PGA Tour - Zurich Classic of New Orleans  -  Billy Horschel  (268)
European Tour - Ballantine's Championship  -  Brett Rumford  (277)
Japan Tour - Tsuruya Open  -  Hideki Matsuyama  (266)
Asian Tour - See European Tour (Above)
LatinoAmerica - Roberto de Vicenzo Inv. Copa NEC  -  Jose de Jesus Rodriguez  (271)
LPGA Tour - North Texas LPGA Shootout  -  Inbee Park  (271)
JLPGA Tour - Fujisankei Ladies Classic  -  Miki Saiki  (202)
Champions Tour -  Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf  -  Brad Faxon & Jeff Sluman  (193)
Web.com Tour -  South Georgia Classic  -  Will Wilcox  (273)
E Challenge Tour - Challenge de Madrid  -  Francois Calmels  (204)
Symetra Tour -  Guardian Retirement Championship  -  Christine Song  (211)

Having grown up in Portrush, Northern Ireland, Graeme McDowell is no stranger to playing golf in a stiff breeze – an advantage which came in handy during a windblown final round of the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head’s famed Harbour Town Golf Links.  On a day which saw winds gust as high as 30 miles per hour, McDowell began play four strokes behind 54-hole leader Charley Hoffman, then methodically played himself to the top of the board with birdies at the 5th, the 11th and – in what appeared a potentially decisive blow – the par-4 16th.  However, the 2010 U.S. Open champion would card his only bogey of the day at the long 18th, leaving the door open for Webb Simpson to potentially steal victory with a 22-foot birdie putt at the last.  But two putts later, the pair was headed back to the 18th tee for a playoff, which would end somewhat anticlimactically when McDowell two-putted from 15 feet for a routine par that Simpson, the reigning U.S. Open champion, couldn’t match.  Two shots out of the playoff (and tied for third) were Kevin Streelman (who closed in 72) and Luke Donald, who mounted the day’s one real charge by carding four early birdies before eventually falling back – though his 69 joined him with McDowell and Russell Henley as the only players to break 70 under the difficult conditions.  Hoffman, who began Sunday one stroke ahead of Simpson, struggled home with a 77, going out in 36 but coming home in a disappointing 40, led by a watery double-bogey at the par-3 14th.  Despite being played the week after The Masters, the event drew a notably strong field, with 22 of the world’s top 50 players entered – and McDowell citing his missed cut at Augusta as a primary motivator for his fine overall play...............In an epic battle of attrition that lasted long enough to tie the all-time European Tour record, France’s Raphael Jacquelin sunk a five-foot birdie putt on the ninth playoff hole to deafeat Germany’s Maximilian Kieffer and claim the Spanish Open at the seaside El Saler Golf Course in Valencia.  The victory, Jacquelin’s fourth on the European Tour but his first in over two years, was sparked by a second-round 66, allowing him to gain a tie with less dominant closing rounds of 73-71.  But the event (which drew a limited field due in the week following The Masters) will long be remembered for the playoff, which was contested entirely over El Saler’s 466-yard par-4 18th, and which initially included Chile’s Felipe Aguilar, who bowed out on the third extra hole.  Save for the birdies which elimated Aguilar, both Jacquelin and Kieffer carded all pars until the Frenchman hit a wedge to five feet and holed the clinching putt – on his 10th playing of the hole in a single afternoon.  The 22-year-old Kieffer, a Challenge Tour winner in 2012, was making only the 10th start of his rookie E Tour campaign, but logged his second top-10 finish.  Just missing the playoff was 54-hole leader Marc Warren of Scotland who, playing with a bad back, managed to retain his lead into the late going before bogeys over four of the final five holes left him in a four-way tie for fourth, one-shot behind the leaders.  The only previous E Tour event to extend to nine extra holes was the 1989 Dutch Open, whose playoff included winner Jose Maria Olazabal as well as Roger Chapman and Ronan Rafferty...............In one of the more impressive bounce backs in recent golfing memory, 43-year-old Angel Cabrera, fresh off his heartbreaking playoff loss to Adam Scott at The Masters, made the 4,600-mile flight home to Cordoba, Argentina – and promptly won the 82 Abierto OSDE del Centro.  Obviously exhausted, Cabrera opened with rounds of 72-72-76 and sat well back in the pack before eagling the 72nd hole en route to a closing 64 over his home Cordoba Golf Club layout.  His 284 aggregate was just enough to draw even with Rafael Gomez (who himself birdied the 18th), with Cabrera winning the ensuing playoff with a birde on the first extra hole.  It was Cabrera’s eighth win in this venerable domestic event, including a run of three straight from 2005-07...............Forty-three year old veteran Yoshinobu Tsukada recorded his first career Japan Tour title at the Token Homemate Cup, closing with weekend rounds of 63-69 to cruise home four strokes ahead of Koumei Oda and Kunihiro Kamii.  Traditionally the post-Masters opening tournament of the Japan Tour, the Token Homemate this year followed the circuit’s two earlier overseas excursions, and was the first event to produce a Japanese champion, with Tsukuda beginning the day one shot behind Kamii before grabbing the lead with an outgoing 32.  The 2012 Order of Merit winner, Koumei Oda, closed with 67 to finish five shots in arrears and share third with fellow veteran star Tori Taniguchi and Korea’s I.J. Jang.  Also notable was the performance of highly touted 21-year-old prospect Hideki Matsuyama, who closed with Sunday’s low round (66) to tie for 10th in his first Japan Tour event as a professional...............With his five previous Sunshine Tour victories all coming in playoffs, 32-year-old Jake Roos surely would have felt comfortable had the Golden Pilsener Zimbabwe Open gone to sudden death.  But in the end, Roos’ clutch closing 67 would prove just enough to end play in regulation, as third-round leaders Darren Fichardt and Francesco Laporta – who began Sunday four ahead of Roos – could only manage cloing 72s, and finished one shot in arrears.  A triple-bogey eight at the third hole effectively derauiled Laporta’s hopes while Fichardt’s outgoing 38 would prove his undoing – though both men would, in the end, miss putts to tie at the 72nd green.  Roos, meanwhile, birdied three of his first six holes to get back into the race, then pulled in front with three more birdies at the 13th, 15th and 16th.  Doug McGuigan (who closed with 66) and Lindani Ndwandwe (70) tied for fourth while Jaco Ahlers (68) took solo sixth.  Also noteworthy was 13-time Sunshine Tour winner Desvonde Botes, who carded Sunday’s lowest round (65) to climb into a tie for seventh.

PGA Tour - RBC Heritage  -  Graeme McDwell  (275)
European Tour - Open de Espana  -  Raphael Jacquelin  (283)
Japan Tour - Token Homemate Cup  -  Yoshinobu Tsukada  (275)
Sunshine Tour - Golden Pilsener Zimbabwe Open  -  Jake Roos  (274)
LatinoAmerica - Abierto OSDE El Centro  -  Angel Cabrera  (284)
LPGA Tour - Lotte LPGA Championship  -  Suzann Pettersen  (269)
LET -  South African Women's Open  -  Marianne Skarpnord  (69)
JLPGA Tour - Banterin KKT Ladies Cup  -  Miki Saiki  (212)
Champions Tour - Greater Gwinnett Championship  -  Bernhard Langer (206)

It took 80 years, but the Land Down Under finally found itelf a Masters champion.

Thirty-two-year-old Adam Scott, whose last starring appearance on the Major championship stage was a tragic meltdown at the 2012 British Open, rallied with a closing 69, then stared down 2009 Masters winner Angel Cabrera in sudden death to claim both his first Major title and – in a strange quirk of long-time golfing futility – Australia’s first-ever Green Jacket.  Scott was a relatively late arrival to the storyline, but his thrilling triumph lent a good taste to an event which might otherwise hae been remembered for a bizarre Tiger Woods rule infraction (see below) that would surely have led to eternal controversy had Woods somehow managed to claim the title.  Instead it became a splendid Masters Sunday – save for the afternoon’s steady rain – in which several players at various times seemed a likely winner.  Woods, for his part, never truly progressed beyond the edge of contention, bogeying the 5th and the 7th to fall nearly out of touch, then coming back with four subsequent birdies – not quite enough to really make his voice heard.  Early on it was Brandt Snedeker who appeared strong, carding the rare birdie at number one and looking very much in control of his game before bogeys at the 4th and 5th began a slide that would ultimately see him home in 75, tied for sixth.  Then it was Cabrera’s turn, with tap-in birdies at the 2nd and 7th giving him a two-shot cushion, a lead he would surrender with bogeys at the 10th and, alas, the par-5 13th.  This opened the door for Scott’s fellow Australian Jason Day, who began his round birdie-eagle (the latter off a holed bunker shot and the 2nd), then eventually moved into the lead with three straight birdis at the 13th, 14th and 15th.  But with his nation’s first Green Jacket now well in site, Day stumbled at the par-3 16th (failing to get up and down from just off the back fringe) and the 17th, where his hopes died in the front greenside bunker, leaving Day to eventually claim solo third, two strokes out of the playoff.  Enter Adam Scott, who’d frustratingly missed a number of putts early on but quietly moved into position with birdies at the 13th and 15th.  Believing a birdie at the last would be enough to win, Scott calmly drained a 20-footer for three and looked for all the world a champion – but Cabrera was still to be reckoned with.  Having clawed back into the mix with a clutch birdie at the 16th – and knowing he needed another at the last to tie – he delivered an epic blow, stuffing a 7-iron to three feet, and it was on to a playoff.
 
Both men got up-and-down from just shy of the 18th green on the first extra hole before Cabrera narrowly missed a 15-footer for birdie at the long par-4 10th.  Having drilled a 6-iron to 12 feet, Scott then coolly sunk the clinching putt – with a helpful read from ex-Tiger Woods caddie Steve Williams – to set of a nationwide celebration on the other side of the world.  For Scott it was a relatively quick redemption after 2012’s British Open collapse.  For Australian golf, it was 80 years in the waiting.

Should Tiger Woods have been playing golf on the weekend?

There is, perhaps, no definitive answer to that question because ultimately it comes down to how one inteprets the spirit of Rule 33.7, a 2011 revision under which "a penalty of disqualification may in exceptional individual cases be waived, modified or imposed if the Committee considers such action warranted."  Rule 33.7 was spurred heavily by Padraig Harrington’s disqualification from the 2011 Abu Dhabi Championship after he putted a ball which he was unaware had moved a fraction of an inch after he’d replaced it, then DQ’d because the violation was confirmed after he’d signed a thus incorrect scorecard; the rule would seem to be intended to protect an innocent player from being banished based upon circumtances of which he was essentially unaware.  In one sense, that standard might well be used to justify Woods not being disqualified, because had Augusta’s Competition Committee correctly penlized his 15th-hole Friday drop upon first reviewing it (instead of later deciding that perhaps they really had to after Woods announced on national television that he had, in fact, dropped his ball two yards away behind the appropriate spot), the issue of an incorrect card would never have arisen.  This is, undeniably, a fair and logical interpretation of events, and thus seems a reasonable decision.

But there is alternative point of view – and this one points to two reasons why Woods should have been sent packing. 

The first reason lies in how a Committee opts to interpret the phrase “in exceptional individual cases” – or, more directly, what one considers to be the spirit of the rule.  Padraig Harrington was DQ’d for signing a scorecard which failed to reflect a rules violation which he could not reasonably have known had even taken place.  He was truly a man caught in an unfortunate situation.  Woods, on the other hand, attempted to gain a competitive advantage (a slightly longer shot that he felt more comfortable with) when he mistakenly believed that he could drop his ball two yards further back.  He was not, of course, attempting to cheat – but he was knowingly attempting to improve his lot in violation of the rules, an entirely different situation from the unwitting golfer snagged by circumstance.

Which leads us to the second reason, the fundamental notion that, very simply, the player is responsible for knowing the rules.  Being unaware that a violation has inadvertently taken place (as in Harrington’s case) is one thing; creating the violation because one did not properly understand the rules is, it seems to me, something altogether different.  There may be an element of splitting hairs here, but I find myself guided by the words of USGA Executive Director Mike Davis who, at the time Rule 33.7 was announced, stated:  “Ignorance of the rules will not in this particular case get a player off disqualification, if he breaches a rule, doesn't include the penalty, and then returns a scorecard.”

Would it have been fair to Tiger had the Committee, after making their mistake, disqualified him?  Not really.

But it would, I believe, have been fairer than failing to protect the rest of the field from his violation – and the unfortunate administrative failing which followed.

The Masters  -  Adam Scott  (279)
Asian Tour - Solaire Open  -  Wen-Tang Lin  (285)
JLPGA Tour - Studio Alice Open  -  Na-Ri Kim  (212)
Web.com Tour - WNB Classic  -  Alex Aragon  (272)

On a day when a struggling Rory McIlroy might well have landed his first win of 2013, Scotland’s Martin Laird fired a course record-tying 63 to claim a stunning victory in the Valero Texas Open.  Laird began the final round five shots behind 54-hole leader Billy Horschel but erased the deficit almost immediately, carding birdies on five of his first eight holes.  Another birdie at the 12th put Laird on top, just in time to be chased by the hard-charging McIlroy, whose closing 66 would otherwise have been the day’s best round by two shots.  But with the world number two close on his heels, Laird made one final push, reeling of birdies at the last three holes to pull away to a two-shot margin of victory.  The win was Laird’s third on the PGA Tour but his first since the 2011 Arnold Palmer Invitational,and it earned him the final spot in the field for next week’s Masters.  McIlroy,meanwhile, could take solace in his best finish of the year and some apparent momentum going into the season’s first Major, just two weeks after being dethroned from his world number one spot by Tiger Woods.  Horschel closed with a respectable 71 to share third with a pair of players who closed with 69, Jim Furyk and Charley Hoffman.  Also in the hunt, briefly, was last week’s European Tour winner Marcel Siem who, playing on sponsor exemption and pursuing that final Masters invite, briefly closed to within one of the Sunday lead before a triple-bogey at the 12th consigned him to a tie for 10th...............Managing to overcome a triple-bogey seven at the third hole, thirty-three-year-old Australian Wade Ormsby righted the ship to card a closing 71 and claim his first professional victory at the Asian Tour's Panasonic Open India.  It was a rare wire-to-wire triumph as Ormsby opened with rounds of 67-67, before a Saturday 74 left him one ahead of Lam Chih Bing of Singapore, and three up on India’s Shiv Kapur and 56-year-old Boonchu Ruangkit of Thailand.  Though Lam would briefly grab the lead early on Sunday, the most sustained challenge was mounted by European Senior Tour veteran Ruangkit, who closed with 69 to in a bid to become the Asian Tour’s oldest-ever winner, but in the end he would finish solo second, one stroke behind Ormsby.

PGA Tour - Valero Texas Open  -  Martin Laird  (274)
Asian Tour - Panasonic Open India  -  Wade Ormsby  (279)
LPGA Tour - Kraft Nabisco Championship  -  Inbee Park  (273)
JLPGA Tour - Yamaha Ladies Open  -  Mamiko Higa  (284) 
Web.com Tour - Brazil Classic  -  Benjamin Alvarado  (265)

Enduring a three-hour final-nine rain delay during which he held a precarious one-stroke lead, D.A. Points returned to make four closing pars – the last via a clutch 13-foot putt – to claim his second career PGA Tour victory at the Shell Houston Open.  Using a putter he long ago borrowed from his mother, Points was the tournament’s opening-round leader with a 64, then slipped somewhat with back-to-back rounds of 71 before rallying for the closing 66 that ultimately carried him home.  His final birdie came at the par-5 13th where a chip destined to roll well by struck the pin, leaving a tap-in, and Points had to get up-and-down at both the 17th and the 18th in order to hold on for victory.  Aced out of a playoff by Points’ final putt were Sweden’s Henrik Stenson (who closed with a 66 to record his second straight PGA Tour top 10 finish and, more importantly, secure a spot in The Masters by ending the week among the top 50 of the OWR) and American Billy Horschel, who cashed what was by far the largest paycheck of his career.  For Points, the win represents a major turnaround in a season that began with seven missed cuts in nine starts, and was his first since claiming the 2011 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, with actor Bill Murray as his pro-am partner.  Twenty players were clumped within four shots of the lead when Sunday began, and several big names made runs at the lead.  Dustin Johnson actually surged in front early in the afternoon before a bogey at the 12th derailed him, though his closing 65 was good enough to tie for fourth with Ben Crane, whose final-round 64 was the day’s lowest.  Phil Mickelson (T16), Kevin Chappell (T6) and long-hitting Jason Kokrak (9th) also got within shouting distance before all eventually falling back, while Monday Qualifier and 36-hole leader Steve Wheatcroft closed 72-74, ultimately tying for 22nd...............It was a day of great jubilation and great disappointment for Germany's Marcel Siem.  The first, second and third round leader of Morocco's Trophee Hassan II, the ponytailed 32-year-old Siem entered the final round riding a four-shot margin and with the potential to earn a ticket to The Masters were he to hold on for the victory.  Two-time E Tour winner Mikko Ilonen of Finland proved Siem's greatest challenger, actually catching him in the early going after making birdies at the second, third and fourth.  But Siem responded with birdies at the fifth and seventh, pulled further ahead when Ilonen bogeyed the par-5 10th and pretty much salted it away when the Fin logged an untimely double-bogey at the 211-yard 12th.  Indeed, only two late Ilonen birdies combined with Siem's bogey at the last allowed the winning margin to close to three strokes, with England's David Horsey joining Ilonen in second.  Such was Siem's jubilation.  The disappointment came in the hours to follow when Henrik Stenson tied for second at the Shell Houston Open, leaping to 43rd in the OWR and bumping Siem agonizingly to 51st - one place shy of the coveted Masters invitation.  The win was Siem's third career title on the European Tour, and he readily copped to placing a Saturday night phone call to his nation's greatest-ever golfer, Bernhard Langer, to ask for advice on how best to handle a four-shot lead...............Firing a dazzling eight-under-par final-round 64, Australian veteran Scott Hend won the inaugural Chiangmai Golf Classic in Chiangmai, Thailand, cruising home ahead of South African rookie Bryce Easton by three.  The victory was the 40-year-old Hend’s third career Asian Tour triumph and was largely made possible by the Sunday collapse of Thai star Prayad Marksaeng, who built a commanding five-stroke 54-hole lead with rounds of 65-67-66 before crashing to a closing 74, leaving him alone in third.  The 25-year-old Easton, playing in his first Asian Tour event, matched Hend’s closing 64 but had began the day too far back after a Saturday 72 had slowed his progress.  Up-and-coming 23-year-old Chinese prospect Mu Hu was also a factor, logging his first Asian Tour top-five finish after closing with 68, good for solo fourth.  The event drew a strong field given both its newness and its place on the schedule, with Hall-of-Famer Ernie Els (T14) and 2009 PGA Champion Y.E. Yang (T20) heading up a strong list of international entries...............With the Japan Tour breaking new ground by playing its second consecutive season-opening event on foreign soil, 39-year-old South Korean Ho-Sung Choi survived a long Sunday rain delay to emerge victorious in the Indonesia PGA Championship, edging countryman Young-Han Song, Japanese veteran Kaname Yokoo and Juvic Pagunsan of the Philippines by two.  Despite being a longtime professional, Choi, a regular on the Korean domestic tour, had never played a Japan Tour event prior to the season-opening Thailand Open, where he withdrew after an opening-round 73.  But in Jakarta, after trailing 36-hole leader Song on Friday evening, he closed with rounds of 65-67 (the jumpstarted by an opening eagle) to claim the trophy.  Japan Tour regulars Hideto Tanihara and Toshinori Muto shared fifth place on 272, while the group on 273 included notables Thaworn Wiratchant of Thailand, Wen-Chon Liang of China and homestanding star Yuta Ikeda. 

PGA Tour - Shell Houston Open  -  D.A. Points  (272)
European Tour -  Trophee Hassan II  -  Marcel Siem  (271)
Japan Tour - Indonesia PGA Championship  -  Ho-Sung Choi  (269)
Asian Tour - Chiangmai Golf Classic  -  Scott Hend  (268)
OneAsia Tour - See Japan Tour (Above)
LET -  Lalla Meryem Cup  -  Ariya Jutanugarn  (270)
JLPGA Tour - AXA Ladies  -  Natsuka Hori  (202)