PGA Tour - RBC Canadian Open  -  Brandt Snedeker  (272)
European Tour - M2M Russian Open  -  Michael Hoey  (272)
LET - ISPS Handa Ladies European Masters  -  Karrie Webb  (200)
Champions Tour - Senior Open Championship  -  Weather Delayed (Monday finish)
Euro Senior Tour - See Champions Tour (Above)
Web.com Tour - Albertson's Boise Open  -  Kevin Tway  (261)
E Challenge Tour - Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge  -  Brinson Paolini  (269)
Symetra Tour - Credit Union Classic  -  Olivia Jordan-Higgins  (207)

After an 11-year absence the Open Championship returned to Muirfield in 2013, where throughout the week firm and fast conditions combined with some inconsistent green speeds to make for some of the toughest golf in recent Open history.  It was a week filled with the usual Major championship dramas and sub-plots but after 54 holes it appeared that the two central protagonists were Lee Westwood – still in search of the Holy Grail that is a Major – and Tiger Woods, still trying, as yet in vain, to break a Major championship drought dating to 2008.  Unlike several recent Majors wherein he contended for 36 holes before fading, Woods hung tough for 54 holes this week, trailing Westwood by two going into Sunday’s final round – but in the end, victory would again remain beyond his grasp.  Three early bogeys (two via three putting) derailed his charge and by the time he gamely added desperation birdies at the 12th and 14th, the complexion of the tournament had lifted the Claret jug well beyond his reach.  Sadly, Westwood too would stumble, though not immediately.  He offset an early bogey at the 3rd with a birdie at the par-5 5th and still held his two-stroke lead through the 6th.  But when poor ball-striking led to bogeys at the 7th and 8th, then a par at the reachable par-5 9th, the momentum had shifted significantly.  Several missed birdie putts early on the inward half denied him some necessary momentum before a bogey at the par-3 13th essentially ended his chances.  He would ultimately tie for third.  With both Westwood and Woods tumbling, the door was left open for another to seize the moment, and several candidates stepped forward.  With a remarkable run of birdies at the 7th, 8th, 9th and 11th, reigning Masters champion Adam Scott actually surged briefly into the lead.  But a tee shot blown far right at the the par-3 13th led (despite a splendid recovery) to the first of four straight bogeys and, ultimately, a tie for third.  Henrik Stenson too would be heard from, carding birdies at the 1st, 3rd and 9th (against a bogey at the 8th) to move close to lead.  His charged ultimately died with bogeys at the 12th and 13th, though a late birde at the 17th would lift him to solo second in the end.  And so the stage was left for Phil Mickelson, he of U.S. Open heartbreak (again) a month earlier at Merion, and a man whose troubles adjusting to the vagaries of links golf have long been chronicled.  But armed with confidence gained from his Scottish Open triumph of the previous week, Mickelson began Sunday five behind Westwood  and quietly moved forward, birdieing both of the outgoing par 5s to turn in 34 and push himself firmnly into the fray.  A bogey at the long par-4 10th briefly slowed his charge but birdies at the 13th and the demanding 14th came just as others the other contenders were falling by the wayside, and a superb up-and-down at the par-3 16th kept up the momentum.  And then, with everything on the line, Mickelson delivered some of the grandest clutch golf in the history of the championship, reaching the 575-yard 17th with two gargantuan 3 metals (he carried no driver) and two-putting for birdie, then carving a 6 iron approach to with 10 feet at the demanding 18th and holing the curling right-to-left putt to clinch the title.  On so difficult a golf course, the magnitude of Mickelson's Sunday performance cannot be overstated, and it must surely rate among the greatest rounds in Open Championship history.  Indeed, among the 11 men who began the day with significant chances of winning, he was the only one to break 70 - and he did so by a resounding four shots!  Truly a championship performance for the ages.

The Open Championship -  Phil Mickelson  (281)
PGA Tour - Sanderson Farms Championship  -  Woody Austin  (268)
LPGA Tour - Marathon Classic  -  Beatriz Recari  (267)
LET - Open de Espana  -  Lee-Anne Pace  (275)
JLPGA Tour -  Samantha Tavasa Girls Collection  -  Yumiko Yashida  (200)
Web.com Tour - Albertson's Boise Open  -  Jamie Lovemark  (266)
E Challenge Tour - Mugello Tuscany Open  -  Marco Crespi  (267)
Canada - The Players Cup  -  Carlos Sainz Jr.  (271)
Symetra Tour - Northeast Delta Dental Int'l  -  P.K. Kongkraphan  (207)

Nineteen-year-old Jordan Spieth made history at the John Deere Classic, becoming the youngest winner of a PGA Tour-recognized event in 82 years when he prevailed in a five-hole playoff with defending champion Zach Johnson and David Hearn.  Spieth, a former two-time USGA Junior Boys champion who first began playing in PGA Tour events at age 16, fought his way into the playoff by carding birdies on five of the last six holes, punctuated by a holed 44-foot bunker shot at the par-4 18th that Spieth called “the luckiest shot I ever hit in my life.”  That helped the former University of Texas All-American to card his third consecutive 65 at the TPC Deere Run and to make up a six-shot 54-hole deficit, though his cause was aided significantly when Johnson – who led for much of the back nine – made bogey at the 72nd to open the door to a playoff.  In the short term, the victory gives Spieth full membership on the PGA Tour (he began the year playing on sponsor exemptions) and also earned him the final spot in next week’s Open Championship at Muirfield.  In the bigger picture, Spieth became the youngest winner since Ralph Guldahl claimed the Santa Momnica Open in 1931, and the fourth youngest winner overall in PGA Tour history…………………Bouncing back from his disappointment at the U.S. Open (as well as an MC at last week’s Greenbrier Classic), Phil Mickelson announced his readiness to contend at the upcoming Open Championship by winning for the first time on a links course at the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open.  He did so, however, with rather more drama than he might have intended, for having come all the way back from a five-stroke 54-hole deficit to take a one-stroke 71st-hole lead, Mickelson promptly three-putted from 15 feet, allowing South African Branden Grace to join him in a playoff.  But after Grace’s third to the 18th checked up 25 feet shy of the hole, Mickelson lobbed an American-style wedge past the pin and spun it back to six inches, with the ensuing tap-in clinching the title.  The victory was his 48th worldwide but his first in Europe since claiming the Tournoi Perrier Paris – a Challenge Tour event – way back in 1993.  For Grace, a four-time E Tour winner in 2012, the runner-up finish was his best finish thus far in 2013, and his best at stroke play since opening his campaign back in January with three straight top 10s in South Africa and the Middle East.  Third-round leader Henrik Stenson, whose middle rounds of 64-66 stood him two strokes ahead on Saturday night, stayed in contention through 13 holes Sunday before three late bogeys dropped him into a tie for third with 22-year-old Dane J.B. Hansen. 

PGA Tour - John Deere Classic  -  Jordan Spieth  (265)
European Tour - Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open  -  Phil Mickelson  (271)
LPGA Tour - Manulife Financial LPGA Classic  -  Hee Young Park  (258)
Champions Tour - U.S. Senior Open  -  Kenny Perry  (267)
Euro Senior Tour - See Champions Tour (Above)
Web.com Tour - Utah Championship  -  Steve Alker  (262)
E Challenge Tour -  Swiss Challenge  -  Victor Riu  (265)
Canada - Syncrude Boreal Open  -  Riley Wheeldon  (275)
Symetra Tour - Credit Union Challenge  -  Wei-Ling Hsu (202)

Coming off a strong, one-win rookie campaign in 2012, Sweden’s Jonas Blixt was struggling through a disappointing sophomore season – with nary a top-10 finish to his credit – before an up-and-down Sunday 67 led him to a two-stroke victory at The Greenbrier Classic.  A quartet of challengers emerged over the course of the rain-delayed final round, with 54-hole leader Johnson Wagner, Jimmy Walker and Australians Steven Bowditch and Matt Jones all slugging it out over the final nine.  Blixt actually began Sunday four strokes in arrears and, playing around a three-hour weather delay that threatened to force a Monday finish, moved himself into contention with birdies at the the 5th, 9th and 10th.  Bogeys at the 11th and 13th surrounded a birdie at the par-5 12th, but it was one final birdie at the par-4 16th – the last birdie to be recorded by any of the contenders – that helped sealed the victory.  The entire foursome of challengers – Wagner, Walker, Bowditch and Jones – shared second, while defending champion Ted Potter Jr. headed up a trio tied for sixth.  The victory moved Blixt close to the top 50 in the OWR – enough to assure him one of the eight projected alternate spots available for the upcoming Open Championship.  Also gaining entry to the Open were Billy Horschel, Boo Weekley, Jimmy Walker, Harris English and Russell Henley, as the five highest players among the top 20 of the 2013 FedEx Cup points list not otherwise exempt…………… Adding another successful chapter to a wild eight-event run in which he won thrice and missed the other five cuts, Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell entered the final round of the Alstom Open de France tied for the lead with Richard Sterne, then posted a rock-solid Sunday 67 to win by four strokes.  It was a solid week for McDowell, who led the field in Greens In Regulation and missed makeable birdie putts on the 6th, 11th and 14 h holes, lest the drama might have gone out of the proceedings even earlier.  As it was, both men posted three outgoing birdies on Sunday, with a McDowell bogey at the long par-4 7th being all that separated them.  But the 2010 U.S. Open champion birdied the 383-yard 10th to draw even, moved one ahead when Sterne bogeyed the 443-yard 12th, then pulled away via his own birdie at the 484-yard par-4 17th combined with Sterne bogeys at both the 16th and 17th.  Third place was shared by a pair of men who posted closing 69s over the demanding Albatross Course of Le Golf National (the 2018 Ryder Cup site), England’s Graeme Storm and Spain’s Eduardo De La Riva.  Though a disappointed runner-up, Sterne did not come away empy-handed as he head the group of five players who, based on their standing in the Order of Merit Top 20 following play, gained exemptions to the upcoming Open Championship.  The others were two-time 2013 winner Brett Rumford, Mikko Ilonen, Thomas Bjorn and Marc Warren……………Shunsuke Sonoda won his second career Japan Tour title at the Nagashima Shigeo Invitational Sega Sammy Cup, carding a final-round 67 to cruise home three strokes ahead of Tomohiro Kondo and Yuki Komo.  Sonoda, a former high school teammate of the more touted Ryo Ishikawa, launched himself into contention via a flawless Saturday round of 61, which saw him go out in five-under-par 31 before birdieing the final six holes of the North Country Golf Club to come home in 30, thus taking a two-shot 54-hole lead.  Sonoda then continued his hot play on Sunday by carding four more birdies in his first eight holes, essentially settling matters.  Runner-up Kondo mounted a brief charge with an outgoing 30, but could only add one more birdie (at the 18th) thereafter, while Komo posted a fine final-round 66.  Rookie sensation Hideki Matsuyama also shot 66 on Sunday, lifting him into a tie for fourth – his seventh top 10 (against one missed cut) in eight 2013 Japan Tour starts…………Adilson da Silva won for the second time on the 2013 Sunshine Tour, carding a solid two-under-par 70 during a windy final round to claim the Sun City Challenge, beating upstart Jared Harvey by one.  Da Silva’s victory – his 12th on the South African circuit – was clinched by a two-putt birdie at the 530-yarde 18th after an electric run by Harvey tightened what looked at the turn to be a steady march home for the 41-year-old da Silva.  Indeed, on an afternoon when only six of the 46 men to make the cut broke par on the 3,628-yard back nine, Harvey (whose 67 was the day’s only sub-70 round) came home in 31, mixing birdies at the 10th, 15th and 18th with an eagle at the 583-yard 11th.  Bogeys by da Silva at the 12th and 14th helped the 24-year-old Harvey (a two-time winner on the developmental Big Easy Tour) make a game of it before da Silva ultimately rose to the occasion, carding his clinching four at the last.  Merrick Bremner (who closed with a 71) and Vaughn Groenewald (73) tied for third, five shots off the pace, in the tour’s last stop before taking a one-month winter break.

PGA Tour - Greenbrier Classic  -  Jonas Blixt  (267)
European Tour - Alstom Open de France  -  Graeme McDowell  (275)
Japan Tour -  Sega Sammy Cup  -  Shunsuke Sonoda  (268)
Sunshine Tour - Sun City Challenge  -  Adilson Da Silva  (207)
JLPGA Tour - Nichi-Iko Women's Open  -  Young Kim  (203)
Euro Senior Tour - Bad Ragaz Senior Open  -  Paul Wesselingh  (201)
E Challenge Tour - Bad Griesbach Challenge  -  Andrea Pavan  (269)
Canada - Dakota Dunes Classic  -  Wil Collins  (267)

Riding a nearly flawless final round 66, Bill Haas fought off a cadre of contenders looking for their first PGA Tour wins to claim the AT&T National by three strokes.  Playing over a long, hard Congressional Country Club layout, Haas began Sunday among a quartet of players tied for the lead, and he remained a part of the pack in the early going when he birdied the par-3 2nd, then bogeyed the par-4 5th.  But Haas turned up the heat through the course’s mid-section, rolling in a 10-foot birdie putt at the 8th, then following that with birdies at the par-5 9th and the watery par-3 10th to jump out to a lead he would never relinquish.  Second-place finisher Roberto Castro stayed close for a while, matching Haas’ fortunate birdie at the 14th (where Haas’ approach bounced off a mound onto the green) before falling three back when Haas added one final birdie at the par-5 16th.  Third place was shared by long-hitting Jason Kokrak and Korea’s D.H. Lee, the later closing with Sunday’s low round of 64 one day after been spotted on television making an obscene gesture towards a member of the gallery.  Two of Saturday’s 54-hole leaders, James Driscoll and Argentina’s Andres Romero, fell away early on Sunday, with Driscoll failing to card a birdie during a closing 74 and Romero making an early double-bogey at the 4th en route to a 75.  A flash of early excitement came from 19-year-old Jordan Spieth who began his round by holing out from a fairway bunker for eagle, then chipping in for a birdie at the 3rd to tie for the lead.  Spieth was able to make little happen thereafter, however, and eventually finished solo 6th……………England’s Paul Casey, once ranked as high as number three in the world, returned from a two-year, injury-related slump to score his first victory in 29 months at the Irish Open.  Exhiled from the winner’s circle since 2011’s early season Volvo Golf Champions in Bahrain, Casey began the weekend five shots out of the lead, and a Saturday 67 Carton House Golf Club layout only moved him a single shot closer.   But a second 67 would be in the offing on Sunday, with the up-and-down round initially highlighted by a run a five birdies between the 8th and the 13th holes that pushed Casey into the lead.  Ill-timed bogeys at the par-5 15th and the 462-yard 462-yard par-4 16th tightened things considerably, however, before Casey put an exclamation point on things by holing a 50-foot putt for eagle at the 513-yard 18th, to win by three.  Second place was shared by third-round leader Joost Luiten of the Netherlands (a recent winner at the Lyoness Open) and England’s Robert Rock, while Pablo Larrazabal, who stood second through 54 holes, faded to a disappointing 75 and solo fourth.  The victory was the 14th professional title for Casey, who injured his shoulder in a 2012 snowboarding accident and, after a lengthy layoff, has struggled to find his form since……………In an event perhaps more noteworthy for the exemptions it offers in the upcoming British Open than its place in the pantheon of Japanese golf, Australia’s Brendan Jones won for the 13th time on the Japan Tour at the Mizuno Open – securing for himself a spot at Murifield in the process.  The 38-year-old Jones, long a mainstay of the Japan circuit, began Sunday’s final round two strokes ahead of South Korea’s Kyung-Tae Kim and proceeded to card five birdies and an eagle, with three offsetting bogeys adding up to 68 and a three-shot triumph.  The victory also made Jones the all-time winningest foreigner in Japan Tour history, with over $8.5 million in the bank.  British Open exemptions also went to top-four finishers Kim, Makoto Inoue and veteran Shingo Katayama, as well as to the top two players in the seasonal Order of Merit not otherwise exempt, Satoshi Kodaira and another Korean, Hyung-Sung Kim.  Order of Merit leader Hideki Matsuyama, who had already made the British field via International Qualifying, missed the cut – his first MC since turning professional in April……………Just three weeks after claiming his maiden Sunshine Tour victory at the Vodacom Origins of Golf – Eastern Cape event, Jacques Blaauw closed with a sparkling 64 to add another Vodacom title to his résumé, this time the Vodacom Origins - Selborne Park.  Trailing 36-hole leader Merrick Bremner by three shots, Blaauw charged out of the gate with six front nine birdies to turn in 30, then tacked on additional birdies at the 12th and the 292-yard 18th (where he drove the green) to post a 198 aggregate.  Close on his heels to the end, Danie van Tonder and Brazilian veteran Adilson da Silva each closed with rounds of 66 to share second, one shot back.  Da Silva in particular gave a valiant chase, hitting a splendid second at the 18th from the base of a tree trunk to within 15 feet, but his putt to force a playoff lipped out. 

PGA Tour - AT&T National  -  Bill Haas  (272)
European Tour - Irish Open  -  Paul Casey  (274)
Japan Tour -  Mizuno Open  -  Brendan Jones  (269)
Sunshine Tour - Vodacom Origins - Selborne  -  Jacques Blaauw  (198)
LPGA Tour - U.S. Women's Open  -  Inbee Park  (280)
JLPGA Tour - Earth Mondamin Cup  -  Natsuka Hori  (267)
Champions Tour -  Constellation Senior Players Championship  -  Kenny Perry  (261)
Web.com Tour - United Leasing Championship  -  Ben Martin  (277)
E Challenge Tour - Karnten Golf Open  -  Dylan Frittelli  (267)
Symetra Tour - Islansd Resort Championship  -  Kim Kaufman  (213)

Forty-four-year-old Ken Duke, a true journeyman making his 187th career PGA Tour start in his 19th year as a professional, claimed his first Tour win at the Travelers Championship, defeating Chris Stroud in sudden death.  Following a Saturday 65, Duke began Sunday two shots behind Bubba Watson, Charley Hoffman and Canadian Graham DeLaet and, save for a birdie at the par-4 2nd, made little progress early. But after his 10th-hole approach ricocheted off a tree to within five feet for an easy birdie, Duke proceeded to add birdies at the 11th, the 13th (via a 45-foot putt that barely fell in the side door) and the 15th to move ahead of the pack.  Indeed, after a clutch up-and-down for par at the 18th, Duke seemed on the verge of victory, particularly after Stroud’s approach to the 18th missed the putting surface.  But facing elimination, the 31-year-old Stroud holed his 50-foot chip shot and it was off to a playoff – a two-hole contest (contested entirely over the par-4 18th) which saw Stroud get up-and-down from a greenside bunker to stay alive on the first playing, only to lose to a tap-in birdie after Duke stiffed his approach the second time.  Watson, who claimed his first career victory here in 2010, remained very much in the hunt until carding an ill-timed triple-bogey at the watery 16th, and would ultimately finish fourth, two shots out of the playoff and one behind DeLaet, who took solo third.  U.S. Open champion Justin Rose briefly nosed his way into the final-round fray with early birdies at the 6th and 7th before eventually falling back into a tie for 13th...............Having raised some eyebrows with a closing 69 (and an ensuing tie for 4th) last week at the U.S. Open, 43-year-old Ernie Els opened the BMW International Open with a flawless nine-under-par round of 63, then piled on a trio of steady 69s to claim the 25th playing of this long-running event by one shot over Danish veteran Thomas Bjorn.  It was the 28th European Tour title for the South African Hall-of-Famer (counting Major championships and WGCs) and was actually slightly easier than the narrow margin of victory might suggest, as Bjorn recovered from a terribly timed double-bogey at the 14th to birdie both the 17th and 18th, narrowing his margin of defeat.  Els began Sunday in a three-way tie with Sweden’s Alexander Noren and 22-year-old Frenchman Alexander Levy.  Noren would play his first 12 Sunday holes in three over par, ending his chances early and ultimately relegating him to a three-way tie for fourth.  Levy, on the other hand, made an early push into the final-round lead with birdies at the 5th, 6th and 8th, but four incoming bogeys (mixed with a lone birdie at the 372-yard 13th) would eventually drop him into a career-best third-place finish.  That narrowed the contenders down to Els and Bjorn, with the pair standing tied for the lead through 13 holes before Bjorn’s stumble at the 490-yard par-4 14th.  The win was Els’ first since his surprise triumph at the 2012 British Open, a title defense looming quickly on the horizon at the time of this victory...............Twenty-three-year-old Satoshi Kodaira, playing in his third season on the Japan Tour, claimed his first victory at the Japan Golf Tour Championship, a tight, one-shot triumph over a pair of overseas players, Thailand’s Kiradech Aphibarnrat and South Korean veteran S.K. Ho.  Kodaira jumped into contention via a second-round 64 that included a pair of eagles, then added a Saturday 70 to hold a one-stroke 54-hole lead over Aphibarnrat, Ho and Hiroyuki Fujita.  Fujita would fade badly with a closing 77 while Aphibarnrat and Ho would play steady golf, posting matching 70s to stay close until the end.  Kodaira, for his part, seized control early with four birdies over his first six holes, wavered briefly with a double-bogey at the par-3 7th and a bogey at the 9th, then re-took command with an eagle at the par-5 10th which, after a bogey at the 11th, would ultimately provide the margin of victory.  Budding star Hideki Matsuyama, tired after a long trip home from a top-10 finish at last week’s U.S. Open, closed in 67 to tie for seventh – giving him an impressive six top-10s in six 2013 Japan Tour starts...............Winning on the Asian Tour for the first time since the 2010 Taiwan Masters, Thailand’s Pariya Junhasavasdikul claimed his second career title at the Worldwide Holding Selangor Masters, played at Malaysia’s Seri Selangor Golf Club.  The 29-year-old Junhasavasdikul carded five birdies during his final-round 70, just enough to overcome four bogeys as he hung on to nip India’s Anirban Lahiri (who made a crucial bogey at the par-4 15th) by one.  Third place was shared by Junhasavasdikul’s countryman Namchok Tantipokhakul (who closed with 65, the day’s low round) and South Korea’s Seuk-Hyun Baek, who rode three front-nine birdies into the tournament lead before a double-bogey at the 16th, followed by a bogey at the 17th, ended his chances.  With earlier rounds of 66-68-71, Junhasavasdikul held the lead on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, technically making him a wire-to-wire winner even if he fell briefly out of the lead on Sunday.