PALM HARBOR, Fla. — Jim Furyk showed the nerves of a player trying to win for the first time on the PGA Tour, doing just enough right down the stretch Sunday.
Furyk closed with a 2-under-par 69 for a one-shot victory over K.J. Choi in the Transitions Championship, his first victory since the 2007 Canadian Open, ending his longest winless stretch since he first joined the tour 16 years ago.
Furyk missed the last three greens in regulation and nearly hit NBC Sports reporter Roger Maltbie with a half-shank from the trees on the 18th hole.
Furyk finished at 13-under 271 and won for the 14th time in his career, moving to No. 6 in the world. Choi closed with a 4-under 67. Bubba Watson (68) finished third.
• Rhys Davies of Wales earned his first European Tour title, winning the Trophee Hassan II in Rabat, Morocco, by two strokes over South African Louis Oosthuizen (70) after shooting a 7-under 66.
Ljubicic defeats Roddick
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Ivan Ljubicic outlasted Andy Roddick 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5) in a battle of big servers to win the BNP Paribas Open.
Ljubicic set up his fourth match point with the last of his 20 aces, then won with a serve that Roddick couldn’t return. At 31, Ljubicic is the second-oldest winner at Indian Wells behind Jimmy Connors, who was five months older as the 1984 champion.
Jelena Jankovic had a much easier time in the women’s final, defeating Caroline Wozniacki 6-2, 6-4 for her first title in seven months.
Schleper wins U.S. slalom title
WILMINGTON, N.Y. — Olympians Sarah Schleper and Tommy Ford won slalom titles at the U.S. Alpine Championships.
The win for the 31-year-old Schleper, a four-time Olympian from Vail, continued a comeback that began two years ago after the birth of her son. It was her fourth U.S. slalom crown.
Ford, from Bend, Ore., came out of sixth place after the first run, blasted through the second course with the fastest time and grabbed his first two national titles on the day after his 21st birthday. David Chodounsky of Crested Butte was second.
• Sven Kramer of the Netherlands became the first speedskater to win four straight overall titles at the world championships in Heerenveen, Netherlands, by winning the men’s 10,000 meters in 12 minutes, 57.97 seconds.
• Benjamin Karl of Austria and Maelle Ricker of Canada clinched the overall snowboard World Cup titles after the season-ending parallel giant slalom competition in La Molina, Spain.
• Double Olympic champion Petter Northug of Norway ended his impressive season by winning the last cross country race of the World Cup calendar, in Falun, Sweden.
Wong delivers game-winner
MINNEAPOLIS — Jessica Wong scored late in the third overtime to lift Minnesota-Duluth to a 3-2 victory over Cornell in the NCAA women’s Frozen Four title game.
Minnesota-Duluth (31-8-2) won its fifth national title in the 10 years that the NCAA has awarded a women’s hockey championship.
The Associated Press
