Fabian Gomez beats Brandt Snedeker in play-off

Blair drilled a 3-wood into the par-5 closing hole at Waialae to just more than 40 feet, lagged it short but pulled the short birdie putt.

Fabian Gomez needed the 20th hole at the Sony Open in Hawaii to secure his second PGA Tour victory today at Waialae Country Club.

Gomez, who had led at one stage by two shots with six holes remaining, won the playoff on the second extra hole, par-five 18th, by two putting for a birdie while Snedeker missed his first putt from ten feet.

With just one birdie on his first five holes, Gomez was multiple strokes behind the leaders as he arrived at the 6th. In the 13 PGA Tour starts since the Argentinian’s win last June, he had finished in the top 10 just once – last week when he was T-6 in the 32-player Hyundai Tournament of Champions. You don’t have to pop it out of the fringe, or add something at impact to get it through the longer grass.

British Open champion Zach Johnson was part of the mix until falling behind on the back nine.

South Korean Si Woo Kim fired a 68 on Sunday to take fourth place at 264.

“I felt pretty good during the round”, Gomez said.

“Hopefully those putts will go in tomorrow and it should be a lot of fun”. Kisner still was in the mix until a bunker-to-bunker double bogey on the 17th ended his day.

Snedeker boasted a 2-0 record in play-offs, but it was Gomez who would prevail as he shot a par in the first play-off hole – which his American opponent matched with a long-range putt.

Snedeker came out flat with seven pars and a bogey and twice fell three shots behind. He holed a 12-foot par putt on the opening hole and made birdie putts of 35 feet on No. 7, 20 feet on No. 8 and 25 feet on No. 12, the last one giving him a share of the lead when Gomez finally made bogey.

EURASIA CUP: In Shah Alam, Malaysia, Englishmen Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Andy Sullivan won singles matches to complete weekend sweeps and help Europe rout Asia 181/2-51/2 in the EurAsia Cup.

He dropped to 2-1 in playoffs.

Ross McGowan carded two eagles on his way to a sparkling 62 and a three-shot lead after the second round of the Joburg Open at the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club on Friday.

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.

Chaplet finished at 3-under 285.

I always remember I won a Tar Heel Tour event in Greensboro and I had to be in Memphis the next day for my U.S. Open sectional qualifying.