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It had been nearly four and a half years since Colombia’s Camilo Villegas had found the winner’s circle on the PGA Tour, and as he sat five strokes back on a very crowded Saturday night leaderboard, the 2014 Wyndham Classic didn’t seem likely to be the event that would end the drought.  But Villegas came out firing on Sunday, logging four birdies and an eagle over his first eight holes at the Sedgefield Country Club, turning in 29 and injecting himself very much into the championship mix.  The first round leader with a bogey-free 63, the 32-year-old Villegas had played somewhat disappointing golf during middle rounds of 69-68, and that form returned over his final nine when, with a chance to push himself well out in front, he managed but a single birdie over the final nine.  Thus in the clubhouse with his second 63 of the week, Villegas waited for 45 minutes in the hope that he might still end up in a playoff – a wait which must have become progressively more optimistic as, one by one, the other contenders all stumbled.  Among those who came up shy, the most prominent were Sweden’s Freddie Jacobson (who needed only a par 4 at the tough 18th to force a playoff but left his approach short, then three-putting from off the fringe), Nick Watney (who needed a birdie for to tie but instead drove out-of-bounds and carded a six) and Heath Slocum, who finished two shots back with bogeys at both the 17th and 18th………………Marc Warren’s form had certainly been on the upswing coming into the inaugural Made In Denmark tournament, for his last three starts had included a third at the Scottish Open, a T39 at the Open Championship and a T15 at the PGA Championship.  But in Denmark, the 33-year-old Scot finally put it all together, playing some outstanding weekend golf to claim his third career European Tour victory, and his first since the 2007 Johnnie Walker Championship.  Warren initially stood seven shots off the pace at the halfway mark but made a major move in the third round when, in winds gusting as high as 30 mph, he birdied four of his final six holes to post a Saturday-low 66, good enough to join Wales’ Bradley Dredge atop the leaderboard, three shots ahead of the pack.  Sunday thus essentially shaped up into a two-man battle, but with Dredge bogeying three of his first five holes, Warren was quickly in the driver’s seat, gaining a three-shot lead by the turn and playing steady enough golf that Dredge was never able to move closer than two thereafter………………Australian Steve Jeffress managed rather a rare feat at the inaugural playing of the Fiji International, being the first man off the tee on Thursday morning and the last to hole a putt on Sunday afternoon - that final stroke being for a birdie to clinch victory in this lucrative event co-sanctioned by the OneAsia Tour.  Jefress was around the lead all week after beginning the tournament with rounds 69-70-69, good enough to tie him for a two-shot 54-hole lead with 20-year-old Jake Higginbottom.  In the Sunday finale, Higginbottom moved out to a two-stroke lead at the turn before bogeying the 10th and 13th to fall back into a tie.  Another bogey at the par-3 15th, combined with a clutch Jeffress birdie, buried Higginbottom's chances, with the final margin extending to four strokes when the 38-year-old Jeffress birdied both the 17th and 18th.

Posted on Sunday, August 17, 2014 at 08:50PM by Registered CommenterDaniel | Comments Off