Australian Adam Scott held off countryman Stuart Appleby to win the US$5.5 million PGA Houston Open by three strokes and capture his fifth career title on Sunday.
The 26-year-old Scott closed out the victory by nailing a 16m putt on the final hole to post his second consecutive bogey-free round and finish with a six-under 66.
"It worked out well," Scott said. "My plan was to come here and feel the juices flowing and they certainly were flowing that last hole."
PHOTO: AFP
He regained the lead with four holes to play and took a one-shot lead into the final hole.
Opening the door
But Scott hooked his tee shot on 18 into the water, opening the door for defending champ Appleby to possibly force a playoff.
PHOTO: AFP
"I was disappointed with my tee shot. I just hit it on the wrong side," Scott said.
Appleby's chances disappeared when he landed in the sand off the 18th tee and then followed Scott into the water with his second shot.
Tied with Appleby for the lead through 10 holes, Scott took charge with two birdies on his final eight holes. Appleby bogeyed three of his final five.
Scott, who has two wins in his last six starts, heads to next week's Masters in a positive frame of mind.
Most of the top players have chosen to practice their way into form leading up to The Masters.
Tiger Woods, defending Masters champion Phil Mickelson, South African Ernie Els and three-time Houston Open champion Vijay Singh of Fiji all are took the week off in preparation for the first major of the year, which starts on Thursday at Augusta National.
Scott is the seventh Australian to win here, joining Appleby, Bruce Devlin, Bruce Crampton, David Graham and Robert Allenby.
US player Bubba Watson, who began the fourth round with a three-stroke lead, shot a par 72 and tied Appleby for second.
Tommy Armour shot 66 and finished fourth, four shots back.
Pressel wins Kraft
Precocious professional Morgan Pressel became the youngest player in LPGA history to win a major title on Sunday with her triumph in the Kraft Nabisco Championship at Mission Hills Country Club.
Pressel, 18, capped a flawless 3-under-par 69 with a 5m birdie at the final hole for a 3-under total of 285.
As she waited in the clubhouse, overnight co-leader Suzann Pettersen squandered a three-shot lead to hand the youngster the victory in the US$2 million tournament, the first women's major of this year.
Pressel, who started the round four strokes off the pace, collected the US$300,000 first prize for her first career title.
`Dream come true'
"This is just a dream come true," Pressel said. "This is my first professional victory and to make it in a major is incredible."
Pettersen, the 2001 Ladies European Tour rookie of the year, bogeyed 15, double-bogeyed 16 and bogeyed 17 to fall a shot behind Pressel.
She then missed her bid birdie 18 and force a playoff.
She carded a 74 to finish tied for second on 286 with Britain's Catriona Matthew (71) and US player Brittany Lincicome (72).
South Korean Se Ri Pak, bidding to complete a career Grand Slam, entered the final round tied with Pettersen for the lead but closed with a five-over 77 to finish tied for 10th, five shots back.
She was joined on 289 by last year's player of the year Lorena Ochoa of Mexico, who posted a final-round 72.
Neither defending champion Karrie Webb of Australia nor Swedish superstar Annika Sorenstam were able to challenge Pressel, Pettersen or Pressel in the final round.
Webb shot her second straight 73 for 293, while Sorenstam concluded a disappointing week with a 75 for 297.
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