By Tony Webeck

Cameron Percy has flirted with a maiden PGA TOUR title on his way to his best finish in more than a decade at the Corales Puntacana Championship in the Dominican Republic.

Starting the final round tied for fourth, an eagle from deep at the par-5 seventh gave the 47-year-old Victorian a share of the lead and the prospect of improving on his tie for second at the 2010 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

A bogey at the 10th was a setback and despite a late birdie at the par-4 16th Percy was unable to keep pace with eventual champion Chad Ramey, shooting five-under 67 to earn a share of fourth just two shots from the winner.

Headed for an eye operation when he returns home, Percy credited an impromptu putting lesson with roommate for the week, Greg Chalmers, for his strong showing on Sunday.

“I’m rooming with Greg Chalmers and he gave me a putting lesson in the room last night and I putted fantastic,” said Percy, who was tied for eighth at Puntacana two years ago.

“My tempo was all off. It was a blast thing you put on your putter. We hit some putts with that and I was all over the place.

“He goes, ‘No, you’ve got to be two-to-one.’ Hit putts for about 45 minutes and it ran out of battery and it was way better today, so it was good.

“At the start of the week if you said I was going to come fourth, I think I’ll take and not play, but played really nicely today.”

It was a solid week too for Chalmers who shot 70 in the final round to earn a tie for 28th but Aaron Baddeley and Brett Drewitt both missed the cut.

Adam Scott was the lone Aussie to make it out of the group stage at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play at Austin Country Club in Texas.

Scott fell to eventual runner-up Kevin Kisner 1 down in the Round of 16, Lucas Herbert failing to advance after losing a playoff to Japan’s Takumi Kanaya following wins over Tony Finau and Xander Schauffele.

Queensland’s Sarah Jane Smith displayed her class to earn a share of second at the Epson Tour’s IOA Championship with Minjee Lee’s tie for 23rd the best of the Aussies at the JTBC Classic on the LPGA Tour, 19-year-old Atthaya Thitikul snaring her first LPGA Tour title in a playoff.

Travis Smyth made a Sunday charge on his way to a top-10 finish at the Asian Tour’s The DGC Open at Delhi Golf Club and Wade Ormsby’s tie for 12th led the Australian charge at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters on the DP World Tour.

Results

WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Austin Country Club, Austin, Texas Final Scottie Scheffler def. Kevin Kisner 4&3

Round of 16 Kevin Kisner def. Adam Scott 1 up

Round 3 results Min Woo Lee tied Tom Hoge Adam Scott def. Jordan Spieth 3&2 Marc Leishman def. Luke List 3&2 Takumi Kanaya def. Lucas Herbert 5&4

Round 2 results Lucas Herbert def. Xander Schauffele 1 up Min Woo Lee def. Thomas Pieters 1 up Adam Scott tied Keegan Bradley                                Justin Thomas def. Marc Leishman 5&4

Round 1 results Lucas Herbert def. Tony Finau 4&3 Adam Scott def. Justin Rose 2 up Kevin Kisner def. Marc Leishman 4&3 Billy Horschel def. Min Woo Lee 3&2

PGA TOUR Corales Puntacana Championship Corales Golf Course, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic Winner Chad Ramey      70-65-69-67—271           $US666,000 T4          Cameron Percy  71-68-67-67—273           $166,500 T28        Greg Chalmers  73-69-69-70—281           $23,749 MC        Aaron Baddeley 75-69—144 MC        Brett Drewitt     73-72—145

DP World Tour Commercial Bank Qatar Masters Doha GC, Doha, Qatar Winner Ewen Ferguson 67-71-73-70—281           €308,344 T12        Wade Ormsby   68-72-73-72—285           €25,836 T27        Jason Scrivener 72-72-69-74—287           €15,870 MC        Scott Hend         77-69—146 MC        Maverick Antcliff             77-70—147

LPGA Tour JTBC Classic Aviara Golf Club, Carlsbad, California Winner Atthaya Thitikul 69-70-69-64—272 T23        Minjee Lee         69-71-70-71—281 T58        Hannah Green   73-69-74-70—286 T68        Katherine Kirk    71-73-72-72—288 T72        Stephanie Kyriacou         73-69-71-78—291 MC        Sarah Kemp       76-73—149

Asian Tour The DGC Open Delhi Golf Club, Delhi, India Winner Nitithorn Thippong         68-70-70-73—281           $US90,000 T10        Travis Smyth      67-73-79-68—287           $8,240 T15        Kevin Yuan         71-75-72-70—288           $6,208 T28        Cory Crawford  72-74-72-76—294           $4,083 66          Blake Collyer     71-76-78-85—310           $1,300 MC        Will Heffernan  78-72—150 MC        Jack Munro        72-78—150 WD        Ben Eccles          76

Korn Ferry Tour Lake Charles Championship Country Club at Golden Nugget, Lake Charles, Louisiana Winner Trevor Werbylo 70-69-64-63—266           $US135,000 Won on the third hole of sudden-death playoff T21        Curtis Luck         66-70-69-69—274           $6,312 T21        Ryan Ruffels      70-67-70-67—274           $6,312 T21        Rhein Gibson     66-71-71-66—274           $6,312 T41        Nick Voke           71-69-66-70—276           $3,488 MC        Harrison Endycott           73-71—144 MC        Steven Bowditch             73-74—147

Epson Tour IOA Championship Morongo Golf Club at Tukwet Canyon, Beaumont, California Winner Linnea Strom     71-67-67—205 T2          Sarah Jane Smith             69-70-69—208 T47        Amelia Garvey   72-71-73—216 T54        Robyn Choi        76-67-74—217 T64        Hira Naveed       70-74-76—220 MC        Soo Jin Lee         76-71—147 MC        Grace Kim           76-72—148 MC        Gabriela Ruffels 73-76—149 MC        Julienne Soo      76-74—150

PGA TOUR Latinoamerica Termas de Rio Hondo Invitational Rio Hondo GC, Rio Hondo, Argentina Winner Kevin Velo          66-67-64-73—270 MC        Louis Dobbelaar              75-70—145 MC        Denzel Ieremia  74-74—148 MC        Tim Stewart       78-74—152

Challenge Tour SDC Open Zebula Golf Estate & Spa, Limpopo, South Africa Winner Clément Sordet 64-66-70-67—267           €35,935 T31        Deyen Lawson   69-65-73-71—278           €2,176 MC        Daniel Hillier      77-75—152