PHOENIX (AP) Weeks like this at the Founders Cup are why Inbee Park held off retiring and Laura Davies is still competing at age 54.

Park celebrated her 19th LPGA Tour victory and first in a little over a year Sunday at Desert Ridge. Davies tied for second for her best tour finish since winning the last of her 20 titles in 2001.

Park closed with a 5-under 67 in cool, breezy conditions, pulling away with four straight back-nine birdies. The 29-year-old South Korean star finished at 19-under 269, winning a day after revealing she was 50-50 about retiring before returning from a long break.

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”The reason that I am competing and playing is because I want to win and because I want to contend in golf tournaments,” Park said. ”This week definitely proved me I can win and contend and play some pain-free golf.”

Davies, three strokes behind Park entering the round after the World Golf Hall of Famers shot matching 63s on Saturday, bogeyed the last for a 69 to finish..

The Washington PostWhen you read a column with a “superlatives” theme, you probably expect the occasional act of hyperbole. From time to time, I may even have been guilty of such an act. Ladies and gentlemen, this is not one of those times.
I firmly believe, without recourse to exaggeration or hot-takery, that we just lived through the greatest four-day opening stretch in NCAA tournament history, and it's an argument I'm willing to defend with all that remains of my tattered Internet reputation. Sure, it's a big statement, and I understand that we need to weigh the evidence with utmost care. It's not a topic to take lightly, because if I'm right, that means things just got historic right in front of our eyes. But even knowing the stakes, and accounting for the nasty recency bias, I still think the answer is “yes, yes, 100 percent yes.” I'll do my best to restrain myself in the argument to come, but I make no promises.
The first piece of evidence on my side..

From Rory McIlroy's win to Tiger Woods' Sunday charge, here's every golf-related thing you need to know for the morning of March 19

PHOENIX (AP) Weeks like this at the Founders Cup are why Inbee Park held off retiring and Laura Davies is still competing at age 54.

Park celebrated her 19th LPGA Tour victory and first in a little over a year Sunday at Desert Ridge. Davies tied for second for her best tour finish since winning the last of her 20 titles in 2001.

Park closed with a 5-under 67 in cool, breezy conditions, pulling away with four straight back-nine birdies. The 29-year-old South Korean star finished at 19-under 269, winning a day after revealing she was 50-50 about retiring before returning from a long break.

Article continues below …

”The reason that I am competing and playing is because I want to win and because I want to contend in golf tournaments,” Park said. ”This week definitely proved me I can win and contend and play some pain-free golf.”

Davies, three strokes behind Park entering the round after the World Golf Hall of Famers shot matching 63s on Saturday, bogeyed the last for a 69 to finish..

PHOENIX (AP) Weeks like this at the Founders Cup are why Inbee Park held off retiring and Laura Davies is still competing at age 54.

Park celebrated her 19th LPGA Tour victory and first in a little over a year Sunday at Desert Ridge. Davies tied for second for her best tour finish since winning the last of her 20 titles in 2001.

Park closed with a 5-under 67 in cool, breezy conditions, pulling away with four straight back-nine birdies. The 29-year-old South Korean star finished at 19-under 269, winning a day after revealing she was 50-50 about retiring before returning from a long break.

Article continues below …

”The reason that I am competing and playing is because I want to win and because I want to contend in golf tournaments,” Park said. ”This week definitely proved me I can win and contend and play some pain-free golf.”

Davies, three strokes behind Park entering the round after the World Golf Hall of Famers shot matching 63s on Saturday, bogeyed the last for a 69 to finish..

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) Tiger Woods put on a Sunday charge at Bay Hill that looked all too familiar.

One swing changed everything at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Coming off three birdies and two pars saves that brought him to within one shot of the lead, Woods hammered a tee shot so far left on the par-5 16th hole that it went over the fence, into a backyard and out-of-bounds.

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A birdie or better turned into a bogey, and ultimately it didn’t matter when Rory McIlroy closed with five birdies in his last six holes to win. Woods made bogey from the bunker on the next hole and had to make a 12-foot par putt on the final hole for a 3-under 69 to finish eight shots behind.

The margin didn’t reflect the anticipation that Woods might win in his remarkable return from a fourth back surgery.

It was the second straight Sunday that Woods got within one shot of the lead on the back nine. His next stop is the Masters, which Woods has missed three times in the last four..

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) The loudest roars at Bay Hill were for Tiger Woods. The last ones were for Rory McIlroy.

McIlroy put on a finishing charge that would have made the King proud. He ran off five birdies over his last six holes to close with an 8-under 64 and win the Arnold Palmer Invitational for his first victory since September 2016.

The final stroke looked familiar. McIlroy rolled in a 25-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole – the kind of putt Woods has made so many times at Bay Hill – that gave him a two-shot lead over Bryson DeChambeau.

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Woods put on a charge of his own and was one shot out of the lead until hitting out-of-bounds on the 16th hole to fall back into a tie for fifth.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) The connection Rory McIlroy had with Arnold Palmer was strong even before he delivered a Sunday charge that would have made the King proud.

McIlroy first played the Arnold Palmer Invitational three years ago, and Palmer teared up at dinner when he asked McIlroy if there was anything he needed and received this reply: ”Mr. Palmer, thanks to you, I have everything I could ever need in my life.”

McIlroy’s last victory was at the Tour Championship on Sept. 25, 2016, the day Palmer died.

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Sunday was special for so many reasons.

Tiger Woods brought Bay Hill to life when he pulled within one shot of the lead, only for McIlroy to respond to the endless cheers and chants for Woods by running off five birdies over the last six holes to pull away. McIlroy closed with a 64, just like the last time he won. And he ended his longest drought in eight years by winning on the course and tournament that Palmer built.

The only thing missing was having th..

PHOENIX (AP) Inbee Park felt as if she was in 2013 on the front nine Saturday at the Founders Cup. Laura Davies brought back memories of her dominant desert run more than 20 years ago.

The Hall of Famers shot matching 9-under 63s in sunny and breezy conditions at Desert Ridge. Park reached 14 under to take a one-stroke lead over Mariajo Uribe into the final round. The 54-year-old Davies was tied for fourth at 11 under in the event honoring the 13 women who founded the LPGA Tour in 1950.

Park played the first five holes in 6 under , holing out from 90 yards for eagle on the par-4 third. She birdied the par-4 ninth for a front-nine 31, made another birdie on the par-5 11th and capped the bogey-free round with an 18-foot birdie putt on the par-4 18th.

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”The front nine, everything felt great,” Park said. ”Still, the back nine, I felt like I was hitting the ball pretty solid, but just the putts didn’t seem to drop like front nine. If it dropped like front nine..

Augusta National Golf Club has now made the last 50 final-round Masters telecasts available in one spot