In an exciting finale at Valderrama, Garcia’s closing level-par 71 for a 6-under 278 total was just enough to keep out a battling Jimenez (70).

Garcia, 31, had not won for three years when he claimed the Castello Masters title last week by 11 strokes.

His second successive victory was harder earned as he and Jimenez produced a dramatic finish at the 1997 Ryder Cup venue, formerly the home of the tour’s season-ending Volvo Masters.

Starting the day two shots ahead of the field, Garcia, bogeying the sixth and seventh, was at first overtaken by Jimenez, one of the overnight second-placed players.

Garcia battled back in front by the 14th, only to be caught by the first and second round leader Richie Ramsay of Britain.

When Ramsay lost his ball on the short 15th to run up a double-bogey, however, the Scot’s chance was gone.

Garcia forged three ahead of the field but Jimenez, unusually without a win this season, closed the gap to two with a birdie on 16.

The popular 47-year-old, urged on by a sizeable crowd from his home town of Malaga, gave himself further hope with an eagle chance on the notorious water-protected 17th where there is a plaque to commemorate Jimenez’s spectacular albatross there in 1994.

Although Jimenez missed from 15 feet, his birdie cut the margin between him and Garcia to only one.

A par by Garcia on the treacherous penultimate hole preserved the status-quo.

When he and Jimenez both parred the last, the $685,000 first prize and key Ryder Cup points went to Garcia, who had finished second three times in Volvo Masters events in the past at Valderrama.


In Selangor, Malaysia, Bo Van Pelt ran away with the Asia Pacific Classic on Sunday in hot and humid conditions, birdieing five of the last eight holes for a 7-under 64 and a six-stroke victory.

“I’ve watched other guys coming down 18 with a big lead and I thought, `That would be fun some day if I could do that.’ And it was,” Van Pelt said, “I feel like the luckiest guy in the world. I get to do what I love to do for a living.”

The winner of the PGA Tour’s 2009 US Bank Championship in Milwaukee, Van Pelt finished at 23 under at The Mines and earned $1.3 million in the second-year event sanctioned by the PGA and Asian tours.

“I’ve had a couple of chances to win this year, but didn’t come out on top,” Van Pelt said. “Canada was a tough pill to swallow. I just wanted to learn from that and do a better job when I had the lead. I take a lot of satisfaction in how I played today.”

Fellow Indiana player Jeff Overton was second after a 69.

“That was one of the best rounds of golf I’ve seen,” Overton said about Van Pelt. “I didn’t play a great round. I played a solid round. I kind of had a couple of hiccups. He birdied some holes that I bogeyed and those were huge momentum shifters.”

Van Pelt pulled away with birdies on Nos. 13-15, hitting within a foot on the par-4 13th and par-3 14th and holing a 4-footer on the short par-4 15th after driving into a greenside bunker. He added a two-putt birdie on the par-5 17th.

“I played well all day,” Van Pelt said. “I didn’t make any bogeys. I just tried to play to game plan all week.”

The 36-year-old former Oklahoma State player opened with rounds of 66, 64 and 67 to take a one-stroke lead over Overton into the final round.

Fredrik Jacobson had a 68 to finish third at 16 under, and Cameron Tringale (64), Camilo Villegas (66) and Mark Wilson (69) were 15 under.