patrick Sheehan 69 72 72 74, Henrik Bjornstad (Nor) 75 68 74 70, Jeff Maggert 69 72 70 76, John Engler Jr 69 73 73 72, Danny Ellis 74 70 72 71, Mark Wilson 71 73 69 74

288 J.B. Holmes 71 69 71 77, Sean O'Hair 67 69 78 74, David Toms 70 74 70 74, Bo Van Pelt 72 67 67 82, Shane Bertsch 72 70 72 74

289 Jerry Kelly 71 71 71 76, Bubba Dickerson 72 71 71 75, Dicky Pride 73 69 70 77, Jason Schultz 71 74 68 76, Alex Cejka (Ger) 71 70 74 74

290 Robert Gamez 66 76 74 74, Brian Davis (Eng) 72 71 69 78, Brian Henninger 72 73 73 72, Mathew Goggin (Aus) 74 70 71 75, Robert Damron 71 70 71 78, Todd Fischer 73 71 71 75, Camilo Villegas (Col) 73 71 71 75

291 Bill Haas 72 73 70 76, Ronald Whittaker 73 72 70 76

292 Nathan Green (Aus) 72 72 70 78, Tag Ridings 67 72 74 79

293 Joe Durant 76 69 68 80, Neal Lancaster 74 71 72 76, Skip Kendall 70 75 72 76

294 Vance Veazey 72 72 72 78, Brett Wetterich 75 70 74 75, Jason Day (Aus) 74 71 72 77

295 Hidemichi Tanaka (Jpn) 70 75 76 74

297 Mark Brooks 75 69 74 79

299 Ryan Hietala 71 74 76 78

301 Mark Calcavecchia 75 69 77 80