Ben Martin Gets Lucky in Las Vegas at Shriners Hospital Tournament

Some guys announce their victories ahead of time with a series of high finishes or by contending for the lead at tournaments for a couple months. Ben Martin? Not so much.

He missed the cut the first week of the 2015 season at the Frys.com and missed it big, posting 78-79. Then he packed up for Vegas.

With no warning, zap! Pow! Jackpot. Martin stepped up, albeit nervously, and captured his first PGA Tour victory.

He was jittery, so nervous he couldn't look at the leaderboard on the back nine.

"I was nervous enough as it was, and I figured looking at the scoreboard would just have added to that," he admitted. "I tried to keep my head down and hit the best shots that I could hit."

He didn't ask his caddie what he needed to do or where he was compared to the competition until the last hole.

"When I hit my approach into 18, (I) asked Alex, my caddie, 'Do I need to do anything special with this putt?' And he said, 'Just do what you do and two‑putt it up there and you're good,'" Martin explained.

He finished with a two-shot margin over Kevin Streelman and now has a PGA Tour exemption for two years.

Streelman had five birdies on the back nine and shot a final-round 65, missing a six-footer on the 18th for birdie and a 64, which would have put extra pressure on Martin who at the time had yet to finish.

"It was a great way to start the year and happy for Ben," Streelman said. "He's a great kid, and he played great. I'm glad he birdied the last. It makes me feel better about not hitting my putt hard enough."

Martin also fought off Webb Simpson, who was a bit disappointed after a great run on the back nine.

"Through 12 holes I wasn't even close to thinking about winning the tournament or even being in contention. I was just trying to stay there mentally and try to make a couple birdies coming in," he explained. "All of a sudden I eagle 16 and I looked and I was only one back, and then I birdied 17, and it was like, wow."

Simpson had three birdies and an eagle on the last nine holes but bogeyed the 18th.

"Yeah, it's a sour way to finish after making that run on the back nine," he admitted.

Still a little unsure what the victory means, Martin was able to say, "I guess I locked up my retirement, five years. But obviously, I've never been in that position, but it takes a little bit of the stress off, (versus) all right, I've got to perform this year and finish top 125 or I'm losing my job," he added.

Martin knows it's a ticket to The Masters.

"Growing up about an hour from Augusta in Greenwood, been going to the tournament since I was six or seven years old," he explained, adding that Greenwood was about 30 minutes from Augusta. "I think the first time I went was when Ben Crenshaw won in '95, and then pretty much every year on up through high school."

He has played there before, after finishing runner-up in the 2009 U.S. Amateur.

"When I made it to the (U.S. Amateur) finals, and I'm like, all right, I'm in the Masters next year, pretty cool," he recalled.

What he does earn in addition to a boatload of prize money, two-year exemption and an invitation to The Masters is, most likely, an invitation to The Players Championship, the biggest PGA Tour event, and most definitely entry to the Hyundai Tournament of Champions.

There's a chance having the two-year guarantee will reduce the jitters.

"Any time, certainly for me, that I can be more relaxed going into the tournament, the better I'm going to play," he said. "And hopefully it doesn't work the opposite way where you get too comfortable, but I'm going to try to keep moving forward, keep getting better."

Martin already knows what it is to have a PGA Tour card and lose it. He got through Q-School in 2010 only to lose his card after the 2011 season.

Then he was on the Web.com Tour for two years, and in the first one his play was rather unremarkable. However, in 2013 something clicked with his game, and he won twice on the Web.com, securing enough money to get back to the PGA Tour for 2014 season.

In the 2014 PGA Tour season, he finished T3 at RBC Heritage and Quicken Loans and had a third at Puerto Rico, which is a weaker field, opposite a WGC event.

How will things work out for Ben Martin? He's still a work in progress. Last week, in addition to beating Simpson and Streelman, he also put away Jimmy Walker, Nick Watney, Brandt Snedeker, Kevin Stadler, Aaron Baddeley, Brendan Steele, William McGirt, Stewart Cink and countless others. We'll just have to wait for the rest of Martin's career to unfold. It's much too early to know if he will be another Jim Furyk, for example, where a Vegas victory led to 20 years of superb golf. But he's already been through the hardest part. The rest, in theory, should be easier.

Kathy Bissell is a Golf Writer for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained first-hand or from official interview materials from the USGA, PGA Tour, R&A or PGA of America.