Villegas holds off late Rose bloom in Florida

COLOMBIAN Camilo Villegas landed the Honda Classic title at Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, after holding off a European challenge led by Justin Rose.

Rose shot a sparkling six-under-par 64 in his final round to jump to thirdplace on seven under for the tournament, and fellow Englishman Paul Casey finished a shot behind in a share of fourth place with Fiji’s Vijay Singh.

However, Villegas was not prepared to let his hard-earned lead slip away and he won by five shots from second-placed American Anthony Kim, landing his third PGATour title and a million-dollar payday.

Villegas did drop three strokes in five holes on the back nine, however hefinished in style with a long putt for birdie at the 18th to card a round of 68and a total of 13 under for his week.

That score put him five in front of Kim, who followed Saturday’s 73 with a much-improved 67.

Villegas, who began the week promoting a Nationwide Tour event in his homeland, said: “It’s been a long week but it’s been a good one and I’ve loved every second of it.”

Rose’s round equalled the course record and contained seven birdies, of which five came in his first six holes.

Casey, who followed his opening 73 with a second-round 64, again went under par on Sunday with a classy 67 which included four birdies in five holes from the 12th to 16th.

Singh’s challenge faltered as he made bogeys at 15, 16 and 17 in a two-over round of 72.

Sweden’s Fredrik Jacobson shared sixth place with American Michael Connell after carding 69 for the fourth successive round.

England’s Lee Westwood also tied down a top-10 finish, sharing ninth with Zimbabwe’s Brendon de Jonge and American Chris Tidland after his best round of the week, a 68.

Australian Nathan Green spent most of the tournament near the top of the leaderboard but his challenge crumbled as a closing 77 left him joint 12th onone under par.