Micheel needs one win for golf’s richest reward

Beating Tiger Woods was only the start of an amazing week for Shaun Micheel. Now he has a chance to win the richest prize in golf.

Micheel went the distance for the first time Saturday in the World Match Play Championship in Virginia Water, England, outlasting Robert Karlsson of Sweden for a 2-up victory that put him into the final match against Paul Casey.

The winner gets 1 million pounds ($1.87 million), the largest check in official tournaments worldwide.

Micheel also needs to win to climb into the top 50 in the world and qualify for the $7.5 million World Golf Championship in two weeks outside London.

PGA Tour

Charles Howell III shot a 4-under-par 68 for a share of the third-round lead with Ben Curtis in the 84 Lumber Classic in Farmington, Pa.

Curtis, trying to win a lame-duck tournament for the second time this summer, had a 69 to match Howell at 12-under 204 on Nemacolin Woodlands’ Mystic Rock course.

Hunter Mahan (67), Robert Garrigus (68) and Greg Owen (68) were a stroke back.

Champions Tour

Don Pooley made the most of a long day, birdieing half the holes in an 8-under 64 that left him a stroke ahead of Keith Fergus and Massy Kuramoto after two rounds of the Constellation Energy Classic in Hunt Valley, Md.

Fergus shot a bogey-free 66, and Kuramoto had a 67.

Andy Bean shot a course-record 63 to get to 8 under.

Sorenstam tops Ochoa

Annika Sorenstam beat Mexican star Lorena Ochoa in the Acapulco Skins, finishing with $165,000 in the two-player event at Tres Vidas in Acapulco, Mexico.

Ochoa earned $105,000 in the $15,000-a-hole competition.

Ochoa bogeyed the 16th to hand Sorenstam $45,000.

Berg remembered

Patty Berg, the golf pioneer and founding member of the LPGA Tour, was remembered at funeral services in Fort Myers, Fla., as an advocate for the game.

Berg, who won an LPGA Tour-record 15 major titles and had 60 victories overall, died Sept. 10 of complications from Alzheimer’s disease.

She was 88.