TORONTO, Canada (AFP) — Bud Cauley won the Canadian Open on Sunday, capturing the first title of a PGA Tour career that was nearly derailed by the injuries he suffered in a 2018 car crash.

The 36-year-old American conjured four of his seven birdies on the back nine at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley, firing a five-under par 65 for a 17-under total of 263 and a two-stroke triumph over former US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick of England.

"So many people helped me get here," an emotional Cauley said.

"Once I got the opportunity to start playing again, I just told myself that I was going to try to just do everything the right way and give myself the best chance."

Cauley, a star amateur and one of the game's brightest prospects when he arrived on tour 15 years ago, suffered six broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and a broken left leg in his 2018 accident.

He painstakingly worked his way back to the tour, but in 2021 complications from post-crash reconstructive surgery again took him off the course, an absence that would last until 2024.

"I put my wife, Kristi, through so much during those dark times. It's just nice to have a little success as a kind of thank you."

Cauley started the day one off the lead and jumped to the top of the leaderboard with a birdie chip-in from the rough for a birdie at the 12th.

It was his fifth birdie of the day and his second in a row. He rolled in a 13-foot birdie at 13 and had a four-shot lead after a 16-foot birdie putt at 15.

He made a lucky escape at 16, where his errant tee shot hit a cart to land in the rough while avoiding the trees, but his lead was down to two after a bogey at 17.

At 18, his tee shot landed in deep rough above a bunker. His awkward shot found the fairway, and his third landed on the slope of the green that had funneled multiple balls into the water.

His ball stayed up, and Cauley hot-footed it to the green to mark it, finally two-putting for par to close out the win.

"I'm very proud of the way I kind of kept going," Cauley said after capturing his first win in his 239th start.

The victory earned him a place in the US Open that tees off on Thursday at Shinnecock Hills.

Fitzpatrick, the 2022 US Open champion who has three PGA wins already this season, tuned up for the third major of the year with a six-under-par final round that included six birdies and an eagle at the par-five 18th.

Norway's Viktor Hovland was third after a 65 for 266.