Rory McIlroy, the Northern Ireland teenager, lost out to Taiwan’s Lin Wen-tang in a dramatic climax to the Hong Kong Open.

Lin birdied the second playoff hole to edge out McIlroy and Francesco Molinari to become the event’s first Asian winner in a decade.

The three players had finished the co-sanctioned tournament on 15 under and Italy’s Molinari was the first to be eliminated on the opening extra hole when he could manage only a par-four on the 18th before a packed gallery.

Lin appeared to blow his chances on the same hole when he pulled a drive into the rough.

However, he nailed an audacious 150-yard wedge shot through a tiny gap in the trees to land his approach to within six feet of the pin and made a birdie to force a second-hole playoff with Northern Ireland’s McIlroy.

“At first I didn’t know what to do…but I told myself to do my best to hit this shot towards the green and maybe God helped me, because I made it,” Lin said.

On the next hole, the 18th again, McIlroy scuffed his drive into the left rough, while Lin drove straight down the fairway and chipped to within inches of the cup to set up his biggest victory.

The last Asian to win the Hong Kong Open was South Korea’s Kang Wook-soon in 1998.

Lin had earlier squandered a chance to win the tournament in regulation play, missing a short birdie putt on the 18th after a brilliant approach left him a few feet short of the cup.

The 34-year-old, who turned professional in 1996, is one of the island’s top golfers with three Asian Tour victories under his belt.

Overnight leader Oliver Wilson again failed to live up to his promise and clinch a first professional win, the Briton fading over the back nine to finish a disappointing sixth.

Wilson, who has finished second eight times, started strongly with a birdie on the first hole but his putting let him down as he notched up a string of 11 pars and three late bogeys.

Germany’s Bernhard Langer, who was a contender to become the European Tour’s oldest champion at 51, failed to maintain his sizzling earlier form, finishing three shots off the pace at 12 under overall.

Thailand’s Chawalit Plaphol and Spain’s Pablo Larrazabal finished at 13 under, while the Asian Tour’s top golfer Jeev Milkha Singh of India was 11 under.

The 19-year-old McIlroy gave a taste of his potential with some inspired golf and showed maturity beyond his years against a field packed with experienced professionals.

“As long as I can keep putting myself in these positions and feeling the nerves and the adrenaline, I’ll know I’m doing things right,” McIlroy said.

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Surgeons in Madrid have successfully completed a third operation on golfer Seve Ballesteros to reduce swelling from his brain tumour.

“In that operation the targets originally planned have been achieved and has eliminated the oedema and the remnants of the tumour,” a statement from Madrid’s La Paz hospital read.

“The patient is stable … and is currently controlled in the intensive care unit”.

The operation on the 51-year-old, led by La Paz’s chief brain surgeon Javier Heredero, lasted 6-1/2 hours.

Ballesteros is suffering from an oligoastrocytoma, a tumour that affects two types of brain cell, and spreads diffusely inside the brain cavity.

He was admitted to hospital on Oct 13 after collapsing at the airport in Madrid when bound for a golf show in Munich.

His first operation called for a follow-on procedure two days later in which a section of skull was removed – a decompressive craniectomy – to allow for the initial brain swelling.

There was some mildly encouraging news around the weekend when the hospital said that Ballesteros had woken up on the day after the second surgery – and that they had noted that his reactions were satisfactory before putting him back under sedation.

However, further bleeding and a loss of consciousness necessitated today’s operation.

Tiger Woods has said he is “very confident” that he will compete in the Masters next April, even though his doctors have yet to name a date when he can start playing again following knee surgery.

Woods said: “If I have six months off from surgery, that puts me into January – and another four months puts me at 10 months. I figure I can come back after 10 months.

“Generally it’s between six to nine months when American football players are able to come back and if they can do it at that level, I hope I can do it in golf.”

However, Woods balanced his optimism with caution. “You have to let the ligament heal,” he said. “It has to get more taut. I don’t want to stretch it out because I don’t want to have it go back to where it was.” Keeping it taut means that the world No 1 must stay “on a straight plane” rather than attempt anything in the way of rotation.

Woods has not taken a full swing since the US Open at Torrey Pines in June. That was the week when he defeated Rocco Mediate on what he called a “play-off play-off” to bag his 14th major.

He had an operation the next week in which the tendon from his right knee was used to replace the damaged anterior cruciate ligament in his left leg.

On Monday, when he appeared at Torrey Pines as caddie for the winner of a Buick sweepstake, Woods did not have any problems as he stepped out of his buggy to study the lines of putts.

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