A Bernhard Langer bomb on the 72nd hole has denied Richard Green a maiden PGA TOUR Champions title at the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Arizona.

One of only 10 players in the 36-player field still a mathematical chance of taking out the season-long Charles Schwab Cup, Green’s hopes looked dashed through two rounds at Phoenix Country Club.

He responded with weekend rounds of 63-65 capped by a 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole and a back nine of 5-under 30 to set the clubhouse mark at 17-under par.

Langer and Kiwi Steven Alker stood on the final tee both at 17-under, yet when Langer hit his tee shot left and Alker hit his approach shot long over the back of the green, Green was suddenly sitting pretty.

Yet, as he had done 46 times previously on the Champions Tour, Langer poured in his birdie putt from long range to claim victory and relegate Green to a second-place finish for a fifth time this season.

His tie for second was enough for Green to lift three spots to third in the final Charles Schwab Cup standings, Alker the season champion for the second time in third years.

“It was a little hard getting going early, but once I sort of got the momentum on my side the back nine, it was just a matter of making the right decisions and playing my game as good as I possibly could and trying to execute the shots needed,” said Green, who finished the year with more than $US2 million in prize money.

“We had a couple opportunities that I even felt let slip, but still really nice to finish the way I did.”

As the PGA TOUR Champions season came to a close, Queenslander Scott Hend kept alive his hopes of winning the Legends Tour Order of Merit in Europe.

With two events left in the season, Hend’s third place finish at the Farmfoods European Senior Masters in Spain saw him bridge the gap to Order of Merit leader Adilson Da Silva.

Trailing Englishman Simon Griffiths by two after a bogey-free 7-under 66 in Round 2, Hend had drawn level with four birdies in the space of six holes to close out the front nine.

Dropped shots at 10 and 12 would prove costly, an eagle at the final hole enough to secure outright third three shots back of Griffiths.

The DP World Tour season finale will feature two Australians as Min Woo Lee and Adam Scott both maintained their position inside the top 50 in the Race to Dubai Rankings.

Lee produced four sub-70 rounds to finish tied for 23rd at the Abu Dhabi Championship with Scott closing with a round of 7-under 65 to finish tied for 46th and 16th entering the DP World Tour Championship.

Grace Kim’s tie for 11th was a strong result in defence of her LOTTE Championship title in Hawaii while Danny List leads the Aussie charge at the halfway mark of Final Stage of DP World Tour Qualifying School in Spain.

Results

PGA TOUR World Wide Technology Championship El Cardonal at Diamante Cabo San Lucas, Los Cabos, Mexico 1 Austin Eckroat 68-67-66-63—264 $US1.296m T64 Aaron Baddeley 71-68-71-75—285 $15,408 MC Tim Wilkinson (NZ) 74-75—149

DP World Tour Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship Yas Links, Abu Dhabi, UAE 1 Paul Waring 64-61-73-66—264 €1,419,771.15 T23 Min Woo Lee 69-67-68-69—273 €88,109.33 T37 David Micheluzzi 69-68-70-69—276 €52,615.05 T46 Adam Scott 71-67-75-65—278 €38,417.34 Qualifying School – Final Stage Infinitum Golf (Lakes & Hills Cses), Tarragona, Spain Through three of six rounds 1 Edoardo Molinari 65-61-72—198 T4 Danny List 72-63-69—204 T22 Brett Coletta 66-74-66—206 T37 Sam Jones (NZ) 69-66-73—208 T44 Haydn Barron 77-61-71—209 T79 Hayden Hopewell 68-74-68—210 T79 Todd Sinnott 74-68-68—210 T111 Tom Power Horan 70-73-69—212 T132 Andrew Kelly 72-70-72—214 T141 Cameron John 71-71-74—216 T150 Matthew Griffin 72-77-69—218

LPGA Tour LOTTE Championship Hoakalei Country Club, Ewa Beach, Hawaii 1 A Lim Kim 66-69-67-68—270 $US450,000 T11 Grace Kim 72-68-68-71—279 $52,713 T35 Robyn Choi 70-72-71-72—285 $17,236 T43 Stephanie Kyriacou 70-73-70-73—286 $12,491 MC Hira Naveed 74-72—146

Japan Golf Tour Mitsui Sumitomo VISA Taiheiyo Masters Pacific Club (Gotemba Cse), Shizuoka 1 Ryo Ishikawa 66-71-65-67—269 ¥40m T23 Brad Kennedy 72-69-68-69—278 ¥1.86m T69 Michael Hendry (NZ) 73-73—146 Korean PGA Tour KPGA Tour Championship Cypress Golf & Resort, Korea 1 Daihan Lee 67-67-66-66—266 T49 Sungjin Yeo (NZ) 71-73-70-71—285

PGA TOUR Champions Charles Schwab Cup Championship Phoenix Country Club, Phoenix, Arizona 1 Bernhard Langer 69-64-67-66—266 $US528,000 T2 Richard Green 71-68-63-65—267 $276,000 T2 Steven Alker (NZ) 70-68-63-66—267 $276,000 5 Rod Pampling 69-72-65-68—274 $180,000 T15 Greg Chalmers 74-69-69-66—278 $61,500 T17 Mark Hensby 70-69-73-67—279 $55,500 T26 Cameron Percy 70-68-78-68—284 $22,950 33 Stuart Appleby 75-72-71-70—288 $18,750 Legends Tour Farmfoods European Senior Masters La Manga Club, Murcia, Spain 1 Simon Griffiths 64-70-68—202 3 Scott Hend 70-66-69—205 T15 Michael Campbell (NZ) 73-70-67—210 T38 Michael Long (NZ) 74-69-75—218