HILTON HEAD ISLAND, South Carolina (AP) ― For all the big moments in Graeme McDowell’s career, his resume was short on PGA Tour victories.

McDowell relished what he called his first authentic tour win, defeating fellow U.S. Open champ Webb Simpson in a playoff at the RBC Heritage on Sunday.

McDowell’s been at the center of some of golf’s biggest moments, from his rousing triumph at Pebble Beach in 2010 to capturing the winning point for Europe in that year’s Ryder Cup matches. He has six European PGA victories, too, but he hadn’t triumphed in the weekly grind of the world’s top tour.

“This game kicks you more often than it gives you a pat on the back,” McDowell said. “It’s hard to win.”

Not on this day for McDowell, who pushed forward on wind-blown Harbour Golf Links when his rivals were moving backward, unnerved by the 20 to 30 mph winds that rattled the course.

He rallied from four strokes down when the day began to take a one-shot lead into the 72nd hole. Then after he made his only bogey of the round to fall into tie with Simpson, two-putted from about 15 feet to make a par on the extra hole that Simpson couldn’t match.

“I guess the weather was what the doctor ordered. I needed that to get close to the leaders,” said McDowell, who earned $1,044,000 for the victory.

McDowell, from Northern Ireland, had a 69, one of only three scores in the 60s among the 70 who teed off Sunday.

Simpson, reigning U.S. Open winner, shot 71. He had a chance to win in regulation, but his 22-footer for birdie went 3 feet past and set up the additional hole. “I came in with not too much confidence, but I just stayed true to the process of what we’ve been working on,” Simpson said.

Luke Donald shot a 69 to tie for third with Kevin Streelman, who had a 72. Jerry Kelly rounded out the top five after his even-par 71.

Major champs headline Ballantine’s field

A trio of men’s major golf champions will descend on South Korea this week for the only annual European Tour stop in the country.

At No. 7 in the world, Louis Oosthuizen, the 2010 Open champion, is the highest-ranked player in the field for the Ballantine’s Championship, set to open at Blackstone Golf Club in Icheon, about 100 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on Thursday.

The tournament, co-sanctioned by the European Tour, the Asian Tour and the Korean Tour, was first held in South Korea in 2008. The total purse is $2.9 million.

Oosthuizen, a South African with six career European Tour titles, is playing in the event for the first time. He will be joined by Korean Yang Yong-eun, the 2009 PGA Championship winner and the only Asian with a major title in men’s golf.

Paul Lawrie of Scotland, who won the 1999 Open Championship and has eight European Tour victories to his credit, will also tee up at Blackstone. (Yonhap News)