Kodaira clinches all-Asian affair
JAPANESE WINS HIS FIRST US TOUR CROWN
Poulter implodes with five bogeys on the back nine.
Japan’s Satoshi Kodaira sank a 24-foot birdie putt on the third playoff hole to defeat South Korea’s Kim Si-woo and win the Heritage tournament on Sunday for his first US PGA Tour victory.
The 28-year-old from Tokyo captured the biggest title of his career with a birdie at the par-3 17th at Harbour Town in Hilton Head, South Carolina.
World No 46 Kodaira has accepted a berth on the US PGA Tour and several guaranteed tournament entries that will come with the triumph as a tour member.
Kim and Kodaira both finished 72 holes at 12-under-par 272, one stroke ahead of Americans Luke List and Bryson DeChambeau with Billy Horschel and Webb Simpson on 274.
Kodaira and 51st-ranked Kim began the play-off by replaying the 18th hole. Both parred twice more as they had in the final round. Kodaira went up and down from beyond the green and sank a testy five-footer for par on the second playoff hole to extend the play-off.
Both had made bogeys at 17 in the final round but Kodaira sank his tricky putt and Kim missed to end the showdown.
Kim, 22, was denied his third US PGA title after wins in 2016 at Greensboro and last May at the Players Championship.
Kodaira, who shot 63 on Friday, fired a final-round five-under-par 66 to charge into the hunt. He opened with three birdies, began the back nine with another then sank birdie putts of 28 feet at the par-three 14th and 10 feet at the par-five 15th but missed the 17th green and made bogey.
He still needed the leaders in the final group to back up and that’s what they did, Kim firing a par 71 while List shot 72 and Britain’s Ian Poulter closed on 75 – threesomes being used in a bid to finish before storms arrived.
Kim blasted out of bunkers to within five feet to birdie the parfive second and fifth, then holed out from 22 feet at the ninth to make the turn on 15 under. But Kim stumbled with bogeys at the par-four 12th, missing an 11-foot par putt, and par-five 15th, where he never found the fairway and missed a four-footer for par, leaving him only one shot ahead.
Kim missed a five-foot par putt at the par-3 17th for a bogey that dropped him level with Kodaira. At 18, Kim lipped out a six-foot birdie putt to force the play-off.
Poulter saw his title hopes collapse with five bogeys on the back nine, fading at the end of his sixth consecutive week of playing to a final-round 75.