Troy Matteson holds lines up his putt on the 18th green, during the first hole of a two-hole playoff, before winning the 2009 Frys.com Open on October 25, 2009 at the Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. (BRIAN BAHR/AFP)

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona, October 25, 2009 (AFP) - American Troy Matteson birdied the second playoff hole Sunday to win the five million-dollar US PGA Frys.com Open, holding off young US stars Rickie Fowler and Jamie Lovemark for the title.

Matteson, whose only prior PGA crown came at the same event in 2006, made bogeys on the par-4 17th and 18th holes in regulation to open the door for Fowler, a rookie in his second PGA event, and fast-closing amateur Lovemark.

But after all three opened the playoff with pars, Matteson put his approach at the second extra hole - the 17th - two feet from the cup and sank the birdie to finally capture the title.

"It's unbelievable," Matteson said. "You don't think it's coming sometimes."

Matteson fired back-to-back 61s, the lowest 36 holes in a row in US PGA history, on Friday and Saturday to begin Sunday with a three-stroke lead, then squandered it before outlasting two PGA hopefuls to secure 2010 playing rights.

"Having the last three days go the way they did, I'm beside myself," said Matteson.

As the PGA campaign winds down, star players are taking time off as lesser names fight to secure

2010 playing rights by finishing in the top 125 money winners of this year.

Fowler, seventh last week in his PGA debut, was trying to become, at 20, the youngest US PGA Tour winner since Tiger Woods won his first event at age 20 in Las Vegas in 1996.

Fowler is trying to accomplish what Woods did by playing his way onto the tour through money earned while playing only on sponsor exemptions, something that has not been done in four years.

A victory for Fowler or Lovemark, 21, would have automatically brought PGA membership. But each could take some pride at how they fared.

Fowler made a bogey at 18 and Matteson's bogeys on his 71st and 72nd holes allowed hope for Lovemark, who birdied five of his last eight holes, including the 18th, to reach the playoff.

All three parred the first playoff hole, the par-4 18th, with Matteson and Fowler two-putting from 43 feet and Lovemark surviving a splashdown with an amazing bit of luck.

Lovemark found a water hazard with his approach from the fairway but the wet ball bounced out of the shallow water and onto a slope to keep his dream alive. He followed the astonishing rescue by chipping to three feet and making par.

The trio moved to the par-4 17th and Matteson seized command by putting his approach two feet from the cup.

Lovemark put his second shot 30 feet left and uphill from the cup while Fowler found the left rough. Fowler and Lovemark each made pars before Matteson tapped-in to take the title.

Fowler birdied three of the first four holes to begin his round and then aced the 203-yard par-3 fifth hole. He took a bogey to finish the front nine but began the back side with three birdies to pass Matteson for the lead.

Fowler's ace was the weekend's fourth hole-in-one. Americans Chad Campbell, Nicholas Thompson and Ted Purdy sank aces on Saturday at Grayhawk Golf Club's Raptor course.

A bogey at 13 was followed by a birdie at 14 for Fowler but Matteson took back a one-stroke lead with birdies at the 11th and 12th.

One stroke down at the 18th tee, Fowler, put his tee shot left between a bunker and dense rough, then fired into a bunker left of the green and rolled his third shot just off the edge of the green.

"I hit a little bit of a rough drive there," Fowler said.

An 18-foot par miss left Fowler two strokes behind Matteson with the leader on 17 and struggling. Matteson, 29, came up just short on a 35-foot par putt but tapped-in for bogey.

Matteson, whose two-under total through 54 holes on the last hole was the tournament low, sent his approach into a bunker, blasted out and missed a nine footer to take the title in regulation.

South Africa's Tim Clark and American Bill Lunde shared fourth on 264, one stroke ahead of American Bryce Molder and Canada's Mike Weir, who birdied six of the last eight holes in a bogey-free final round of 61.