Lee wins Asia-Pacific to earn Masters invitation: 10/27/13

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Perry beat Langer in playoff in San Antonio

SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- Kenny Perry made a 10-foot birdie putt on the first hole of a playoff with Bernhard Langer on Sunday to win the Champions Tour's AT&T Championship.

Perry and Langer each shot 5-under 67 to finish at 13-under 203 on TPC San Antonio's AT&T Canyons Course. Perry saved par on the final hole of regulation with an 18-foot putt.

''I made clutch putts just to even hang in there with him,'' Perry said. ''Putter saved me.''

He didn't know he needed to make the long putt on 18 in regulation to remain tied with Langer, who was playing in the group behind him.

''When I made that putt, I thought I had a one-shot lead and that he would have to birdie 18 to catch me,'' Perry said. ''I look over there, and he had birdied 17. I thought, 'Dang, I had to make that to tie.' So, I guess it was a good mindset for me to know that I was relaxed and could putt with a good speed and hit it right in the middle.''

Perry hit an 8-iron from 176 yards to set up the winning 10-foot putt in the playoff.

''It was perfect,'' Perry said. ''I was jacked up, downwind, lot of adrenaline. I hit it the perfect distance. It was an amazing shot. I usually hit 160 with an 8-iron. Isn't that funny what adrenaline does to you?''

Perry extended his lead in the Charles Schwab Cup from 494 to 612 points entering the season-ending Schwab Cup Championship next week in San Francisco. The 14-time PGA Tour winner won the Senior Players Championship and U.S. Senior Open in consecutive tour starts this summer and has five career victories on the 50-and-over circuit.

''I'm the guy that's being hunted,'' Perry said. ''I think you have a different attitude when you're the hunter, and you're trying to attack. He's in the attack mode every week, trying to catch me, and I'm trying to play defense like a goalie in hockey. I'm trying to block him and keep him away.''

The top 30 on the money list qualified for the finale, though Perry and Langer are the only players with a shot at the $1 million annuity for the points title.

ミズノMP69アイアン ''He's going in with a very large lead,'' Langer said. ''I don't know if it's over. Theoretically, it's possible. I'm going to play as well as I can and see what happens.''

Langer also lost a playoff last year in the event, falling to David Frost on the second extra hole.

''I don't feel all that bad,'' Langer said. ''I played really good golf and kept my emotions in check. I was pretty relaxed. I have no regrets whatsoever. It just turned out that one person in the field beat me in the playoff. There's not much I can do about that.''

Fred Funk, Colin Montgomerie and Kirk Triplett tied for third, two shots back. Funk shot 67, Triplett had a 68 and Montgomerie a 69.

So while the 49ers' home stadium will no longer be in San Francisco, it could've been a lot worse, Montana said

Three and Out: Trade for wide receiver unlikely, James expendable?

Montana: SF made 'terrible effort' to keep 49ers

October 26, 2013, 9:00 am

Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana spent 13 seasons in San Francisco and led the 49ers to four Super Bowl titles. (AP)

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LONDON -- Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana did not get sentimental when asked Saturday about the 49ers moving out of San Francisco.

Montana, instead, placed the blame on San Francisco politicians for the 49ers’ relocation to Santa Clara. The 49ers, of course, will remain as the San Francisco 49ers, but their home stadium will move 39 miles to the south.

Candlestick Park is scheduled to be demolished shortly after the current season, and the 49ers will move into Levi’s Stadium for the 2014 season. The 49ers' team offices are also located in Santa Clara.

“I understand people’s concern about them leaving San Francisco,” said Montana, speaking at an NFL forum that featured questions from European fans of football.

“I don’t think there was enough of an effort by people in power at the time to try to keep them there. To me, they made a terrible effort to try to keep them in San Francisco.”

After nine years of working on a plan to build a new stadium on Candlestick Point, the 49ers announced in November 2006 it was shifting its focus to Santa Clara. At the time of the announcement, San Francisco hoped a possible new stadium would help draw the 2016 Olympics to the Bay Area.

In explaining why Santa Clara became the focus of the new stadium plans, the 49ers said San Francisco officials were repeatedly warned about problems with the Candlestick plan and those in power, including then-Mayor Gavin Newsom, did not act.

So while the 49ers' home stadium will no longer be in San Francisco, it could've been a lot worse, Montana said.

"It's not like it went to Oakland," he quipped.

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Matt is the 49ers Insider for CSNBayArea.com. Follow him @MaioccoCSN.

Serena Williams beats Li Na for WTA title

By NESHA STARCEVIC (AP Sports Writer)5 hours agoAP - Sports

ISTANBUL (AP) -- The way the season has gone for Serena Williams, there was only one fitting way for it to end.

Williams capped a career year in style Sunday, earning her 11th title by coming from behind to beat Li Na 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 for her second straight WTA Championships crown.

Williams became the eighth woman to win 11 or more titles in a year and the first since Martina Hingis had 12 in 1997. The American also is the first to repeat as champion at the season-ending WTA Championships since Justine Henin in 2007.

''It was an awesome year of tennis,'' said Williams, who sank to her knees after firing a backhand winner on her second match point.

The victory brought Williams' prize money total for the year to $12,385,572. The only player, male or female, to earn more in a year was Novak Djokovic with $12,803,737 in 2012 and $12,619,803 in 2011.

Williams won the event for the fourth time, having captured the elite tournament for the top eight players also in her debut in 2001 and in 2009 and 2012.

Williams has won 78 of 82 matches this year and will finish the year as the top-ranked player for the third time in her career after 2002 and 2009. Williams' titles this year included the French and U.S. Opens for a total of 17 Grand Slam crowns. Her winning percentage of .951 is the best on the tour since 1990. Martina Navratilova had an 86-1 record and a .989 percentage in 1983.

Still, Williams said she would have preferred to have won at least one more Grand Slam title.

''I live to win slams. I mean, obviously I'm so excited to be the WTA champion,'' Williams said. ''I can't say it's the best (season). I can't say it's not the best. I don't know. I really don't know.''

Li was in her first WTA Championships final and will finish the year at a career-high No. 3.

The final featured two players above the age of 30 for the first time in the championships' 43-year history. Williams is 32 and Li is 31 but both are playing some of their best tennis.

Li got off to a better start over a sluggish-looking Williams, who struggled a day earlier to beat Jelena Jankovic and complained later of being exhausted after a long season.

''I felt good this morning, much better than I did yesterday, but then in practice I was like, 'Oh, no.' I was a little worried, but I just hung in there and just kept going and going,'' Williams said.

The Chinese player was quick to break serve for a 2-1 lead and rolled through the first set, which ended with Williams netting a forehand and hitting a backhand passing shot wide.

Williams won a key game at the start of the second set that went to nine deuces and lasted nearly 12 minutes as the American fended off two break points before finally prevailing with a service winner.

''I guess looking back it was definitely a very important game for me to win,'' Williams said. ''She had been on a real roll. I guess I was determined to win that game at any cost.''

Li blasted an ace, her only one of the match, to level at 3-3. But she produced a double-fault and a forehand error to give Williams a chance to serve out the set. Williams needed three set points to close it out.

''After a set and a half, I was feeling no more energy left. It's a tough tournament, because I played five days in a row,'' Li said. ''Every opponent (is in the) top eight, so you never have an easy match in this tournament.''

It was another double-fault by Li that gave Williams a break of serve at the start of the third and the American pulled away.

Williams did have to save five break points, the last one with her sixth ace, before wrapping up the title.

激安mp69 Li, the 2011 French Open champion, fell to 1-10 against Williams. She lost a set at 6-0 for the second straight time they played. She won only three games in her loss to Williams in the semifinals of the U.S. Open.

''I have a little bit bad taste, because it's at love, but I still feel more positive things,'' Li said.

After three years in Istanbul, the tournament moves to Singapore for the next five years.