LAS VEGAS — Tom Kim now has something in common with Byron Nelson: They're the only two players to have won the same PGA Tour event twice in the same season.
Kim repeated Sunday in the Shriners Children's Open when the budding South Korean star closed with a 5-under-par 66 to emerge from a pack of a dozen players who had a chance in the final hour. Kim finished at 20-under 264 in the 72-hole tournament and wound up winning by one shot over Canada's Adam Hadwin, who birded the final hole for a 67.
Kim now has three PGA Tour titles in the past 15 months, and at 21 he is the youngest player since Tiger Woods in 1997 to have three wins on the circuit.
"I really felt confident in myself," Kim said. "I knew that if I did me, I was going to be able to do it. I'm stoked to get this one."
He won in Las Vegas a year ago, beating Patrick Cantlay in a playoff at TPC Summerlin when the tournament was early in the season. Now the Las Vegas event is still part of the same season because the PGA Tour goes to a calendar-year season starting in 2024.
Nelson won the San Francisco Open in January 1944 and the same tournament in December of that year, both times at Harding Park.
This one was up for grabs until Kim seized control on the par-5 16th.
With an hour left in the tournament, there was a six-way tie for the lead and 12 players were separated by a single shot. The key stretch at the TPC Summerlin was No. 13 through No. 16, which ranked as four of the five easiest holes in the final round.
Taylor Pendrith was tied for the lead with a birdie on the 13th, but he had to settle for pars the rest of that stretch and K.H. Lee made all pars. Then it became a two-man race between Kim and Hadwin, playing in the final group with Kim holding a one-shot advantage.
Both birdied the 13th, Hadwin with a 35-foot birdie putt that rimmed all the way around the cup before dropping. Both birdied the reachable par-4 15th, Kim with a tough up-and-down and birdie putt from 12 feet, Hadwin narrowly missing a 25-foot eagle attempt.
It turned on the par-5 16th. Kim hit to the fat of the green in two shot, 50 feet away for eagle. Hadwin knew he missed his shot right after contact, and it came up well short and into the water. Hadwin missed a six-foot par putt after his penalty drop, and Kim three-putted — he had to make a five-footer on his third one — for par.
That gave Kim a two-shot lead with two to play, and he closed with solid pars.
Baylor School graduate Luke List, the winner of a five-man playoff at the Sanderson Farms Championship a week earlier for the second PGA Tour win of his career, tied for 18th at 15 under after closing with a 67 that included an eagle on the par-5 ninth hole.
LIV Golf photo by Chris Trotman via AP / Brooks Koepka reads the green on the 18th hole at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club during a playoff with Talor Gooch at LIV Golf Jeddah on Sunday in King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia.Koepka steps up
KING ABDULLAH ECONOMIC CITY, Saudi Arabia — Brooks Koepka held it together at the end for a 2-under 68 and repeated as the winner at LIV Golf-Jeddah with a birdie on the second playoff hole, beating fellow American player Talor Gooch on a day when both had reason to celebrate.
Koepka had to birdie two of his last three holes to finish at 14-under 196 in the 54-hole tournament and tie with Gooch, who closed with a 62. Even with a loss in the playoff, though, Gooch moved past Cameron Smith and won the LIV Golf League's season points title and the $18 million bonus.
Koepka not only won $4 million from the tournament, his victory bumped Bryson DeChambeau out of the top three in the season standings. Koepka picked up an additional $4 million for finishing third in the points race.
DeChambeau fell back with a 70 on Sunday, when Smith shot a 66 and tied for 24th.
The LIV Golf League wraps up its second season next weekend at Trump National Doral Miami in South Florida with the team championship event.
Individually, Koepka ends his year with two LIV Golf tournament victories, along with a PGA Championship win for the fifth major title of his career. He was the only LIV player to get picked for the Ryder Cup this fall, although his U.S. team lost to Europe in Italy.
Close to home
MADRID — Matthieu Pavon broke through with his first DP World Tour victory at a place close to home for him, fending off an early rally by Spain's Jon Rahm and a late charge by Germany's Marcel Siem to win the Open de España by four shots.
The 30-year-old Frenchman closed with a bogey-free 7-under 64 to finish at 23-under 261 in the 72-hole tournament and secure an emotional wire-to-wire victory in a country where his father used to play soccer professionally and in a city where his grandfather was born.
"He is up there, so I think he will be very proud of me," Pavon said, pausing to wipe away tears. "A part of my heart is here in Spain. My grandfather was from here, lived in France because of (former dictator Gen. Francisco) Franco, and I just really thought about him on the course today, and it was really hard to keep the tears inside, but now I can just let them go a little bit."
Pavon, runner-up to Rahm last year in the Spanish capital, held off South Africa's Zander Lombard (64) with room to spare and finished five shots ahead of third-place Nathan Kimsey (67) of England.
Siem flirted with a 59 in a 10-under 61 that included two eagles but finished six shots behind Pavon. Rahm birdied six of his first eight holes in the final round to move within three shots of the lead at one point, but he wound up nine back.
Worth the walk
CARY, N.C. — Australia's Rod Pampling had to play 33 holes Sunday in the rain-delayed SAS Championship, and it was worth every step when he finished off a 68, then closed with a 5-under 67 for the second PGA Tour Champions victory of his career.
The SAS Championship was the final tournament before the Charles Schwab Cup playoffs begin for the top 72 players on the senior circuit. Pampling's victory moved him up 13 spots to No. 17.
Pampling finished with a bogey and finished the 54-hole event at 15-under 201 for a two-shot victory over New Zealand's Steven Alker (68), who moved up to No. 2 in the standings behind American player Steve Stricker.
Pampling finished off 15 holes of the second round in the morning with back-to-back birdies, and then he avoided bogeys in the final round until the end, when it only affected his margin of victory.
Pampling had a one-shot lead over Alker, Paul Broadhurst and Vijay Singh when the second round was finished. Broadhurst and Singh fell back early in the final round, and Pampling had three birdies in a four-hole stretch around the turn to seize control.
South Africa's Ernie Els had a 68 and tied for third with Mario Tiziani (65).
Yin beats Vu
SHANGHAI — American golfer Angel Yin defeated top-ranked Lilia Vu on the first playoff hole to win the LPGA Shanghai tournament.
They finished 72 holes 14-under 274 on the Qizhong Garden Golf Club course to force a playoff, and Yin made a birdie at the par-4 18th after Vu had narrowly missed her 20-foot birdie putt.
It was the 25-year-old Yin's first victory in her 159th start, and she shared a warm embrace with compatriot Vu after her breakthrough win.
Yin was tied with Maja Stark for the 54-hole lead at 12 under and closed with a 70 that included three birdies and a lone bogey on the sixth hole.
Vu shot a 68 with six birdies and two bogeys, and she was the clubhouse leader at 14 under until Yin birdied the par-5 17th and then made a par on the final hole to force the playoff.
Five players tied for third at 13 under.