Fall Series event moves to California

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The Frys.com Open is leaving Arizona to a temporary home at CordeValle Resort in northern California, putting it closer to the title sponsor's corporate headquarters.

The Fall Series event again will be held in October in 2010.

CordeValle stretches across the foothills, canyons and broad meadows of San Martin, about 15 miles south of Fry's Electronics corporate headquarters in San Jose. CordeValle was designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr., and already has a college tournament hosted by the UCLA golf team.

The tournament began in 2006 and has been played in Las Vegas and the last two years at Grayhawk in Scottsdale, Ariz.

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Wie to play final Ladies European Tour event

DUBAI (AP) — Michelle Wie will end her season in Dubai at the final Ladies European Tour event of the year.

Tour officials announced Thursday that Wie will be part of the field at the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters from Dec. 9-12.

The 20-year-old from Hawaii played this year as an LPGA Tour member for the first time and is No. 17 on the money list. She did not win a tournament, although she helped lead the United States to victory in the Solheim Cup.

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Champions Tour adds event in Mississippi

BILOXI, Miss. (AP) — The Champions Tour is going to Mississippi with a new tournament next spring to be played at Fallen Oak.

Tour officials announced Tuesday that the Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic will be played April 30-May 2. Tom Fazio designed the golf course, which was ranked among the top 20 in Golf Digest magazine's list of America's 100 best public courses.

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Norman pulls out of Australian Open after surgery

SYDNEY (AP) — Greg Norman's slower-than-expected recovery from shoulder surgery will force him to miss next month's Australian Open.

Tournament officials said that Norman was advised by his doctors not to play competitive golf again this year following arthroscopic surgery in September.

The Australian Open will be at the New South Wales Golf Club in Sydney from Dec. 3-6. Golf Australia said Norman will also sit out his signature event in Florida, the Shark Shootout, in the week after the Australian Open.

Geoff Ogilvy, Adam Scott and John Daly are entered in the Australian Open, the second of three tournaments on the Australian late-year circuit.

The Australian Masters, featuring Tiger Woods' first appearance in Australia since the Presidents Cup in 1998, is next week at Kingston Heath in Melbourne

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Woods in his comfort zone against world's best

SHANGHAI (AP) — Tiger Woods is playing for the third time in China with a strategy he's used in winning 81 times around the world.

"Finish lower than anybody else," Woods said Wednesday at the HSBC Champions.

That has proved elusive at Sheshan International Golf Club, and it doesn't figure to be any easier this time around.

Woods headlines the strongest field ever in Asia, which includes world No. 2 Phil Mickelson, three-time major champion Padraig Harrington, defending champion Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood, who leads the Race to Dubai.

The world's No. 1 player was runner-up in 2005 and 2006 at the HSBC Championship, the latter when he finished two shots behind a South Korean that hardly anyone knew - Y.E. Yang, who is far more famous now.

Yang became the first player to win a major championship where Woods had the 54-hole lead, winning by three shots in the PGA Championship at Hazeltine. It was the first major for an Asian-born player.

"It was a relaxed atmosphere for me," Yang said. "Now, there's a little bit more pressure, I guess. I'm not as relaxed as I was back in '06. Maybe it's because Tiger is here. Maybe it's because I've been through a lot of tournaments. Maybe it's because the stress finally is trickling down."

There is a lot more punch behind the fifth edition of this tournament. On each of the bright red signs at tee boxes and grandstands is that familiar logo of a spinning globe to signify this has become a World Golf Championship, the first individual WGC held in Asia.

That might help Woods get over the hump.

Woods has won a WGC event every year since the series began in 1999, including the Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone in August. He now has won 16 times in his 30 starts in the WGCs, and has never finished out of the top 10 in a stroke play WGC event.

"I've always enjoyed playing against such great fields," Woods said. "That's the whole idea of having the World Golf Championships. It's not just the major championships that we all get together, and The Players (Championship). It's now these World Golf Championships events. It's a lot of fun for players to compete against these guys. For some reason, I've also had a lot of success."

Garcia and Mickelson are past champions at Sheshan International, and the memories are particularly fond for Garcia.

A year ago, his victory moved him to a career-high No. 2 in the world, and he had opportunities earlier this year to move past Woods to No. 1 in the world ranking. Instead, the 29-year-old Spaniard has gone an entire season without winning.

He's hopeful that will change this week.

"It's a deeper field," Garcia said. "A World Golf Championship always has a little bit more special feeling."

Even so, the biggest threat might be Mickelson.

With a putting tip from former PGA champion Dave Stockton, Mickelson feels as though he has put all the pieces together. It showed at the Tour Championship, which he won by three shots over Woods, and at the Presidents Cup, where he was 4-0-1.

Mickelson struggled last week at the Singapore Open, although he chalked that up to a grass he had never seen on the putting surfaces. He says he is just as excited now as he was when the FedEx Cup ended on the PGA Tour.

And it's a big week for Lefty outside the ropes, too.

Mickelson disclosed Wednesday that he has two golf projects in China - a massive complex in Kumming that will feature two golf courses, a par 3 course and a teaching academy with former swing coach Rick Smith; and a course in Tian Jim in which the design is to be inspired by golf holes from around the world.

At a downtown press conference Tuesday, Mickelson spoke of the importance of helping stoke interest in China, and that it helps when he and Woods are among those appearing overseas.

This will be the first time they have competed against each other in Asia.

"I think this is a very important event for the players," Mickelson said. "We want to help grow the game here in China. We want to compete against the best players in the world. And to be able to win a world-class event in China would mean a lot to me and all of the other players in the field."

As for his courses, and his efforts to translate his short-game DVD and book into Chinese?

"To win here would help my cause in promoting the game of golf here," Mickelson said.

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Heart transplant recipient returns to Disney

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Erik Compton, the golfer with two heart transplants, has received another exemption into the Children's Miracle Network Classic at Disney next week.

Compton also received an exemption last year and tied for 60th. He was allowed to ride in a cart, just five months after his second transplant. Tournament chairman Kevin Weickel says Compton will be walking this year.

Compton received the exemption Tuesday, a week after he was medalist by seven shots in the first stage of Q-school.

The tournament is Nov. 12-15, the final event on the PGA Tour schedule.

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Wadkins, Olazabal inducted into Hall of Fame

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (AP) — Lanny Wadkins, Jose Maria Olazabal and Christy O'Connor Sr. were inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame on Monday night, a reward for hundreds of international victories and stellar performances under intense pressure in the Ryder Cup.

Joining them posthumously was President Dwight Eisenhower, whose love of golf has been credited for a surge in interest in the game while he was in office from 1952-1960. The number of people who took up golf in those years more than doubled, and golf historians credit a good portion of that surge to Eisenhower's visibility in playing the sport.

Eisenhower was said to have played golf more than 800 times during his eight years as president, and was a member of the Augusta National Golf Club. He became the first U.S. President to be a member of the Hall of Fame.

"We'd talk a lot when we played, but he always wanted to go back to talking about golf and how much he wanted to play golf," said Hall-of-Famer Arnold Palmer, a lifelong friend of Eisenhower's who made the presentation speech on behalf of the family. "He knew how important it was to take away the stress and strain of his life."

Wadkins, the son of a Richmond, Va., truck driver, won the U.S. Amateur title while at Wake Forest, then joined the PGA Tour and won 21 times, including the 1977 PGA Championship and the 1979 Players Championship. He was 20-11-3 in the Ryder Cup and is tied with Palmer for the most doubles victories.

"To join this (Hall) and be a part of something with my heroes ... I am honored beyond belief," Wadkins said.

Olazabal first played golf at the age of 2, encouraged by his father, a greenskeeper at a public course in the Basque region of Spain. Olazabal was 18-8-2 in the Ryder Cup, and won the Masters in 1994 and 1999.

The most emotional point of the night came when Olazabal's mentor and Ryder Cup teammate, Seve Ballesteros, made the presentation speech for Olazabal on a video. Ballesteros has been battling brain cancer since December 2008 and was unable to travel.

"Enjoy this special night, and from me, receive a big hug," Ballesteros said on the video, in halting English.

Olazabal came to the podium in tears, and thanked Ballesteros for not only helping him with his career, but for partnering with him in the Ryder Cup to compile an 11-2-2 record in doubles.

"I was never a genius like you," Olazabal said. "All I could hope for is for you to be proud of me."

O'Connor, 84, could not travel from Ireland for the ceremony because of his health. At one time, he held the record for the most appearances in the Ryder Cup, and he won 24 times on the European Tour.

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