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Twenty-eight-year-old Brendon Todd became the fifth former University of Georgia golfer to win on the 2013-2014 PGA Tour, claiming his first career title at the HP Byron Nelson Championship.  Making his 77th career Tour start, Todd opened with a 68 before vaulting himself into the halfway lead via a Friday 64, then maintaining a share of the lead (with 2010 British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen) through 54 holes after posting a two-under-par 68 on Saturday.  Oosthuizen – who continued to be plagued by a balky back – got off to a slow start on Sunday (turning in 35) before falling out of contention with bogeys at the 10th, 11th and 13th.  Todd, meanwhile, holed a bunker shot for birdie at the par-3 2nd and settled down quickly thereafter, adding a birdie at the 5th to solidify his position, then building what would ultimately prove his margin of victory by posting back-to-back birdie threes at the 9th and 10th.  Eventually closing with a bogey-free 66, his primary late competition came from 2003 Masters champion Mike Weir, who began Sunday one stroke behind before jumping quickly into the lead with four birdies in his first five holes on Sunday.  But bogeys at the 6th and 9th, combined with Todd’s move through the turn, would ultimately relegate Weir to second – his first top-25 finish since 2010 after having surgery on a partially torn right elbow ligament that same year………………The ageless Miguel Angel Jimenez reached multiple milestones at the Open de Espana, not the least of which was finally winning his own national open after 26 previous attempts had failed to yield a victory.  Jimenez opened with rounds of 69-73-69 over the tough PGA Catalunya Resort layout, good enough to stand two strokes behind 22-year-old Belgian Thomas Pieters through 54 holes.  He then mounted an early charge on Sunday, making three early birdies to climb into the lead after Pieters bogeyed the 2nd, 3rd and 4th en route to turning in 39.  Bogeys at the 10th and 17th would eventually see Jimenez home in 38, for a 73 and a four-under par 284 total.  Meanwhile, Australian Richard Green had also moved into contention by turning in 34, but proceeded to give back all of his gains with a triple-bogey seven at the 443-yard 14th.  Green quickly bounced back with a birdie at the par-5 15th, however, allowing him also to finish on 284.  And then there was Pieters who, after stumbling early, still put himself in position to win with an eagle at the 15th, then fell back to 284 with a bogey at the 460-yard 17th.  Thus it was off to a three-way playoff where the colorful Jimenez was the only man able to par the first extra hole, and with it claim his 21st career E Tour title, extend his own record (for the second time) as the circuit’s oldest-ever winner, and become its only 50-year-old champion……………… Australian Marcus Both, whose fortunes had sunk so low that he lost his Asian Tour card after the 29013 season, scored a redemptive two-shot victory at the ICTSI Philippine Open after gaining entry on a sponsor exemption.  Both came somewhat out of nowhere to grab the halfway lead with rounds of 70-66 over the demanding East course at the Wack Wack Golf & Country Club, then fell one behind 54-hole leader Chan Kim after three late bogeys brought him home in 76 on Saturday.  But on a Sunday which saw only one player among the contenders break 70, Both turned in 34, then built a significant cushion via back-to-back birdies at the 15th and 16th – a cushion he would need as it turned out, for he then bogeyed both the 17th and 18th to hang on and win by two.  The runner-up spot was shared by five players: Bangladesh’s Siddikur Rahman (who closed with 69), Australia’s Nathan Holman, Thailand’s Arnond Vongvanij and a pair of homestanding players, Antonio Lascuna and Jay Bayron………………Veteran Wallie Coetsee had to wait 17 years between Sunshine Tour victories, but his drought finally came to an end at the light-field Mopani Copper Mines Zambia Open.  The 42-year-old Coetsee - who last won at the 1997 Namibia Open, and was a runner-up at the 2001 Atlantic Beach Classic – held the 54-hole lead after opening with rounds of 65-69-68, and did much to solidify his position by carding three birdies en route to an outgoing 34 on Sunday.  After saving a key par from deep rough at the par-5 12th, he bogeyed the 369-yard 16th but bounced right back with a birdie at the 564-yard 17th to reestablish a two shot margin – which, in turn, allowed him the luxury of a 72nd-hole bogey to still win by one………………Twenty-eight-year-old Seung-Hyuk Kim emerged from a crowded leaderboard to claim his first victory as a professional, winning the long-running SK Telecom Open in Incheon.  Kim got off to a fast start with an opening 66, then backed it up with rounds of 74-67 to tie his more internationally experienced countryman Kyung-Tae Kim atop the 54-hole leaderboad on nine-under-par 207.  But as four players moved to 10 under early on Sunday, Kim appeared to fall from contention after double-bogeying the 350-yard 4th, only to climb back with birdies at the 5th and the 7th.  Despite one more bogey at the 219-yard 8th, he would then charge home in 33 – including sinking a clutch nine-foot birdie putt at the last – to edge Kyung-Tae Kim and Tae-Hee Lee by one.      

Posted on Sunday, May 18, 2014 at 10:12PM by Registered CommenterDaniel | Comments Off