POTOMAC, Md. -- It took so much longer than Ben Curtis expected, and not because for the first time in 26 years the PGA TOUR needed until Tuesday to finish a tournament. When Curtis finally won the Booz Allen Classic at the TPC Avenel -- a foregone conclusion after going into the final round with a five-stroke lead -- he put to rest the notion that he was a one-hit wonder.

For those who thought his 2003 British Open title was a fluke, the 29-year-old Ohio native silenced the skeptics with his wire-to-wire win. His 20-under-par 264 missed tying the tournament record by one shot, and his five-stroke margin of victory is the largest at the event in 17 years.

“This is great for me,” Curtis said. “I can’t wait to get out and play again, see if I can handle it.”

Curtis’ second victory on TOUR had none of the drama of his first. Unlike at Royal St. George’s where 100,000 people watched him hoist the Claret Jug, fewer than 100 people -- mainly grounds crew and tournament staff -- witnessed him collect his $900,000 winner’s check and trophy at 9 a.m. ET on Tuesday morning. The deluge that hit the Washington, D.C. area forced the tournament to run six days rather than its typical four.

Curtis didn’t mind the wait. After all, it had taken him three years to win again. What’s a couple more days?

“It’s been a long couple years,” Curtis said. “It’s been frustrating, but I kept my mind in it, kept focused. It feels good that the hard work has paid off. It feels really good.”

Ever since he won the British Open, Curtis has felt the need to validate that victory with another win. But he discovered winning a second tournament proved more elusive than the first.

“It’s important for me to go out there and prove myself that I can win again,” Curtis said. “For a while there, I was having doubts, but I kept working hard and fighting through the mess I got myself into with my golf game.”

Looking back, Curtis realizes that maybe he didn’t handle winning the British Open as well as he could have. In the 67 events he has played since that victory, he has missed the cut in 33. He had only 10 top-25 finishes during that same period.

“I thought I was dealing with it well, but the more I look back on it, maybe I could have done a few things differently,” he said. “It was my rookie year. I got thrown in there. … I think I got a few bad habits going. You know, you start going downhill and it just kept going.”

Curtis seems to be going in the right direction now. This win gives him his third top-25 finish this season and earns him 375 Ryder Cup points, moving him into the top 20 on the list with eight weeks to go before the team is selected.

“It was a goal that I set for myself to start this year,” Curtis said. “I knew if I could get off to a good start (this year) and get some top 10s and a win, I could jump right in there. It wasn’t my primary goal. My primary goal was to get playing better again, become more consistent, and I’ve done that and I want to continue that. But I’m not going to put any pressure on myself to make the Ryder Cup team. Obviously, if I play well, it will take care of itself.”

His fellow PGA TOUR members knew it was only a matter of time before Curtis broke out of his slump.

“Ben has always had all the credentials,” Padraig Harrington said. “He had a good amateur career. He was good young pro when he turned pro. Winning the British Open put him under a lot of pressure. If anything, I wouldn’t be easy to play good golf after that. I think it came so early for Ben that he probably was always trying to prove to everybody he was an Open winner. Obviously, wins like this proves that he’s right. He will probably go on to be a stronger player now that he has another win under his belt, and I’m sure win more in the future.”

There’s no rest for the weary as Curtis heads to Cromwell, Conn., for this week’s Buick Championship then he’s off to Illinois for the Cialis Western Open.

“There’s a lot of pressure coming with winning,” Curtis said. “I think I’ll deal with it a little bit better. If I get in position to win again, I think I’ll handle it even better than I did this week, hopefully.”