SELANGOR, MALAYSIA | Bo Van Pelt ran
away with the CIMB Asia Pacific Classic on
Sunday in hot and humid conditions, making
birdies on five of his last eight holes for a
7-under 64 and a six-stroke victory.
“I’ve watched other guys coming down 18
with a big lead and I thought, ‘That would be
fun some day if I could do that,’ ” Van Pelt said.
“And it was. I feel like the luckiest guy in the
world. I get to do what I love to do for a living.”
The winner of the PGA Tour’s 2009 U.S.
Bank Championship in Milwaukee, Van Pelt
finished at 23 under at The Mines Resort and
earned $1.3 million in the second-year event
sanctioned by the PGA Tour and Asian Tour.
His 261 total shattered the scoring record set
by Ben Crane (266) a year ago.
“I’ve had a couple of chances to win this
year but didn’t come out on top,” Van Pelt
said. “Canada was a tough pill to swallow.
I just wanted to learn from that and do a
better job when I had the lead. I take a lot of
Van Pelt held the 54-hole lead in Canada
in July only to slip to a 74 on Sunday.
Fellow Indiana player Jeff Overton was
second after a closing 69, leaving him at
17-under 267. He earned $550,000.
Van Pelt pulled away with birdies on Nos.
13-15, hitting to within a foot on the par- 4
13th and par- 3 14th and holing a four-footer
on the short par- 4 15th after driving into
a greenside bunker. He added a two-putt
birdie on the par- 5 17th.
Swede Fredrik Jacobson had a 68 to finish
third at 16 under. Cameron Tringale (64), Ca-
milo Villegas (66) and Mark Wilson (69) were
15 under. It marked the resurgent Villegas’
Defending champion Crane tied for 20th
and has yet to shoot a score in the 70s at
The Mines Resort & Golf Club. In all, there
were eight players in the field who shot four
rounds in the 60s: Jonathan Byrd, Crane,
Jerry Kelly, Overton, Jeev Milkha Singh, Van
Pelt, Villegas and Wilson.
Ryan Palmer put himself into contention
with a 6-under 65 Saturday and then began
his round with a birdie at the first. Things
improved dramatically for him at the sev-
enth hole, when he made a hole-in-one on
the par- 3, 199-yard hole. He hit a 6-iron that
landed short and rolled 10 feet into the hole.
It was Palmer’s third PGA Tour hole-in-one.
He finished T7.
India’s Singh shot weekend rounds of 67-
66 to finish at 13 under and tied for 10th. He
was the low Asian Tour player for the week
and earned $106,666.
Staff and Wire Reports
Luke Takes High Road
On Delay Of POY Ballots
What a relief for the PGA Tour that the gentle-
manly Luke Donald should have been the golfer at
the centre of the Player of the Year fiasco.
To recap, at a time when Donald was fielding con-
gratulations for winning the Children’s Miracle Network
Classic at Disney World to wrap up the PGA of Ameri-
ca’s Player of the Year and Vardon Trophy honours, he
had word that the PGA Tour had decided that voting for
its Player of the Year award had to be delayed until after
this week’s WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai.
The Tour’s explanation was that though this $7
million event does not count towards the U.S. money
list as it does towards its European equivalent, the
title is recognised if won by a PGA Tour member.
Thus, if the winner were a Keegan Bradley or a Charl
Schwartzel, both of whom have won a 2011 major
along with a second title, one of them could be seen
a more worthy candidate. Not that too many of
Donald’s fellow players would feel comfortable
voting for someone else in such circumstances.
Far from responding to this glorious mix-up
with a string of expletives, Donald has described
the situation as “sketchy at best.” He did, however,
make the very valid point that the Tour now has
three different finishes.
“Everything needs to be simplified,” he said.
“There doesn’t seem to be a beginning and an end.
You finish the FedEx and you think the season’s over.
Then you have the Fall Series and you think it’s over.
Then they’re adding another event.”
Ty Votaw, the PGA Tour’s executive vice president
of communication and international affairs, defended
the Tour’s decision to delay sending out the ballots.
“If this change wasn’t made you could have had
members voting on incomplete information if they
voted before HSBC,” Votaw said. “It came down to a
question of fairness.”
All the cool
golfers are
doing it. { }
