Junghwan Lee delighted jubilant home fans as he surged to his first DP World Tour title at the 2025 Genesis Championship.
The 34-year-old South Korean started the final round four shots behind joint leaders Mikael Lindberg and Nacho Elvira and his challenge looked over before it began with a bogey at the second.
Lee reeled off five straight birdies from the third to catapult up the leaderboard and was one behind Elvira, who was in the solo lead at -10, after another gain at the tenth.
He carded the lowest round of the tournament with his stunning -7 64 at Woo Jeong Hills Country Club after birdies at the 14th and last set the clubhouse target of -11.
Elvira could not keep pace and bogeys at the last two holes saw him hand a three-shot victory to Lee.
As a result, Lee will take up membership on the DP World Tour moving up 224 places, and he will travel to the first event of the DP World Tour Play-Offs #63 at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship next month.
"I feel like I'm in a dream, I still can't believe I won so it's really hard to describe how I'm feeling right now," Lee said.
"I think overall I played very well, but on 12 I had a tee-shot miss and I thought I was done there but I was able to save that ball, and that's when I thought the tables are turning and the gods are looking down on me.
"I really feeling like I'm dreaming. I really, really wanted to go to DP World Tour and I was actually working really hard towards that goal, but somehow I was coming up short a little bit - I was really making the effort - and now I have this really great opportunity. I'm just really grateful."
England's Laurie Canter eagled the last with a putt of 100 feet to sit alongside Elvira in a share of second at -8.
Pavan was joined by Englishman Andy Sullivan and Japan's Yuto Katsuragawa at -7.
Lindberg, home pair Song and Seungbin Choi, Spain's Angel Ayora, Japan's Hideki Matsuyama, Belgian Thomas Detry and American Jordan Gumberg, who eagled the last to keep his card for next season, were one shot further back -6.
europeantour.com
Bryan Angus (edit)
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