After finishing runner-up at the Open Championship and the WGC-Bridgestone, and third at the PGA Championship, Sweden's Henrik Stenson finally broke through for his first victory of 2013 at the Deutsche Bank Championship, the second leg of the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup playoffs.  The 37-year-old Stenson opened with a 67 but moved into position with a second-round 63, to stand one behind Sergio Garcia at the halfway point, then added a third-round 66 to trail the Spaniard by two going into the event's annual Labor Day finish.  Garcia, for his part, entered Monday with a career 3-7 PGA Tour record when leading after 54 holes and wasted little time in blowing himself up, carding five early bogeys en rout to a 73 and a tie for fourth.  Stenson, on the other hand, bogeyed the par-5 2nd but never wavered thereafter, ringing up six birdies over his final 16 holes (including a run of three straigtht at the 4th, 5th and 6th) to push himself in front.  A bunkered approach at the par-4 17th offered his persuers a ray of hope but Stenson promptly holed the bunker shot to create a three-shot margin of victory.  Forty-six-year-old Steve Stricker, making only his 10th start in a season that saw him redefine himself as a part-time golfer, finished with rounds of 63-67 to claim solo second, while Canadian Graham DeLaet continued his strong form by riding a Saturday 62 to take solo third.  Also posting a 62 - but under much tougher Sunday conditions - was 20-year-old Jordan Spieth, who closed with three birdies and an eagle to tie for fourth.  World number one Tiger Woods, meanwhile, fell apart with weekend rounds of 72-73 to tie for 65th.................. Ending a victory drought dating to the 2009 Hong Kong Open, France's Gregory Bourdy used a dramatic come-from-behind finish to win the ISPS Handa Wales Open by two shots at Celtic Manor.  Playing on the course which hosted the 2010 Ryder Cup, Bourdy demonstrated steady golf over the first three days, posting rounds of 67-72-70 to be tied (with countryman Thomas Levet) for second after 54 holes, three strokes behind American Peter Uihlein.  He then began the final round with an eagle at the 610-yard 2nd, eventually turned in 34, then added a birdie at the 562-yard 11th to press himself fully into contention.  Perhaps feeling the pressure, Bourdy then bogeyed both the 13th and 14th, setting up a thrilling finish in which he reeled off birdies at the 477-yard par-4 16th, the 211-yard 17th and, via a clutch 15-foot putt, the 613-yard finisher.  Uihlein, meanwhile, birdied the 2nd but added three bogeys over his next eight holes to lose his lead.  But rising to the occasion, the 23-year-old posted late birdies at the 15th and 17th to creep back within one but, then three-putted at the last while aggressively pursuing the birdie that he needed to force a playoff.................. Fresh off a runner-up finish at the previous week's Kansai Open, 27-year-old South Korean Sung-Joon Park broke through for his first Japan Tour victory by claiming the Vana H Cup KBC Augusta in Fukuoka.  Park posted steady scores of 67-68-69 to edge compatriot Jung-Gon Hwang by two in the Tour's second consecutive weather-shortened event, this week's issues coming after heavy rains forced the completion of Friday's second round on Saturday afrernoon.  Thus unlike many a 54-hole winner, Park did battle full final-round pressure on Sunday, beginning the day in a three-way tie for the lead with Yoshinori Fujimoto and Satoshi Tomiyama, then playing steady golf while Fujimoto (72) and Tomiyama (74) both backed off.................. Veteran Andrew Curlewis ended a six year and four month victory drought at the Wild Waves Golf Challenge, claiming his second career Sunshine Tour title in a hard-fought battle with Titch Moore and 13-time Tour winner Desvonde Botes.  Curlewis played strong, aggressive golf all week at the Wild Coast Sun Country Club, stringing together rounds of 66-63-65 and recording his only bogey during the first round.  The final round began with Moore (65-63) holding a one-shot lead over Curlewis and two over Botes (65-65) and the trio remained tightly bunched for the entire day.  Ultimately Botes – himself hoping to end a seven-yeard victory drought –holed a dramatic 30-foot birdie putt at the last to pull within one, and Moore rushed home with birdies at the 17th and 18th to match him.  But after seeing both of his challengers gain a shot at the last, Curlewis coolly parred the hole to salt away the title.

PGA Tour - Deutsche Bank Championship  -  Henrik Stenson  (262)
European Tour - ISPS Handa Wales Open  -  Gregory Bourdy  (276)
Japan Tour - Vana H Cup KBC Augusta  -  Sung-Joon Park  (204)
Sunshine Tour - Wildf Waves Challenge  -  Andrew Curlewis  (194)
LPGA Tour - Safeway Classic  -  Suzann Pettersen  (268)
LET - Ladies Scottish Open  -  Catriona Matthew  (208)
JLPGA Tour - Nitori Ladies  -  Sun-Ju Ahn  (205)
Champions Tour - Shaw Charity Classic  -  Rocco Mediate  (191)
Euro Senior Tour -  Travis Perkins Senior Masters  -  Colin Montgomerie  (206)
Web.com Tour - Hotel Fitness Championship  -  Trevor Immelman  (268)
E Challenge Tour - Northern Ireland Open Challenge  -  Daan Huizing  (271)
Canada - Wildfire Invitational  -  Mark Hubbard  (264)

On a final day which saw five separate players hold a piece of the lead at one time or another, Adam Scott avoided the pressure that comes with playing late on Sunday, carded a bogey-free 66 some 90 minutes ahead of the leaders, then looked on with surprise as his 273 aggregate somehow proved enough to edge a quartet of strong contenders by one, earning him The Barclay’s title.  Largely an afterthought after a Saturday 72 left him well back in the pack, Scott returned to the radar screen after running off birdies at holes 5, 6 and 7, then moved himself into the lead with additional birdies at the 14th and 16th.  Thereafter it was a matter of watching several world-class players challenge and fall, including reigning U.S. Open champion Justin Rose (who, with a chance to win outright at the 18th, three-putted from 25 feet to lose outright instead) and third-round co-leader Gary Woodland, who missed multiple late birdie putts to tie, including a 10-footer at the last.  Canada’s Graham DeLaet joined the second-place posse with a closing 65 (tied for the day’s low round) as did Tiger Woods, who battled a stiff back all weekend (he hooked a painful second shot so far left at the par-5 13th that it found water on the far side of the 15th fairway), yet hung in gamely enough to miss a 25-footer at the last to tie.  Phil Mickelson also made a notable move on Sunday, carding a 65 to tie for sixth, while thre opposite approach was taken by 54-hole co-leader Matt Kuchar (who triple-bogeyed the 9th en route to a closing 78) and Kevin Chappell, who followed up Saturday’s course record 62 with a Sunday 76………………Twenty-two-year-old Tommy Fleetwood of England birdied the first of hole of sudden death to defeat Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher and Argentina’s Ricardo Gonzalez and claim his maiden professional victory at the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.  Making his 50th career E Tour start, Fleetwood began Sunday’s final round tied for the lead with Gonzalez (who held or shared the lead after each of the first three rounds) before slipping off the pace with an outgoing 35, followed by bogeys at the par-3 10th and the par-4 15th.  But with his hopes quickly fading, Fleetwood righted the ship dramatically with an eagle at the 543-yard 16th (his fourth eagle of the week), then birdied the short par-5 18th to reach the playoff.  Gonzalez, meanwhile, stumbled out of the gate with a double-bogey at the 426-yard 1st (and would later add two more bogeys) but recovered with a slew of birdies including two when he badly needed them, at the 16th and 18th holes.  Not to be outdone, Gallacher stormed into contention via an outgoing Sunday 32, then triple-bogeyed the par-4 11th to seemingly dash his hopes.  But birdies at the 14th and 16th, then a dramatic closing eagle at the 18th, earned him the final playoff spot.  Fleetwood’s clinching birdie came as the trio played the 18th again, and came via a three-foot-putt after an attempt for eagle from the fringe had missed………………Australian Brad Kennedy won for the second time on the Japan Golf Tour at the light-field Kansai Open, an event shortened to 54 holes when torrential rains deluged the Olympic Golf Club on Sunday.  Kennedy began what would prove to be the final round two shots behind a surprise 36-hole leader, 21-year-old amateur Yujiro Ohori, who’d carded rounds of 69-68.  Kennedy then stormed out of the gate on Saturday, moving into the lead by birdieing five of his first 10 holes, then hanging on over a homestretch that included two more birdies as well as bogeys at the 14th and 16th.  Thus going to sleep anticipating trying to hold the narrowest of leads over a hard-fought final round, Kennedy instead was awarded the title without a Sunday fight………………Veteran Jean Hugo put on an impressive performance at the Vodacom Origins of Golf tournament at Langebaan Country Estate, capturing his 15th career Sunshine Tour victory with a fine 202 aggregate that routed the field by seven shots.  Hugo carded a steady 72 in windy, rainy conditions during Tuesday’s opening round before heating up with a bogey-free nine-under-par 63 on Wednesday to vault into the lead.  Though unable to completely maintain this blazing form on Thursday, Hugo went out in 33, bogeyed the par-3 11th (with three putts), then carded birdies at both the 12th and 13th to essentially put matters to rest.  Second place was shared by Merrick Bremner (who closed with 66-67 after an opening 76), Jbe’ Kruger and Andrew Curlewis, while Titch Moore and Steven Ferreira tied for fifth, a stroke further back.  Hugo made only three bogeys over 54 holes – all, rather remarkably, via three putting………………South Australia’s 29-year-old Nick Cullen claimed his first Australasian Tour victory at the Queensland Open, carding a closing 69 over a challenging Brookwater Golf & Country Club layout to pull away from veteran Peter O’Malley by five shots.  Also a winner of the OneAsia Tour’s 2012 Indonesian Open, Cullen did most of his damage via a third-round course record 65 that included seven birdies and no bogeys; indeed, for the remaining three rounds, he was only two under par, with 12 birdies and 10 bogeys in total.  O’Malley, a three-time winner on the European Tour, hung close to the lead through 63 holes but played the final nine in two-over-par 38, allowing Cullen some breathing room down the stretch.       

PGA Tour - The Barclay's  -  Adam Scott  (273)
European Tour - Johnnie Walker Championship  -  Tommy Fleetwood  (270)
Japan Tour - Kansai Open  -  Brad Kennedy  (206)
Sunshine Tour - Vodacom Origins - Langebaan  -  Jean Hugo  (202)
Australasian Tour - Isuzu Queensland Open  -  Nick Cullen  (279)
LPGA Tour -  CN Canadian Women's Open  -  Lydia Ko  (265)
JLPGA Tour - CAT Ladies  -  Sun-Ju Ahn  (204)
Champions Tour - Boeing Classic  -  John Riegger  (201)
Web.com Tour - Cox Classic  -  Bronson La'Cassie  (263)
E Challenge Tour -  Rolex Trophy  -  Jens Dantorp  (270)
Canada - Great Waterway Classic  -  Hugo Leon  (266)

Twenty-three-year-old PGA Tour rookie Patrick Reed proved he was mentally tough during the 2012 season when, lacking any playing status whatsoever, he set an unofficial record by Monday qualifying for six separate events.  Having survived the year-end Q School, however, he began 2013 fully exempt and, after sniffing around weekend leads on several occasions, broke through for his maiden victory at the Wyndham Classic, beating 20-year-old Jordan Spieth on the second hole of sudden death.  Reed held or shared the lead after 36 and 54 holes, and extended it to three by the final nine before an untimely bogey at the 16th opened the door for Spieth to tie with a birdie at the 17th.  Reed missed a chance to end the playoff on the first extra hole when, after Spieth holed a desperation 25-footer for par, he missed his own seven-footer for birdie.  Reed then appeared to be in deep trouble at the second (the par-4 10th) when his drive finished only a few feet from an out-of-bounds line.  He then hit a miraculous recovery from an uphill lie to within eight feet of the hole and calmly holed the putt to deny Spieth, the John Deere Classic winner in July, the chance to become the youngest two-time Tour champion of the modern era.  Two more young players of note, Brian Harman and John Huh, shared third place two strokes out of the playoff, while Matt Every, Zach Johnson and Matt Jones (who closed with 62) tied for fifth.

PGA Tour - Wyndham Championship  -  Patrick Reed  (266)
JLPGA Tour - NEC Karuizawa 72  -  Misuza Narita  (202)
Champions Tour - Dick's Sporting Goods Open  -  Bart Bryant  (200)
Web.com Tour - News Sentinel Open  -  Peter Malnati  (268)
Symetra Tour - Eagle Classic  -  Christine Song  (208)

On a tough, old-fashioned tree-lined golf course that figured to favor elite ball-strikers, it was fitting that Jason Dufner, one of the PGA Tour’s most consistent tee-to-greeners, would stand tall.  And in the end, Dufner indeed grabbed his piece of golfing immortality, claiming his first Major title by winning the PGA Championship at Oak Hill.  Pre-tournament rains softened playing conditions significantly, allowing for some truly impressive scoring over the first 36 holes of play.  On a rain-delayed Thursday, the benign conditions were most taken advantage of by Adam Scott and Jim Furyk, who shared the first round lead with five-under-par 65s.  Scott, the reigning Masters champion and a late contender at the Open Championship, did his damage early, reeling off five straight birdies at holes 4-8, then adding one more at the par-4 14th before a bogey at the 16th closed out his scoring.  Hoping to make amends for a disappointing 2012 campaign which saw him fail to hold a Sunday lead during the U.S. Open at Olympic, Furyk would also card six birdies, with only a bogey at the tough par-4 9th marring an otherwise perfect card.  Among the 35 players to break par, the strongest challenges were the 66s posted by Canadian David Hearn and the resilient Lee Westwood, another top players washed aside by Mickelson’s wake during the final round at Muirfield.  The group of players on 67 included two-time 2013 PGA Tour winner Matt Kuchar (a popular pre-tournment favorite), England’s Paul Casey, long-hitting Robert Garrigus and Australian Jason Day (seemingly now a regular on Major championship leaderboards), while those on 68 included Dufner, Open Championship runner-up Henrik Stenson and the ageless Miguel Angel Jimenez.  Tiger Woods, meanwhile, continued his mysterious 2013 pattern of coming up flat in Major play, playing 17 fairly uneventful holes in one under par before carding a double-bogey at his last hole, the 9th.  Recent Open Championship winner Phil Mickelson also posted a 71, though his far more dramatic day included a pair of double bogeys as well as five birdies from holes 9-14.  It would be on Friday that Dufner stamped his imprint on the tournament, tying the all-time Major championship scoring record (and breaking Oak Hill’s competitive mark) with a stunning 63 that vaulted him into a two-shot lead.  His round opened spectacularly when he holed his approach to eagle the par-4 2nd, but then things became more methodical as he ticked off five subsequent birdies before leaving a 12-foot putt short at the final green that would have made him the sole man ever to shoot a Major championship 62 rather then the 24th to shoot 63.  As it was, he tied the tournament record for low 36-hole score, but his lead was hardly commanding.  Indeed, the trio of players most closely pursuing him included Scott and Furyk (who both shot 68) as well as Kuchar, whose round of 66 included five birdies, plus a bogey at the demanding par-4 18th.  With scoring conditions again benign, there was nearly another 63 recorded as 2012 U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson moved into the mix via a seven-birdie 64 that included an untimely bogey at the par-4 7th, his 16th hole of the day.  Though commonly viewed as “Moving Day,” Saturday actually produced only limited shifts atop the leaderboard, with Dufner fighting off the standard post-low round malaise to post a 71 – just enough to let Furyk slip into the lead by one.  Conditions were dryer and tougher, and scoring climbed accordingly, with Furyk’s 68 (which included a resilient recovery from two early bogeys) being the lowest round recorded among those who began the weekend in close proximity to the lead.  Several outliers posted lower numbers to move into the mix, however, including Jonas Blixt (a 66 to climb to fourth place, three strokes back) and former world number one Rory McIlroy, whose 67 moved him to the edge of contention, six shots in arrears.  Stenson, for his part, posted a solid 69 to trail by two, while both Adam Scott (a disappointing 72) and Steve Stricker (70) stood tied for fifth, four strokes off the pace.  As is often the Major championship case, Sunday evolved largely into a battle of who could hit the most fairways and greens – and there, perhaps predictably, Dufner shined.  Cognizant of having lost a late four-shot shot lead (and the ensuing playoff to Keegan Bradley) at the 2011 PGA, Dufner was determined to put his best foot forward and wasted little time in doing so, logging birdies at the 4th, 5th and 8th to retake the lead – with his cushion extending to two when Furyk bogeyed the difficult 9th.  Thereafter, Dufner did his best impersonation of Jack Nicklaus, methodically posting back nine pars before giving himself a bit of wiggle room by pitching to within two feet to card one last birdie at the 16th.  Furyk matched that birdie to stay within two but could do no better than bogeys at the brutal 17th and 18th, a failure to mount a final charge that rendered Dufner’s own pair of closing bogeys irrelevant.  The red-hot Stenson, trying to become the first Swede to win a men's Major, crept within two shots on the 13th hole and appeared ready to charge as he faced the driveable par-4 14th.  But his tee ball found a divot, he buried his wedge approach in a fronting bunker, then blasted out poorly to make bogey; he would claim solo third, three behind Dufner. 

PGA Tour - PGA Championship  -  Jason Dufner  (270)
Sunshine Tour - Vodacom Origins - Euphoria  -  Heinrich Bruiners  (208)
LET - Honma Pilsen Masters  - Ann-Kathrin Lindner  (201)
JLPGA Tour -  Meiji  Cup  - Da-Ye Na  (204)
Web.com Tour - Price Cutter Charity Chmpionship  -  Andrew Svoboda  (266)
E Challenge Tour - Norwegian Challenge  -  Jens Fahbring  (269)
Canada - ATB Financial Classic  -  Joe Panzeri  (271)
Symetra Tour - IOA Golf Classic -  Katy Harris  (209)

Perhaps no one in the history of golf has lived up to phrase “Horses For Courses” better than Tiger Woods.  Having begun 2013 by winning for the eighth time at Torrey Pines, then later adding an eighth career triumph at Bay Hill, Woods added a remarkable eighth win at the famed Firestone Country Club via a seven-shot runaway triumph at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.  In point of fact, Woods did virtually all of his damage on Friday, when he tied the course record with a dazzling nine-under-par 61; for the other three rounds, he was even with defending champion Keegan Bradley and two strokes behind Henrick Stenson, the two men who shared second.  But Friday was an impressive day indeed, for Woods opened birdie-eagle-birdie, turned in 30, then reeled off four straight birdies at holes 10-13 to get to nine under on the day – and well within sight of a possible 59 on the par-70 Firestone layout.  Unfortunately, Woods wilted slightly under the pressure, scrambling for a great par at the 14th, then missing short birdie opportunities at the 15th and 17th before scrambling for a great par at the 18th after driving far right, into the trees.  There would be no further fireworks over the weekend, however, as Woods overcame several wayward shots to card a two-under-par 68 on Saturday, then played smart, safe golf on a breezy Sunday to cruise home with a 70 and raise the trophy.  Bradley and Stenson jointly won the battle for second place, while fourth was shared by Jason Dufner, the ageless Miguel Angel Jimenez and Zach Johnson.  The victory was Woods’ 79th on the PGA Tour (bringing him within three of Sam Snead’s record 82) and also made 2013 the 10th season in which he won at least five times.  It was also his 18th career triumphg in a WGC event – exactly six times as many WGC wins as the closest competition.................... Ending a slump which saw him log only a single top 10 (a T9 at the 2012 Frys.com Open) since the 2011 Greenbrier Classic, long-hitting Gary Woodland scrambled his way through the final round to claim the Reno Tahoe Open, winning by a solid nine points under the event's Modified Stableford scoring system.  Woodland came into Sunday with a seven point lead, owing to a strong 16-point third-round performance, but proceeded to struggle somewhat from tee to green, getting up and down thrice from greenside bunkers on the outward half before scoring his biggest blow with a 60-foot chip in for birdie after driving errantly at the short par-4 14th.  A follow-up birdie at the par-4 15th cemented his position before a bogey at the 17th and a birdie at the par-5 18th saw him home to victory.

WGC - WGC-Bridgestone Invitational  -  Tiger Woods  (265)
PGA Tour - Reno-Tahoe Open  -  Gary Woodland  (44 pts)
LPGA Tour - Ricoh Women's British Open  -  Stacy Lewis  (280)
LET - See LPGA Tour (Above)
Champions Tour - 3M Championship  -  Tom Pernice Jr.  (199)
Euro Senior Tour - Berenberg Masters  -  Steen Tinning  (207)
Web.com Tour - Mylan Classic  -  Ben Martin  (267)
E Challenge Tour -  Finnish Challenge  -  Stuart Manley  (267)