Ryan Moore ended five years of frustration when he survived a three-way playoff to win the $5.1 million Wyndham Championship Sunday. Moore, the 2004 United States amateur champion, was widely regarded as potentially another Tiger Woods when he turned professional the following year, but he has struggled since, mainly due to a left hand injury. “The whole time I've been on the PGA Tour I haven't been healthy,” he told reporters after sinking an 18-foot birdie putt at the third extra hole to beat fellow American Kevin Stadler and win his first PGA Tour title. “That was for five years worth of exhaustion.” Moore, 25, played his first regular tour event in Greensboro in 2004, and said he felt a certain loyalty to the tournament. “To start here and win here is pretty exciting,” said Moore, who collected $918,000 to jump to 25th on the tour money list, with the victory. “I couldn't have done it in a better place.” Earlier, Jason Bohn was eliminated with a bogey at the first extra hole, while Moore and Stadler halved the next with pars. Moore came from four strokes behind in the final round, shooting a five-under-par 65 in ideal conditions at Sedgefield, but he thought he had blown it when he bogeyed the final hole of regulation after missing an eight-foot putt. But with Bohn already in the clubhouse after a sizzling 62, Stadler then bogeyed the last too, also missing from eight feet. The three finished locked on 16-under 264, one stroke ahead of Sergio Garcia (70), who almost joined the playoff when his bunker shot at the last stopped on the edge of the hole. “I should have been in a different position,” Garcia told reporters after he surrendered a three-shot lead over the final 11 holes and shot a 70 to finish fourth at 15-under-par 265. The Spaniard seemed in control when a birdie on the seventh hole moved him to 18-under, but a three-putt bogey at the next hole seemed to take the wind of his sails and his confidence completely evaporated when he bogeyed the par-four 11th after firing his six-iron approach shot over the green. No change needed for Cup Suggestions the Solheim Cup be revamped and strengthened by the inclusion of Asian players were rejected by the two captains after the United States lifted the trophy for the eighth time Sunday. Although the US has won the last three editions and lost on only three occasions since the biennial team competition was launched in 1990, US captain Beth Daniel and her opposite number Alison Nicholas agreed no changes were necessary. “This is such a unique event and it's just great,” Daniel told Reuters after her team had maintained its unbeaten Cup record on home soil with a 16-12 victory. “The two teams get really fired up for it and I just don't think that it needs to be changed at all.” Although the US won six and halved four of the 12 last-day singles matches, it trailed in six of them midway through the afternoon as Europe kept pressing. “It was such a hard-fought battle,” Daniel said. “Alison had her team ready to play and we really had to dig deep. It basically came down to the back nine. “The other thing that you have to take into consideration is that this is what Karsten Solheim wanted,” she added, referring to the golf club manufacturer who was instrumental in creating the competition. Yang to take on Tiger PGA Championship winner Yang Yong-eun will renew his rivalry with Tiger Woods on Asian soil in November after confirming his participation at the $7 million HSBC Champions Monday. The 37-year-old South Korean, who became the first Asian man to win a major by out-duelling world number one Woods in Minnesota this month, will return to Shanghai for the Nov. 5-8 tournament, now a World Golf Championship (WGC) event. Yang is a former champion at the Sheshan International Golf Club, having stormed up the leaderboard in the final round of the tournament in 2006 to beat Woods by two strokes. “Winning the tournament set the foundation for bigger things to come,” he said in a statement released by organisers. “It gave me the courage to achieve bigger goals.” Spain's 2008 champion Sergio Garcia and world No. 2 Phil Mickelson, who won the 2007 version, will also return to the course outside China's economic capital. “After the Open Championship, it's hard to think of a bigger or better tournament held outside the US,” said Mickelson. With Britain's Paul Casey, regular China visitor Henrik Stenson of Sweden, Australian Geoff Ogilvy and American Stewart Cink all signed up, the tournament will boast seven of the current top 10 players in the world.
