PGA Tour:  The Memorial Tournament – Dublin, OH

Coming off two disappointing losses in his last three starts, but highly motivated to gain a spot on the upcoming American Ryder Cup team, 47-year-old Kenny Perry joined Tiger Woods as the only three-time winners of Jack Nicklaus’s Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio, posting an eight-under-par 280 aggregate.  Perry’s total – which bettered the foursome of Jerry Kelly, Justin Rose, Mathew Goggin and Mike Weir by two – was the highest winning score at the event in 23 years, reflecting the heavy rough, lightning-fast greens and furrowed bunker rakes now in vogue at Nicklaus’s Muirfield Village Golf Club.  Perry began Sunday’s final round three stokes behind 54-hole leader Mathew Goggin of Australia, but Goggin made three bogeys over his first six holes, allowing Perry to move ahead by the turn behind an outgoing three-under-par 33.  Coming home, Perry held it together, extending his lead to three with a two-putt birdie at the par-5 15th en route to a methodical 36.  His pursuers, on the other hand, all stumbled in the difficult conditions, allowing Perry, even after a bogey at the 17th, to walk comfortably up the last fairway with his two-shot margin of victory.  The win moves him to 5th in season earnings, 27th in the Official World Ranking and 5th in Ryder Cup points – Perry’s primary goal with the event being played in his native Kentucky in September.

                      FINAL RESULTS          MONEY LIST          PGA TOUR STATS
 
 
European Tour:  Celtic Manor Wales Open – Newport, Wales

Playing sterling golf over Celtic Manor’s new Twenty Ten course (host of the 2010 Ryder Cup), 30-year-old Australian Scott Strange cruised to a four-shot victory at the Wales Open, posting scores of 63-66-69-64, for a 262 total.  Strange, a two-time winner in Asia, claimed his first E Tour title with the impressive performance – a display which included a back nine 28 on Thursday and a seven-birdie, no-bogey ledger during Sunday’s closing 64.  Indeed, only one player came within eight strokes of the red-hot Strange, that being Sweden’s streaking Robert Karlsson, who birdied eight of his first 11 holes on Sunday en route to logging his fourth consecutive top-three E Tour finish, and racking up more crucial Ryder Cup points.  The victory moves Strange up to 9th in the Order of Merit and 81st in the World Ranking, while Karlsson moves to 2nd and 26th respectively. 

                      FINAL RESULTS          ORDER OF MERIT          E TOUR STATS
 
 
Japan Tour:  Mitsubishi Diamond Cup – Hyogo, Japan

Prayad Marksaeng of Thailand claimed his first victory on the Japan Tour at the Mitsubishi Diamond Cup, birdieing the Higashi Hirono Country Club’s par-5 finisher to post a 274 total, edging homestanding Shintaro Kai by one.  The 42-year-old Marksaeng, a Six-time winner on the Asian Tour, opened with unspectacular rounds of 70-70 before charging home with weekend scores of 66-68, which in the end proved just enough for victory.  A threesome of Japanese players which included Order of Merit leader Shingo Katayama tied for 3rd, two strokes back, though perhaps more notable was 53-year-old Tommy Nakajima, who closed with a fine 66 to tie for 11th, six shots off the pace.  Though not a member of the J Tour, Marksaeng jumps to 6th in the Order of Merit (and 85th in the World Ranking) with the victory.

                      FINAL RESULTS          ORDER OF MERIT          J TOUR STATS
 
 
Sunshine Tour:  Vodacom Origins of Golf Selborne – Pennington, South Africa

Jean Hugo claimed his second Sunshine Tour triumph of  2008 at the Selborne Country Club, carding a final-round 68 for a 203 total, and a two-shot victory over Bradford Vaughn.  Hugo began Saturday’s final round two strokes behind Vaughn Groenewald but moved himself into the lead with an outward 34, his cause aided considerably by Groenewald, who turned in 37 before collapsing with a 42 coming home.  A foursome of players (led by 15-time winner Desvonde Botes and rookie PowerHouse McIntyre) tied for 3rd at 206.  The victory lifts Hugo to 8th in the Order of Merit, 421st in the World Ranking, and first – easily – in points for the six-event Vodacom series.

                   FINAL RESULTS          ORDER OF MERIT          SUNSHINE STATS
 
 
LPGA Tour:  Ginn Tribute Hosted by Annika – Charleston, SC

Korea’s Seon Hwa Lee claimed her third career LPGA victory by defeating Hall-of-Famer Karrie Webb in sudden death at the Ginn Tribute Hosted by Annika after the pair tied on 14-under-par 274 over 72 holes.  In point of fact, Lee was fortunate both for the opportunity to playoff, and to emerge the winner.  Starting play on Sunday, she stood nine shots behind leader Sophie Gustafson, whose rounds of 66-65-67 had given her a commanding six-shot 54-hole lead.  Gustafson then looked poised to run away after birdieing the first and third holes on Sunday, before crashing and burning with five bogeys and two double-bogeys over her final 15, ultimately carding a 79 and tying for 4th.  Meanwhile, Webb birdied the par-4 18th to close with 70 and tie Lee on 274, but on the first playoff hole missed a three-footer for par, effectively handing Lee the title.  With the victory, Lee jumps from 18th to 4th on the LPGA Money list, and extends an enviable streak of posting a victory in each of her three years playing in America full-time.

                         FINAL RESULTS          MONEY LIST          LPGA STATS
 
 
Champions Tour:  Principal Charity Classic – West Des Moines, IA

Following up his win at the Senior PGA Championship last week, Jay Haas claimed his second straight Champions Tour title by posting a 10-under-par 203 total at the Principal Charity Classic in Iowa.  Haas began Sunday’s final round two shots behind 36-hole leader Nick Price but closed with the tournament’s low round – a six-under-par 65 – to ultimately finish one ahead of Andy Bean, two up on Price and three ahead of Joey Sindelar.  The victory moves Haas – who is also the defending champion at this week’s Bank of America Championship – into 1st place on the Champions Tour money list.

                    FINAL RESULTS          MONEY LIST          CHAMPIONS STATS
 
 
Elsewhere…

In Munich, Korea’s 18-year-old Amy Yang claimed her first professional victory by capturing the LET’s Ladies German Open, her 267 total bettering Sweden’s Louise Stahle by four.  American Michelle Wie, playing on a sponsor exemption, finished 6th, seven shots off the pace………Propelled by an opening-round 62, Akane Iijima won for the fourth time on the JLPGA Tour, defeating Mayumi Nakashima by three at the Kosaido Ladies Cup………Kris Blanks won the Nationwide Tour’s Bank of America Open, edging former PGA Tour player Bob May by a single stroke after posting a 16-under-par total of 272………Italy’s Alessandro Tadini won the European Challenge Tour’s Oceanico Group Pro-Am Challenge in Manchester, England, his 264 aggregate defeating Switzerland’s Raphael De Sousa by one………In Krakow, Ian Woosnam won his first event on the European Seniors Tour, edging Spain’s Domingo Hospital by one at the Parkridge Polish Seniors Championship………On the Futures Tour, Mindy Kim won her second straight event, claiming the Aurora Health Care Championship by three strokes in Lake Geneva, WI.