THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAS
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 17, 2007
SPORTS
9B
》 PROFESSIONAL GOLF
Woods, U.S. women shine during weekend
Tiger takes FedEx Cup, East Lake; Americans win singles in Sweden
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEN'S GOLF
ATLANTA — The FedEx Cup didn't change anything but Tiger Woods' bank account.
The PGA Tour's "new era in golf" came to a familiar conclusion Sunday when Woods captured the Tour Championship in record-setting fashion, closing with a 4-under 66 for an eight-shot victory at East Lake and his seventh title of the season.
This was the first time Woods walked away from one tournament with two trophies.
Alongwiththe TourChampionship and its $1.26 million prize, Woods was a runaway winner of the FedEx Cup and the $10 million that goes into his retirement account.
Woods stretched his three-shot lead to four at the turn, and the only drama was whether he would break the 72-hole scoring record on the PGA Tour. He had to settle for a 23-under 257, his career low on tour.
Masters champion Zach Johnson
closed with a 68 and tied for second with Mark Calcavecchia, who shot a 71.
Steve Stricker and Phil Mickelson were the only players with a realistic chance of capturing the FedEx Cup, and their hopes were gone by the weekend. Stricker closed with a 67 and wrapped up second place in the PGA Tour Playoffs, giving him a $3 million retirement boost.
At East Lake, Woods was hitting on all cylinders to wrap up another phenomenal season. He won seven times in 16 starts on the PGA Tour, and was close to unbeatable the last two months of the season. Woods was 75-under par in his last five tournaments, four of them victories.
And while he has to wait at least until his 45 to tap into the $10 million from the FedEx Cup, the $1.26 million in cash he earned Sunday pushed his season total to $10,876,052, the second-highest mark in PGA Tour history. Woods came up $29,114 short of the record set by Vijay Singh in 2004, although Singh earned that in 29 tournaments. Woods played in only 16 this year.
WOMEN'S GOLF
HALMSTAD, Sweden — The Americans have always owned singles, and after yet another Sunday success, they own the Solheim Cup again, too.
The United States used a top-to-bottom blowout in singles to overcome a one-point deficit in soggy Sweden and win one of the biggest prizes in women's golf. This was only the second time they've captured the cup on European soil.
Paula Creamer's tap-in on the 15th hole ensured the Americans of the 14 points they needed to retain the cup, and Nicole Castrale's 8-footer moments later wrapped up the United States' second straight win.
By the time the matches and the blowout were over, the United States had gone 8-3-1 in singles to win 16-12.
There were celebrations all over the course as the final matches played out. Nine of the Americans
piled onto a cart to watch Cristie Kerr and Natalie Gulbis finish their matches. Laura Diaz sat in the front waving an American flag.
Early winners included Juli Inkster, Pat Hurst, Angela Stanford, Morgan Pressel and Stacy Prammanasudh. Then, Gubis won, and the Americans bumped their winning percentage in singles from .590 to .602.
That dominance in singles might be why the United States didn't panic after letting seemingly precious points slip away during two-plus days of fourball and foursome matches played in terrible conditions that ranged from soaking rains to 40 mph winds to both. Sunday, during the conclusion of the weather-delayed fourball matches, Creamer and Brittany Lincicome missed 3-foot tap-ins to cost their team a hole, the lead and eventually a half-point in a tie against Linda Wessberg and Maria Hjorth.
**ASSOCIATED STUDENTS**
Tiger Woods follows no shot from the banker on the 1.74 half in the final round of the four Championship golf tournament at Earl Lark Golf Club, San Antonio. Watson runs in the fourth tournament golf tournament and the Fellas club points standings.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NASCAR
Clint Bowyer earns first series title Victory moves driver up eight spots in standings to fourth place
BY JENNA FRYER ASSOCIATED PRESS
One race into the Chase. Bowyer turned in a legitimate contender.
LOUDON, N.H. — Clint Bowyer was seeded last in the Chase for the championship field. With zero Nextel Cup wins and hardly any laps led, he went off as a 30-to-1 long shot to win the series title.
"Once you get into the Chase, you've got to go for broke," Bowyer said.
He raced to the first victory of his Cup career on Sunday by embarrassing the field at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where he started from the pole and led 222 of 300 laps while beating Jeff Gordon to the finish line by over six seconds.
But NASCAR's scoring system rewards consistency, and Bowyer earned his spot in the title hunt with 12 top-10 finishes. His coveted win pushed him up eight spots in the standings to fourth.
Bowyer started the Chase as the 12th seed, the only driver in the Chase field without a victory. He previously never finished higher than third before, and had led just 196 laps in his Cup career - 84 this season.
He trails Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, who are tied for the lead, by just 15 points.
"This proves we earned a spot and we're here for a reason and just so happy to be a part of the Chase," Bowyer said. "It's such a neat deal and, hey, this is the Nextel Cup, baby."
Gordon, the four-time series champion, finished second and was followed by two-time series champion Tony Stewart. Kyle Busch was fourth and followed by Martin Truex Jr., Johnson and Matt Kenseth as Chase drivers took the top seven spots.
Johnson and Gordon tied for the points lead with Stewart 10 points back. Bowyer moved into fourth place, 15 points out. Kyle Busch jumped four spots to fifth, 35 points behind. Truex moved to sixth, 40 points back, and Kenseth is seventh.
Casey Mears was eighth, followed by Ryan Newman and J. J. Yeley.
Edwards dropped four spots to eighth, and Hamlin fell three spots to ninth. Harvick ranked 10th. Burton moved to 11th and Kurt Busch plummeted seven spots to 12th. 102 points behind the leaders.
"We need to run better than that, obviously, to contend for a championship," said Kenseth, 54 points behind.
is happy for Clint. When we were up in New York, it seemed like everyone was like 'Clint Bowyer, he doesn't have a shot at the championship."
The day belonged to Bowyer, who joined Truex as the two newcomers to the championship field. But never being to Victory Lane, few considered him a legitimate title contender. By blowing away the field, he changed that.
"If you are going to win the first one of the year, that's the time to do it," Gordon said. "I think everybody
Bowyer's car was good and he knew the only thing that could beat him was himself. It happened last week in Richmond, when he spun while trying to pass for the lead, and Bowyer spent the final 50 laps fretting over his radio. He worried about his car, grew frustrated with lapped traffic and the setting sun, which made it difficult for him to see at times.
But his Richard Childress Racing team urged him to relax, and the 28-year-old Kansas driver nervously made it to the finish.
"I'm not going to kid you, I was about to throw up," he said. "What was funny, I was starting to feel a vibration but I don't know what it was. It was just you hear every rattle, banging and everybody racing — I was watching up ahead hoping, praying that nobody crashed."
He celebrated with a tremendous burnout that damaged his motor, and he couldn't start his Chevrolet to make the drive to Victory Lane. So he walked, and it was the first time all day that anyone could catch him.
"Even if we ran 7,000 laps, unless he blew up, we weren't going to catch him," Gordon said.
(Left) NASCAR driver Clint Bowyer (07) leads the pack during the NASCAR Sylvania 300 auto racing at New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, N.H., Sunday.
Now Bowyer hopes to continue rolling toward a first championship. In finally scoring that first win, he took the first step.
"I definitely believe we earned a spot in this Chase and we belonged to be in the Chase," Bowyer said. "I read all the magazines, and I'll tell you, I'm always pretty upbeat until you read them and realize 'Man, we
(Above) NASCAR driver Clint Bowyer, a Kansas native, holds up his first Nextel trophy after winning the NASCAR Syria 300 auto racing at New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, N.H., on Sunday.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
better be doing better.' But it makes it fuel for the fire and it makes you want to come and win and run upfront and prove to ... everybody else that you belong here."
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