Twenty-seven-year-old Ben Martin had a big final round lead, lost it, then regained it with a late rush to claim his first PGA Tour victory in his 56th start, at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas.  An All-American at Clemson just beginning his third full season on Tour, Martin opened with rounds of 68-66 over the TPC Summerlin layout, good enough to place him among a group of eight players two behind halfway leaders Andrew Putnam and Russell Knox, and one back of Andrew Svoboda and Tony Finau.  Martin would extricate himself from the pack on Saturday, however, by carding a near-perfect nine-under par 62, a round which began birdie-par-bogey before concluding with nine birdies over his final 15 holes, five of which came in succession from the 13th-17th.  The result was a two-shot lead over both Putnam and Knox, with Jimmy Walker (who matched Martin with a bogey-free 62) and Svoboda standing three behind.  Martin felt some inevitable nerves early on Sunday, turning in even-par 35, then bogeying the par-4 11th, by which time a charging Kevin Streelman had entered the mix.  Streelman, who set a Tour record by birdieing the final seven holes to win in Hartford in June, nearly matched the feat here, carding five birdies from the 12th through the 17th, enough to take a one-shot lead to the 18th.  But back at the par-5 16th, Martin launched a lightning bolt by holing a 45-footer for eagle, Streelman then missed a five-footer for birdie at the last, and suddenly Martin had retaken a lead he would not surrender - with a birdie at the 18th simply padding his margin of victory………………The eight players who reached the quarter-finals of the Volvo World Match Play Championship included several top international stars, but two such entries were upset forthwith, as France’s Victor Dubuisson lost two down to Finland’s Mikko Ilonen, while Ryder Cup star Patrick Reed (the only American in the field) was upended by South African George Coetzee (the last man invited) 2 & 1.  Meanwhile, the Netherland’s Joost Luiten, still on strong form after a recent win at the Wales Open, cruised past Spain’s Pablo Larrazabal 6 & 5, while the event’s top overall seed, world number five Henrik Stenson of Sweden, locked down the final semi-final spot with a two up victory over countryman Jonas Blixt.  The semi-finals produced a bit more drama with Ilonen and Luiten squaring off in a match which saw the Fin jump out to an early two-hole lead, then fall behind as Luiten birdied the 8th, 11th and 13th to climb back on top.  But Ilonen responded with a run of his own – a winning par at the par-3 14th, then birdies at the 15th and 17th – to clinch victory.  Meanwhile, on the other side of the draw, Stenson each time drew even after falliing behind on four separate occasions , ultimately closing out Coetzee with a birdie at the par-5 18th to win one up.  In Sunday afternoon’s all-Scandinavian final, Stenson then jumped to a one-up lead with a birdie at the 4th but soon fell deeply in the hole after Ilonen captured the 5th, 8th, 11th and 12th (only two with birdies) to move three up.  Stenson tried gamely to rally by birdieing the par-5 13th and 15th, but in the end he still reached the par-4 17th two down, then saw Ilonen slam the door by carding one last birdie to claim his fifth career E Tour triumph by a 3 & 1 margin………………If only a handful of elite names were present at the Hong Kong Open, one of them at least injected some life into things over the first 36 holes as Hall-of-Famer Enie Els opened 66-65 to take a two-stroke halfway lead.  Saddled with an ongoing hip problem, however, Els shot 71 on Saturday to fall to sixth, then a Sunday 69 to ultimately tie for fifth.  This left room for a pair of Australians with solid Asian Tour pedigrees to move atop the Saturday leaderboard, with Marcus Fraser bouncing back from an opening bogey to post a 66 and grab the lead on 11-under-par 199, while long-hitting Scott Hend carded his second 67 in three days to trail by one.  Fraser would struggle to a closing 72 and fall off the pace, and Hend also stumbled somewhat in the early going, turning in even-par 34.  But Hend would settle down on the inward half, adding three birdies to close with another 67 and a 267 total, good enough to tie Filipino Angelo Que, who’d birdied four of his last seven holes to finish with a solid 66.  Que, however, made bogey on the first playoff hole (the 410-yard 18th), leaving Hend to become the event’s first Australian champion since Greg Norman in 1983, and to gain exempt status on the E Tour throughout 2015………………Back in 2009 and ’10, Yuta Ikeda was reaching his mid-20s and emerging as an elite player on the Japan Tour, winning four times in each season and looking like viable competition for Ryo Ishikawa as the nation’s next international star.  But Ikeda’s stock slipped somewhat in the ensuing three years (he logged but a single win in each) and if his victory in 2014 Japan Open was, once again, his first triumph of the season, it must also rate as the most prestigious in his career to date.  Ikeda began the week in fine form, posting an opening six-under-par 64 to trail veteran Thail star Prayad Marksaeng by one, and remained one back at the halfway point after both men added 68s on Friday.  But while Marksaeng carded two late bogeys to slip to a 70 on Saturday, Ikeda shot a 66 to jump out to a three-shot lead over both Marksaeng and 27-time Japan Tour winner Shingo Katayama – a cushion he would ultimately need all of on Sunday when, seemingly cruising safely along, he bogeyed the 14th and double-bogeyed the par-3 16th to make matters interesting.  But with neither Katayama or Marksaeng making a strong move, Ikeda managed to add two closing pars, hanging on and in by one………………Merrick Bremner won for the fourth time on the Sunshine Tour in highly dramatic fashion, holing a 25-yard bunker shot to birdie the 451-yard 18th hole at the Glendower Golf Club and win the BMG Classic by one.  Bremner wasted little time in making his presence felt, birdieing his first two holes on Friday en route to grabbing the first-round lead with a six-under-par 66.  A disappointing second round 71 would leave him four strokes behind another South African with E Tour experience, Darren Fichardt, but Fichard stumbled badly on Sunday, bogeying the par-3 6th and double-bogeying the 522-yard 8th to create a dogfight down the stretch.  Fichardt admirably righted himself enough to card birdies at the 10th, 13th and 15th but in the meantime, Bremner had charged, birdieing the 11th, 12th, 15th and 16th to draw even.  He then produced his bunker magic at the last to finish on 204, but still had to wait while Fichardt stuffed his approach at the last to five feet, then missed the putt, capping a frustrating day and giving Bremner the title………………Twenty-seven-year-old New Zealander Ryan Fox broke through for his first victory on the Australasian Tour, running away from the field to claim the Western Australia Open by a resounding six shots.  The son of former rugby star Grant Fox, Ryan did much to justify his reputation as a top (if somewhat late-arriving) Kiwi prospect by carding an opening round 64 at the Cottesloe Golf Club, good enough to join eventual runner-up Steven Dartnall in a tie for second, one behind Victoria’s Steven Jones.  A second round 66 moved him into the lead, two ahead of South Australian Paul Spargo, and when Fox carded a Saturday 68 and Spargo his third straight 66, the pair were tied atop the 54-hole leaderboard, three shots clear of Queensland’s Daniel Nisbet.  But while Spargo would crumble to a 74 on Sunday, Fox hit the ground running, logging five birdies (against one bogey) over his first eight holes, then adding to two more at the 10th and the par-5 14th to pull far enough clear that a bogey at the 18th was of no consequence.