Rookie Popovic wins Aussie PGA, Schwartzel laps the field at the Dunhill

COOLUM, Australia -- Australasian Tour rookie Daniel Popovic completed an improbable wire-to-wire victory in the Australian PGA, shooting a 3-under 69 earlier this morning for a four-stroke victory.

Popovic finished at 16-under 272 at the Palmer Coolum resort. The Australian opened with rounds of 64, 70 and 69.

Rod Pampling birdied the first six holes to take the lead after nine holes, but dropped four strokes on the final three holes -- making bogeys on 16 and 17 and a double bogey on 18 -- to fall into a tie for second with fellow Australian Anthony Brown. Pampling had a 69, and Brown shot 71.

Popovic nearly quit golf earlier this year to care for his seriously ill father.

Pampling looked set for his first win since the Australian Masters in 2008. He has two wins on the U.S. PGA Tour, the last in 2006 at the Bay Hill Invitational. This year, he finished just outside the top 125, 127th place to lose his PGA tour card, then failed at qualifying school two weeks ago, meaning he will have only conditional status next year in the U.S.

Errant tee shots on 16 and 17 led to bogeys, then his approach on 18 went into the water.

Geoff Ogilvy, trying to be among the top three here to ensure he'd finish inside the top 50 in year-end world ranking and earn a spot in the U.S. Masters next year. But shot 69 a Sunday and tied for fourth, a stroke short.

Meanwhile is South Africa.  http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2013/tournamentid=2012096/leaderboard/index.html?showLeaderboard=Y

MALELANE, South Africa --  Charl Schwartzel won by a huge margin for the second week running as the South African coasted to a comprehensive 12 shot victory in the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek.

A winner by 11 shots in Thailand last Sunday, the talk at the start of the day was not whether the 28 year old would win an eighth European Tour title, but if he could better Tiger Woods’ 15-shot winning margin at the 2000 US Open Championship in doing so. That remains the largest in European Tour history.
A third straight 64 would have seen last year’s Masters Tournament champion equal Ernie Els’ record 29 under par total, but as it was Schwartzel settled for a three under par 69 and 24 under total on a final day disrupted by thunderstorms.

Schwartzel's return to full fitness and form has become clear after he struggled for much of 2012 with a torn chest muscle.

In his last five tournaments, he has finished fifth at the South African Open, tied for third at the season-ending World Tour Championship in Dubai, second at the Nedbank Golf Challenge, won in Thailand, now wins again here. He collected the Alfred Dunhill title in 2004 for his first career win on the European Tour


BryanA  ( stories from CP and AP)