Els wins at Doral for 2nd world title

DORAL, Fla. (AP) — Ernie Els showed his South African protege what it takes to win a World Golf Championship. Just as important was that he showed himself how to win again, too.

Ending the longest drought of his 20-year career, Els played the final 23 holes on the Blue Monster without a bogey and closed with a 6-under 66 on Sunday to win the CA Championship by four shots over 25-year-old Charl Schwartzel.

It was far closer than the margin suggested.

Schwartzel, in his first time on a world stage, refused to let Els get away from him. Els was clinging to a one-shot lead as he stood over a 25-foot par putt on the 14th hole, and the Big Easy was relieved to see it fall on the final turn.

Schwartzel, a houseguest of Els the last two weeks, caught a bad break on the 15th hole when his ball plugged in a front bunker, and he knocked that into a back bunker on his way to a crucial bogey. He missed short putts on the next two holes and closed with a 70.

That allowed Els a strange sensation, walking up to the 18th green with his cap in hand, waving to the gallery, unable to contain a smile that showed equal parts relief and satisfaction.

"I'm 40 years old. I've had a tough run," Els said. "Whew! The hairs are standing up. It's just great."

Els last won two years ago at the Honda Classic, which he won while warming up on the range for a possible playoff. He became only the fifth player with multiple victories in the World Golf Championships, joining Tiger Woods, Darren Clarke, Geoff Ogilvy and Phil Mickelson.

It was his 61st victory worldwide, and 17th on the PGA Tour, and moved Els to No. 8 in the world ranking.

"My game was in good shape," said Els, who finished at 18-under 270. "I just wanted to prove to myself for once. Charl came at me all day. I had to come up with the goods."

It was a strong effort by Schwartzel, who has considered Els a hero since he first started playing golf. Despite two bogeys on the final four holes, he was the only player to give Els a run. And he was poised to take him down until his tee shot left him little hope in the sand.

"I plugged and that was a killer," Schwartzel said. "For me, it's been the biggest stage I've had. This is a good day for me."

Padraig Harrington fell out of the with three straight bogeys on the back nine, closing with a 72 to tie for third at 11-under 277 along with Matt Kuchar (68) and Martin Kaymer of Germany, who had a 69 and moved up to No. 7 in the world.

Alistair Presnell of Australia matched the best round of the day with a 64 and tied for sixth. Defending champion Phil Mickelson, who was never in the mix, shot a 68 and tied for 14th.

Els could not have imagined being in the final group at Doral with Schwartzel, and to see the two South Africans standing on the first tee under warm sunshine, it was easy to see what the Big Easy meant.

To think that Schwartzel was 2 when his father and Els won a club tournament together, or that he was among the gangly teens who traveled with the Ernie Els & Fancourt Foundation junior team. More recently, Els invited the Schwartzel to stay in his south Florida home while Schwartzel was passing time between two WGC events.

And they stayed together for so much of the final round, trading birdies and keeping their names atop the leaderboard.

Els made birdie from the bunker on the opening hole. Schwartzel answered with a 25-foot birdie on the second. Els followed with two straight birdies, the most impressive on the 223-yard fourth with a shot into 8 feet despite a vicious right-to-left wind. Schwartzel fell three shots behind with a bogey from the bunker on No. 5, only to birdie his next three holes.

No one else joined the chase.

Harrington played bogey-free for 12 holes, but he had only two birdies. Robert Allenby pulled within a shot with an opening birdie, then went 10 holes before making another one. Kaymer went out in 33, then failed to make birdie on the par 5s on the back nine.

It became a South African duel in Miami, and Schwartzel gave Els about all he could handle until the end. After his bogey on the 15th, he left a 10-foot birdie putt short on the 16th, then drove into the palm trees on the 17th and took bogey.

Els suddenly has good vibes as he begins his road to the Masters, the one major that has haunted him throughout his career. His victory was worth $1.4 million, and moved him past Colin Montgomerie and atop the PGA European Tour career money list with about $33.6 million.

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Woods responders concerned about domestic violence

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The ambulance crew that responded after Tiger Woods crashed his SUV would not allow his wife to ride with him to the hospital because they suspected domestic violence, documents released Friday by the Florida Highway Patrol show.

But a police officer who responded said he didn't know where the crew got that information because he never heard it from anyone at the scene.

The reports also showed Woods' wife, Elin, turned over two bottles of pain pills to troopers after the Nov. 27 crash outside the couple's suburban Orlando home.

Woods crashed his sport utility vehicle into a fire hydrant at 2:30 a.m., and officers found him lying in the street. The couple told investigators Elin Woods smashed the back window of the SUV with a golf club so she could unlock a door and pull him out.

Woods, the world's No. 1 golfer, has strenuously denied his wife abused him.

"Elin never hit me that night or any other night. There has never been an episode of domestic violence in our marriage, ever," Woods said during a televised apology to his wife, family and fans last month.

The crash led to disclosures that Woods had affairs with several women. He was charged with careless driving and fined $164.

The report showed Health Central Hospital, which treated Woods after the crash, refused to release blood test results to investigators without a warrant. The state attorney's office wouldn't request one, saying there wasn't enough probable cause that a crime had been committed.

Cpl. Thomas R. Dewitt, one of the highway patrol investigators, also wrote in his report that he asked for videotape from a security camera at the Woods' home.

"There were two cameras that should have documented (the vehicle) leaving the driveway and portions of the crash," Dewitt wrote.

But the golfer's lawyer, Mark NeJame, told him the couple didn't know if the camera worked and couldn't figure out how to remove the tape.

NeJame told Dewitt he had looked at monitors inside the home and they were blank. There was no indication whether officers got the video despite several requests.

NeJame said he had no comment on the report.

Messages left with the hospital's ambulance service and the FHP were not immediately returned.

Before the latest report by the Highway Patrol, the focus had begun to shift in recent weeks to when Woods would return to professional golf.

Two people with knowledge of Woods' plans told The Associated Press on Thursday that he intends to remain out of golf at least until the Masters in early April. The two people spoke on condition of anonymity because only Woods is supposed to release such information.

Woods has been practicing at Isleworth near his Orlando home the last two weeks, and swing coach Hank Haney flew there recently to work with him.

Woods has not played since Nov. 15, when he won the Australian Masters in Melbourne for his 82nd career victory.

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AP Golf Writer Doug Ferguson in Doral contributed to this report.

Thompson, McKenzie settling in with RSLComplete text of Tiger Woods statement

Rory McIlroy picks up a tip from Golden Bear

DORAL, Fla. (AP) — Rory McIlroy began his road to the Masters with what he calls the "best 90 minutes" he has spent in a long time.

He had lunch last week with Jack Nicklaus.

"An unbelievable experience," McIlroy said Tuesday.

McIlroy, a 20-year-old from Northern Ireland who already is No. 9 in the world, met with Nicklaus at The Bear's Club on the eve of the Honda Classic, a lunch set up through a network of friends.

He wanted to learn as much as he could about winning from Nicklaus, whose 18 professional majors are the benchmark in golf. He got more than he could have imagined.

"It was great to sit down and talk to him and see his approach to winning and what went through his head whenever he was in contention, and what things he might have done differently than other people," he said. "It was probably the best 90 minutes I've spent in a long time."

McIlroy won the Dubai Desert Classic last year for his only European Tour victory, although he has contended enough times to move into the top 10 in the world and be viewed as one of golf's rising stars. He has been working with sports psychologist Bob Rotella for help with finishing off tournaments.

It didn't hurt meeting with Nicklaus.

The one story that stayed with him was Nicklaus' tale that he didn't win the best tournament he ever played. That would be the 1977 British Open at Turnberry, the famous "Duel in the Sun" in which Nicklaus and Tom Watson shot identical scores each day until Watson closed with a 65 - one last birdie on the 18th hole - to win by one shot.

"I think one of the biggest things that I took from it was patience, and just to learn to wait and learn to bide your time and know that if you believe in yourself that it will happen," McIlroy said. "So it's just a matter of waiting and staying patient."

He figured Nicklaus was similar to Tiger Woods in terms of winning big in the majors, building a lead and crushing the competition. What he realized was that the Golden Bear often waited for the competition to wilt.

"His mindset to winning was different than I thought it would be," McIlroy said. "He waited for guys to make mistakes. He had a lot more majors handed to him than he won."

McIlroy didn't come to lunch with a list of questions, but said he was nervous.

"I felt very privileged to be able to have lunch with him, and just to pick his brain," McIlroy said. "He's won 18 major championships and just to get some of that knowledge and to just learn from it, it was incredible."

A world-class field and wide-open tournament

DORAL, Fla. (AP) — One of the billboards at Doral promotes this World Golf Championship with a familiar slogan and some familiar faces, a photo sequence of five players under the phrase, "The World is Watching."

Tiger Woods is the center photo. He's the only one watching this week.

His presence, even after all this time away from the game, remains prominent.

It's hard to walk more than a few yards on the practice range at the CA Championship without hearing chatter about Woods. Players say very little publicly when asked about the absence of the world's No. 1 player, some choosing their words carefully, most saying they have enough to worry about with their own games.

Privately, they speculate and share the latest inside gossip on his return just as much as anyone else.

But as golf moves closer to the first major of the year - the Masters is a month away - Woods became a topic Wednesday as much for his standard of golf as the reason why he's not at Doral.

The season began two months ago with speculation on who might fill the void left by Woods, with most of the focus on Phil Mickelson.

Instead, he has been replaced by committee.

Ten tournaments into the PGA Tour season, there have been 10 winners. Steve Stricker is the only player who was in the top 10 at the start of the year to have won anywhere in the world, his victory coming at Riviera.

"I think it's just a coincidence," Stricker said. "It always comes back to the depth of the tour, just how good these guys are, and how tough it is to win. How many multiple winners were there last year?"

He wasn't trying to make a point, only ask a question. The answer is seven - Woods, Mickelson, Stricker, Geoff Ogilvy, Zach Johnson, Kenny Perry and Brian Gay. Mickelson was the only player to win multiple times when Woods was in the field.

When he won at Riviera, it was Stricker's fourth victory in his last 15 starts, which computes to winning 27 percent of his starts. Good stuff, until he realizes that it's still lower than Woods' winning rate of 30 percent for his career.

Asked if he would like to see the streak continue of different winners each week, Stricker smiled as he tried to think of a clever answer, before settling on a simple "No."

He was among the favorites in the 68-man field at Doral, comprised of players from the top 50 in the world ranking and top players from the money lists on six major tours around the world.

"It's still a world-class field, and it will take a strong winner," Lee Westwood said. "You still have to be on top of your game to win."

Take himself out of the mix and Stricker would favor Mickelson, the defending champion at Doral. A year ago, Mickelson battled through dehydration brought on by food poisoning to hold off Nick Watney in the final round and capture his first WGC event.

Mickelson has yet to win this year, which most likely has more to do with his struggle at home as his wife recovers from breast cancer than any technical aspect of his game. Without a pro-am this week, Mickelson was not due to arrive at Doral until Wednesday evening.

Camilo Villegas is coming off a victory in the Honda Classic last week and might be the hottest player in golf. In five tournaments, the only time he failed to finish in the top 10 was his season debut in Abu Dhabi, where he tied for 19th.

"Obviously, I've had a good start for the year," Villegas said. "But it's not the way I think. Just try to keep going. I've had a great attitude all year, and I came pretty close in Match Play and I had a chance there at Phoenix. But tomorrow is Thursday, and trust me, every Thursday, we start from zero. It's time to forget what happened the previous week."

Ian Poulter is three weeks removed from his first victory in America at the Match Play Championship, while Ogilvy is a past WGC winner at Doral who opened the year with a victory in Kapalua.

The other winners on the PGA Tour are Ryan Palmer, Bill Haas, Ben Crane, Dustin Johnson, Cameron Beckman and Hunter Mahan.

"It's not an oddity or a coincidence. It's only an oddity when you have 25 winners in 25 tournaments," British Open champion Stewart Cink said. Then he added with a wink and a smile, "Besides, I'm winning the next two."

Stricker began his PGA Tour career when it was a big deal for any player to win more than four times in one season. Nick Price (six wins in 1994) was the only player to do that in the 15 years before Woods showed up. Since then, Woods has gone only three seasons when he didn't win at least four times, one of those as a rookie in 1996 when he played only eight tournaments (and won two).

"He makes it look easy, but it's not," Stricker said. "But it's good for the game when we get both - a variety of winners, and it's good when we get guys who continuously win. Everyone loves David against Goliath. It's good to have top guys going down the stretch against a guy who doesn't win as much."

Two months into Woods' infidelity break, it has been hard to identify the top guys who win all the time.

Tournaments ready for Tiger's return

DORAL, Fla. (AP) — Not long after Tiger Woods returned home and starting practicing, the PGA Tour began checking with tournaments to make sure they were prepared to handle the hype over the world's No. 1 player getting back to golf.

That even includes tournaments he has never played.

"Historically, he hasn't played the week before the Masters," said Steve Timms, tournament director of the Houston Open, which is the week before the Masters. "But these are unusual times. We're prepared from a security and media standpoint. We've been watching the media closely, and we've had some weird ones."

Timms, like other tournament directors, are in touch with PGA Tour officials about who is applying for media credentials.

The more immediate focus is in Florida. Woods hasn't played at Innisbrook since Kelli Kuehne was his partner in 1996 at the old JCPenney Classic. Long before Woods was exposed for cheating on his wife, there had been increasing speculation that he was considering the Transitions Championship one of these years, although this doesn't appear to be one of them.

Even so, tournament director Gerald Goodman said tour officials contacted him last week.

"They described it as talking to all tournaments," Goodman said. "They gave no indication that they knew anything, they were just wanting to be thorough. They asked us if we had room for media. We're a large resort on a thousand acres. There's plenty of room."

Scott Wellington didn't need a phone call to start planning. He's the tournament director of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, where Woods is a six-time champion (including last year) and lives a short drive away.

Wellington said the tour shared information from its experience at the TPC Sawgrass, where Woods spoke publicly Feb. 19 for the first time since his car accident the morning after Thanksgiving. Some 300 media came to a nearby hotel to cover the event.

Bay Hill is not the largest property, although it typically has a large media turnout because it is two weeks before the Masters.

"We'll accommodate to the extent we're able to," Wellington said. "But it's like a balloon. It can only get so big. We've discussed 'Plan B' scenarios, and we're prepared to react as best we can. Obviously, it would help to get as much advance knowledge as we can."

Woods typically does not enter a tournament until a day or two before the 5 p.m. Friday deadline, although there are indications from his management team that more notice will be given in this case.

PGA Tour spokesman Ty Votaw described the phone calls as typical conversations the tour has with its events on subjects ranging from media coverage to charity to television. In this case, another topic was added - the return of Woods.

"We've not indicated that we have inside knowledge," Votaw said. "We just want them to be aware so they're no scrambling."

MR. HARRINGTON GOES TO WASHINGTON Padraig Harrington can't think of a better way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day - at the White House for a party hosted by President Barack Obama.

Ireland's three-time major champion says he has been invited to the White House on March 17 for an annual St. Patrick's Day party that the president hosts for the Irish taoiseach.

"I'm looking forward to it," Harrington said, who shared his good news with no prompting. "I want to meet one of the most charismatic people in the world, and the most influential leaders in the world. And he's a golfer. I quite enjoy celebrating St. Patrick's Day."

But he'll take it easy on the celebration.

"I have a tee time the next day," Harrington said.

In what is sure to be a busy week, the Irishman plans to play that week in the Transitions Championship at Innisbrook.

ENGLISH LESSON Of the eight English players among the top 75 in the world ranking, four of them are PGA Tour members. All but one of those four - Justin Rose - has won in America.

Ian Poulter was the most recent at the Match Play Championship, with Paul Casey winning a year ago and Luke Donald a two-time winner. Rose is 0-for-154 on the PGA Tour and can only hope he's next.

"I played good enough golf to win out here," Rose said after his third-place finish at the Honda Classic. "I've been close a few times. I would have hoped that one of them would have got in the way by now. Sometimes winning just gets in the way without you trying too hard."

PINEHURST MAKEOVER Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw have been hired for a restoration project at Pinehurst No. 2 that has nothing to do with the U.S. Open returning in 2014. The course will not be significantly lengthened, only one tee box will be changed, the course will have minimal mowed rough and the fairways will be widened.

Coore and Crenshaw will return natural and strategic character to the course, with work set to begin in the fall. The changes include a return to sandy waste areas, native wiregrass and natural bunker edges on the Donald Ross design.

"It is not our intent to radically change this golf course," Coore said. "We're trying to uncover it, not recover it. We're trying to take what Ross left and perhaps bring it back to the character and definition of what was once here. In short, we'll bring the strategy back, and reinstate its character."

The course closes from Nov. 15 until March 2, and the majority of the work is expected to be done by then.

"We're not doing this for purely environmental reasons, nor are we doing this project as preparation for the 2014 U.S. Open and U.S. Women's Open championships," said Pinehurst president Don Padgett II. "We're doing it because it's the right thing to do, as stewards of this historic course."

DIVOTS Larry Thiel, who for years was executive director of The International, has joined the Bob Hope Classic as tournament chairman. ... Seven former major champions are in the field at the Puerto Rico Open, including Tom Kite. ... A Massachusetts couple bid $28,500 to play in the Houston Open pro-am with U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover and ESPN radio hosts Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic. Shell Oil added $20,000, with proceeds going for the V-Foundation for Cancer Research. The couple's bid also includes airfare and hotel.

STAT OF THE WEEK Italian brothers Edoardo and Francesco Molinari are No. 47 and No. 48 in the world ranking, separated by .0000275 points.

FINAL WORD "Three rounds is a good thing. They don't need to kill us out here." Fred Couples on playing the Champions Tour.

Seve Ballesteros OK after cart fall

MADRID (AP) — Seve Ballesteros, who has been battling brain cancer for more than a year, has fully recovered after falling off a golf cart and banging his head on the ground last week in Pedrena, northern Spain.

The three-time British Open champion underwent hospital exams for four days before being discharged. The 52-year-old Spaniard banged his head on the ground when he fell out of the vehicle.

In 2008, Ballesteros underwent surgery after being diagnosed with a brain tumor.

Dottie Pepper is pulling for Laura Davies to make Hall of Fame

I have a long, complex relationship with Laura Davies, who won the New Zealand Women's Open two weeks ago, her 73rd worldwide victory. One of the basics of broadcasting is no rooting, but the woman otherwise known as Mate or LD is two points (two LPGA wins or one major) away from admission into the Hall of Fame, and I'm pulling for her.

I first met Laura in 1987 at the U.S. Women's Open. She was — ­and still is — ­a huge woman with a baby face, enormous power and a surgeon's touch, which she showed off by winning the championship that year. In 1988 we were expected to duel for LPGA rookie of the year, although Liselotte Neumann trumped us both. Later that year Laura and I teamed up in the LPGA-JLPGA matches and had a boatload of fun.

That all changed with the start of the Solheim Cup in 1990. We're both competitive, passionate and patriotic, and things got intense when we faced off. I still believe Juli Inskster and I beating Laura and Trish Johnson on the first morning of the 1998 matches set the tone for the U.S. victory over Europe — ­and led to Annika Sorenstam and LD taking a few shots at a painting of my face, which decorated a punching bag in the European locker room. The animosity festered until 2001, when I approached LD to clear the air. She told me I was "useless," and I returned the compliment. We raised a few more issues and got it all out — mission accomplished. I respect someone who says what she feels, and I think she's the same way.

Since I retired, we've had some good chats, and I've become a fan. The Kraft Nabisco looms (April 1–4) and I'd love to see Mate get those final points there. I can almost see her hitching up her skirt as she goes for the par-5 72nd in 2, pulls it off and celebrates with a well-earned jump in the lake at Mission Hills.