James Hahn and Jeunghun Han provide a weekend of surprise victories

Post by Sports Writer Derek Clements

AT THE start of the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow there was a good chance that one of Europe's finest would be in contention coming down the stretch on Sunday. But most of us expected that it would be Rory McIlroy, who has a fabulous record here, and not Justin Rose, who only entered the tournament after missing the cut in New Orleans.

In the end, both players came up short as James Hahn won his second PGA Tour title, beating unheralded fellow American Roberto Castro at the first hole of a sudden death playoff. But spare a thought for Castro. For most of the final round he saved par like Harry Houdini. But then, when thoughts of a possible victory entered his head, it all fell apart and in the end he had to hole a good putt on the 72nd green to make the playoff.

Castro then duck-hooked his drive at the first playoff hole and found the water, while Hahn hit a huge drive that split the fairway. Castro dropped under penalty and his third shot headed towards the gallery and finished up in somebody's shoe. Having retrieved it, he had to hole the chip for par - and he very nearly did. Hahn left his first putt five feet short but holed the next to win.

For McIlroy it was largely a week to forget. He threatened to play his way into contention during the second round, but dropped shots at the final two holes and then followed that up with a throroughly miserable third round of 73 - this from a man who shot 61 on the same course while winning the title last year.

McIlroy began the final day on one under par and with absolutely no chance of making a successful title defence. Or so we thought.  He was seven off the lead, and that became eight when he opened with a bogey. But then he birdied the fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth to reach the turn in 33. He followed that with further birdies at the 10th, 11th, 14th and 16th. He couldn't could he? Well no, he couldn't, a bogey at the last ending any lingering hopes he might have had. It all added up to a 66, seven under par and although he finished in a tie for fourth place, this was another disappointing week for the four-time major champion.

So it was left to Rose to carry the flag. And how close he came. The Englishman played beautiful golf from tee to green but his putter was stone cold when it mattered most. He should have birdied the 14th and 15th but had to settle for pars on both and headed to the 16th tee, the start of The Green Mile, on nine under par, one behind his playing partner, James Hahn, and Roberto Castro, a 30-year-old American looking to change his life for ever.

Most pundits had expected Castro to fold under the pressure but he refused to buckle. He reached the turn in one under par and although he dropped a shot at the 12th, birdies at the 11th and 14th kept him at the top of the leaderboard. His short game was fabulous. Time and again he got up and down in two, holing some wonderful putts as he held his nerve.

Hahn had missed eight successive putts prior to this week, but you would never have guessed it from his play. Rose had a great chance to join the leaders at the 16th after hitting a bunker shot to 12 feet, but the putt got away from him and he missed the next as well, ending his chances. Rose has been employing the claw grip with the putter since The Masters - it would be a surprise if it survives much longer because it clearly isn't working for him.

And so it came down to a battle between Hahn and Castro and when the latter birdied the 15th he was back in front by a single shot. But he gave it back at the 16th when he failed to make his par. Up ahead, Hahn parred the par-three 17th and headed for the treacherous 18th knowing that a par might well be good enough at the hardest hole on the course. A babbling brook runs all the way down the left of the fairway and claimed the balls of many players going for the flag - including McIlroy. On the right are trees and bunkers. Gulp!

Hahn had to find the fairway. And he did. Castro, meanwhile, found the swale at the side of the 17th and it cost him a bogey that took him back to nine under.

Hahn found the green with his second at the 18th and was left with a 35-foot putt to guarantee him the title, but he left it fully seven feet short. By now, the tension was unbearable. Could he possibly force the ball in for a par? Inevitably, he missed. He finished with a 70, on nine under par. If Castro could par the same hole they would be heading for a playoff. Like Hahn before him, he found the putting surface in two. With his nerves jangling, could he make par? His first putt, an uphill effort from fully 40 feet, finished six feet short. Nobody wanted to see him miss and, thankfully, he made it.

In the end, Rose finished up only one behind.

Phil Mickelson closed out with a 66 to finished tied with McIlroy on seven under par. Surprisingly, Rickie Fowler, who began the day tied for the lead, quickly fell out of contention, not helped in the slightest by a double-bogey seven on the front nine.

Highlights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhwgMWpsCSY

Trophee Hassan II

LEICESTER CITY have just completed a remarkable season, winning the Premier League after starting at odds of 5,000/1. And surely you would have been given an even more generous offer if you had walked into your local bookmaker a couple of weeks ago and asked for odds on Asian golfers winning three successive tournaments on the European Tour.

It began at the Shenzhen International with Korea's Soomin Lee, continued last week with Li Haotong winning the Volvo China Open on home soil and ended with Jeunghun Wang, another Korean, taking the Trophee Hassan II in Morocco. And the remarkable thing about all three performances is how relaxed and in control of their emotions these three young men appeared to be.

If you picked 20-year-old Jeunghun Wang as a likely winner in Morocco then I am inclined to want to speak to you about next week's lottery numbers because I didn't see this one coming - and, in all honesty, did anybody else? Even Wang had trouble believing what he achieved.

He holed three remarkable putts on the 18th green to see off Nacho Elvira after a play-off on a dramatic final day. First of all, the Korean had to hole an 18-footer on the 72nd hole to force extra holes after Elvira had birdied the last following an excellent approach to within a couple of feet.

Elvira was in control of the first extra hole when he reached the par five 18th in two, but Wang holed a 50 foot birdie putt and then converted from 20 feet for a winning gain when the pair played the hole again.

Conditions were far from ideal at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam and the winner was always likely to be the man who made the fewest mistakes.Overnight leader Chris Hanson was always struggling after a double bogey at the eighth – paying a heavy price for missing the fairway and then failing to get up and down from the side of the green.

Clement Berardo chipped in at the fourth to grab a share of the lead and scrambled brilliantly for pars on the 10th, 11th and 12th. He was caught by Robert Rock when the Englishman birdied the 13th from 15 feet. However, both players dropped shots over the closing stretch, allowing Elvira to snatch the lead after his sensational pitch to the last as he signed for a closing 69.

Wang, a runner-up at the Hero Indian Open, then forced extra holes with the first of his stunning birdie putts on the 18th green.

“I don’t remember how did I putt on the last three holes,” said Wang “I just tried to make birdie  - I didn’t think about anything, I just putted. It’s so exciting right now.”

Berardo and Rock both birdied the last to finish tied for third on four under, with Hanson and Italy’s Nino Bertasio a shot further back in a share of fifth.

Highlights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku7GgjiRKmg