Trahan pulls a quick turn

Just as surely as there are a handful of pleasant ways to win a golf tournament, there are any number of misery-drenched methods to lose one, the wildly contrasting chain of events that played out Sunday in the final round of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.

D.J. Trahan pounded the Classic Club into submission with a seven-under-par 65, birdied all of the par-five holes, stayed away from even a single three-putt and came from four shots behind to win his second PGA Tour event.

Justin Leonard’s experience was just the opposite.

He lost a four-shot lead in the span of three holes, failed to birdie any of the par-fives, knocked his tee shot at the 18th into the water and walked off empty-handed. He was a picture of perfect dejection.

Someone offered Leonard condolences, telling him it was tough luck.

“Luck had nothing to do with it,” he said, smiling thinly.

Trahan’s three-shot victory over Leonard amounted to a seven-shot turnaround from the way the day began, with Leonard in the lead, calmly in control, apparently bothered by nothing.

That sublime feeling didn’t last. Leonard closed with a 72 as his last chance for a miracle finish ended when he launched his drive wide, to the right of the 18th fairway and watched as the ball bounced into the water. All Trahan needed to do was finish in style, which he did with a six-foot birdie putt.

Trahan’s rounds of 67-64-68-70-65 and 26-under total of 334 earned him the winner’s check of $918,000, the largest of his five-year PGA Tour career.

Anthony Kim, the 22-year-old star-in-waiting from La Quinta, came up with a 69 in the closing round and moved into a tie for third at 22-under 338, the same place that 47-year-old Kenny Perry ended after his own 69.

Trahan’s payday may help the 27-year-old decide he really can afford to buy a 175-acre property near Lane, S.C., for a hunting ranch, full of deer, dove and ducks.

It figures, because all week long, Trahan proved particularly adept in the hunting of birdies.

He had 35 in all, a flock of birdies that managed to support Trahan’s position that the way to win the Hope is to keep collecting them until your bag is full.

“After the first round, I think somebody interviewed Justin and . . . he said it’s a putting contest. And it truly is. The greens here are perfect on all four golf courses and it really is a birdie contest out here. You have to make a lot of putts.”

That hasn’t been his best suit, but Trahan’s reputation as a long-hitter who lacked touch may have been put to rest. Last year, Trahan ranked 169th on the PGA Tour in putting average and every experience on every green was nothing short of nerve-racking.

But at the end of 90 holes, Trahan led the Hope in putting.

“I tell people all the time, champions win because they make the putts,” he said.

Trahan began the week 217th in the world golf rankings, but he won Sunday because of a brief but intense exchange that began at the ninth tee, where Leonard’s advantage was four shots.

Leonard failed to take advantage of the 595-yard par-five and settled for par while Trahan rolled in an eight-footer for birdie. Leonard’s lead was three.

At the difficult 474-yard 10th, with a back right pin and playing into the wind, Leonard three-putted for bogey and Trahan sank a 40-foot putt for birdie. Leonard’s lead was one.

It was gone at the 11th, where Leonard landed in a greenside bunker and missed a 16-footer for par. Then, at the 560-yard par-five 14th, Trahan birdied from eight feet, Leonard missed his chance for birdie, and Trahan was in front.

There would be no comeback, and losing hurts, regardless of the circumstance.

“They all hurt pretty much the same,” Leonard said. “Yeah, it’s disappointing, but I get some perspective in the fact that at this time last year, I was pretty lost. That takes a little bit of the sting out of it, not all of it.”

Leonard rued his missed chances on the four par-five holes, distressed because he had played them at 11-under the first four rounds.

“Yeah, I played them pretty lousy today,” he said.

And after touring the first 72 holes with just three bogeys, Leonard had three of them Sunday, all on the back nine.

Trahan is a former qualifying-school failure who has learned that he’s just as able as anybody in golf’s big leagues. The first-team All-American at Clemson and a member of an NCAA title team, he won the 2000 Public Links Championship. That victory earned him a spot in the Masters, a tournament he just earned the right to play again.

“You know, it’s so easy to get down on yourself out here on this tour because you’re playing against the best players in the world and if they’re not beating you up, you’re beating yourself up.”

There’s no need to beat himself up again, at least not for a while.

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thomas.bonk@latimes.com