Thomas captures CJ Cup in playoff

Justin Thomas beat Australia’s Marc Leishman on the second playoff hole to win the inaugural CJ Cup at Jeju, South Korea, and cap his breakout year on the PGA Tour.

Thomas sealed his fifth PGA title in 2017 — and his first of the new 2017-18 PGA season — when he birdied the second extra hole and Leishman made bogey after finding the water.

The pair went to a sudden-death playoff after completing the first U.S. PGA Tour regular-season event in South Korea tied at 9-under 279.

Replaying the par-5 18th, the pair both made par on the first extra hole before Leishman gambled and lost on his next attempt at the 568-yard final hole, finding the water after trying to reach the green in two. In other news: • Bernhard Langer made a 15-foot eagle putt on the par-5 18th hole to overcome a mediocre round and win the Dominion Energy Charity Classic — the first event in the PGA Tour Champions’ Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs.

Langer, even-par for the day before getting to the easiest hole on The Country Club of Virginia’s James River Course in Richmond, beat Scott Verplank by one shot. Verplank, playing two groups ahead of Langer, shot a bogey-free 6-under 66 to erase a five-shot deficit but missed short birdie putts on the 17th and 18th holes. Langer followed his second-round 63 with a 70 to finish at 16 under.

• Eun-Hee Ji shot a 7-under-par 65 to win the Taiwan Championship for her first LPGA title since the 2009 U.S. Women’s Open. Ji, who had a six-stroke lead heading into the final round, had seven birdies to finish at 17-under 271 — six strokes ahead of Lydia Ko, who also closed with a 65.

• Tournament host Sergio Garcia won the Andalucia Valderrama Masters after shooting 4-under 67 in the final round. It was the Spaniard’s sixth win on home soil and his second title at Real Club Valderrama in Otogrande, Spain. Garcia made five birdies to go with one bogey as he finished on 12-under 272 — one stroke ahead of Joost Luiten of the Netherlands.