Ryan Moore wins CIMB Classic

Ryan Moore birdied the first playoff hole to beat Gary Woodland and capture the CIMB Classic title on Monday morning, after an overnight delay caused by storms and darkness.

Moore had to fight just to get in the playoff, getting up-and-down from 60-yards on the 72nd hole to salvage a par, meaning that he and Woodland both finished level at 14-under-par.

In the playoff, Moore hit an eight-iron to five feet from the hole, setting up his winning birdie putt. “I had a great opportunity there on 18 with my third shot and it was just an absolute perfect number,” said Moore. “It was coincidentally the exact shot I was working on on the range.”

It was Moore’s third PGA Tour title and comes nearly a year after he won his second at the 2012 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

Woodland, who was also trying to win his third PGA Tour title, had a chance to end things in steady rain on Sunday evening, but he just missed a 10-foot birdie putt on the 18th that would have given him the title. “Obviously I’d like to make that putt,” he said. “I hit it where I wanted to, it just broke more. I can see it now (in better light) that it broke a little more, but it is what it is.”

In the playoff Woodland pulled his approach, leaving himself a difficult chip shot from the rough that he couldn’t hole for birdie. Still, it’s been a remarkable turnaround in form over the past few months for the American, who has struggled with wrist injuries in recent years and a loss of form that had sent his world golf ranking plummeting to 268th this summer.