David Toms easily won the World Golf Championships Match Play Championship, overpowering fellow American Chris DiMarco in a record margin of 6 and 5 during Sunday's 36-hole final.
Clutch putting and a superb stretch of ball striking helped the 38-year-old Toms dominate his American Ryder Cup teammate and collect US$1.3 million in first-place prize money, jumping to sixth on the all-time PGA Tour money list with more than US$20 million.
"This is a long week and for some reason I had a lot of focus out there," said Toms, who posted the largest margin of victory in the history of the 36-hole final of the event.
"It just felt easy at times on the course, not to beat my opponent, but as far as the shots went and everything. It's probably the best week of driving I've ever had, and that was key for me," he said.
In the consolation final, South African Retief Goosen, the reigning US Open champion, beat Ian Poulter in 20 holes.
Toms improved as the week progressed and played almost flawlessly in the later rounds.
Toms took control of the match in the morning. One down after eight holes, he won eight of the next nine, five with birdies and three with pars.
DiMarco won the 18th, but Toms was 6-up at lunch.
DiMarco, 36, won holes 27 and 28, but the short-lived rally came too late as he simply prolonged the inevitable.
"That's the worst beating I've taken. I was three-under in the 30 holes we played, so it's certainly easier to take it that way," DiMarco said.
"If I had played horrible, that wouldn't have sat well, but he played great and you have to take your hat off to him. He's definitely a top-five player in the world, no doubt about it," he said.
Toms says he doesn't hit the ball long enough to have any realistic chance of being the world's best player.
"The way courses we play nowadays are set up, those guys [like Woods] are going to rise to the top, and I accept that, but I know I can be a top-10 player and that's what my goal is," he said.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was