HAIKOU, China – So Yeon Ryu won her first World Ladies Championship title Sunday, beating overnight leader and defending champion Inbee Park by one shot in the European Tour tournament.

Ryu, the 2014 Canadian Pacific Women’s Open champion, trailed fellow South Korean Park by a shot ahead of the final round on Mission Hills’ Blackstone Course.

Eighth-ranked Ryu shot 69 for 13-under 279 – including a third-round 65 – while second-ranked Park shot 71.

Park led by three strokes when Ryu double-bogeyed the par-4 seventh, sending her tee shot into black lava rocks and taking a penalty drop. The 24-year-old Ryu responded with three birdies in four holes from the ninth.

Both Ryu and Park failed birdie attempts on the 18th before Ryu tapped in a par putt from two feet to win.

“The winning putt, no matter how long it is, is always nervous,” Ryu said. “My hands were literally shaking.”

Suzann Pettersen of Norway and China’s Xiyu Lin both shot 70 to tie for third on 10 under.

PRETORIA, South Africa – George Coetzee won the Tshwane Open on Sunday at the golf course he grew up playing on, making birdie on No. 17 to take the title by a shot from Jacques Blaauw.

Coetzee finished on 14-under 266 with his final-round 65 at the par-70 Pretoria Country Club, where he is a member. It was his second win on the European Tour following his Joburg Open victory last year.

Fellow South African Blaauw had a chance at his first European title with the clubhouse lead at 13 under after a course record-equaling 61 in the South African capital, with nine birdies and no dropped shots.

Blaauw made six birdies in seven holes around the turn to set a tough target.

But the Pretoria-born Coetzee, one of six players tied for the lead overnight, kept his nerve. Trying to drive the green on No. 17, he sent his tee shot into some trees. He chipped out to within five feet and made the decisive birdie, his fifth of the round.

That left him to par the last and triumph in front of family and friends at the club where he first won a junior tournament at the age of 10.

“It’s perfect playing my home course and winning this,” the 28-year-old Coetzee said. “I never thought as a kid that I would play a European Tour event at my home club.”

Coetzee was the first golfer in seven years to win a European Tour event at his home club, the tour said.

On a South African-dominated leaderboard, home players Dean Burmester and Tjaart van der Walt tied for third on 9 under with Scotland’s Craig Lee, the only non-South African in the top five.

New Europe Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke, who has played all three European Tour events in South Africa in the last three weeks, carded 68-69 over the weekend to finish in a tie for 15th, his best result this year.

LAREDO, Tex. – National Amateur Squad member Blair Hamilton of Burlington, Ont. won his first collegiate event Saturday afternoon at the Border Olympics, posting a final-round 71 for a one-stroke victory at Laredo Country Club.

The University of Houston junior carded earlier rounds of 67 and 69 to finish just ahead of teammates Matt Scobie (Ajax, Ont.) and Roman Robledo en route to capturing medalist honours.

Even with three Cougars finishing atop the leaderboard, the University of Houston had to settle for a runner-up finish, three strokes behind champion Baylor.

Hamilton and the Cougars will tee-it-up again next week at the Valspar Invitational in Palm City, Fla.

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Blessed and excited to have gotten my first NCAA win this week! Thank you to all my friends and family for their continuos support #blessed

— Blair Hamilton (@BlairHamilton12) March 14, 2015

PALM HARBOR, Fla. – Ryan Moore had no trouble explaining how, after 12 consecutive pars to start the third-round of the Valspar Championship, he birdied four of the final six holes Saturday.

“I just hit it closer,” he said.

The result was a 4-under 67 that pushed Moore to a 54-hole total of 9-under 204 and a one-shot lead over Jordan Spieth on Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead course.

Spieth shot 68. Derek Ernst was another stroke back after a 69.

The field was like a crowded freeway early before Moore finally opened up some space. When the final pairing of Brendon de Jonge and Spieth reached its fifth hole, they were part of an eight-way tie for the lead at 5 under. Another seven players were a shot back. Twenty-seven were within three.

While de Jonge, who led by one after 36 holes, shot 75 and fell off the pace, Moore, seeking his fifth career win, moved steadily along in the swirling wind until sprinting to the finish.

“Any day around this golf course with no bogies is pretty good especially the spots where I hit it,” Moore said. “I was able to save par really low in the middle of my round, made some good putts but had some good chip shots. Was able to get it rolling there and make some birdies coming in.”

The first birdie, coming on the 200-yard par-13th with a 6-iron to 8 1/2 feet, was the springboard.

“It was not an easy par 3 especially with that wind,” Moore said. “It was hard to figure out whether it was really helping or more across. Obviously, you don’t want to get that wrong with water short and with trouble long, you don’t want to go long of that green.

“Stepped up and hit a great iron shot there, left myself nice 8-, 9-footer right below the hole and knocking that in kind of got me going there on the backside.”

Spieth was tied for the lead until Moore’s birdie at 18. Spieth saved par at that hole with a one-putt from 6 feet.

“I got a lot of confidence at the end right there with my putter,” Spieth said. “I had those 6-, 7- footers that, you know, when I’m close but not quite there those are the ones that slide by the hole because I just kind of baby it a little bit and hit confident putts coming in. Hopefully, that does a lot of good for me tomorrow.”

Nine players are within five shots, all aiming at Moore.

Six shots back of Moore is Canada’s Nick Taylor, who is 3-under and tied for 10th after his third straight 70.

Brantford, Ont.’s David Hearn (+1) is tied for 44th and Abbotsford, B.C. native Adam Hadwin (+5) is tied for 63rd.

DIAMONDHEAD, Miss. – Toronto’s Albin Choi has done it again. After earning his first win as a professional on the NGA Tour just two weeks ago, the 22-year-old Team Canada member has already added another with a playoff victory at the Cardinal Classic on Saturday.

The N.C. State grad birdied the par-5 18th to reach 12-under par (65-67-72) at the rain-shortened event before forcing a playoff with American James Erkenbeck and eventually edging him out after two additional holes. Similar to his win two weeks ago at the SwingThought Tour Classic, Choi took home a prize total of $20,000 (USD) and earned another exemption–this time to the BMW Charity Pro-Am, a Web.com Tour event.

Fellow Canadian Bill Ross of Dundas, Ont., cracked the top 10–finishing in a tie for sixth at 9-under par. Choi’s Young Pro Squad teammate Mackenzie Hughes, also of Dundas, finished in a tie for 13th.

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PRETORIA, South Africa – Six players were tied for the lead Saturday heading into the final round of the Tshwane Open in South Africa.

Adrian Otaegui of Spain had a two-shot lead overnight but shot a 2-over 72 and was joined atop the leaderboard by Englishman David Horsey, South Africans George Coetzee, Trevor Fisher Jr. and Wallie Coetsee, and Scotland’s Craig Lee. They were all on 9-under 201.

Lee made the biggest move with his 66 at the Pretoria Country Club.

Two other South Africans, Ockie Strydom and Erik van Rooyen, were a shot behind at the final event of a three-tournament swing for the European Tour in South Africa.

Ryder Cup player Edoardo Molinari of Italy was in a tie for ninth, but just two shots off the lead.

PALM HARBOR, Fla. – Brendon de Jonge rolled in a pair of long putts on his way to a 2-under 69 and the 36-hole lead Friday in the Valspar Championship. Based on the holes remaining, he is halfway home to his first PGA Tour title.

Considering how many players are still in the mix – essentially everyone who made the cut – the weekend might feel even longer.

Only seven shots separated de Jonge from the players who made the cut on the number, the first time the first-to-worst gap has been that small since the 2011 British Open at Royal St. George’s.

“Obviously, gives you a good chance for the weekend,” de Jonge said. He was at 6-under 136, the highest score to lead after 36 holes at Innisbrook in six years.

De Jonge said that after he finished his round in the morning, uncertain how hard the wind would blow and who might get hot with the putter. The wind died, no one could sustain a great round without a few mistakes and he had the 36-hole lead for the fourth time in his career.

But not by much.

Jordan Spieth made a birdie putt from the fringe on the 18th for a 4-under 67 to match the best score of the round. Henrik Stenson, playing the Copperhead course for the first time and apparently enjoying it, made eagle on his first hole and wound up with a 70.

They were one shot behind, along with Ryan Moore (68), Kevin Streelman (69) and Derek Ernst (70).

Ernst, who had only one round in the 60s this year, ran off five straight birdies around the turn to reach 8-under par until he started missing greens, missing putts and making bogeys to fall one shot behind de Jonge.

“Starting the day if you told me I would have shot 1 under I would have been very happy with it,” Ernst said.

Lucas Glover had a 69 and joined Moore and Streelman as the only players to break 70s for both rounds. He was two shots behind, along with Sean O’Hair (72), Ricky Barnes (72) and Ian Poulter (70). Poulter hasn’t been to Innisbrook since 2010, and he was asked what had kept him away.

“Because I’m a buffoon,” Poulter said. “I mean, stupid. This golf course I can compete on because it’s fiddly, it’s position off the tee, small greens, need to chip it well, good pace putting when you’re above the hole. All those things I do well.”

Poulter recalls the greens being sloppy the last time he played, and so he instructed his caddie to never allow him to return. Seven holes into his pro-am round, he said he told his caddie, “What the … was I doing not being here?”

Justin Thomas (72) and Vijay Singh (70) were in the group at 3-under 139, with Luke Donald (68), Matt Kuchar (70) and Patrick Reed (68) among those four behind.

Adam Scott is about the only guy who doesn’t have a chance because he didn’t make the cut. Scott missed four putts from inside 5 feet on his way to a 75 and missed the cut by three shots. It’s the first time he had the weekend off at a golf tournament since the 2012 Byron Nelson Championship.

What makes Innisbrook so mysterious is that players are irritated by the shots they left out on the course, only to realize they’re not in bad shape. Such was the case of Stenson, who made a 25-foot eagle on his opening hole, a 20-foot birdie putt on his final hole and nothing but pars and two bogeys in between.

“I didn’t get it close enough to give myself too many birdies,” Stenson said. “All in all, pretty pleased.”

Spieth rammed in a 20-foot birdie on the third hole that he said left a ball mark on the back of the cup. So that was a good break. He made a 30-foot birdie on No. 6 and rolled it in from 18 feet on the final hole. That was enough to put him in the final group, even if he’s not sure how he got there.

“This is one of those random places where you feel like you should have shot better than you did, but you’re not out of it,” he said. “You can make birdies. The problem is there is trouble around every corner.”

There was even trouble in the fairway. Early in the round, Charley Hoffman stopped when he saw a 10-foot alligator walking across the third fairway.

“We weren’t going anywhere fast,” Hoffman said. “And neither were we.”

Leading the Canadian contingent into the weekend is Nick Taylor, who is sitting at 2-under 140 after matching 70s.

David Hearn (70-73) and Adam Hadwin (68-75) have a share of 57th at 1-over.

EUSTIS, Fla. – 17-year-old Brooke Henderson continued her play in usual fashion on Friday, shooting a final-round 64 to take home the hardware at the SunCoast Series Winter Championship at Black Bear Golf Club.

The Young Pro Squad’s newest member went bogey-free in her final round, carding eight birdies in the process to take the lead from sister Brittany before running away with a nine-stroke victory. This marks Henderson’s second SunCoast Series win as a professional—she battled sister Brittany back in January as well, eventually winning with a birdie on the final hole.

The Smiths Falls, Ont., native finished at 15-under par (70-69-70-64) and will take home a cool $5,000 for her efforts.

Former Women’s Amateur Squad member Anne-Catherine Tanguay of Québec City joined the Henderson duo atop the leaderboard, placing 4^th at 3-under par.

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PRETORIA, South Africa – Adrian Otaegui of Spain shot an 8-under 62 Friday to take a two-shot lead at the Tshwane Open in South Africa.

Otaegui had a small chance to shoot the first 59 in European Tour history when he needed to pick up two shots on the last two holes. But he settled for par on No. 17 after just missing a chip-in for birdie, and then bogeyed his last hole, his only dropped shot of the day.

The 22-year-old Otaegui still made nine birdies at the par-70 Pretoria Country Club, jumping 18 places up the leaderboard and moving to 11-under 129. South Africa’s Merrick Bremner was second on 9 under after a 66.

Overnight co-leader David Horsey dropped three shots off the lead in a tie for third on 8 under with Keith Horne, Edoardo Molinari and Trevor Fisher Jr.

Fisher, who won the Africa Open last weekend, made four straight birdies from No. 6, but also had three bogeys in his 66.

Former Ryder Cup winner Molinari was in position for his first victory on the tour in five years after a second straight 66, with four birdies and no bogeys.

Morten Orum Madsen of Denmark, who shared the first-round lead with Horsey, dropped to a tie for 13th after a 72. European Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke boosted his chances of a top-10 finish with a 67 to move to 2 under.

If you think your golf course superintendent hangs the “Course Closed” sign at the entrance as he heads out for a lengthy winter vacation in the sun, you are sorely mistaken.

But that is just one of many misconceptions about the role of the superintendent, including what they do during the off-season.

If noted novelist (and unintentional golf writer) Charles Dickens was writing this article, he might begin with the words: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. … It was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…”

Bill Green, superintendent at Cutten Fields in Guelph, Ont., has experienced a few winters of despair, notably the ice-related devastation in Southern Ontario during the winter of 2013-2014. Many courses lost some, if not all, of their greens and thousands of trees were damaged.

“There’s really nothing you can do when you get a winter like that,” laments Green, who says he is “cautiously optimistic” about the coming season (Dickens’s “spring of hope”) after an Ontario winter that brought its share of snow and cold temperatures but no disasters like the previous one.

During the off-season, which generally runs from the end of October to mid-April, he and his colleagues in most of Canada, east of the Rockies that is, have plenty to keep them busy. Green readily rhymes off a list.

“There are lots of winter projects like tree programs which you like to do in the off season so you’re not disrupting play. There are health and safety programs, continuing education like attending conferences and symposiums, establishing maintenance policies and procedures, interviewing and hiring and training staff, staying in regular communication with the members, meeting with the Board and committees, establishing a budget, refurbishing and painting golf course furniture, working with the mechanic to get all the equipment in top-notch condition … the list goes on. Oh, and you have to take some time for vacation with the family, too. You have a lot to make up for when you are away from them at the course for so many hours during the season.”

As Green recites his list, looking out at snow-covered Cutten Fields, Dave Kennedy mentions casually that there were 190-plus golfers on his course, the Vancouver Golf Club, on a recent Sunday. Dickens might have called it A Tale of Two Countries.

In stark contrast to the majority of Canada, particularly the Maritimes, B.C.’s Lower Mainland has had an unusually mild winter, even for that region. As a result, there has been no “off season” as such for golf courses and their superintendents. No “Course Closed” signs here.

So, understanding that every superintendent across the country has to attend to all the items Green mentioned, how do Kennedy and his West Coast colleagues cope?

“A lot of things we normally do over the winter just didn’t happen this year,” says Kennedy, “so we have to try to fit them in and get them done before the heat of the season.”

In terms of “heat,” this summer brings significantly more than most, since the Canadian Pacific Women’s Canadian Open arrives Aug. 17-23. It will be the fourth time the LPGA has visited Vancouver GC. To Kennedy’s advantage, he was there the last time in 2012. Also working on his behalf are the mild winter and the less demanding requirements of an LPGA tournament versus a PGA TOUR event.

“Other than a few minor changes, the course will play almost the same way it usually does for the members,” Kennedy says, putting to rest the widely held belief that the arrival of a major event totally disrupts the normal routine of a course and its members.

With that misconception dispelled, Kennedy points out that many golfers vastly underestimate the role of the superintendent. “I don’t think many people realize just how technical our profession has become over the years.”

A visit to the web siteof the Canadian Golf Superintendents Association www.golfsupers.com will confirm that.

Like a goalie in hockey, superintendents seldom get the credit they deserve when things are going well, yet, when things go badly, they get far more than their share of the blame.

For the most part, that scenario plays out because the majority of golfers don’t understand the vital and ever-expanding role of the superintendent, not only during the golf season but also in the off season. Time to change that.