Moore hits Vegas jackpot by 1 shot

LAS VEGAS: Ryan Moore won the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open on Sunday for his second PGA Tour title, finishing with a 5-under 66 and a one-stroke victory over Brendon de Jonge.
Level with de Jonge and Jonas Blixt after the third round, Moore pulled ahead with a birdie at the par-5 16th and finished at 24-under 260 at TPC Summerlin, earning $810,000 in the Fall Series opener. Moore also won the 2009 Wyndham Championship.
“The last couple of days were tough,” said Moore, who lives in Las Vegas. “I was shot for shot with Brendon, and he was playing some great golf. I was able to make a birdie down the stretch when it mattered to hold him off at the end.”
De Jonge shot a 67.
“He was playing great and he was hitting the ball really well, and he was making putts,” Moore said. “I tried not to get too wrapped up into what he was doing really for the last two days. I just tried to keep my head and just keep hitting my golf shots, and playing the golf course how I wanted to play it and just give myself opportunities.”
De Jonge, from Zimbabwe, missed the fairway on the 560-yard 16th.
“Today, playing a little bit down breeze, all you’ve got to do is get one in the fairway,” de Jonge said. “It’s almost a mid-iron in there, so that was definitely a turning point, you know, the bad tee shot there.”
Blixt had a 70 to finish third at 20 under.
Jason Day pulled within three strokes of Moore and de Jonge with a birdie on No. 16, but closed with a double bogey on the par-4 18th. He had a 65 to finish fourth at 18 under.
“The only blemish was obviously the missed green on 18,” Day said. “But I thought I was going to shoot 59 today, just the way things were going. I was hitting it good. I just didn’t capitalize on the opportunities I had on the back nine.”
Moore birdied the second and third holes to take a one-stroke lead over playing partners Blixt and de Jonge, and birdied the seventh hole to move two shots ahead.
De Jonge pulled level with birdies on Nos. 8 and 9 and they remained tied through 15, going to the 16th tee at 23 under.
Bill Lunde was fifth at 15 under after a 66. He jumped from 157th to 128th on the money list, with the final top 125 getting full tour cards for next season.
John Daly, tied for sixth at 10 under after a season-best 63 on Friday, followed a 15-over 86 on Saturday with a 6-over 77 on Sunday to finish last at 11-over 295. He dropped from 132nd to 137th on the money list.
Turkish event involving Woods, McIlroy goes ahead
Meantime, the inaugural eight-man Turkish World Finals featuring world number one Rory McIlroy and 14-times major winner Tiger Woods will go ahead as planned this week despite violence in the region, organizers said on Monday.
Turkish forces fired across the frontier into Syria on Sunday after a shell launched from its neighbor landed in the border town of Akcakale, underlining Ankara’s warning it will respond with force to any violence spilling into its territory.
It was the fifth consecutive day of Turkish retaliation against incoming bombardment from northern Syria where President Bashar Assad’s forces have been battling rebels who control swathes of land close to the Turkish frontier.
Organizers of this week’s $5.3 million golf tournament told Reuters that Woods, McIlroy, Lee Westwood, Hunter Mahan, Justin Rose, Matt Kuchar, Webb Simpson and Charl Schwartzel had all arrived in time for Tuesday’s first round.
The players will be competing for a first prize of $1.5 million at the Antalya Golf Club in Belek from Oct. 9-12.
Organizers say the tournament would be televised live in more than 50 countries.
Belek is on Turkey’s southwest coast and is not near the Syrian border.