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Perhaps it was in response to the recent ascension of potential under-30 challengers Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler, or perhaps he was motivated by returning to the site of his maiden PGA Tour victory in 2010.  But whatever the reason, the 2015 Wells Fargo Championship will be remembered as one of those weeks when Rory McIlroy loudly reminded everyone that not only is he the world’s best golfer but also that when he’s on his game, the rest of the field really is playing for second.  Such may not have been immediately apparent, as McIlroy’s opening 70 stood him five shots behind Robert Streb, and a bogey-free Friday 67 left him within three of halfway leader (and Quail Hollow member) Webb Simpson.  But on Saturday McIlroy simply exploded, parring the 1st, 2nd, 17th and 18th, but reeling off a remarkable 11 birdies among the 14 holes in between, his final run of five straight birdies from the 12th through the 16th seeing him home in course record 61, and staking him to a four-stroke lead over Simpson, who managed a 68, yet saw himself left in the dust.  What remained on Sunday was anti-climactic, with McIlroy bogeying the 2nd hole before methodically posting five birdies on his way to a 69 and, in the end, a seven-shot runaway victory which stated, yet again, that all roads to the top very much run through Holywood, Northern Ireland.............Thirty-year-old Englishman James Morrison claimed his second career European Tour victory at the Open de España, outdueling a range of talented E Tour regulars to march methodically home to a four-shot triumph in Barcelona.  Having previously won the light-field 2010 Madeira Islands Open, Morrison began his week on quiet terms, opening with a six-birdie, four-bogey 70 that left him five shots behind South Africa's Trevor Fisher Jr.  A Friday 71 moved him within four of halfway leader Edouard Espana of France before Morrison nearly became derailed by double-bogeying the 574-yard 2nd early in his third round on Saturday.  But a bounce-back birdie at the 205-yard 3rd, followed by three more at the 5th, 6th and 7th quickly put things right, and Morrison would eventually return a 68, good enough to tie countryman David Howell for the 54-hole lead.  Howell would struggle on Sunday, however, turning in 39 and only nosing his way into a second place tie via three birdies over his final five holes.  Conversely, Morrison played very steady golf, meticulously posting three birdies en route to a 69 which left him comfortably clear of the field.  Especially worthy of mention among the quartet which shared second was 51-year-old defending champion Miguel Angel Jimenez, who agelessly eagled the 465-yard par-4 4th on his way to a closing 67............Thirty-two-year-old Australian Adam Bland claimed his biggest victory as a professional at the Japan PGA Championship, where he cruised home to a relatively easy three-shot triumph over South Korea's Sang-Hee Lee, in Saitama.  A former winner on both the Canadian and Australasian circuits, Bland was in the hunt right from the beginning, trailing only South Korean K.T. Kwon (by one) after opening with a Thursday 64, then taking a two-shot halfway lead over Kwon via a second round 68.  But it was on Saturday that Bland put his imprint irreversibly on the event, making eight birdies over his first 13 holes en route to another 64, and building a whopping six-shot lead over a pair of homestanding players, Hiroshi Iwata and Masahiro Kawamura.  This allowed Bland the luxury of playing steady, conservative golf on Sunday, and it was only his closing bogeys at the 71st and 72nd that caused the margin of victory to slip from a runaway to three shots............Thirty-two-year-old Kyong-Jun Moon scored one of the least-probable victories in recent regional history at South Korea's long-running Caltex Maekyung Open, surviving a harrowing 72nd-hole collapse to to claim a two-shot triumph in Seoul.  Previously winless in his professional career, Moon began Sunday's final round two shots behind Australia's Jason Norris, who was attempting to become the first non-Korean since Mark Calcavecchia in 2004 to claim the title.  Norris, however, turned in 38, then later added two double-bogeys en route to a closing 77, allowing several players into the mix.  Moon, for his part, stood even on the day through 12 holes, then added birdies at the 13th and 14th to build what seemed an insurmountable lead.  But at the tough par-4 18th, he took four shots to reach the green, then promptly three-putted, a collapse which might well have cost him the title had his three closest pursuers - homestanding Do-Hoon Kim and  New Zealanders Ryan Fox and Gareth Paddison - not all bogeyed the hole themselves, tying them with Norris, two shots behind the winner.

Posted on Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 12:02PM by Registered CommenterDaniel | Comments Off