Lin Wen Tang celebrates after winning the Hong Kong Open golf tournament. Photograph: Kin Cheung/AP

Chinese Taipei’s Lin Wen-tang bounced back from a final-hole blunder to edge a thrilling play-off and win the Hong Kong Open — his first victory on the European Tour. The Asian Tour regular missed a birdie putt from six feet on the 72nd hole of regulation play and was forced into a three-way play-off with Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy and Francesco Molinari of Italy, who all finished 15 under par.

Molinari could only par the first play-off hole on the par-four 18th while Lin and McIlroy both birdied, forcing them into another face-off. McIlroy, 19, then sent his tee shot into a crowd of spectators to the left of the fairway but recovered to send his approach shot on to the edge of the green. Lin, meanwhile, hit the fairway from the tee before hitting a superb second shot to within a foot of the pin. After McIlroy missed his birdie putt, the 34-year-old applied the easy finish to become the first Asian in a decade to win the tournament.

“To hit two tees in a play-off, you can’t beat that,” said McIlroy, who failed to make the cut in Hong Kong last year at the start of his first full season on the European Tour. “It was not meant to be but it still has been a great week for me. I couldn’t have done much more.”

The Englishman Oliver Wilson, who had led the field for much of the tournament, could only manage a final-round 71 to finish in the pack three shots behind Lin, while Wilson’s countryman and namesake Oliver Fisher saw his chances evaporate during a third-round 73. His final-round 64 was in vain.

Jason Hak, the 14-year-old who became the youngest player to make the cut on a European Tour event, finished with his best round of the tournament, a three-under-par 68, to finish with a four-round total of 281, 16 shots behind the leaders.

guardian.co.uk