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For two Southern California golfers aiming for their first win on the PGA Tour, the final hole of the 50^th Bob Hope Chrysler Classic told the story.

John Merrick, who still had a chance to tie for the lead despite a bogey on the second-to-last hole, pushed his approach shot on the par-5 and couldn’t get up and down for birdie.

Pat Perez, who led for most of the back nine, slammed the door with an approach to about three feet that set up an easy eagle and a giant monkey removed from his back.

The Torrey Pines High School graduate, who started the final round at the Palmer Course at PGA West three strokes behind leader Steve Stricker, shot a 3-under 69 to defeat Merrick by three strokes and seal his first triumph in his 198^th start.

“I’m going to Kapalua, finally,” said Perez, who earned an invitation to next year’s Mercedes-Benz Championship in Hawaii and the satisfaction of knowing he’s no longer one of the PGA Tour’s best players without a win. “I see some good things coming [this year]. I would like to win two, three times. The way I played this week, I don’t see why it couldn’t happen.”

Perez ranked first in the field in putting and led after four of the five rounds.

Stricker’s three-shot lead heading into Sunday was the largest after any of the previous rounds of the Hope, which turned out to be one of the lowest-scoring events in recent memory. But it wasn’t as low as it could have been thanks to windy conditions throughout the last day, conditions that flustered Stricker enough to make a triple-bogey on the seventh hole and a quadruple-bogey on the 10^th to end his charge.

Merrick, who began the day eight strokes off the pace in a tie for sixth, went out in 32 to position himself near the top of the leaderboard. Then, the Long Beach native and UCLA graduate eagled the par-5 11^th to climb to 31-under par, only a shot behind Perez.

Perez dropped into a tie with Merrick after he bogeyed the par-3 15^th, but he regained the lead after Merrick made bogey on No. 17. On his three closing holes, Merrick pushed three shots – including a tee shot on the par-4 16^th that was headed for the water but miraculously hit inside the hazard and ricocheted back into the fairway – and pulled three makeable putts.

Despite miscues down the stretch, Merrick, a pupil of Virginia Country Club PGA professional Jamie Mulligan, was pleased with his effort for the week.

“On the last three holes, maybe I didn’t go through my whole process like I was during the whole day, and that could have hurt me,” said Merrick, whose second-place finish is the best of his PGA Tour career. “But it was playing tough out there. And I think I made two bogeys today, and that’s not bad out there in that wind.

“I’m definitely going to take a positive from this, especially when I came from eight back. It’s not like I had a three-shot lead. So I gave it my best shot, and I’ll definitely learn from it.”

The learning curve is finally over for Perez, who has often talked about his desire to stop being average and break through for win No. 1. He credits a lot of his success this week to working hard at the Madison Club in La Quinta during the offseason and fine-tuning swing changes he started last year with Madison instructor Mike Abbott.

“Today, I knew that I was ready,” Perez said. “I played all winter to get ready for this in the same desert, and it just means the world.”

Despite appearing shaky at times during the final round, Perez said he was never nervous because of his new swing, which has enabled to him to work the ball in both directions and play with more confidence.

“I wasn’t that nervous today playing the back nine at all, because I knew where the ball was going,” he said.

A memorable week was punctuated by a stiff approach for eagle to the par-5 18^th hole. A drive of nearly 350 yards left him with only 199 yards, and Perez flushed a 6-iron to three feet that all but guaranteed at least a birdie.

Perez, who grew up in San Diego and whose father, Tony, is actively involved in bringing golf to underprivileged kids and wounded members of the armed forces, became the fifth golfer to make the Hope his first career win. Poway native Charley Hoffman did that most recently in 2007.