Todd, who played on the PGA Tour in 2009 but lost his exemption and then missed the cut in 27 of his last 37 tournaments on the Nationwide Tour, posted a six-day, 17-under 415 total to beat Stephen Gangluff into second place, pick up $50,000 in prize money and earn his a return to the PGA Tour in 2012.
TaylorMade Tour Preferred CB Irons Steel Gangluff, another Nationwide Tour player in 2011, shot a 70 as he too claimed his Tour card and went away with $40,000 in prize money.
"I think I just really stuck to my game plan," said Todd, a former Georgia college star. "I was hitting it well coming into the week."
Todd broke par every round and believes the two windy days of the event which saw gusts of more than 30 mph lashing the PGA West's Stadium and Nicklaus Tournament courses at La Quinta, helped him because he is a good wind player.
Todd and Gangluff headed a group of 29 players who earned
TaylorMade Tour Preferred CB Irons Steel for next year.
Of the players handed PGA Tour cards on Monday, 12 will be making their PGA Tour debuts next year, one of these being South Korea's Seung-yul Noh, a 20-year old from Seoul who we are likely to hear more about.
He was named the Asian Tour's 2008 Rookie of the Year and has won once on the Asian Tour in 2008 and again in 2010 at the Maybank Malaysian Open, a co-sponsored event with the European Tour. Noh played in six PGA Tour events in 2011
TaylorMade Tour Preferred CB Irons Steel In addition to the 29 who made the PGA Tour, another 52 players earned full status for the 2012 Nationwide tour, but not everyone was celebrating after Monday's 6th round at Q-school.