J.T. Poston used a burst of birdies to build a comfortable lead in the morning and afternoon, first for a three-shot lead after 54 holes and then to give himself enough cushion to hold on for a 4-under 67 and a one-shot victory Sunday in the Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas.

Poston never trailed since making a 20-foot birdie putt on the 14th hole when he returned to finish the third round. He had two more birdies for a 66 to build a three-shot lead.

He made three birdies in a four-hole stretch on the back nine of the final round and led by four shots with three holes to play. Poston still had to sweat it out to the last putt.

Doug Ghim closed with a 65, making a 6-foot birdie putt on the final hole at the TPC Summerlin to close within one shot. Poston lagged his 45-foot birdie putt to 4 feet and calmly sank that for his third career PGA Tour title.

The winning putt felt a little longer because Poston missed a 6-foot birdie putt on the 16th and a 4-foot par putt on the 17th, either of which would have put the tournament away.

“I just told myself, ‘This is what you dream of, a putt to win on the PGA Tour. Try to forget the last two,’ ” Poston said. “I told myself, ‘I’ve made a million of these. Just do one more.’ ”

The victory assures Poston of returning to the Masters for the third straight year and moving back inside the top 50 in the world.

Hannah Green of Australia shot a 1-under 71 to win the BMW Ladies Championship in Paju, South Korea, her sixth victory on the LPGA Tour and her third this season.

Green finished at 19-under 269 for the tournament and led or shared the lead after all four rounds.

Celine Boutier of France finished one stroke behind Green, shooting a 6-under 66. Chanettee Wannasaen of Thailand shot 68 and was two shots behind the winner.

Tim O’Neal made two birdies on the last three holes and closed with a 7-under 65 to win for the first time on the PGA Tour Champions, a two-shot victory over Ricardo Gonzalez in the Dominion Energy Charity Classic in Richmond, Va.

O’Neal had a one-shot lead for much of the back nine at The Country Club of Virginia until he delivered two of his best shots, a wedge into 6 feet on the par-5 16th and a wedge that landed next to the hole and spun back to 5 feet on the par-5 18th.

Gonzalez missed three birdie chances inside 10 feet down the stretch, forcing him to make eagle on the closing hole to get into a playoff. He missed the fairway to the left, hit a hook into the bunker and had to settle for par and a 69.

For O’Neal, 52, this was a long time coming. He was best know for a pair of heartaches in Q-school as he tried to get onto the PGA Tour, the most crushing in 2000 when he needed bogey on the last hole and made a triple bogey.

He never earned a PGA Tour card, winning three times on the Latin America circuit and three more on smaller European tours.

Frenchman Julien Guerrier needed nine playoff holes in his 230th tournament to claim his first European tour win in Roque, Spain.

Guerrier made an 8-foot par putt on the record-equaling ninth playoff hole to beat Spaniard Jorge Campillo after they finished tied at 21-under par following 72 holes.

Guerrier had forced the playoff by making a 16-foot par putt on the 18th for a final round of 2-under 70.

Campillo also shot 70 in a round that included three bogeys on his final seven holes, including on the 18th to open the door for Guerrier.

FIGURE SKATING

World champion Ilia Malinin won Skate America for the third consecutive year, altering his free skate on the fly after an early mistake and punctuating the program with a backflip that had been banned in competition until this season.

The two-time and reigning U.S. champion scored 290.12 points to finish ahead of Kevin Aymoz of France, whose career-best free skate left him with 282.88 points and earned a standing ovation inside Credit Union of Texas Event Center in Allen, Texas.

Kao Miura of Japan, who was second after his short program, finished third with 278.67 points.

“I was really motivated by Kevin’s skate,” said Malinin, the early favorite for gold at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. “It really excited me and I was so happy for him. It pushed me to really just get going to try to skate that program, and of course it wasn’t what I wanted today. So after the few mistakes, I just tried to regroup and to make a strategy of what I have to do.”

In the ice dance, American world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates were unable to overcome a glaring mistake during their rhythm dance on Saturday, ultimately finishing second to Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson of Britain.

Fear and Gibson wound up with 206.38 points after Sunday’s free skate to become the first non-U.S. team to win Skate America since Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder of France in 2008. Chock and Bates ended with 205.63 points while Olivia Smart and Tim Dieck of Spain earned the bronze medal with 189.44 points.

Malinin and Miura were separated by a mere 0.15 points after their short programs, but it was Aymoz who challenged Malinin for the top of the podium. The 27-year-old from France, who struggled at the end of last season, landed a pair of quads in an error-free program to score 190.84 points — the best of all the free skates — and vault into first place.

Malinin was last to take the ice. He opened with a perfect quad flip and then hit a triple axel, even though Malinin remains the only skater to have landed the quad version of the jump in competition. Then came the mistake, when he doubled a planned quad loop, leaving Malinin to make changes on the fly over the second half of the program in an attempt to make up the lost points.

After putting his hand down on his triple lutz, Malinin landed a quad toe loop-triple toe loop combination before a quad salchow-triple axel in sequence — a pair of huge jumping passes that sent his technical score soaring.

Malinin capped the recovery of his program with a backflip during his choreographed sequence, a move that had been banned until this season because of its inherent danger. It was expected all along but nonetheless sent a roar through the crowd.

SOCCER

The Galaxy will open the MLS Cup Playoffs on Saturday at Dignity Health Sports Park against the seventh-seeded Colorado Rapids. Kickoff is set for 8:10 p.m.

The first round of the playoffs is a best-of-3 format. The second game will be played in Colorado at Dick Sporting Goods Park Nov. 1 at 6:40 p.m. The third game, if necessary, would be back at DHSP on Nov. 9.

If a game is tied at the end of regulation in any of the games in the opening series, the game proceeds immediately to penalty kicks to determine the winner.

If the Galaxy advance, they would host either third-seeded Real Salt Lake or sixth-seeded Minnesota United in the conference semifinals.

The Galaxy were moments from securing the top seed in the Western Conference and then hosting the winner of the 8-9 wild-card game between the Vancouver Whitecaps and Portland Timbers. However, a late goal by Houston Dynamo defender Daniel Steres, gave LAFC the advantage for first place via the goal differential tiebreaker.

As the No. 2 seed, the Galaxy would visit LAFC if the teams meet in the Western Conference finals, but the Galaxy would host, if LAFC gets eliminated before then.

— Damian Calhoun

TENNIS

Tommy Paul capped a dominant week by winning the Stockholm Open a second time. The fourth-seeded American, who didn’t dropped a set this week, beat Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-3 in the final.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL

Olympic gold medalists April Ross and Alix Klineman of the Miami Mayhem rallied for an 11-15, 16-14, 15-11 win over Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft of the Brooklyn Blaze at Frontwave Arena in Oceanside to help Miami secure a spot in the AVP League championships.

Theo Brunner and Trevor Crabb of Miami clinched berth for Miami (10-6) in breezing past Brooklyn’s Cody Caldwell and Seain Cook, 15-12, 15-6.

The second-place Dallas Dream won two matches. Kylie Deberg and Hailey Harward rebounded from a Saturday defeat and held off L.A. Launch tandem Betsi Flint and Julia Scoles, 15-13, 8-15, 15-12. Andy Benesh and Miles Partain, the only unbeaten pair in AVP League play, followed for Dallas by beating L.A.’s Tim Bomgren and Troy Field, 15-13, 16-14.

The AVP League continues next weekend at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

The inaugural AVP League Championship will be Nov. 9-10 at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson.