American Brandt Snedeker became the first rookie to win on the PGA Tour this season when he compiled a brilliant final round to win the £2.5million Wyndham Championship by two strokes.

Snedeker, who started the day five strokes behind, gathered 10 birdies in a nine-under-par 63 at Forest Oaks. He took the outright lead for good with a 30-foot birdie at the par-three 17th and parred the last before enduring an anxious wait to find out if his score was good enough.

Tim Petrovic came to the par-four 18th trailing by one shot, but hooked his drive into rough and had no chance of reaching the green with his second shot, eventually making bogey.

Snedeker finished at 22-under 266, with Petrovic (67), Billy Mayfair (67) and Jeff Overton (70) equal second on 20-under.

Overton took a three-shot lead into the final round, but was caught after just two holes, although he remained in contention until deep into the back nine.

Snedeker, 26, collects £450,000, jumping to ninth on the FedEx Cup points list going into next week's first event in the new play-off series.

Collated final scores (USA unless stated, par 72):

266 Brandt Snedeker 70 67 66 63

268 Jeff Overton 65 67 66 70, Billy Mayfair 69 68 64 67, Tim Petrovic 68 65 68 67

269 Carl Pettersson (Swe) 66 67 68 68

270 Greg Kraft 66 67 71 66

271 Will MacKenzie 64 71 68 68, Kevin Stadler 68 67 70 66, Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn) 66 69 67 69, Jason Gore 67 68 69 67

272 Jeff Maggert 67 70 69 66, Anders Hansen (Den) 69 64 68 71

273 Dean Wilson 70 68 70 65, Charles Warren 68 67 70 68, Nathan Green (Aus) 68 66 70 69, Joey Sindelar 69 67 68 69, Brian Gay 69 67 69 68, Jonathan Byrd 69 66 73 65

Frank Lickliter II 68 70 68 67

274 John Merrick 66 69 69 70, Andy Bare 70 66 68 70, Lucas Glover 65 71 66 72, John Huston 66 66 72 70, Tripp Isenhour 69 70 65 70, Johnson Wagner 68 68 69 69, Peter Lonard (Aus) 70 69 67 68

275 Kent Jones 67 70 69 69, Bob Estes 69 69 68 69, J J Henry 70 69 67 69, Vaughn Taylor 67 70 69 69, Eric Axley 68 70 69 68, Brent Geiberger 68 68 70 69

276 Ryan Palmer 68 70 70 68, Craig Bowden 70 69 68 69, Jaco Van Zyl (Rsa) 70 69 69 68, Craig Kanada 68 65 70 73

277 Brian Davis (Eng) 65 73 68 71, Mark Hensby (Aus) 67 70 72 68, Jeff Brehaut 71 66 67 73, Bob Tway 67 69 73 68, Alex Cejka (Ger) 68 67 72 70, Kevin Na (Kor) 69 70 70 68, Chris Tidland 68 71 71 67, Steve Marino 65 67 71 74, Cameron Beckman 68 68 69 72, Rich Beem 69 69 69 70, Jay Williamson 70 68 70 69, Jason Schultz 69 67 70 71

278 Steve Wheatcroft 68 66 71 73, Tommy Armour III 72 64 69 73, Charlie Wi (Kor) 68 67 70 73, Jarrod Lyle (Aus) 69 69 70 70, Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 70 66 70 72, Mathew Goggin (Aus) 69 70 70 69, Scott Gutschewski 68 70 70 70, D.J. Trahan 68 70 71 69

279 Billy Andrade 68 71 70 70, Michael Bradley 69 70 68 72, Craig Barlow 68 71 72 68, Tag Ridings 70 66 72 71, John Senden (Aus) 67 70 70 72, Todd Fischer 66 72 71 70

Michael Putnam 67 68 73 71

280 Daniel Chopra (Swe) 68 71 70 71, George McNeill 70 68 68 74, Mathias Gronberg (Swe) 72 67 71 70

281 Chad Campbell 69 68 72 72, Kirk Triplett 67 69 72 73, Joe Durant 67 69 72 73, Jay Delsing 68 69 68 76, Robert Garrigus 69 69 73 70, Cliff Kresge 67 69 69 76, Spike McRoy 71 66 73 71

283 Paul Gow (Aus) 68 70 73 72, Todd Hamilton 66 69 77 71, Stephen Leaney (Aus) 69 70 70 74

284 Tom Johnson 70 69 73 72, Chris Riley 70 68 74 72, Craig Lile (Rsa) 70 69 70 75, Olin Browne 70 68 75 71, Briny Baird 70 69 73 72

285 Ryan Blaum 71 68 72 74

286 Willie Wood 71 68 71 76

288 Neal Lancaster 69 69 77 73

291 Jim Gallagher jr 69 70 71 81

292 Steve Allan (Aus) 67 72 74 79