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Rory McIlroy beat Anthony Kim with a par on the first playoff hole to win the Shanghai Masters and its $2 million top prize, the richest in all of golf. McIlroy entered the final round with a three-shot lead, and missed an eight-foot birdie putt on the last hole that would have given him the victory without the hassle of laying one more hole.

The 22-year-old from Northern Ireland felt it was a step forward in his career that he could still nail down a win on a day when he wasn’t playing his best golf. “It’s something that I feel like I can still get better at is winning and putting yourself in the position to win when you’re not playing your best,” said McIlroy, who turned in an even-par final round to end the tournament at 18-under. “Even if it’s scrappy golf where you grind it out, you’re going to win a lot more tournaments by doing that rather than playing your best golf the whole week. I was very happy I was able to pull this one out.”

Kim held the lead for a few holes on the back nine, but missed a five-foot birdie putt on No. 15 to fall back into a tie with McIlroy. Hunter Mahan and and Noh Seung-yul of Korea tied for third, five shots behind Kim and McIlroy, and World Number Two Lee Westwood was another shot back in fifth place.

Elsewhere in Asia, Bo Van Pelt ran away with the Asia Pacific Classic in Malaysia, winning by six strokes over fellow American Jeff Overton. It was a dream come true of sorts for Van Pelt. “I’ve watched other guys coming down 18 with a big lead and I thought, ‘That would be fun some day if I could do that,'” said Van Pelt, who finished at 23-under for the tournament after shooting 7-under 64 in his final round. “And it was. I feel like the luckiest guy in the world.” Van Pelt won a mere $1.3 million for his trouble.