SHANGHAI – Hideki Matsuyama waved to a cheering crowd from the top balcony of a corporate suite over the 18th green at Sheshan International, where moments earlier he finished up a thorough beating of a world-class field in the HSBC Champions.

He never felt higher. His game never felt better.

And the 24-year-old Japanese star can only hope that he’s just getting started.

Matsuyama never gave anyone a chance Sunday, closing with a 6-under 66 for a seven-shot victory that made him the first Asian to win a World Golf Championships event since the series began in 1999.

And it was only fitting that he won at the event billed as “Asia’s major.”

“He was brilliant,” said defending champion Russell Knox, who played in the last group and was along for the ride. “No weaknesses the last two days. He drove the ball well and far, and his iron play was very good. And he made it look very easy.”

The only trouble came when it no longer mattered. Matsuyama realized that one last birdie would give him 30 for the week, so he went for the green on the par-5 18th and his shot bounced out of a bush and tumbled into the water. No problem. He took his drop in the rough, hit wedge to 18 feet and made one last putt to extend a streak of playing the final 45 holes without a bogey.

“No special number,” he said of his goal to make 30 birdies. “I made 19 birdies the first few days, so then I was thinking, ‘Well, if I make 11 more, I can win.’ So that was kind of my goal was to get to 30 birdies.”

He really didn’t need any of them.

Matsuyama finished at 23-under 265, one short of the tournament record that Dustin Johnson set three years ago. He won by seven over British Open champion Henrik Stenson (65) and Daniel Berger (69).

One week after becoming the first Japanese player since Jumbo Ozaki in 1998 to reach the top 10 in the world, the victory moved Matsuyama up to No. 6.

There was one moment early in the round when it looked as though there would be a two-shot swing would have cut his deficit to two shots over Berger. Matsuyama made his 15-foot par putt on the par-3 fourth hole, hit his approach to 4 feet on the next hole for birdie and was on his way. Three straight birdies on the back nine, including a 9-iron out of the rough on the tough 15th that settled 3 feet away, turned this into a rout.

“I’ve never won by that many even in Japan,” Matsuyama said.

It was the largest margin of victory in the HSBC Champions, and the largest in a WGC event since Tiger Woods won by seven in the 2013 Bridgestone Invitational.

He won for the 10th time in his career, and his third PGA Tour-sanctioned victory tied him with Shigeki Maruyama for most by a Japanese player. Matsuyama won the Memorial in 2014, and he won the Phoenix Open in February in a playoff over Rickie Fowler.

“Shigeki Maruyama is a good friend of mine, and he always said that I was going to pass his records,” Matsuyama said. “But at least I’ve tied him now. That was a great honour, because I have great respect for him.”

The next stop is a major. Y.E. Yang at the 2009 PGA Championship is the only Asian to win a men’s major.

“Winning today I feel has got me closer to being able to compete a lot better in the major tournaments, and so my next goal is, of course, to win a major,” he said. “And I’m going to do all that I can to prepare well for that.”

In the last three weeks since he finished his best PGA Tour season with fifth place at the Tour Championship, Matsuyama won the Japan Open, was runner-up in Malaysia to Justin Thomas in the CIMB Classic, and then won his biggest tournament yet.

“Hideki played just unbelievable and it was a pleasure to watch. You can learn a lot from watching Hideki play,” Berger said. “He’s struck it well. He’s putted well. He’s chipped well. He’s done everything well, and that’s why he’s won by so many.”

Knox, playing in the final group for the second straight week, closed with a 74 and tied for ninth.

Rory McIlroy closed with a 66 to share fourth with Bill Haas (69). McIlroy said he would skip the Turkish Airlines Open next week, presumably because of security concerns over recent weeks, which makes him a long shot for the Race to Dubai on the European Tour.

Masters champion Danny Willett remains in front. Stenson’s 20-foot birdie putt on the last hole gave him a share of second, which at least helped him close the gap. He also moved up one spot to No. 4, knocking Jordan Spieth down one notch.

JACKSON, Miss. – After Kevin Streelman opened the Sanderson Farms Championship with a 9-under 63 on Thursday, he and several other players said it would take 20 under or better to win.

Chris Kirk isn’t into predictions, but he does know what he’ll need to do Sunday for his fifth PGA Tour title and second in the event.

“I’ve tried to predict scores before, and I’ve never done a very good job of it, so I’ve kind of quit,” said Kirk, the highest-ranked player in the field. “I’m just going to go out and stay very aggressive, and I’ll try to make as many birdies as I can, that’s for sure.”

Kirk had eight birdies in a 7-under 65 to share the third-round lead with Luke List.

List also shot 65 to match Kirk at 14 under at the Country Club of Jackson.

Graham DeLaet (68) of Weyburn, Sask., Cody Gribble (67), and 2009 U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover (68) were a stroke back.

Second-round leader Grayson Murray had a 72 to drop two shots behind. He missed several short putts and had a double bogey on the shortest par-4 on the course.

Kirk’s first PGA Tour title came in the event in 2011, when it was known as the Viking Classic and was played at Annandale Golf Club in nearby Madison. He has won three times since, including twice in 2014, when he finished second in the FedEx Cup standings.

Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., was tied for 10th after a 69.

List, chasing his first PGA Tour victory, had seven birdies in a bogey-free round.

List opened the week with a 71 that included four bogeys. He got hot Friday, making five straight birdies at one point, and hasn’t made a bogey over his last 27 holes.

While Kirk has been in this position before, it’s all new for List, who has had just two top-10 finishes in three years on the tour and has never been higher than ninth place after 54 holes.

On Sunday, he’ll be in the final group with Kirk and Gribble.

“The more patient and chill I can be out there the better,” List said. “Of course, I’ll be nervous and excited to compete for relatively the first time in major contention, so I’ll just be trying to do the same thing, get the ball in the fairway and go from there.”

Kirk played Wednesday’s pro-am with a fever. He said he has felt a little better each day since.

His game has responded accordingly, and with three wins in the last three years he’s by far the most accomplished player in the final pairing.

“That helps a little bit, I guess, but it doesn’t make it any easier,” he said. “Winning out here is extremely difficult. You have to play incredibly well, and you have to get some good breaks long the way. I’m happy to have a chance.”

SHANGHAI (AP) – Hideki Matsuyama of Japan kept a clean card Saturday and made just enough birdies for a 4-under 68 to maintain his three-shot lead in the HSBC Champions.

Matsuyama had made 19 birdies over the opening two rounds. He was even more satisfied with the third round because he played bogey-free for the first time all week at Sheshan International and didn’t give anyone much of a chance to close the gap.

Matsuyama made three of his birdies on the par 5s, including the final hole when he belted a 3-wood from 248 yards over the corner of the lake and onto the green, and he nearly holed the 25-foot eagle attempt.

“That was a big birdie, to take the lead from two shots to three,” he said.

Matsuyama was at 17-under 199 as he goes for his first World Golf Championship title.

Defending champion Russell Knox made a pair of birdies on the back nine and to keep in range, though he never could get closer than two shots of Matsuyama. Knox also shot a 68 and will be in the final group for the second straight year at the HSBC Champions.

Joining them will be Daniel Berger, who has used his short game to stay in contention. That was never more evident than the 18th hole, when he pushed his fairway metal into the middle of the lake and still managed to get up-and-down from the fairway to save par. Berger shot a 67 and was four shots behind.

Francesco Molinari, who won this WGC in 2010, had a 68 and joined Bill Haas (70) at 12-under 204.

Rory McIlroy tried to make a run and pulled off what he called one of the best short-game shots of his career for an unlikely birdie on the par-5 eighth. After sailing his 3-wood well right of the fairway on a thin patch of muddy grass, McIlroy faced a 50-yard shot over a creek with the pin on that side of the green. He hit a hard, low shot into the bank and it popped onto the green about 15 feet away, and he made the putt.

That got him within four of the lead, but the four-time major champion began dropping too many shots to keep the momentum. McIlroy needed two late birdies to salvage a 37 on the back nine, and his 70 left him eight shots behind.

Rickie Fowler also tried to get back in the game with a birdie-eagle start. He birdied two of the last three holes for a 68, but that was no better than what Matsuyama managed and Fowler remained seven shots behind.

The shot of the day came from Matt Kuchar, minus the reward.

He made a hole-in-one on the par-3 17th, with a car perched behind the tee for whoever made an ace. Kuchar happened to read the fine print, however. Because the tee had been moved forward, there was a notice that the car would not be awarded Saturday because insurance only covered a tee shot of 200 yards.

“That was probably one of the saddest hole-in-ones I’ve ever had,” Kuchar said after a 68 to finish eight shots behind.

Matsuyama will try to cap off a strong stretch of golf dating to his fifth-place finish in the Tour Championship. He won the Japan Open two weeks ago, followed that with a runner-up finish in the CIMB Classic in Malaysia, and now takes a three-shot lead into the final round of the HSBC Champions.

Matsuyama’s only birdie on a hole other than a par 5 was at No. 9. He wasn’t making as many birdies, though he thought this round Saturday was the right recipe as he moves closer to the trophy.

“The first two days, making lots of birdies, it’s a lot of fun,” Matsuyama said. “But today, when you’re in a position to win, playing smart and making no bogeys was very satisfying for me today.”

Knox was in a position of chasing, and having seen Matsuyama all day, he had a good idea of what it will take.

“I’m going to have to be foot down, be aggressive and try and catch him,” Knox said. “He’s playing very well. He drove the ball in play a lot. He’s an extremely aggressive iron player, and when he’s on, he’s as good as anyone. I’m not going to give up my title without a big fight tomorrow. I look forward to every minute and see what happens.”

JACKSON, Miss. – Grayson Murray and his caddie had a discussion before his final hole that centred on playing it safe or using his driver.

It was a short conversation.

“Driver, man,” Murray said as he recounted the conversation. “Let’s try to make birdie.”

Turned out to be another good decision in a day full of them. After a solid drive on the 416-yard par 4 and a nearly perfect wedge from 89 yards, the 23-year-old PGA Tour rookie made a short birdie putt for a 7-under 65 and a two-shot lead in the Sanderson Farms Championship.

Murray started his day with a bogey at No. 10, but then made eight birdies to take a two-shot advantage over Greg Owen and Seamus Power. The leader was at 12-under 132.

Owen, a 44-year-old Englishman who has never won a tournament on tour, has shot back-to-back 67s to put himself in contention.

“It’s a good start – I’m happy,” Owen said. “It’s nice to get out this year and get back playing and playing decent and holing some putts. But there’s a long, long way to go.”

Power had a 69. Lucas Glover (69), Trey Mullinax (70), Graham DeLaet (69) and Brandon Hagy (68) were three strokes back.

Kevin Streelman had a two-shot lead after shooting a 63 in the first round, but struggled to a 73 to fall four strokes behind Murray. Cody Gribble was one of the big movers, shooting a 63 to pull within four shots.

But the story on Friday was about Murray, who is on the PGA Tour just a few years after a nomadic college career that included stops at four schools _ Wake Forest, East Carolina, UNC Greensboro and Arizona State.

Now he’s leading a tour event going into the weekend in just his third career tournament.

“We practice to get in this position,” Murray said. “We don’t practice to make cuts, we practice to win golf tournaments. I know I have the game to win a golf tournament.”

Murray said he expects plenty of competition over the weekend with 13 players within four shots of the lead. Nearly ideal conditions at the Country Club of Jackson have led to plenty of birdies.

“There’s a lot of good players, there’s a lot of birdies to be made on this course,” Murray said. “But there’s also some bogeys if you’re not in the fairways. So just keep it in the short grass, give myself as many chances as I have done on the first two days.”

SHANGHAI – Hideki Matsuyama made nine birdies in suddenly chilly conditions for a 7-under 65 that gave him a three-shot lead going into the weekend at the HSBC Champions.

Neither the rain in the opening round nor the bone-chilling cold on Friday seem to matter to the Japanese star, who has made 19 birdies over 36 holes at Sheshan International that got the attention of the players chasing him.

Matsuyama was at 13-under 131.

Defending champion Russell Knox missed a couple of birdie chances late and still had a 68, while Bill Haas shot a 67. They were at 10-under 134.

Rory McIlroy, needing a victory to make it three straight years with a World Golf Championships title, did his best to get back in the game. He was slowed only by an errant tee shot on the 16th that led to his only bogey in a round of 66. McIlroy was six shots behind.

Rickie Fowler started with a pair of bogeys and never quite recovered. He shot a 73 and slipped seven shots back.

“This felt like a cold day at Pebble Beach,” said Daniel Berger, who had a 70 and was in the group five shots behind.

Not everyone handled the brittle conditions. Adam Scott had a pair of double bogeys on par 5s and shot an 80. Kevin Kisner, a runner-up at Sheshan International a year ago, took a 9 on the final hole for an 80. Wyndham Championship winner Si Woo Kim shot 81.

Matsuyama sure didn’t see a 66 when he was on the range and the wind began to strengthen, especially on a Sheshan International course where he tied for 41st and withdrew twice in his three appearances.

During the warm-up this morning, it was starting to get windy and I thought maybe just a couple under par would be a good score,” Matsuyama said. ”So I’m really happy with how it ended up today. It was windy and it was cold. The ball, it’s hard to control. It was tough out there today.”

His attitude helped. Given his past experiences, Matsuyama figured he would at least try to enjoy himself and 19 birdies in two days certainly helped.

One goal for Haas over the weekend was to try to make Matsuyama sweat a little, a tall task given how well he is putting and more cold weather in the forecast. Haas did his part to keep up by starting the back nine with back-to-back birdies and dropping only one shot.

Knox ran off three birdies in a four-hole stretch on the front nine, and then hung on when the weather was at its worst.

“It turned nasty with four or five holes to go,” Knox said. “I had a lot of shots from 200 yards, which fortunately is a strength of mine because I don’t hit it very far. It was a battle out there. I’m happy to be done.”

It remains a battle for U.S. Open champion Dustin Johnson, who braved the conditions in a short-sleeved shirt, and then a short-sleeved rain jacket. He went bogey-birdie-double bogey around the turn, tried to turn it around with an eagle on the par-5 14th, and then followed that by going bogey-birdie-bogey, the last one a three-putt. He had another 74 and was at 4-over 148, leaving him 17 shots behind.

He played with Patrick Reed, also in short sleeves, and toward the bottom of the pack.

McIlroy thought a round of 66 would get him back in the mix, and it at least got him going in the right direction. As well as he played, he was surprised to see Matsuyama do one shot better in the cold wind.

Still, he was where he wanted to be going into the weekend. McIlroy made up more ground in fewer holes, so he wasn’t worried with two rounds remaining. The only concern was whether Matsuyama could keep this up.

Matsuyama won the Phoenix Open in early February, and then finally got back on track by winning the Japan Open two weeks ago and finishing runner-up to Justin Thomas last week at the CIMB Classic in Malaysia.

“He’s playing very well and he’ll be tough to catch,” McIlroy said. “But I feel like from what I saw out there today, if I can keep that sort of golf going over the next two days, I should have a chance.”

JACKSON, Miss. – Kevin Streelman wasn’t the only one who took advantage of nearly ideal conditions at Jackson County Club.

The 37-year-old did it a little better than everyone else, though, finishing with a 9-under 63 for a two-shot lead after the first round of the Sanderson Farms Championship.

Streelman made 10 birdies Thursday, including eight in an 11-hole stretch. With more good weather forecast for the next three days, he said the low scores will have to keep coming if he wants to have a shot at winning the tournament.

“When you get PGA Tour players on great greens with great conditions and there’s a fair amount of wedges in our hands on this golf course – they’re going to make some birdies,” Streelman said.

Trey Mullinax, Seamus Power and Carl Pettersson all shot 65 to sit two shots behind Streelman. Seven others – including Lucas Glover and Camilo Villegas – were among those three shots back.

Defending champion Peter Malnati shot a 71. Of the 132 players, 100 shot even par or better.

Streelman is a two-time PGA Tour winner, with his last victory in 2014 at the Travelers Championship. He missed the cut two weeks ago in the season-opening Safeway Open.

Streelman said he wasn’t planning on playing at Sanderson Farms until his poor performance in California. It’s been a good decision so far: The 9-under 63 is his career-low score in relation to par. He shot an 8-under 62 at the Travelers in 2008.

“It was pretty flawless ball-striking to be honest,” Streelman said. “Hit a lot of fairways.”

Mullinax – a rookie making his fifth career PGA Tour start – was among the others who took advantage of the forgiving course to post a low score. The 24-year-old finished tied for 22nd at the Safeway Open two weeks ago and continued to play well in Jackson.

“The goal this week was to give myself the best chance to win, and today was a good start,” Mullinax said. “We have three days left.”

The 29-year-old Power is making just his second start on the PGA Tour. He finished 15th at the Olympics while playing for Ireland over the summer and said the experience helped give him confidence.

“The biggest thing to remember is I’m not going to win the tournament at 7 under,” Power said. “I’m going to have to get to 20-under, so that’s the overall goal you have to get to and then see what happens from there.”

SHANGHAI – Rikard Karlberg made his World Golf Championships debut with an 8-under 64 on Thursday to take a one-shot lead over Rickie Fowler in the HSBC Champions.

Karlberg has only faced a field this strong twice before in the British Open, both times missing the cut. He wanted to treat this like any other event, and on a soggy Sheshan International course, he made it look easy.

Karlberg was 9 under through 16 holes and challenging the course record when he came up short on the par-3 17th, nearly in a hazard, and managed to save par. He wasn’t so fortunate on the par-5 closing hole after driving into a bunker. He caught too much sand, couldn’t reach the green with his third and took his only bogey.

Russell Knox won his first WGC event last year at Sheshan International, and Karlberg at least took a good opening step in that direction.

“It felt amazing, every part of the game,” he said. “Everything was so easy. It was just one of those days, a walk in the park.”

It was a wet walk. The course was soaked with 5 inches of rain over the weekend, another downpour on Wednesday cut short the pro-am and most of the opening round was played in a light rain that make the greens bumpy toward the end of the round.

Fowler, in his first competitive round since the Ryder Cup, holed a 15-foot birdie putt on his final hole for a 65 that had him thinking about an HSBC sweep. He won the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship in January, so far his only victory this year.

Fowler was particularly efficient on the par 5s, reaching two of them in two shots for eagle chances and leaving a simple up-and-down on the 14th hole for another birdie. He also chipped in from just off the green on the 17th.

Fowler was at PGA of America headquarters in Florida for the official arrival of the gold Ryder Cup trophy (he also accompanied it to Arnold Palmer’s memorial service). And while the buzz of winning is starting to wane, he rode some of that momentum into China.

Fowler had never won a Ryder Cup match until teaming with Phil Mickelson in a fourballs victory in the opening session at Hazeltine. He also beat Justin Rose in singles, and while it was a team victory, it felt like more.

“For me, finding a way to get a win in a singles match was big,” Fowler said. “It’s a team victory, but I felt like I did my part to help the team. Coming out of that with a 2-1 record instead of 1-2 was important to me.”

He didn’t see another golf course for two weeks until getting back to work last week in Florida, determined to clean up his tee-to-green game, and that’s what carried him in the first round of the HSBC Champions.

That wasn’t the case for U.S. Open champion, who hit only seven fairways and wasn’t able to use his length in soft conditions to attack the par 5s. Johnson also missed a couple of short birdie chances early and finished with only one birdie in a round of 74.

Scoring wasn’t a problem for so many other players.

Knox played in the group with Fowler and Paul Casey, and they combined to make 16 birdies and an eagle. Knox, Daniel Berger and Hideki Matsuyama were at 66, while Casey joined Bill Haas and Francesco Molinari were at 65. Nineteen players in the 78-man field broke 70.

Rory McIlroy wasn’t among them. He made only two birdies, dropped a shot on the 18th and had to settle for a 71.

As great a round as Karlberg played, it was a quiet one for the Swede. He said there only a dozen or so people watching, and the Chinese gallery was so quiet that there were times he didn’t know how close he had hit it because no one cheered.

“They are a bit quiet when it comes to if they should applaud or not, especially I think a guy as me who shows up that is not one of the ‘super heroes,”’ he said with a smile, referring to the HSBC Champions promotion of top players. “We hit a few shots that were just spot on, and I looked at my caddie … ‘Is that long or short?’ I don’t know, they were a little scared to applaud you.”

He at least has experience in these parts. Karlberg played the Asian Tour for five years before getting his European Tour card, and he has a good understanding of the greens, putting aggressively on them.

SHANGHAI – Rory McIlroy is replacing his Nike driver and two fairway metals this week at the HSBC Champions as he begins to search for new equipment.

Nike announced in August that it was getting out of the hard equipment business _ clubs and golf balls _ to concentrate more on its longtime strength of shoes and apparel. McIlroy, at No. 3 in the world, is the highest-ranked player in Nike’s golf stable.

“Honestly, I didn’t envision having anything in my bag until the end of the season,” McIlroy said. “Look, I’m playing well. I’ll leave it. But I brought a few clubs out to Dubai to try out and test. I hit them and I was like, ‘This is good.”’

He is using the TaylorMade M2 driver, 3-wood and 5-wood at Sheshan International.

McIlroy won the Deutsche Bank Championship and the Tour Championship to capture his first FedEx Cup. A week later, he went 3-2-0 in the Ryder in a European loss. The HSBC Champions begin a stretch in of three tournaments in four weeks to close out his European Tour season.

McIlroy, a four-time major champion, signed with Nike in 2013.

He went back to a Scotty Cameron putter for the FedEx Cup playoffs, though McIlroy plans to stick with the Nike irons, at least through the end of the year. He said Nike recently made him a fresh set of irons.

How long that lasts depends on what he finds at the end of the year. McIlroy said when his season ends at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, he plans to test equipment from every major manufacturer.

“The hardest part will be the golf ball,” he said. “I need something that works. And right now, the Nike golf ball works with the TaylorMade drive and woods, but it also works with everything else in my bag, which is perfect.”

He said Nike has stocked up enough golf balls to last him two to three years. That doesn’t mean he won’t change golf balls, but “at least I have that option.”

Nike has some three dozen players using its equipment, a roster that includes Tiger Woods. He was using the Nike clubs at a clinic at Pebble Beach two weeks ago. Woods has not played since August 2015, and his next tournament is likely the Hero World Challenge the first weekend in December in the Bahamas.

Paul Casey used a TaylorMade driver for one round at the Safeway Open last week. Kevin Chappell, who finished a career-high eighth on the PGA Tour money list last year, also switched to the TaylorMade driver for the HSBC Champions and to the Titleist golf ball.

According to one player, Nike has said it will honour contracts but that it will pay only 50 cents on the dollar if a player signs another equipment deal.

McIlroy is not in a rush to sign any deal.

“I’m going to enjoy the luxury of being able to play with what I want because it’s the best for me,” he said. “All of this, the whole Nike thing that happened, one of the great things is that it’s given me freedom to say, ‘Let’s go to market. Let’s see what works absolutely 100 per cent for me.”’

Chappell also had the Nike irons in his bag at Sheshan International, though he started testing new clubs during his two weeks after the Tour Championship. Like McIlroy, he said he was looking for the “best 14 clubs” he could find.

“If someone wants to endorse me for using them, then great,” he said.

SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of – The PGA Tour expanded its Asia swing to three tournaments Monday by adding a new event in South Korea with a limited field and a $9.25 million purse.

The size of the purse for the 78-man field at The CJ Cup would trail only The Players Championship, the majors, and the World Golf Championships. The field would be comprised of the top 60 players available from the previous year’s FedEx Cup. The other 18 will be determined by exemption to be decided later.

The CJ Cup is scheduled for Oct. 19-22 at Nine Bridges, located on Jeju Island off South Korea’s southern coast.

The tournament will be in the middle of the Asia swing, which starts with the CIMB Classic in Malaysia (Oct. 12-15) and ends with the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai on Oct. 26-29.

The PGA Tour first went to South Korea a year ago for the Presidents Cup at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea in Incheon.

“We had such a phenomenal experience in Korea last year at the Presidents Cup, and we hoped an official, permanent event in this great country would be the result of that success,” said Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour’s deputy commissioner.

Title sponsor CJ Corporation agreed to a 10-year deal.

CJ is a South Korean conglomerate that already is involved in golf. It sponsored an LPGA Tour event at Nine Bridges from 2002 to 2005, and it was the sponsor of an Asian Tour event, the CJ Invitational, from 2011 to 2013. It also sponsors Korean players such as Byeong Hun An and Si Woo Kim.

The PGA Tour has 12 players from South Korea on its international roster this year, second only to the 15 from Australia among countries outside the United States. Last year there were 20 South Koreans who were members of either the PGA Tour or the Web.com Tour.

“Partnering with a respected business leader like the CJ Corporation means this tournament will be on the Korean sports landscape for years to come,” Monahan said. “We have a tremendous population of Korean golfers on the PGA Tour, and we anticipate that will continue as The CJ Cup … inspires a new generation of players, not only in Korea, but also around the world.”

The tournament will be run by the PGA Tour’s championship management division. The CIMB Classic in Malaysia is co-sanctioned with the Asian Tour, while the HSBC Champions is run by the International Federation of PGA Tours, with the European Tour serving as the lead tour.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Justin Thomas completed a fairytale return to the CIMB Classic with a successful title defence after eight birdies in the final round Sunday earned him a three-shot victory over closest rival Hideki Matsuyama.

The American did not match his record tournament score of 26-under 262 in 2015, but still finished with an impressive 23 under for only his second PGA Tour title.

“It’s great to win again here. It’s a place I’m comfortable with … Hopefully I will be able to come back next year,” said Thomas, who shot a 64 to match his first-day score.

Overnight leader Anirban Lahiri, who led the field by four shots into the final round, lost ground after a quadruple bogey on the third hole, after his tee shot went into a tree.

The Indian recovered admirably with a birdie and eagle in the next two holes, but the early setback meant he only settled in joint third with Derek Fathauer (67).

“I got unlucky with the tee shot and just compounded my errors. My short game again, coming up a little bit to bite me,” said Lahiri, the 2015 Asian Tour Order of Merit winner.

Marc Leishman (66) finished one shot away from Lahiri in fifth, with Keegan Bradley (68) one spot below him on 16 under.