Xander Schauffele. Picture: Getty Images
Xander Schauffele beat Tony Finau in a playoff to win his first European Tour title at the WGC-HSBC Champions with an out of sorts Rory McIlroy 24 shots behind.
Finau entered Sunday at Sheshan International Golf Club with a three-shot lead but Schauffele carded best-of-the-day 68 to tie with his compatriot on 14 under par.
Schauffele found the green in two on the first trip back up the par-five 18th and with Finau forced to lay up after finding a bunker off the tee, a birdie was enough to hand Schauffele the victory and a move from 19th to 12th in the world, leapfrogging Jordan Spieth.
Defending champion Justin Rose had to settle for a 72 after a bogey on the last to finish four shots out of the play-off at ten under, missing out on the chance to regain the world number one spot from Brooks Koepka, who tied for 16th on two-under after a 69
Thai Kiradech Aphibarnrat and American Andrew Putnam were then at eight under, a shot clear of another American in Keegan Bradley.
McIlroy was far from his best all week, following an opening 72 with rounds of 77, 75 and 74 to finish tied for 54th on 10-over par.
The world number five made an eagle and 13 birdies over the four days but had 11 bogeys, four double bogeys and two triple bogeys.
He was 74th for driving accuracy and 56th for putts per green in regulation and after falling from fourth to sixth in the Race to Dubai, he's 1.89 million points behind Francesco Molinari with just the Nedbank Golf Challenge and the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai remaining.
Schauffele's victory comes in just his 14th European Tour event and moves the Affiliate Member up to fourth in the Race to Dubai Rankings presented by Rolex after top ten finishes at the US Open and Open Championship.
He also won $1.7 million and the coveted Old Tom Morris Trophy.
Tommy Fleetwood, Thorbjørn Olesen, Patrick Reed and Patrick Cantlay completed the top ten at five under.
Belgian Thomas Pieters made the first ever hole-in-one at the 12th hole at Sheshan as his six iron off the tee from 197 yards took two bounces and rolled into the cup.
Peter Dixon added:
Schauffele, whose mother hails from Chinese Taipei, had his family with him for the week, something he credited with helping him to settle into his routine.
“It feels like I’m at home because everyone understands what she’s asking, so she takes a load off me,” he said with a smile.
He certainly looked at home as the pressure mounted on the final day. He also took the time to sympathise with Finau, who found a fairway bunker with his tee shot in the playoff only for his ball to roll backwards and into its pitch mark, which meant he could only lay up short of the green with his second shot.
“Tony got a bad break in the bunker,” Schauffele said. “I knew I still needed to pull off a shot (from the middle of the fairway) and hit the green.”
Comfortably on in two, he rolled his eagle putt to within two inches of the hole and victory was assured.
Much had been expected of Patrick Reed and Tommy Fleetwood at the start of the day, but neither of them lived up to their final-round billing.
Victory for either player would have taken them above Francesco Molinari at the top of the standings for the European Tour’s Race to Dubai, but they rarely threatened the lead. There is still all to play for in the final three events of the season.
Reed, who had opened the tournament with a masterful round of 64, trailed Finau by three strokes when he teed off but finished a distant nine strokes in arrears after a lacklustre 77. Fleetwood finished in a tie for seventh place with Reed after a 75.
Xander Schauffele
“It was as nice of a final group as I've ever played in, not that I've played in a whole lot but Rosey and Tony are great guys and you know, I think we were genuinely pulling for each other, even though we were playing against each other. My hat's off to both of them.
“It's a lot to take in honestly. I didn't have an incredible Asian Swing up until this point, so I think that flight home will be a little bit more special.
“Probably having my family out. It's the first time we've been together in a pretty long time. That was pretty special and I'm happy to share this with them. Other key moments, it's tricky.
“Everything we do is really repetitive, so it's hard to really pick out a specific moment. There are a few out on the course which were clutch, but besides that, I can't think of anything too significant.
“I felt really good about every part of my game mentally, physically. So with a 68, obviously, it was just enough. Tony played well, as well, but it's tricky to try and fend off when everyone is chasing you.”
Tony Finau
“Just walking off the green, haven't had a lot of time but definitely feel like I let one get away. Xander played incredible golf today. It was playing tough out there. He posted a number and made birdie on a playoff hole when it counted. Hats off him to. He played nicely today and deserved to win.
“Seemed like we kind of separated ourselves with nine holes to play. Kind of a three-man tournament. So definitely felt that way coming down the stretch, and it was cool to have a chance to win, a real chance to win, and you know, I'll definitely learn from this and keep moving forward.”
Justin Rose
“Tough day for everybody. You just look at the scoreboard. Seems like everyone fell apart. There was no chasing pack today. Obviously, it was a three-horse race all day. It was hard to kind of keep the mistakes off the card completely today.
“It was a fun battle. I was always just one or two shots behind, it felt on the back nine, but I birdied 13 and 14 to give myself a chance, and still had a chance I felt when I hit my iron shot into 17.
“Hit a good iron shot into there and Xander made his putt. I missed my putt. I was two behind playing the last trying to force something there. I was in the hunt, and a decent defence. Yeah, solid week.
“I have events I've got to defend between this week, two left Turkey and Indonesia, and I've never defended a tournament before, so that's the goal for this run is to defend one of them.”
WGC-HSBC Champions, Sheshan International Golf Club
274 X Schauffele (USA) 66 71 69 68, T Finau (USA) 66 67 70 71,
Xander Schauffele won with a birdie at the first extra hole
278 J Rose (Eng) 69 67 70 72,
280 A Putnam (USA) 70 71 67 72, K Aphibarnrat (Tha) 68 71 70 71,
281 K Bradley (USA) 69 70 70 72,
283 T Fleetwood (Eng) 68 68 72 75, P Cantlay (USA) 70 68 73 72, T Olesen (Den) 75 69 67 72, P Reed (USA) 64 72 70 77,
284 B Horschel (USA) 68 72 71 73, H Li (Chn) 73 72 69 70, J Day (Aus) 71 70 69 74,
285 E Grillo (Arg) 70 69 74 72, R Cabrera Bello (Esp) 68 73 73 71,
286 B Koepka (USA) 72 74 71 69, P Casey (Eng) 73 68 74 71,
287 A Noren (Swe) 74 69 71 73, T Pieters (Bel) 75 64 74 74, A Scott (Aus) 69 73 72 73,
288 I Poulter (Eng) 69 71 74 74,
289 T Hatton (Eng) 72 70 74 73, C Pan (Tpe) 68 76 70 75, K Stanley (USA) 70 69 78 72, J Rahm (Esp) 73 76 69 71, E Van Rooyen (RSA) 76 72 71 70, A Pavan (Ita) 72 71 69 77,
290 A Björk (Swe) 70 75 70 75, A Levy (Fra) 71 70 76 73,
291 R Fox (Nzl) 70 70 75 76, B Snedeker (USA) 75 76 68 72, H Matsuyama (Jpn) 72 70 77 72, A Hadwin (Can) 74 68 74 75, D Johnson (USA) 74 73 73 71,
292 Y Yuan (Chn) 78 71 70 73, C Reavie (USA) 70 73 75 74,
293 S Kodaira (Jpn) 72 73 70 78, S Vincent (Zim) 73 73 73 74, P Perez (USA) 70 69 80 74, S Park (Kor) 77 71 72 73,
294 B Grace (RSA) 72 71 76 75, B An (Kor) 75 71 74 74,
295 W Liang (Chn) 72 73 76 74, F Molinari (Ita) 76 75 75 69, C Hoffman (USA) 74 75 74 72,
296 J Harding (RSA) 76 71 72 77, S Kim (USA) 72 74 75 75, G Bhullar (Ind) 72 72 81 71, B Stone (RSA) 74 80 71 71,
297 X Zhang (Chn) 72 76 74 75, M Wallace (Eng) 69 75 74 79, J Norris (Aus) 74 73 73 77, G Coetzee (RSA) 69 74 76 78,
298 M Fitzpatrick (Eng) 67 80 70 81, J Catlin (USA) 75 71 76 76, K Na (USA) 75 74 77 72, J Scrivener (Aus) 75 74 75 74, C Smith (Aus) 76 72 72 78, J Campillo (Esp) 73 77 75 73, Rory McIlroy (Nir) 72 77 75 74, A Bland (Aus) 72 76 73 77,
299 A Otaegui (Esp) 72 75 75 77, A Sullivan (Eng) 72 71 79 77,
300 Y Ikeda (Jpn) 75 74 71 80, J Suri (USA) 74 75 76 75, A Wu (Chn) 73 80 72 75,
301 P Kizzire (USA) 74 71 76 80,
303 R Knox (Sco) 74 77 76 76,
304 S Sharma (Ind) 80 80 72 72, O Bekker (RSA) 77 71 73 83, L Bjerregaard (Den) 77 74 79 74,
305 B Harman (USA) 73 73 81 78,
306 Y Inamori (Jpn) 74 82 73 77, Y Liu (Chn) 75 79 77 75,
309 B Rumford (Aus) 73 80 78 78,
310 J Ritchie (RSA) 71 76 81 82,
317 B Xiao (Chn) 76 79 80 82,
WD C Wood (Eng) WD
from News - Irish Golf Desk https://ift.tt/2Q0Sx2m
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