Tiger Woods hits his tee shot on the eighth hole during the first round of the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club on February 22, 2012.Tiger Woods couldn’t buy a putt and won’t be sticking around at the Match Play Championship.With a chance

MARANA, Arizona (AP) ― Luke Donald won’t be playing the 18th hole at Dove Mountain this year, either.Donald, so dominant in winning the Match Play Championship last year that he closed out every match before the 18th hole, became only the third No. 1 seed to lose in the opening round Wednesday in another predictably crazy day on Dove Mountain.Ernie Els, who only got into the 64-man field when Phil Mickelson took his family on a ski vacation, delivered the biggest shocker in the first round with

Darren Clarke, the reigning Open Championship winner, has committed to the only European Tour event in South Korea set for this spring, organizers said Tuesday.Organizers of the Ballantine’s Championship announced that Clarke, from Northern Ireland, will play in the April 26-29 tournament, vying for $2.9 million in total purse. This is the most lucrative golf tournament held in the country and is co-sanctioned by the European Tour, Asian Tour and Korean Golf Tour.  The 43-year-old won the 2011 O

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― Bill Haas wound up making the biggest putt of them all at Riviera.On the second extra hole of a three-way playoff Sunday ― made possible by clutch birdie putts from Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley on the final hole ― Haas rolled in a 45-foot birdie putt across the 10th green to win the Northern Trust Open.Haas closed with a 2-under 69 and won a PGA Tour event for the third straight year.He was on the practice range at 7-under 277, warming up for a playoff that didn’t look li

South Korean conglomerate Lotte Group will host an LPGA Tour tournament in Hawaii this spring, officials of the group and the tour announced Monday.In a ceremony here, the two sides signed a three-year partnership for the LPGA Lotte Championship. The inaugural tournament this year will take place from April 18 to 21 on the Ko Olina Golf Club on Oahu, Hawaii. The course has previously hosted the tour’s Hawaiian Ladies Open and the LPGA Fields Open.A field of 144 players will vie for a total purse

PATTAYA (AP) ― Ai Miyazato shot a 5-under 67 Thursday to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the LPGA Thailand.The 2010 champion from Japan opened with a birdie and had four more on a warm and humid day at the Old Course at Siam Country Club.American Paula Creamer had a hole-in-one on the 146-yard 12th hole, hitting a 7-iron that one-hopped into the cup. She’s five shots behind the leader.“It was a really, really long day for me because of the temperature,” said Miyazato, who was pla

LOS ANGELES (AFP) ― Jonathan Byrd and Choi Kyung-ju knew they were in for a tough day at Riviera Country Club, where gusting winds greeted the early starters Thursday at the $6.6 million U.S. PGA Northern Trust Open.Byrd admitted the blustery conditions at the bluff-top home he’s renting this week had made him “pretty anxious” heading into the round.But he seized the early clubhouse lead with a three-under par 68, one shot in front of South Korea’s Choi and Brendan Steele.Choi said he knew short

PALO ALTO, California (AP) ― Michelle Wie did not go to Stanford to play golf, at least not the game that brought her worldwide fame as a teenager.“One time, me and a couple of guys played campus golf,’’ said Wie, sitting in a coffee house on campus after her longest day of classes. “You hit tennis balls with a golf club. You start at the frats and end at the fountain, so that’s like one hole. We hit cars, we hit some bikers. Just goofy things that you don’t usually do.’’These are the goofy time

PEBBLE BEACH, California (AP) ― Phil Mickelson went from a six-shot deficit to a two-shot lead in just six holes, closed with an 8-under 64 for a two-shot victory over Charlie Wi and gave Tiger Woods a thrashing at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am on Sunday not many saw coming.Mickelson and Woods played in the second-to-last group, and Mickelson beat him by 11 shots. He won for the fourth time at Pebble Beach, and became only the ninth player in PGA Tour history with 40 wins.“Pebble Beach ... it

PEBBLE BEACH, California (AP) ― Charlie Wi played bogey-free at Spyglass Hill for a 3-under 69 to build a three-shot lead Saturday in the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Now it’s time for him to face his demons of self-doubt ― along with a familiar force in golf.Tiger Woods took another step toward showing his game is nearly back. He ran off five birdies in a six-hole stretch early in his round at Pebble Beach and had a 5-under 67 that put him four shots behind going into the final round, the clos

PEBBLE BEACH, California (AP) ― Twenty months later, Dustin Johnson finally hit the drive he wanted at Pebble Beach. Ten years later, Tiger Woods must have wondered what kept him away from the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.On a spectacular day of scenery and scoring, Johnson blasted a tee shot on the third hole at Pebble Beach and then pitched in for eagle from 41 yards in front of the green. He added another eagle on his way to a 9-under 63 and a three-way tie atop the leaderboard Thursday.Woods

DAYTONA BEACH, Florida (AP) ― A dry board in the office of LPGA Tour commissioner Mike Whan is filled with black-and-blue, an appropriate color scheme for a tour that had been taking its lumps over the last couple of years.The colors are used for the schedule ― blue ink for those that are a work in progress, black ink for the done deals.The board is mostly black these days.A new LPGA Tour season gets under way this week at Royal Melbourne with the Women’s Australian Open, one of four additional