PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Y.E. Yang was first to finish at last year's Honda Classic.
This time, he finished first.
Alone in front throughout, Yang shot a final round of 2-under-par 68 on Sunday to finish one shot ahead of John Rollins and pick up his first PGA Tour victory.
The Korean took command with three straight birdies on the front side and wouldn't fold, picking up a two-year exemption and a check for $1,008,000. With the win, he qualified for next week's CA Championship at Doral, plus earned an invitation to next month's Masters.
Yang played last year's final round at PGA National by himself, going off first and needing only 1 hour, 53 minutes to finish.
He was there until the very end this time, pumping his fist in the air when his 50-footer for birdie nestled to a stop a foot away from the cup, giving him a tap-in for victory.
For a guy whose claim to fame was beating Tiger Woods at the 2006 HSBC Champions in Shanghai, it was a moment to savor.
Rollins made birdie at the par-5 18th to get within two shots of Yang, who was one hole behind and in a greenside bunker at the par-3 17th. And when Yang's 10-footer for par tailed right and stopped short, the lead — four shots earlier in the day — was down to one.
He cringed when his third shot sailed off target at the finishing hole, but coolly two-putted for the win.
Rollins (67) was alone in second and he, like Yang, qualified for the CA Championship by moving into the top 10 in the FedEx Cup standings. Ben Crane (68) was third after finishing 6-under and Jeff Klauk (71, with 17 pars and one bogey) was alone in fourth, another shot back.
LPGA Tour — In Singapore, South Korean star Jiyai Shin won the HSBC Women's Champions for her fourth LPGA Tour victory in eight months, shooting her second straight 6-under 66 for a two-stroke victory over Australia's Katherine Hull.
The 21-year-old Shin, five strokes behind Hull at the start of the round, had an 11-under 277 total at Tanah Merah and earned $300,000 in the $2 million event.
Last year before becoming an LPGA Tour member, Shin won the Women's British Open and added victories in the Mizuno Classic in Japan and season-ending ADT Championship. She also won seven times on the Korea LPGA and took a Japanese tour event.
The fifth-ranked Shin birdied the first four holes to get into contention, then took advantage of Hull's back-nine collapse. Hull, the former Pepperdine star who won the Canadian Women's Open last summer, finished with a 74.
Angela Park (68), Paula Creamer (70) and SBS Open winner Angela Stanford (73) tied for third at 8-under. Top-ranked Lorena Ochoa, the 2008 champion coming off her 25th LPGA Tour victory last week in Thailand, shot a 70 to tie for sixth with Jane Park (73) and Sun Young Yoo (73) at 7-under.
Australasian PGA Tour — In Christchurch, New Zealand, New Zealand's Steve Alker won the New Zealand PGA Championshi, closing with his second straight 5-under 67 for a two-stroke victory over countrymen Josh Geary and David Smail.
Alker, a stroke behind American Steve Friesen at the start of the round, had a 15-under 273 total on the Bob Charles-designed Clearwater course.
Alker earned $113,684 and full Nationwide Tour membership for the rest of the season with the win in the event also sanctioned by the Australasian tour.
American Ryan Hietala (69), Australia's Michael Sim (67), Norway's Henrik Bjornstad (67) tied for fourth at 12-under. Friesen shot a 72 to tie for seventh at 11-under.
Danny Lee, the New Zealand amateur who won Johnnie Walker Classic last month, also finished at 11-under after a 70. The 18-year-old Lee, the U.S. Amateur champion, plans to turn pro after the Masters. Born in South Korea, he moved to New Zealand at age 8.
