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In a nail biting finale that took 23 holes to decide, Jason Day logged his first PGA Tour victory since the 2010 Byron Nelson Championship by defeating France’s Victor Dubuisson to capture the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.  Making his first career start in a WGC event, the 23-year-old Dubuisson did well to extend the playoff the full five holes, a feat he managed by recording spectacular back-to-back up-and-downs from some rocky desert terrain at both the 19th and 20th.  He then very nearly won it at the 22nd when a 21-foot birdie putt narrowly missed, but was relegated to second place when Day birdied the driveable par-4 15th from just off the fringe, while Dubuisson could do no better than a four.  Dubuisson had shown considerable resilience just reaching extra holes as he stood three down after 12 before winning the 13th and 17th with birdies, then the 18th with a clutch greenside sand save combined with Day’s three-putting from 70 feet.  Making only his fourth start on American soil, Dubuisson reached the final by edging 44-year-old match play stalwart Ernie Els one up in the semi-finals, after previously vanquishing Kevin Streelman (5&4), Peter Hanson (3&1), Bubba Waton (1 up) and Graeme McDowell (1 up).  Day, who raised his career record in the event to 14-3, dispatched Rickie Fowler 3&2 in the Sunday morning semis after beating Thorbjorn Olesen (2 up), Billy Horschel (22 holes), George Coetzee (3&1)and an injured Louis Oosthuizen (3&1) in earlier rounds...................With the European Tour taking the week off (in deference to the WGC-Accenture Match Play) between its final two South African stops of 2014, numerous E Tour regulars entered the Sunshine Tour's Dimension Data Pro-Am, with one of them - 25-year-old Argentinean Estanislao "Tano" Goya - emerging as champion.  Formerly a winner (at age 20) of the E Tour's light-field 2008 Madeira Islands Open, Goya struggled with his game in 2013 (only regaining E Tour status via Q School) but rediscovered his form this week in Fancourt, opening slowly with a 73 before a pair of 67s left him four behind 54-hole leader Adilson da Silva.  The field moved from a three-course rotation onto the Montagu course for Sunday's finale where Goya initially struggled, going out in one-over-par 37.  But he heated up on the inward half, logging five birdies - including the critical coup de grâce at the par-5 18th - to win by one. 

Posted on Sunday, February 23, 2014 at 01:01PM by Registered CommenterDaniel | Comments Off