SWINDON’S David Howell was unable to emulate his heroics of a decade earlier as he completed his third consecutive under par round at the HSBC Champions tournament in China this morning.

Howell, who had beaten Tiger Woods to lift the trophy 10 years ago, had to settle for a tied 30th finish after his final round of two-under-par.

The Broome Manor pro had another nice start to his round on the last day at the Sheshan International as he picked up a shot on just the second hole.

That was followed by four consecutive pars before the 40-year-old secured his second birdie of the round on the par-four seventh to see him out with a score of 34.

Howell made a steady start to the back nine but fell back a shot when he bogeyed the par-four 15th.

However, he recovered immediately to birdie the par-four 16th and finish on a score of 70 to leave him tied 30th in good company alongside former world number one Martin Kaymer and Ian Poulter.

Scotland's Russell Knox tasted victory on his World Golf Championship debut as he won by two shots.

Knox, who was a late replacement for JB Holmes, was first out on the course on Sunday morning as he completed the 18th hole of his third round with a birdie to move to 16 under.

There was a four-way tie at the top of the leaderboard at the midway point as Knox, Danny Willett, Ross Fisher and Kevin Kisner were locked together on 17 under.

But the 30-year-old pulled clear to finish on 20 under, beating Kisner by two strokes.