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Golf Roundup: Gomez rallies to win in playoff

Kisner and Snedeker also opened with 63s and they remained tied through 11 holes.

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Kisner’s frustration was starting to get noticeable when he bent over so far that his hands almost touched his shoes on the fifth, but with that eagle on the ninth, he still was only one shot out of the lead.

Snedeker made a 4-foot birdie on the 18th for a 66 to force the playoff. That would be the worst approach of his next 90 minutes.

The 25-year-old could have held the outright lead had he converted a birdie putt from inside three feet at the last, but despite that miss he remains satisfied with his overall performance.

The most common mistakes on fringe putts are to make a too-large arm swing and decelerate into the ball, or to skip reading the complete line of the shot like any other putt.

On the first playoff hole at the par-5 18th, Snedeker missed a 12-foot birdie for the win. His 10-foot putt had slower pace than he wanted and it peeled off to the right.

Gomez landed his shot on the par-4 12th to nine feet and made the putt.

“I just didn’t make the putts I needed to make to win a golf tournament”, he said.

But he birdied the last two holes, from 10 feet on No. 17 and from 20 feet just off the 18th green, to close with an 8-under 62 and finish at 20-under 260.

But on the first extra hole, his 12-foot birdie putt for the win was weak.

Snedeker came out flat with seven pars and a bogey and twice fell three shots behind.

Europe won the singles 9 1/2-2 1/2 after going 4 1/2-1 1/2 each in the fourball and foursomes sessions at Glenmarie.

Bernd Wiesberger and Ross Fisher beat K.T. Kim and Wang Jeunghun 2 up, Shane Lowry and Andy Sullivan edged Prayad Marksaeng and Shingo Katayama 3 and 2, and Soren Kjeldsen and Victor Dubuisson halved with Danny Chia and Nicholas Fung.

Haydn Porteous won his first European Tour event at the Joburg Open on Sunday firing a bogey-free 69 for a two-shot victory.

Porteous finished two shots clear of countryman Zander Lombard as both men earned themselves a place at the British Open at Royal Troon.

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Latin American Amateur: Paul Chaplet closed with a 2-under 70 to win the Latin American Amateur in La Romana, Dominican Republic, sending the 16-year-old from Costa Rica to the Masters. While he finished well back of champion Jordan Spieth, Snedeker’s T-3 effort was a sign he had found form again and had overcome the embarrassment of an 84 at the Australian PGA Championship in December. He still made up two strokes with a six-under outing to tie Snedeker, who was perched atop the leaderboard after the first two rounds.

Nick Mason throws KHON2 camera a shaka on final round of PGA Tour's Sony Open in Hawai'i at the Waialae Country Club