South Africa’s Retief Goosen retained his Volkswagen Masters-China title by three strokes on Sunday, the first successful title defence of his career.
The world number seven shot a one-under-par 71 to finish the week with an impressive 21-under-par 267 total at the Yalong Bay Golf Club.
The win was his first of 2006 and the 26th of his career, earning him $47 550.
New Zealand’s Michael Campbell was runner-up for a second successive year after a closing 68. Little-known Scotsman Simon Dunn enjoyed his career-best finish on the Asian Tour when he came in third.
Thailand’s Prayad Marksaeng surged into a share of fourth place with England’s Yasin Ali, while Chinese Taipei’s Lu Wen-teh, playing in the final group, grabbed sixth.
”It’s a great feeling to defend a title. It’s the first time I’ve won a professional title back-to-back,” said Goosen, a two-time Major winner.
”I’ve done it before as an amateur, so it will be great coming back next year to give myself a chance of making it a hat-trick,” he added.
Taking a five-stroke lead into the last round, Goosen started tentatively with a bogey on the fifth hole before battling back with birdies on seven and nine to turn in 35.
”It was an up-and-down day,” he said. ”I made a lot of bad mistakes. It was very frustrating as I felt I should have played a bit better but at the end of the day you just want to finish ahead.”
Campbell, the 2005 US Open champion, failed to ignite his title charge with two bogeys in his opening four holes but fought back in style with an inward 30 for second place.
”I think I just pushed too hard too soon. I wanted to make some birdies and went in there too hard and it cost me a couple of bogeys. I was two over after four holes and it was hard to come back from that,” he said.
Campbell battled gamely with six birdies on the inward nine, but a par on the easy 16th where he dumped his three-wood approach into water ended any hopes of a late charge.
Dunn, who has only made one cut on the Asian Tour this season, chased hard but fell short of the winner.
”I played well to finish a few shots behind some of the best players in the world. It’s a good finish,” he said. — AFP
