Golf: Top-10 result for Smail in Japan

New Zealand golfer David Smail secured a top-10 result in the Japan PGA Championship yesterday.

Smail shared eighth place with four others after a closing round of even par 72 left him on eight-under 280, eight strokes behind the winner, SK Ho, of South Korea.

Ho defended the title he won last year by shooting a final-round 69 to hold off Japan's Hideto Tanihara by two shots.

Ho, 31, became the first player to win successive Japan PGA crowns since Tsuneyuki Nakajima achieved the feat in 1983 and 1984.

He is the first foreign player to win the Japan PGA Championship for two successive years since the triumphs by Larry Montes, of the Philippines, in 1932 and 1933.

- NZPA