AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am 2014 results: Jimmy Walker joins Tiger, Mickelson, and Duval with win

It was much closer than it should have been, but Jimmy Walker nailed a clutch par putt on the final green to earn his third win in his last eight starts.

Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, David Duval, and … Jimmy Walker? It took 188 PGA Tour starts for Walker, a journeyman golfer who had bounced between tours and battled injury, to get his first major league win. But Walker, who put it in cruise control Sunday and nearly coughed up a six-shot lead at Pebble Beach, now has his third win in his last eight starts -- a winning stretch only Woods, Mickelson, and Duval can claim since 1990.

Sand vandals hit Pebble Beach

CBS attempted a bit of promo in the sand below the 10th hole at Pebble Beach, but some spelling-challenged vandals struck just as the aerial camera came into focus.

Walker started the day with a six-shot lead over the field, only needing to play it safe to secure the win on a course he's played well in recent years. A sloppy second nine, which featured four bogeys in eight holes, whittled that lead to just one as Walker came to the par-5 18th tee. Dustin Johnson, Hunter Mahan, and Phil Mickelson were just three of the big-name chasers trying to cut into the large margin over the final 18 holes, and it was two-time Pebble winner DJ that made the biggest run. Johnson had a look at eagle on the 18th hole, but his putt came up short and he had to settle for a tap-in birdie to finish at 10-under. An eagle would have forced extra holes.

The first six holes at Pebble Beach are considered the scoring stretch, with two par-5s and mostly inland holes protected from the wind that can jumpstart a round with plenty of red numbers. Walker left the door open by playing it safe and getting through that opening six in just even-par. A world-class birdie at the the 8th, a hole Jack Nicklaus calls the best par-4 on earth, seemed to halt those hopes of the chasers. It was a beautiful approach shot from Walker with the wind whipping off the ocean below, his ball sticking right on top of the flagstick for the impressive birdie putt.

But that birdie at the eighth was really the last flash of steady play from Walker, who promptly bogeyed three of the first four holes on the back side. He fortunately mixed in a birdie to prevent a complete disaster, but another missed par putt at the difficult par-3 17th made the last hole much more nervy than it should have been.

Walker took iron off the tee, but still missed the 18th fairway by a significant margin, putting his ball in some junk above a fairway bunker. He simply advanced his ball up the right side of the hole, but still left his second shot in the long stuff. A par was all he needed to walk away with the one shot win, and Walker managed to get on in three from the rough and then two-putted, barely, to join the elite company of Woods, Mickelson, and Duval. Walker avoided the collapse and playoff with one clutch putt that overcame the four previous mediocre-to-bad strokes on the famous Pebble closing hole.

Here are the final results from the field that made the cut at Pebble Beach:

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