With Phil Mickelson not making the journey to Shanghai this year, it was up to Bubba Watson to provide a degree of golfing excitement/unpredictability for far eastern fans and this he did spectacularly, winning the WGC-HSBC Champions in near-miraculous style.  Watson stood in contention throughout the week but did so in a decidedly up-and-down manner, trailing Graeme McDowell by four after an opening 71 that included five birdies, two bogeys and a double-bogey, then remaining four behind McDowell at the halfway mark following a more orthodox seven-birdie, two-bogey 67.  McDowell’s third round 71 allowed the top of the leaderboard to tighten considerably, with Watson pulling within two via a 69 which included five birdies, two bogeys and a double-bogey - on the back nine alone.  This set up a wild Sunday afternoon which saw no less than six world-class players have a chance to win down the stretch under conditions challenging enough that among the realistic contenders, only South African Tim Clark could break 70.  McDowell,for his part, never got going, playing even par golf through 13 holes before a bogey at the par-5 14th dropped him back to 10 – one shot shy of what would ultimately be needed.  By this time, however, it seemed to be Watson’s tournament; indeed, with six birdies and three bogeys on his card, he arrived at the 16th with a two-shot lead.  But after laying up at the driveable par-4, he missed the green with a lob wedge and made bogey, then left his ball in a greenside bunker at the 212-yard 17th en route to a double bogey, dropping him to nine under par and seeming extinction.  But utilizing his immense power, Watson reached a greenside bunker at the 538-yard 18th in two, then miraculously holed the ensuing 60-yard blast for a closing eagle and an 11-under-par finish.  Of all the stars giving chase, only Clark could find the birdie needed at the last to match him, but the ensuing playoff would last only one hole as Watson birdied the 18th from 20 feet to clinch a victory whose final scorecard included 26 birdies, one eagle, 10 bogies and four double-bogeys over 73 holes……………… Twenty-six-year-old Canadian Nick Taylor needed a final round 63 in the September’s Web.com Tour Championship just to gain one of the final spots on the 2014-15 PGA Tour, but he wasted little time in cementing his status there by winning the Sanderson Farms Championship in just his 13th Tour start.  A light-field event played opposite the WGC-HSBC Champions, the Sanderson Farms was making its debut both in a fall schedule slot and at the Country Club of Jackson, but the venue certainly proved suitable for the former University of Washington star and 2007 Canadian Amateur winner.  Taylor opened with a five-under-par 67 on Thursday to trail Denmark’s Sebastian Cappelen by two, then stood two behind 36-hole co-leaders John Rollins and David Toms after carding a five-birdie, two-bogey 69 on Friday.  Rollins remained in control on Saturday via a four-under-par 68, good enough to keep him two ahead of William McGirt (who matched the day’s low round with a 66), three up on Jason Bohn and 2009 U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover, and four ahead of a group which included Taylor, who played steady golf in posting a third round 70.  But Taylor would waste little time pressing himself into the mixd on Sunday, making five birdies on the way to turning in 32, the pulling as many as three ahead with a run of birdies at the 13th, 14th and 15th.  With Rollins fading to a 73, and only one other serious contender (Bohn, who shot 69) breaking 70, Taylor had the luxury of bogeying the last while as he became the first Canadian to win on the PGA Tour since Mike Weir in 2007………………Breaking a victory drought which dated to April of 2011, 37-year-old Tomohiro Kondo claimed his sixth career Japan Tour title by cruising to a four-shot victory at the Heiwa PGM Championship in Kasumigaura.  Kondo opened his week relatively quietly with a three-under par 68 on Thursday, good enough only to stand tied for 14th, four behind tri-leaders Shunsuke Sonoda, Hideto Tanihara and Australian Brad Kennedy.  Among this trio, only Tanihara would remain atop the board on Friday, his 68 tying him with Korean Hyun-Woo Ryu on 10 under par, while Kondo added a 66 to quietly edge within two.  However, Kondo would make his real move on Saturday,  turning in 34 before carding six back nine birdies en route to a 64, enough to push him two strokes ahead of Tanihara, Kennedy and 25-year-old Yoshinori Fujimoto, who also shot  64.  Two early birdies padded Kondo’s Sunday lead, and after giving them back with bogeys at the 5th and 7th, he pushed his engine into another gear, logging five subsequent birdies to come home in 66 and win going away………………Playing on home turf in New Delhi, local hero S.S.P. Chowrasia ended a three-year victory drought by prevailing in the Panasonic Open India in a three-way playoff with countryman Rahil Gangjee and Sri Lanka’s Mithun Perera.  For most of the week Chowrasia was an afterthought, as he stood four off the lead following an opening 70, seven in arrears after a Friday 71, and five back after three late birdies lifted him to a Saturday 69 – and at least onto the periphery of contention.  The pace-setter, meanwhile, was the 36-year-old Gangjee, whose opening rounds of 66-68 gave him a two-shot lead over Australian Wade Ormsby, with that margin slipping to one (over four players) following a Saturday 71.  He then stumbled slightly on Sunday with three early bogeys before charging back with two quick birdies and an eagle at the par-5 14th, ultimately finishing with a 71, for a 272 total –good enough to tie Perera (who made three late birdies to shoot 70) and Chowrasia, who’d posted eight birdies while charging home with the day’s low round, a six-under-par 66.  Their playoff lasted but a single hole, with Chowrasia quickly holing a 15-foot birdie putt at the 18th to clinch the title………………After breaking a five-year victory drought in September at the Wild Coast Vodacom Origins of Golf event, 27-year-old Louis de Jager continued his fine run of form by beating Vaughn Groenewald and Danie van Tonder in a sudden-death playoff for the Nedbank Affinity Cup.  De Jager was actually a late arrival to the party as he trailed first-round leader Dean Burmester by three after and opening 68, then Ruan de Smidt by four after the latter logged eight birdies during a flawless second round 64.  But de Smidt would fall to a 74 during Thursday’s finisher, leaving the door open for both Vaughn and the touted van Tonder, who each closeed in 66, for 212 aggregates.  De Jager, meanwhile moved into the hunt with four front nine birdies, but after bogeying the 462-yard 16th, he needed clutch birdies at the 470-yard 17th and the 530-yard 18th to join the playoff.  Van Tonder was eliminated when he couldn’t match his opponents’ birdies on the first replay of the 18th hole, leaving de Jager to raise the trophy after holing an eight foot birdie putt on the second go-round – his fourth consecutive birdie under dating back to the last two holes of regulation.