PERTH, Australia – Brett Rumford beat Phachara Khongwatmai of Thailand 2 and 1 in the final round of match play Sunday to claim the first World Super 6 tournament title near where he grew up in West Australia.

Rumford led by five strokes at 17-under 199 after 54 holes of stroke play in the experimental golf tournament at Lake Karrinyup Country Club in Western Australia, which is being sanctioned by the European, Asian and Australasian tours.

Eliminations during three rounds of stroke play whittled the field down to 24 for five six-hole rounds of match play on Sunday. The top eight seeded players, including Nova Scotia’s Austin Connelly, had a first-round bye.

Connelly’s strong debut on the European Tour came to a close in a 2&1 loss to Australian Matthew Millar. The Team Canada graduate will take home € 25,567 for his efforts.

Favourite Louis Oosthuizen, who had a share of second spot at 12 under going into the match play, lost to Adam Bland in the quarterfinals after hitting his tee shot into a bunker on the third shootout hole and then missing a long par putt.

Rumford beat Bland in the semifinals and then was too consistent against 17-year-old Phachara.

The 39-year-old Rumford underwent surgery in 2015 to have a section of his small intestine removed after falling ill in South Africa and lost his European Tour card last year during a long winless stretch, but has earned back full status with his first win on the tour since 2013.

“All I can say it has been a really, really tough week,” Rumford said. “You’re looking at the last six holes pretty much to win a 72-hole golf tournament _ so it comes down to the nitty gritty of that same feeling of trying to win a golf tournament.

“It was a unique challenge in trying to win a golf championship and feeling that same emotions, tension and pressure for six holes in four straight matches.”

Rumford said it was great to be back, and he was happy he could win in front of his wife and twin daughters.

“It has been a pretty tough road last year and the year before that was even tougher with my surgery,” he said. “I only saw my daughters, my twin girls, for four weeks in six months and I sort of completely fell out of love with the game and my direction in life.

“But it’s really nice to get my tour card back and I feel I’ve got back my worth back as a golfer again.”

PERTH, Australia – Brett Rumford of Australia shot a 4-under 68 on Saturday to lead the World Super 6 tournament by five strokes and guarantee himself a bye in the first round of match play.

Rumford had a 17-under total of 199 in the tournament at Lake Karrinyup Country Club in Western Australia, which is being sanctioned by the European, Australian and Asian tours.

Tied for second on Saturday were former British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen (67), Canadian Austin Connelly (66) and Australians Jason Scrivener (66), Adam Blyth (68), Lucas Herbert (69) and Steven Jeffress (66). All will receive first-round byes in the six-hole match play on Sunday for being in the top eight after three rounds.

The tournament was cut to 24 players after the third round.

A purpose-built 90-meter (295-foot) hole has been constructed at Lake Karrinyup for the tournament, with a new tee placed adjacent to the 18th fairway and utilizing the 18th green. It will be played out once and if players remain tied at the end of match play, they will return to the new tee to hit one shot and whoever gets closest to the pin will be the winner.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Tiger Woods withdrew from the Dubai Desert Classic on Friday with back spasms after shooting an opening-round 77 a day earlier, marking another frustrating start to his return to golf from a lengthy injury layoff.

Woods’ manager, Mark Steinberg, said Woods had back spasms on Thursday night after dinner.

“Tiger Woods went into a spasm in his lower back fairly late last night … got treatment done early this morning for 3 1-2 hours, but can’t get it out,” Steinberg said. “He says it’s not the nerve, but back spasm, and he can’t get the spasms to calm down. He can move around, but he can’t make a full rotation in his swing.”

Woods made a comeback after multiple back surgeries after a 16-month layoff, and was expected to play four times in five weeks, starting from last week’s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, where he missed the cut.

The European Tour, without giving a reason, announced his withdrawal on Friday before Woods began his second round in Dubai.

After his opening round, Woods said: “I wasn’t in pain at all … I was just trying to hit shots and I wasn’t doing a very good job.”

Last week in San Diego, Woods returned to the PGA Tour and lasted only two days.

Woods never got anything going after starting with a birdie in the Farmers Insurance Open and didn’t come close to making the cut. He missed a 12-foot birdie putt on his final hole on the North Course for an even-par 72 and missed the cut at Torrey Pines for the first time in his career.

Woods was coming off the longest layoff of his career as he recovered from two back surgeries. He had last played on the PGA Tour in August 2015 at the Wyndham Championship, where he tied for 10th. He played in the Bahamas the first week of December in an unofficial event with an 18-man field and no cut.

After Dubai, Woods has a week off before playing back-to-back weeks on both ends of the country, Los Angeles (Genesis Open) and Florida (Honda Classic).

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Henrik Stenson won the Race to Dubai title for the second time in four years on Sunday, and Matthew Fitzpatrick claimed the biggest victory of his short career at the World Tour Championship.

Fourth-ranked Stenson shot 7-under 65 in the final round on the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates to stay ahead of his rivals in the year-long race. The Swede earned a bonus of $1.25 million as the European Tour’s top player.

The 40-year-old Stenson, who also won the Race to Dubai in 2013, ended Sunday on 12-under 276 in a four-way tie for ninth, which included Rory McIlroy (65).

“I’ve always thought it was going to be hard to top 2013, but I think I’ve done that this year,” said British Open champion Stenson. “Maybe not to the level of golf over six months, but certainly with the highlights of winning the Open, (silver at) the Olympics and taking the Race to Dubai again.”

Stenson’s closest rival in the Race to Dubai, Masters champion Danny Willett, remained second after finishing tied 50th in the tournament with a 70, some 11 shots adrift of Stenson.

Fitzpatrick, who earned his card exactly two years ago, shot 5-under 67 to finish on 17-under 271. The 22-year-old Englishman finished one stroke ahead of compatriot Tyrrell Hatton (68), who had a bogey on the final hole after his tee shot trickled into the stream that bisects the fairway.

“I love playing golf obviously, but it’s been a long year for me,” said Fitzpatrick, who is expected to move into the top 30 from his current 51st ranking. “This means the world … For me to win on the final week of the year is special.”

Fitzpatrick survived a scare on the 15th hole when he pulled his tee shot into thick trees, but the ball somehow kicked back into the rough and he made par from there.

South African Charl Schwartzel (67) was two shots further behind in third.

Overnight leader, France’s Victor Dubuisson (72), was among those tied fourth at 275. That group included Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger (68), Italian Francesco Molinari (70), Dane Soren Kjeldsen (68) and Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts (71).

The Race to Dubai did not need any major calculations when leader Stenson finished best among the four players in with a chance.

His score of 65 on Sunday tied McIlroy but left behind his two closest rivals, Willett and Sweden’s Alex Noren.

Noren could not reproduce the form that saw him win last week in South Africa which included a sensational 9-under 63. He finished with a double bogey on the 18th for a round of 71, which put him four behind Stenson.

Stenson started the day tied with McIlroy on 5-under, and the two were paired together. Between them, they had 15 birdies, three bogeys and one eagle – McIlroy on the par-5 No. 7.

For Stenson, “it’s been a great year, the best year of my career.”

Stenson’s first victory this season came as late as June, when he won the BMW International Open in Munich with a three-stroke victory. He then went toe-to-toe with Phil Mickelson at the Open, with Stenson shooting the lowest ever final round (63) by a winner.

GIRONA, Spain –  Y.E. Yang and former Ryder Cup player Edoardo Molinari were among the 30 golfers to earn a European Tour card for the 2017 season on Thursday following the final round of Q School.

On one of the most nerve-racking days on the European golfing calendar, the high-profile names in the 156-player field all came through safely after six rounds at PGA Catalunya just outside Barcelona.

Unfortunately, Canada’s Austin Connelly wasn’t as lucky.

The former Team Canada member, who enjoys dual citizenship from Canada and the U.S., fell just a single-shot shy of joining a group of players tied for 25th place –  the cut-off mark for qualifying.

Connelly bogeyed his final hole, which would have given him a share of 25th.

The Church Point N.S., native was the lone Canaidan in the field.

There was a tension-filled end to the day for Englishmen Jamie Rutherford and Gary King, Jaco Ahlers of South Africa, Niclas Johansson of Sweden and Espen Kofstad of Norway, who were all tied for 25th place as Richard McEvoy made his way down the 18th. A birdie for McEvoy would have deprived the quintet of European Tour privileges and forced them to compete next year on the second-tier Challenge Tour, where the prize money is less. However, McEvoy made par and all six got their cards.

For Yang, a Major winner, his seven-year exemption for winning the 2009 U.S. PGA Championship expired this year, meaning he had to go to qualifying school after a disappointing season on the main tour when he had just two top-20 finishes.

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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.

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.”

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.”

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.

JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Tiger Woods will be at Presidents Cup next year with or without his golf clubs.

U.S. captain Steve Stricker said Wednesday he has chosen Woods, Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III and three-time Presidents Cup captain Fred Couples to be his assistants for the matches next year at Liberty National.

International team captain Nick Price said his three assistants would be Ernie Els, Geoff Ogilvy and Tony Johnstone.

Woods was an assistant to Love at Hazeltine when the U.S. won the Ryder Cup over Europe last week.

Woods is to return to competition next week after being out more than a year recovering from back surgery. Stricker says he hopes Woods is at Liberty National as a player. If not, he’ll have him as an assistant captain.