Byeong-hun An marches to BMW PGA Championship

Sports Writer Derek Clements reports from Wentworth

WHILE all around him were floundering, Byeong-hun  An, of South Korea, strode magnificently to win the BMW PGA championship at Wentworth by six shots. He was utterly dominant and finished in style with a magnificent round of 65 and a four-round total of 267, an incredible 21 under par.

Remember the name, because you will be hearing a lot more of it. He wants it to be known that we should call him Ben and, after the quality of golf he displayed to win this title in his rookie season on the European Tour, he is entitled to be called anything that he chooses. But Ben An it is.

He won the US Amateur championship when he was just 17 years old - the youngest player ever to win the world's top amateur event - and finished third on the Challenge Tour in 2014. He is still only 23.

An hits the ball a long, long way, but he there is much more to his game than that. He won this tournament because he putted brilliantly throughout.

He began the final round tied with Francesco Molinari, but on a day when the Italian's putter was stone cold, An went in front at the first hole and was never in danger of being caught.

Early on, Tommy Fleetwood threatened to challenge An with birdies at the first and fourth but he dropped two shots on the front nine and fell back. Fleetwood has been criticised for being unable to finish things off, and this round would have done nothing to fill him with confidence. Alex Noren, or Sweden, was another who briefly looked as if he might put An under pressure but he, too, couldn't keep it going.

Chris Wood had a hole in one on his way to a 66 but he dumped his approach to the final green into the water for a bogey six to finish on 13 under par in fourth place on his own.

Shane Lowry birdied three of the par fives and didn't drop a shot all day as he finished on 11 under par, but he never threatened the leader.

Miguel Angel Jimenez had hoped, aged 51, to become the oldest winner of a championship he has already won, back in 2008 when he was 44. The Spaniard continues to defy the years and is still playing some remarkable golf, but he had left himself too much to do.

Nevertheless, you have to take your hat off to the veteran, who shot a final round of 67 for a 15-under-par total of 273 and a joint second finish. He tied with another veteran, Thongchai Jaidee, of Thailand, who has played the best golf of his life in his forties and threatens to be "the next Jimenez". Jaidee finished with a 69.

Molinari stumbled throughout the final round, dropping shots like confetti, but at least he had the consolation of producing a wonderful shot at the 17th for a birdie four to take him to 12 under par - he had started the day on 14 under.

And so another BMW PGA championship comes to an end. Rory McIlroy missed the cut but, in his absence we have seen the arrival of a golfer who will surely soon be challenging him at the top of the rankings.

Image credit - @BMWPGA