Injured Snedeker Withdraws from Australian PGA





GOLD COAST, Australia (AP) Brandt Snedeker has withdrawn from the Australian PGA Championship on the Gold Coast.

PGA of Australian CEO Brian Thorburn announced Snedeker's withdrawal on Tuesday morning, confirming the American golfer did not board his flight from Shanghai on Monday after injuring his knee. Snedeker played in the HSBC Champions tournament in China over the weekend.

Adam Scott is the main draw card for the tournament starting Thursday, playing for the first time in Australia since winning the Masters.

Johnson Pulls Away for 1st World Golf Championship

 

              SHANGHAI (AP) Against an all-world cast of contenders, Dustin Johnson pulled away with power and a clutch putt to win his first World Golf Championship on Sunday.

Johnson played a pivotal five-hole stretch on the back nine in 5-under par, seizing control by pitching in for eagle from just short of the green on the par-4 16th. He followed with an 8-foot birdie putt on the 17th and closed with a 6-under 66 for a three-shot win over Ian Poulter in the HSBC Champions.

"It was a lot of fun out there," Johnson said. "Those guys put a lot of pressure on me. I'm really proud of the way I handled myself."

Johnson set a tournament record at 24-under 264.

He started the final round with a three-shot lead and lost it in two holes. But it wasn't just Poulter who made the 29-year-old American sweat.

Graeme McDowell also had a share of the lead of the lead at one point, and they battled across Sheshan International for the better part of four hours on a cloudy, hazy afternoon that made it feel like twilight.

Poulter, who won last year at Mission Hills, closed with a 66 to finish alone in second. McDowell also had a 66 to finish third. Sergio Garcia birdied half of his holes for a 63. At one point, the leaderboard featured Johnson and half of Europe's winning Ryder Cup team from Medinah.

It was the second straight PGA Tour season that Johnson won the first tournament he played - even though it was in the same year. His last win was the Tournament of Championship at Kapalua in January. This is the first time the tour has gone to a wraparound season, which began a month ago.

Johnson now has won in each of his first seven seasons on the PGA Tour, the most by any player since Woods in his first 14 seasons through 2009.

He opened with a three-putt bogey and muffed a chip on the second hole, keeping from making birdie. Poulter birdied his opening two holes. McDowell started with three straight birdies, and all of them were tied at 17-under.

Johnson began to recover by closing out the front nine with back-to-back birdies.

The tournament took shape, however, over the final two hours starting on the 13th. Johnson hit a massive tee shot over the corner of the slight dogleg, leaving him a short wedge to 5 feet for birdie to tie Poulter for the lead, with McDowell one shot behind.

On the par-5 14th, Poulter appeared to have a big edge. He reached the green with a fairway metal and lagged his 40-foot eagle putt to within inches. Johnson found the rough off the tee, had to lay up, and hit a poor chip to 20 feet. McDowell was in the deep collar of rough around a bunker and did well to hit a chunk-and-run to 40 feet. McDowell's long birdie putt banged into the back of the cup, and Johnson rolled in his birdie putt to stay tied.

Poulter fell back with an approach into the bunker left of the 15th green for bogey.

Johnson put them away with his power on the 16th. The pin was to the front, making it risky for anyone to try to drive the green. Johnson has such strength that he was able to hit 3-iron off the tee - as he has done previous rounds - to 25 yards short. His pitch was so pure it rolled into the cup as if it were a putt.

The eagle gave him a two-shot lead, and he widened it with another great shot for birdie at the 17th.

"Dustin Johnson was in a different league off the tee and gave us a little bit of a sniff, and then promptly slammed the door," McDowell said. "So a lot of fun. Really enjoyed it."

U.S. Open champion Justin Rose (68) finished alone in fifth, while Rory McIlroy (69) and Graham DeLaet (69) were another shot behind.

McDowell's third-place finish at least allowed him to make up big ground on Henrik Stenson in the Race to Dubai, now trailing about 140,000 euros. McDowell is not playing the Turkish Open next week, but did enough that a shot at the European Tour money title is still in reach when he gets to Dubai in two weeks.

Can Dustin Johnson Be a Great One, too?

Dustin Johnson's challenge, once he officially joins the Family Gretzky, is whether he eventually will be identified the way the family patriarch is, whether he can be a great one, too.

Johnson, 29, already is better than most, the latest evidence coming in the dead of night in the U.S. He won the HSBC Champions in Shanghai, China, by three strokes overnight, prevailing over a top 10 that included Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia, Justin Rose, Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell.

The victory was his eighth on the PGA Tour and extended the number of seasons in which he has won to seven (the HSBC Champions is part of the 2014 schedule), winning in each year of his PGA Tour career.

The statistic is impressive on the surface, portending superstar status, but is marginally less so beneath it. He began the week 23rd in the World Ranking, a number based on performance. If talent were the measure, Johnson would be a fixture in the top 10. His is still potential not entirely fulfilled.

Johnson, who is engaged to Wayne Gretzky's daughter Paulina, tends to drift in and out of greatness, as he did at the outset of 2013. He won the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, then played seven straight tournaments without finishing in the top 10, missing the cut in two and withdrawing from a third.

The pattern was evident in Shanghai, too. He had six birdies in seven-hole stretches in rounds two and three, including five straight birdies in the latter, when he opened a six-stroke lead. Then he hit his tee shot into the water at 18, eventually cutting his lead in half.

In the final round, his indifferent play on the front nine invited all comers into the mix, one of them, Poulter, joining him atop the leaderboard. He was toying with them, as it were. He found another gear, and played a five-hole stretch in five-under par, including a pitch-in eagle at 16 and a birdie at 17 to coast into the winner's circle.

It is the stuff of legend, or would be were it to occur at more frequent intervals. If Johnson ever inserts consistency into his repertoire, major championships might begin to creep onto his resume. But they're not won with the flick of an on-off switch.

The tandem of maturity and patience should help. "It takes a lot to learn that," Johnson said. "I wish I would have had some of that a few times a few years ago."

It was evident on Sunday, when the lead slipped away momentarily. "I was swinging well and putting well," he said. "I knew if I stuck to my game plan and played the course how I wanted to play it it was going to come.

"This is probably my biggest win, with the field and the tournament, a World Golf Championship. Hopefully, it's better things to come."

The key for Johnson is to emulate his future father-in-law, the Great One, and bring it every night, or in Johnson's case, every week. If he can beat this kind of field this handily, greatness seems destined to follow.

Dustin Johnson Holds on to Lead

 

       SHANGHAI -- Dustin Johnson started with a five-shot lead and made 10 birdies. Two swings kept him from running away from the field Saturday in the HSBC Champions.

       The only consolation was a 6-under 66, which gave Johnson a three-shot lead over defending champion Ian Poulter going into the final round of this World Golf Championship. It was the final hole -- a three-shot swing -- that irritated the 29-year-old American.

       On a Sheshan International course set up for low scoring, Poulter made birdie on the par-5 18th for a 63. Three groups later, Johnson hit a bad drive at the worst time and watched it sail to the right and into the lake. Wanting to be sure he didn't drop it in the wrong spot, Johnson returned to the tee and wound up with a double bogey.

It was his second double bogey of an otherwise remarkable round.

        After making five straight birdies to start to pull away, Johnson saw his wedge roll back down the hill three times before the fourth one hit the pin at No. 10. He still had to make about a 12-foot putt to escape with double bogey.

       Johnson was at 18-under 198 and will be in the final group with Poulter and Graeme McDowell, who had a 64 and was four shots behind.

      "I have to do my thing tomorrow," Poulter said. "It's only Saturday. You can't win tournaments on Saturday. It's all about playing well on Sunday. I need to do that. I need to make plenty of birdies, try to make an eagle. If I can, I can get close."

       Rory McIlroy birdied three of his last five holes for a 67 and was six shots behind, along with Graham DeLaet and U.S. Open champion Justin Rose, who each had a 65.

       They still had an outside chance, though so much of that depends on Johnson and how to he responds to his pair of double bogeys.

       "I'm still a little mad from my double bogey on 18," Johnson said. "Obviously, to have a three-shot lead going into the last day is good and I'm looking forward to the challenge. I still have to play really well. The guys that are right behind me, they're playing very well, too. So it's still going to be a tough day tomorrow. Got to come out and make a lot of birdies."

That wasn't the problem -- for Johnson and most everyone else.

      Martin Kaymer, who won the HSBC Champions two years ago by tying the course record with a 63 in the final round, went one better. The German started with six birdies in seven holes and thought briefly about a 59 with three straight birdies on the front nine that put him at 10-under with three to play. He missed an 8-foot birdie on No. 7, failed to birdie the par-5 eighth and had to settle for a course record 62.

Kaymer was eight shots behind.

       "I've shot 59 before and I thought, `There's a chance,' especially after my birdies on 4, 5, 6," Kaymer said. "But you can't make them all."

      McDowell was six shots out of the lead when he finished, exasperated that he could shoot 64 and not make up any ground. Even so, he has a lot at stake on Sunday at No. 2 on the European Tour money list, and he could move past Henrik Stenson to finish alone in second.

     "From here, it looks like Dustin is going to have to beat himself for anybody to have a chance to catch him," McDowell said. "Race to Dubai points will be very important to me. I have a lot to play for tomorrow. If not the trophy, second place will certainly be worth my while."

And then, the trophy became a little more realistic.

       Johnson looked unstoppable on the front nine with six birdies in seven holes, and he pounded his drive down the left side of the 10th that just crawled into the rough. He was trying to land beyond the flag, but his wedge came out dead and rolled back down the hill.

"Didn't hit the first one hard enough. Didn't hit the second one hard enough," Johnson said. "I think I hit the third one hard enough to get there."

       His lead was down to one shot on the back nine until Poulter made bogey on the 17th, and Johnson went on another tear -- a 5-iron into 15 feet for a two-putt birdie on the 14th, another 3-iron on the par-4 16th that set up a chip-and-putt birdie.

And then came that one swing at No. 18.

      Johnson, with a remarkable talent for being undaunted by a shot into the water, reloaded and hit a hard draw down the right edge of the water that found the fairway. Any chance of escaping with bogey, maybe even par, ended when his approach went into the bunker near a lip. He blasted out to 15 feet and took two putts for his 7.

Johnson had to be reminded that he still shot 66. He still had a three-shot lead.

    "It's a good score," he said. "I'm definitely happy with what I shot. I'm just not happy with the way I finished. Making two doubles, there's no excuse for that, especially the way I'm playing right now."

Dustin Johnson Rockets Into the Lead in Shanghai

    

  

          American Dustin Johnson has fired a course record to rocket into the lead at the WGC Champions tournament in Shanghai.
          The American fired six birdies in his first seven holes on his way to a nine-under par second round of 63 that's seen him jump to 12-under overall.

He's a massive five shots clear of a three-way tie for second including compatriots Boo Weekley and Bubba Watson and overnight leader Rory McIlroy.

McIlroy is at seven-under after he failed to capitalise on his opening round.

Johnson says he would have never seen that round coming.

       "When I played the course on Wednesday I didn't make one birdie. I hit it okay, I just didn't make any putts."

He says it was one of his better rounds.

"I hit one bad drive on 18 but got away with it. That's really by far the worst shot I hit all day and I still ended up making birdie."

        Mark Brown is the best of the Kiwis at four-under in a tie for 18th with Michael Hendry well back at one-over.

Simon Dyson Faces Disciplinary Hearing for Rules Violation at BMW Masters

Published: Thursday, October 31, 2013 | 11:04:36 AM  

       VIRGINIA WATER, England (AP) -- Simon Dyson faces a disciplinary hearing over his disqualification for a rules violation at the BMW Masters.

       Dyson was marking his golf ball on the eighth green at Lake Malaren when he used the ball to tamp down the green in the direct line of his short par putt. It was a clear violation of Rule 16-1a, which says that a player cannot touch the line of his putt.

        Under tour policy, a player faces a disciplinary hearing if it is determined that a serious breach may have occurred. The hearing will be before a panel of an independent lawyer, a former European Tour player or Senior Tour player, and a sports administrator.

If found guilty of a breach, punishment ranges from a reprimand to a fine or a suspension.

Senior Leads Charles Schwab Cup Finale

Published: Thursday, October 31, 2013 | 07:20:06 PM

        SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Peter Senior is a big winner in Australia. He'd like at least one win in the United States.

         He got off to a good start Thursday in the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, shooting an 8-under 63 to take a one-stroke lead in the Champions Tour's season-ending event.

        The 54-year-old Senior had nine birdies, an eagle and three bogeys at TPC Harding Park to match the event first-round record set by Jim Thorpe in his 2003 victory at Sonoma Golf Club.

        "That was probably the best round of golf I've played this year," Senior said. "I putted well and hit it well."

        Senior won the Australian Open last year for his 19th PGA Tour of Australasia victory. He's seeking his first Champions Tour title after finishing second five times - including three playoff losses - in 93 career starts.

       "That's the only disappointing thing," Senior said. "It's such a great tour and I've enjoyed every minute of it. It's a little disappointing I haven't won in four years. You've got to be fortunate at the right times and I haven't done enough down the stretch, going par, par, par when I needed a birdie to make the difference. Hopefully, it might happen."

         David Frost shot 64, missing a short putt on the 18th hole. Fred Couples was third at 65, and Mark O'Meara had a 66. Bernhard Langer, Steve Elkington and Duffy Waldorf shot 67.

       Charles Schwab Cup points leader Kenny Perry topped the group at 68. Perry entered the event 612 points ahead of second-place Langer. If Langer wins the tournament, Perry needs only to finish fifth or better take the season title and $1 million annuity.

       Senior shot a 6-under 30 on the front nine, culminating with an eagle on the ninth hole. He birdied Nos. 11 and 12 and allowed himself to start thinking big.

        "I started counting the easy holes that I could possibly birdie," he said. "As soon as I thought that, I made a bogey." "

       Frost has two victories season, including his first senior major victory at the Regions Tradition in June.

      "It was nice to get off to a good start," Frost said. "You want to get excited but there's so much golf left to play you can't get ahead of yourself because of a couple of early birdies.

       "I think I've had a great year. I didn't drive the ball as well as I should have and that's something that has held me back. I'm not too disappointed. I'm happy to have played solid golf and here is like a tournament within a tournament. There's no reason I should not focus on the task at hand."

Couples is dealing with neck and back issues. He had a double bogey on the eighth hole.

       "I hit what I thought was as good a shot as I could and no way could it stay on the green," Couples said. "I kind of fluffed a pretty difficult chip to about 5 feet and missed it, so that was that."

Couples had nine birdies, three immediately before his double bogey and two immediately following.