INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — K.J. Choi holed an 11-foot birdie putt worth $270,000 on the 18th hole Sunday to win the 26th Skins Game with $415,000.
Stephen Ames missed a 9-footer that would have tied the hole and forced the foursome, including Phil Mickelson and Rocco Mediate, into a playoff. Instead, Choi’s putt gave him $340,000 for Sunday’s nine holes and made him the fifth international player to win the title.
Ames, looking for a third consecutive title in the event, won $250,000 on the first hole of the day with a birdie to finish second. Mickelson was third with $195,000, while Mediate earned $140,000.
• Robert Karlsson and Henrik Stenson birdied the first hole — and added eight more without dropping a shot — to lift Sweden to its second World Cup title, shooting a 9-under 63 in alternate-shot play in Shenzhen, China, to beat Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez and Pablo Larrazabal by three strokes.
Karlsson and Stenson, four strokes behind the Spaniards after the third round, finished at 27-under 261.
Australia’s Richard Green and Brendan Jones (76) and Japan’s Ryuji Imada and Toru Taniguchi (68) tied for third.
• Christina Kim gave Annika Sorenstam a big victory in her second-to-last event before retiring, birdieing the par-5 18th for a halve and the deciding half-point for the International team in a victory over Asia at the Lexus Cup in Singapore.
Maier wins super-G
LAKE LOUISE, Alberta — Hermann Maier of Austria won a super-G for his 54th career World Cup win.
Maier, who last won a World Cup race in January 2006, won in 1 minute, 29.84 seconds. John Kucera of Canada was second in 1:30.43, and Didier Cuche of Switzerland was third in 1:30.52.
Defending overall champion Bode Miller, who finished 16th in Saturday’s downhill, lost a ski before the halfway mark and did not finish.
The next men’s World Cup races — a combined, downhill, super-G and giant slalom — will be in Beaver Creek next week.
Footnotes.
Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford tore ligaments in his nonthrowing hand during the Sooners’ win against Oklahoma State and is expected to have surgery following the Big 12 title game.
• Lane Kiffin will become University of Tennessee’s football coach today, two days after Phillip Fulmer’s 17-season tenure ended.
• Japan’s Nobunari Oda, who was in first place after Friday’s short program, overcame several mistakes in his free skate to win the NHK Trophy in Tokyo. American Johnny Weir was second.
• Martin Johnsrud Sundby of Norway won his first cross-country World Cup race, capturing the 15-kilometer classic style event in Kuusamo, Finland. Aino-Kaisa Saarinen won the women’s 10K.
• Anssi Koivuranta and Janne Ryynanen gave Finland a 1-2 finish in a World Cup nordic combined meet in Kuusamo.
• Andi Langenhan and Tatjana Huefner led a German double in singles races at a World Cup luge event in Igls, Austria.
The Associated Press
