Golf: Kiwi wins some PGA perks

CORAL SPRINGS - Jesper Parnevik held on to win the Honda Classic in Florida yesterday, as New Zealand's Craig Perks had his best day on the USPGA Tour.

Parnevik shot an even-par 72 yesterday, closing at 18 under and beating Perks, Mark Calcavecchia and Geoff Ogilvy by one stroke for his first win this season on the tour.

Perks (66), Calcavecchia (70) and Ogilvy (69) finished in a three-way tie for second.

Each of the top four finishers bogeyed the par-4 No 18.

Palmerston North's Perks pocketed $US238,933 ($570,039) for his efforts, which catapulted him into 49th spot on the tour's money-earning list.

Fellow New Zealanders Frank Nobilo and Grant Waite, neither of whom played at the weekend, are 55th and 103rd respectively.

Perks picked up six shots in yesterday's final round to surge up the leaderboard after starting the day tied for 13th on 11-under.

Calcavecchia missed a 4.5m putt that would have forced a playoff with Parnevik.

"I'm obviously pretty disappointed right now," said Calcavecchia. "I goofed. I had my chances. I'm not going to say Jesper didn't deserve to win, but I blew it."

Parnevik took a three-stroke lead into the final round but it was gone at the turn.

After Parnevik bogeyed the par-5 No. 9, Australian Ogilvy took the lead on the 11th by making a 12m putt from the front of the green.

The 36-year-old Swede, who stands out with his plaid pants, colorful shirts and flipped-up hat, was still a shot adrift as he approached the par-3 No. 11.

Parnevik answered with a birdie and held on from there - with some assistance.

Ogilvy gave strokes back on the 15th and 18th holes.

He was equally as frustrated as Calcavecchia, kicking his bag over after he signed his scorecard.

Not so Parnevik.

"I'll take it any way I can get it," he said. "It's more a relief than happiness. You never want to win that way."

Still he won for the fifth time on the PGA Tour and collected $US576,000 ($1.37 million) for the victory.

In Doha, another New Zealand player, Elliot Boult had an excellent finish to take third place in the Qatar Masters yesterday.

Zimbabwe's Tony Johnstone, who almost quit golf in January, produced a brilliant final round to claim his sixth European Tour title, carding a superb closing 70 at a windswept Doha Golf Club, to leave overnight leader Robert Karlsson of Sweden in second place.

Johnstone birdied two of the last three holes for a 14-under-par 274. Boult shot a final-round 1-under 71 to finish up two shots behind Karlsson in third with France's Olivier Edmond and Scotland's Dean Robertson joint fourth on nine under par.

It was a remarkable turnaround in fortunes for Johnstone who despaired so much over the state of his putting just two months ago that he considered becoming "a window cleaner on very tall buildings".

After the third round of the Dimension Data event in South Africa in January he told his wife that he had reached the end of his tether and would not play another tournament unless he cured his putting woes.

Step forward eye specialist Ken West and coach Simon Holmes, the pair deciding that Johnstone was standing too close to the ball for a man with disproportionately long arms and the results speak for themselves.

- AGENCIES