What happened next beggared belief. Playing the 18th again, Molinari and McIlroy both found the fairway, while Lin tugged his drive into a seemingly impossible position behind trees in the left rough. After Molinari wedged on, Lin took a gamble and fired his approach through the foliage, over the greenside bunker to within four feet of the cup. It was as miraculous escape as could possibly be imagined. The cheers were deafening.
But then McIlroy, who had lost in a play-off just two months earlier , struck his own brilliant shot to three feet for a certain birdie. Dumbstruck by what he had just seen, Molinari then missed his putt to fall out of the running, while Lin, who had missed exactly the same putt only moments before, held his nerve brilliantly to find the bottom of the hole and extend the play-off.
Standing on the 18th tee for the third time of the afternoon, it was McIlroy's turn to find trouble. Using his hybrid, his drive bounced off the Out of Bounds fence that lines the left side of the hole and finished in a horrible position at the bottom of a tree, not far from where Lin had made his great escape.
Buoyed by his good fortune, Lin struck what looked to be a winning drive down the middle of the fairway. But then it was McIlroy’s turn to produce some magic. With 118 yards to go, but with no sight of the pin, the 19-year-old kid from Portrush snap-hooked a gap-wedge loaded with spin that somehow caught the back of the green and stopped within 12 feet of the flag. High-fiving his caddie, the Irishman was justifiably delighted – but only for a moment, because Lin then pulled off another gem, firing his own wedge to within inches for a cast-iron birdie. Whipping his cap off to the howls of the crowd, it was this shot, rather than his previous miracle approach that showed his sheer determination to win.
Up at the green, McIlroy faced a ghastly birdie putt: lighting quick, downhill and with significant right-to-left break. Perhaps not surprisingly, his effort sailed past, and after knocking it in for par the stage was set for Lin, 50 years after Mr Lu had won the inaugural championship, to tap his in for the greatest of victories.
