Having grown up in Portrush, Northern Ireland, Graeme McDowell is no stranger to playing golf in a stiff breeze – an advantage which came in handy during a windblown final round of the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head’s famed Harbour Town Golf Links.  On a day which saw winds gust as high as 30 miles per hour, McDowell began play four strokes behind 54-hole leader Charley Hoffman, then methodically played himself to the top of the board with birdies at the 5th, the 11th and – in what appeared a potentially decisive blow – the par-4 16th.  However, the 2010 U.S. Open champion would card his only bogey of the day at the long 18th, leaving the door open for Webb Simpson to potentially steal victory with a 22-foot birdie putt at the last.  But two putts later, the pair was headed back to the 18th tee for a playoff, which would end somewhat anticlimactically when McDowell two-putted from 15 feet for a routine par that Simpson, the reigning U.S. Open champion, couldn’t match.  Two shots out of the playoff (and tied for third) were Kevin Streelman (who closed in 72) and Luke Donald, who mounted the day’s one real charge by carding four early birdies before eventually falling back – though his 69 joined him with McDowell and Russell Henley as the only players to break 70 under the difficult conditions.  Hoffman, who began Sunday one stroke ahead of Simpson, struggled home with a 77, going out in 36 but coming home in a disappointing 40, led by a watery double-bogey at the par-3 14th.  Despite being played the week after The Masters, the event drew a notably strong field, with 22 of the world’s top 50 players entered – and McDowell citing his missed cut at Augusta as a primary motivator for his fine overall play...............In an epic battle of attrition that lasted long enough to tie the all-time European Tour record, France’s Raphael Jacquelin sunk a five-foot birdie putt on the ninth playoff hole to deafeat Germany’s Maximilian Kieffer and claim the Spanish Open at the seaside El Saler Golf Course in Valencia.  The victory, Jacquelin’s fourth on the European Tour but his first in over two years, was sparked by a second-round 66, allowing him to gain a tie with less dominant closing rounds of 73-71.  But the event (which drew a limited field due in the week following The Masters) will long be remembered for the playoff, which was contested entirely over El Saler’s 466-yard par-4 18th, and which initially included Chile’s Felipe Aguilar, who bowed out on the third extra hole.  Save for the birdies which elimated Aguilar, both Jacquelin and Kieffer carded all pars until the Frenchman hit a wedge to five feet and holed the clinching putt – on his 10th playing of the hole in a single afternoon.  The 22-year-old Kieffer, a Challenge Tour winner in 2012, was making only the 10th start of his rookie E Tour campaign, but logged his second top-10 finish.  Just missing the playoff was 54-hole leader Marc Warren of Scotland who, playing with a bad back, managed to retain his lead into the late going before bogeys over four of the final five holes left him in a four-way tie for fourth, one-shot behind the leaders.  The only previous E Tour event to extend to nine extra holes was the 1989 Dutch Open, whose playoff included winner Jose Maria Olazabal as well as Roger Chapman and Ronan Rafferty...............In one of the more impressive bounce backs in recent golfing memory, 43-year-old Angel Cabrera, fresh off his heartbreaking playoff loss to Adam Scott at The Masters, made the 4,600-mile flight home to Cordoba, Argentina – and promptly won the 82 Abierto OSDE del Centro.  Obviously exhausted, Cabrera opened with rounds of 72-72-76 and sat well back in the pack before eagling the 72nd hole en route to a closing 64 over his home Cordoba Golf Club layout.  His 284 aggregate was just enough to draw even with Rafael Gomez (who himself birdied the 18th), with Cabrera winning the ensuing playoff with a birde on the first extra hole.  It was Cabrera’s eighth win in this venerable domestic event, including a run of three straight from 2005-07...............Forty-three year old veteran Yoshinobu Tsukada recorded his first career Japan Tour title at the Token Homemate Cup, closing with weekend rounds of 63-69 to cruise home four strokes ahead of Koumei Oda and Kunihiro Kamii.  Traditionally the post-Masters opening tournament of the Japan Tour, the Token Homemate this year followed the circuit’s two earlier overseas excursions, and was the first event to produce a Japanese champion, with Tsukuda beginning the day one shot behind Kamii before grabbing the lead with an outgoing 32.  The 2012 Order of Merit winner, Koumei Oda, closed with 67 to finish five shots in arrears and share third with fellow veteran star Tori Taniguchi and Korea’s I.J. Jang.  Also notable was the performance of highly touted 21-year-old prospect Hideki Matsuyama, who closed with Sunday’s low round (66) to tie for 10th in his first Japan Tour event as a professional...............With his five previous Sunshine Tour victories all coming in playoffs, 32-year-old Jake Roos surely would have felt comfortable had the Golden Pilsener Zimbabwe Open gone to sudden death.  But in the end, Roos’ clutch closing 67 would prove just enough to end play in regulation, as third-round leaders Darren Fichardt and Francesco Laporta – who began Sunday four ahead of Roos – could only manage cloing 72s, and finished one shot in arrears.  A triple-bogey eight at the third hole effectively derauiled Laporta’s hopes while Fichardt’s outgoing 38 would prove his undoing – though both men would, in the end, miss putts to tie at the 72nd green.  Roos, meanwhile, birdied three of his first six holes to get back into the race, then pulled in front with three more birdies at the 13th, 15th and 16th.  Doug McGuigan (who closed with 66) and Lindani Ndwandwe (70) tied for fourth while Jaco Ahlers (68) took solo sixth.  Also noteworthy was 13-time Sunshine Tour winner Desvonde Botes, who carded Sunday’s lowest round (65) to climb into a tie for seventh.