Garcia pips Jimenez to win Andalucia title

Sergio Garcia made it back-to-back European Tour victories when he captured the Andalucia Masters title yesterday by a stroke from fellow Spaniard Miguel-Angel Jimenez. In an exciting finale at Valderrama, Garcia’s closing level-par 71 for a six-under 278 total was just enough to keep out a battling Jimenez (70). Garcia, 31, had not won for three years when he claimed the Castello Masters title last week by 11 strokes. “Last week was fantastic but this win is very, very special,” Garcia told reporters. “I have so much history here.” His second successive victory was harder earned as he and Jimenez produced a dramatic finish at the 1997 Ryder Cup venue, formerly the home of the tour’s season-ending Volvo Masters. Starting the day two shots ahead of the field, Garcia, bogeying the sixth and seventh, was at first overtaken by Jimenez, one of the overnight second-placed players. Garcia battled back in front by the 14th, only to be caught by the first and second round leader Richie Ramsay of Britain. When Ramsay lost his ball on the short 15th to run up a double-bogey, however, the Scot’s chance was gone. Garcia forged three ahead of the field but Jimenez, unusually without a win this season, closed the gap to two with a birdie on 16. The popular 47-year-old, urged on by a sizeable crowd from his home town of Malaga, gave himself further hope with an eagle chance on the notorious water-protected 17th where there is a plaque to commemorate Jimenez’s spectacular albatross there in 1994. Shanghai: US Open champion Rory McIlroy held his nerve in the closing stages to edge out American Anthony Kim in a sudden death playoff and pocket the $2mn winner’s cheque at the Shanghai Masters yesterday. The Northern Irishman, who led by three strokes overnight, fell behind on the 11th hole but rallied to force Kim into a playoff with an even-par round of 72, matching the American’s 18-under 270 at the Jack Nicklaus-designed Lake Malaren course. The 22-year old had a chance to win in regulation play but narrowly missed a 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th to head into a playoff at the 30-player, non-sanctioned invitational event. “I’ll be the first to say I haven’t won enough in my four years as a pro. I should have won a lot more,” the mop-haired McIlroy said in a television interview. “Today was great for me... under pressure on the back nine. One behind with four to play. “To win from that position gives me a lot of satisfaction. I don’t care how I win as long as my name is on that trophy at the end of the day.” On the first extra hole, the par-four 18th, McIlroy landed his chip from a greenside bunker to within a foot of the cup after both players had sent their approach shots next to each other in the sand. Kim left himself a five-foot putt for par after his bunker shot but could only look on in horror as his putt to the left of the cup kept its line and skimmed past the lip to gift McIlroy the victory. Kuala Lumpur: American Bo Van Pelt blitzed his way to an emphatic six-shot victory at the CIMB Asia Pacific Classic in Malaysia on Sunday, then revealed that he had once quit the game with burn-out. It was only the second US PGA Tour title Van Pelt, 36, has won, and he pocketed a cool $1.3mn for his troubles. He went into the decisive day a shot ahead of Jeff Overton, who also hails from the US state of Indiana. But Overton crumbled in the face of Van Pelt’s flawless 64 that was embellished with seven birdies and stroke play of the highest order that led Overton to say it was “one of the best rounds of golf I’ve seen”.