Tennis: Korean Yang clinches first title

Page last updated at 22:47 GMT, Sunday, 8 March 2009

Korean Yang clinches first title

FINAL LEADERBOARD:-9 YE Yang (Kor) -8 J Rollins (US) -6 B Crane (US) -5 J Klauk (US) -4 S Piercy (US), R Allenby (Aus), W MacKenzie (US), F Jacobson (Swe) Selected others:-2 G Owen (Eng), R McIlroy (NIre), S Garcia (Spa) +3 D Clarke (NIre)Yang's victory secures him a place at the Masters at AugustaSouth Korea's Y.E. Yang won the Honda Classic at Florida's PGA National by one stroke from American John Rollins.

Yang held his nerve to two-putt from 50 feet at the last for a final-round 68 that left him on nine under and gave him his first PGA Tour victory. England's Greg Owen sank six birdies as he closed with a 66 to finish alongside Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy and Spain's Sergio Garcia on two under par. Darren Clarke slipped back with a 74 to end on three over for the tournament. McIlroy - bidding to become the youngest winner in PGA Tour history - worked his way up the leaderboard before consecutive bogeys to end his round left him tied for 13th.

Wayne Fountain "I'm pretty disappointed the way I finished," he said. "I got myself into a great position this afternoon and just let it slip." Yang started the final round with a one-shot lead and was comfortably clear before bogeys on 15 and 17 left him looking nervously at the leaderboard with Rollins in the clubhouse and one shot adrift. But he managed to steady himself and par the par-five 18th to join KJ Choi as the only Koreans to win on the US men's tour. "From 50 feet, it's not easy to do that to win your first golf tournament," said Rollins. "My hat's off to him." As well as a trip to the Masters, Yang also booked his place at next week's World Golf Championships at Doral.