PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Si Woo Kim of South Korea became the youngest winner of The Players Championship with a game and nerves well beyond his 21 years.

On a TPC Sawgrass course where anything can go wrong without notice, Kim was the only player to go bogey-free Sunday and closed with a 3-under 69 for a three-shot victory in golf’s biggest tournament this side of the majors.

He also managed to remove all the suspense.

All that could stop him was the final two holes, when Kim had a two-shot lead and faced a tee shot to an island green, and then a closing hole with water all the way down the left side. Kim hit the 17th green and two-putted from 45 feet, and he smashed another drive right down the middle on 18.

Ian Poulter was the only player to seriously challenge Kim until he ran out of holes. He pushed his approach to the 18th so far to the right that it caromed off hospitality tents and bounced off a cart path into a palmetto bush. He took a penalty drop, then hit wedge over the trees and nearly holed it, tapping in for par.

Poulter closed with a 71. He tied for second with Louis Oosthuizen (73).

Rafa Cabrera Bello of Spain hit 8-iron that bounded off the side of a bunker and into the cup for a 2 on the par-5 16th and shot a 70 to tie for fourth with third-round co-leader Kyle Stanley, who shot 75.

The other co-leader, J.B. Holmes, make a quintuple-bogey 8 on No. 17 and finished with a double bogey to close with an 84.

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