Austin, Calcavecchia win Merrill Lynch Shootout
Woody Austin drained a 35-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to win the Merrill Lynch Shootout with teammate Mark Calcavecchia by a shot over tournament host Greg Norman and Bubba Watson on Sunday at Naples, Fla.
“I haven’t won enough to think that it certainly comes easy, so I know how important it is,” said Austin, 43, who has three career PGA Tour victories.
The birdie gave the team a final-round 9-under 63 in the scramble format and a 29-under 187 total.
Austin and Calcavecchia split $700,000 of the $2.8 million purse.
•At Malelane, South Africa, Ernie Els blew a two-stroke lead on the final hole of the Alfred Dunhill Championship by hitting two balls into the water, handing John Bickerton a one-shot victory.
Els had a 1-over 73 after his triple bogey on the par-5 18th. Bickerton shot a 68 to finish at 13-under 275.
•At Bangkok, Thailand, Thailand’s Prayad Marksaeng birdied the 18th hole for a one-stroke win in the Volvo Masters of Asia over third-round leader Juvic Pagunsan of the Philippines.
•At Coolum, Australia, Peter Lonard capped what he considered a poor season with a victory on the Hyatt Regency course he has almost made his own, winning the Australian PGA for the third time with a 7-under 65 and a three-shot victory.
Winter sports
Raich wins WC slalom
Benjamin Raich won the World Cup slalom at Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria, for his first victory of the season.
The 2006 overall champion led after the opening run and was third fastest in the second run to complete the steep Franz Klammer course in a combined 1 minute, 34.46 seconds.
•At Aspen, Colo., Austria’s Nicole Hosp edged Finland’s Tanja Poutiainen by 1.19 seconds for her first women’s World Cup slalom win of the season.
•At Trondheim, Norway, Christoph Bieler won a Nordic combined sprint event by 0.3 seconds for his fourth career World Cup victory.
Olympic champion Thomas Morgenstern won his third straight ski jumping World Cup meet.
•At Winterberg, Germany, Germany’s Tatjana Huefner won a women’s luge race to deny teammate Silke Kraushaar-Pielach a record-tying 37th World Cup win.
•At Hochfilzen, Austria, Norway rallied to beat world champion Russia in a men’s 4x7.5-kilometer biathlon relay, and world champion Germany won the women’s 4x6-kilometer relay by also topping Russia.
•At Heerenveen, Netherlands, Shani Davis of the U.S. won the men’s 1,000-meter race in 1 minute, 8.39 seconds in World Cup speedskating.
Miscellany
Assists record falls
David N. Arseneault shattered the NCAA men’s basketball assists record when he had 34 in Grinnell’s 151-112 win over North Central of Minnesota in a Division III game Saturday at Des Moines, Iowa. The previous high of 26 was set in 1989 by Robert James of D-III Kean. The D-I record of 22 was achieved by three players. … Outfielder Milton Bradley and the Texas Rangers reached a preliminary agreement on a $5 million, one-year contract. … At Sao Paulo, Brazil, Brazilian stock car racer Rafael Sperafico was killed in an accident in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Associated Press