Russell Knox wins first PGA Tour title at the WGC-HSBC Champions
Russell Knox picked up his first PGA Tour win on Sunday, taking the WGC-HSBC Champions by two shots over Kevin Kisner.
Knox, who first finished his third round early on Sunday with a closing birdie to tie Kisner, shot 4-under 68 in the final round to outmatch Kisner’s 70 to finish on 20-under 268.
“China is now my favorite place in the world,” Knox said. “I can’t wait to come back here. For me, this now my favorite golf course and I’m over the moon.”
The win marks the first for a Scot in a World Golf Championships event and only the second time in WGC history that a winner earned their first PGA Tour title in a series event. Knox said afterward that he saw it coming, just didn’t know when.
“It sounds unbelievable,” he said. “I always kind of thought I was going to win a big one, for some reason, as my first one.”
Englishmen Danny Willett, who closed with a tournament-best 10-under 62, and Ross Fisher ended up tied for third at 17-under par.
Dustin Johnson and Branden Grace tied for fifth at 16 under, while Jordan Spieth, who shot 63 on Saturday to jump into contention, could only manage 70 on Sunday to get into a four-way tie for seventh with Patrick Reed, Matthew Fitzpatrick and 20-year-old Li Haotong, who recorded the best PGA Tour finish by a Chinese-born player. Spieth’s finish is good enough to leapfrog Jason Day and again become the top-ranked player in the Official World Golf Ranking.
“With the amount of preparation I put into it, I’m extremely pleased,” Spieth said. “I feel like I got the most out of the week.”
Rory McIlroy closed with 66 to finish on 14 under par, in a tie for 11th. Combined with Willett’s T-3 finish, the European Tour’s Race to Dubai is tighter. McIlroy’s lead is now just 74,213 points (McIlroy has played in 11 events to Willett’s 21), with Willett playing in next week’s BMW Masters while McIlroy rests. The Ulsterman is resigned to potentially losing his edge heading into the season finale in Dubai, where he has locked up the season-long points race two of the last three years.
“He’s playing next week and I’m not, so no matter what happened today, he has a good chance to maybe overtake me next week,” McIlroy said. “I’m just with the mind-set that I need to go to Dubai and win and whatever happens from there, that’s all I can do.”
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