The ageless Miguel Angel Jimenez successfully defended his title at the Hong Kong Open, defeating Stuart Manley of Wales and Thailand’s Prom Meesawat on the first hole of sudden death.  In doing so, Jimenez extended his record as the European Tour’s oldest-ever winner (49 years, 337 days) which he set here a year ago, and also claimed both his 20th career E Tour win and his 13th after turning 40.  Playing against a somewhat light field (Jimenez was the only member of the OWR top 50 present), the ponytailed Spaniard trailed halfway leader Manley by four on Friday night before charging into the mix with a Saturday 65 which might well have been lower but for a double-bogey at the 427-yard 15th.  He thus began Sunday two in arrears, then initially made only guarded progress after turning in one-under-par 33.  But upon reaching the easier inward half Jimenez heated up, his four-birdie run home marred only by a bogey at his nemesis 15th.  This left him on 268, a number equaled by Manley (with a clutch birdie at the last) and Meesawat, who eagled the 13th, bogeyed the 14th, then strung together four pars thereafter.  The playoff was contested over the 410-yard 18th, and while neither Manley (who drove into a hospitality area) nor Meesawat (who missed the green short) were assured of their pars, Jimenez rendered matters moot by hitting a wedge to 18 feet, then holing the clinching putt………………In an event darkened by the Thursday passing of former South African president Nelson Mandela, Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn closed with a seven-under-par 65 to win the Nedbank Golf Challenge in the long-running tournament’s debut as an official European Tour event.  Bjorn began Sunday’s final round trailing Jamie Donaldson by two strokes before going out in 33, which was enough to overtake the Welshman (who carded an ill-timed bogey at the par-4 9th) but not enough to stay ahead of Sergio Garcia, who’d continued an up-and-down week by going out in a flawless six-under-par 30.  But Bjorn quickly seized the lead with an eagle at the 547-yard 10th, then compounded it with a second eagle (this after his approach skipped through a greenside bunker) at the 601-yard 14th.  Garcia gamely fought back with birdies at the 14th and the 471-yard 15th, but his crucial bogey at the 211-yard 17th was one stroke too many, allowing the 42-year-old Bjorn to bogey the 502-yard par-4 18th and still collect his 15th career European Tour victory.  Garcia’s Sunday 65 lifted him into a tie for second with Donaldson, who closed with a disappointing 70 after losing momentum at the 9th.  The world’s hottest player, Henrik Stenson, recorded four straight rounds in the 60s en route to taking fourth in his first event back following a three-week layoff..................Thirty-three-year-old Yusaku Miyazato, an 11-year veteran of the Japan Golf Tour, broke through for his maiden victory at the season-ending Golf Nippon Series JT Cup, logging a three-stroke triumph over a 29-man field that was missing international stars Hideki Matsuyama and Ryo Ishikawa.  Miyazato did most of his heavy lifting during opening rounds of 66-66-64 over the par-70 Tokyo Yomiuri Country Club layout, good enough to give him a three-stroke 54-hole lead.  The gap narrowed, however, after he made two early bogeys on Sunday, turned in two-over-par 37, then added one more bogey at the par-4 10th.  But subsequent birdies at both the 11th and the par-5 17th proved enough to see him home victorious, particularly after his closest Saturday pursuers, Kazahiro Yamashita and Hideto Tanihara, closed with rounds of 74 and 72 respectively.