上海性息

Playoff win hands Moore third PGA title

17/02/2019 admin

Ryan Moore birdied the first playoff hole to beat Gary Woodland and capture the CIMB Classic title on Monday after an overnight wait caused by storms and darkness.

Moore had to fight just to get in the playoff, hitting an awkward 60-yard wedge shot on the 18th hole Sunday that dropped within several feet of the hole and allowed him to salvage par.

He and Woodland finished level at 14-under 274 on Sunday, with the playoff postponed until Monday due to fading light.

In the playoff, Moore hit a similarly well-placed approach shot with an eight-iron to the same green that stopped dead about five feet from the hole, setting up his winning birdie putt.

“I had a great opportunity there on 18 with my third shot and it was just an absolute perfect number,” he said.

“It was coincidentally the exact shot I was working on the range.”

It was Moore’s third PGA Tour title and came nearly a year after he won his second in Las Vegas.

Woodland, who was also trying to win his third PGA title, had a chance to end things as dusk was descending in a steady rain on Sunday evening but he barely missed a 10-foot birdie putt on the 18th that would have given him the title.

The players had endured about three and half hours of storm delays earlier in the day, which caused the playoff to be put off until the morning.

“Obviously I’d like to make that putt,” he said.

“I hit it where I wanted to, it just broke more. I can see it now, it was a little lighter out right now, I can see it broke a little more, but it is what it is.”

He pulled his approach shot to the 18th green wide on Monday, leaving himself a difficult chip shot from the rough that he couldn’t hole for birdie.

Still, it’s been a remarkable turnaround in form over the past few months for the American golfer, who has struggled with wrist injuries in recent years and a loss of form that had sent his world golf ranking plummeting to 268th this summer.