Golf:A birdie at the last hole saw Ben Crane hold off Brian Davis to win the CIMB Asia Pacific Classic by one stroke. Crane held his nerve to hole an eight-foot putt on the 18th at Mines Resort and Golf Club in Kuala Lumpur and sign for a two-under 69 to finish 18 under par and edge out Davis.
The 36-year-old had reached the turn holding a three-shot lead but three consecutive bogeys from the 12th threatened to derail his title bid. However, an eagle at the 15th got the American back on track.
"This has been a really special week, from the time we arrived till now. I had a great opportunity with that putt (on the 18th) which I'll always remember," he said.
"I was so nervous and I was just praying. I just wanted to hit a good putt and to see it go into the hole, it felt so good.
"I just regrouped (after the 12th) and didn't get ahead of myself. I knew I was still in the tournament. I hit an unbelievable shot on 15 with my driver and that kind of turned things around. It was an exciting turnaround. That was an unbelievable finish."
Davis almost forced a play-off as the Englishman finished birdie, eagle, birdie to card a 66 and end the tournament 17 under par.
"I played good all week and kept myself in the hunt," he said. "I finished strong but it just quite wasn't good enough. I am quite disappointed. I missed a short putt on the par four 15th (for bogey) which was a big error there.
"But I managed to dig deep for birdie, eagle, birdie finish and thought it might be good enough to get me into a play-off. But congratulations to Ben. Hopefully I'll get my turn next time."
A triple-bogey on the ninth cost Luke Donald as the Englishman ended tied third with Scotland's Martin Laird (66) two shots back on 16-under.
"I gave it my all out there," said Donald, who finished with a 67. I pulled my tee shot slightly on nine as I was being aggressive with my three wood and I couldn't find my ball among the trees. I made seven there which was disappointing and my bogey on 15 wasn't very good either."
Collated final round scores & totals in the USPGA Tour CIMB Asia Pacific Classic Malaysia, The MINES Resort & Golf Club, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
(USA unless stated, par 71):
266Ben Crane 67 64 66 69
267Brian Davis (Eng) 65 70 66 66
268Martin Laird (Sco) 66 69 67 66, Luke Donald (Eng) 67 67 67 67
270Robert Allenby (Aus) 72 66 68 64, Ernie Els (Rsa) 67 68 69 66, Rickie Fowler 68 67 68 67, Mardan Mamat (Sin) 66 70 65 69, Ryan Moore 64 68 69 69, D.J. Trahan 67 67 68 68
271Ricky Barnes 63 69 69 70, Adam Scott (Aus) 69 65 69 68, Tom Gillis 69 66 69 67, Siddikur Rahman (Bd) 69 68 65 69
272Carl Pettersson (Swe) 65 68 66 73, Kevin Streelman 69 66 67 70
273J.B. Holmes 73 67 66 67
274Charlie Wi (Kor) 65 70 70 69, K J Choi (Kor) 70 69 66 69, Tim Clark (Rsa) 67 69 69 69
275Kevin Na 70 71 67 67, Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha) 73 67 64 71, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 69 69 71 66
276Andrew Dodt (Aus) 68 75 66 67, Y.E. Yang (Kor) 72 69 66 69
277Pariya Junhasavasdikul (Tha) 66 65 71 75, Arjun Atwal (Ind) 68 71 69 69, Bill Haas 72 69 69 67
278Michael Sim (Aus) 67 69 69 73, John Senden (Aus) 71 71 71 65, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 66 69 74 69, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 70 72 70 66
279Ryan Palmer 72 70 65 72, Marc Leishman (Aus) 70 72 69 68, Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha) 71 66 72 70
280Noh Seung-yul (Kor) 71 69 65 75, Tetsuji Hiratsuka (Jpn) 71 70 69 70, Heath Slocum 68 69 71 72
283Chih-bing Lam (Sin) 69 72 72 70
285Shaaban Hussin (Mal) 72 72 70 71