GOLF
Sei Young Kim made the putt of her life, a 25-foot birdie on the final hole of the CME Group Tour Championship to win $1.5 million, the richest prize in the history of women’s golf.
Kim closed with a 2-under 70 to beat an unlikely foe Sunday at Tiburon Golf Club at Naples, Florida.
Charley Hull of England birdied her last three holes for a 66, the last one a 12-footer that gave her a tie for the lead. Kim, who looked shaky in missing three straight birdie chances from 12 feet, tugged her 6-iron to the top of a crown at the bag of the green. The winning putt – the money putt – was hit with perfect pace and broke sharply to the right and into the cup as Kim pumped her fists in disbelief.
She finished a wire-to-wire victory for her third LPGA Tour title of the year and 10th of her career.
This was memorable for the finish and the reward.
Instead of a $500,000 first-place check and a $1 million bonus to a season points race, CME Globe wanted to award $1.5 million in official money to any of the 60 players who qualified for the season finale. That’s $500,000 more than the previous record prize, $1 million at the U.S. Women’s Open.
EUROPEAN: Jon Rahm is $5 million richer after capturing the Race to Dubai title by winning the season-ending World Tour Championship with a birdie on the final hole at Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Rahm, who goes to No. 3 in the world with the victory, got up-and-down from a greenside bunker at the 18th hole to win the tournament by a stroke from Tommy Fleetwood, who also would have become European No. 1 with a win on the Earth Course.
Rahm, who started the final round tied for the lead with Mike Lorenzo-Vera, led by six shots after birdies on five of the opening seven holes.
However, Fleetwood – playing one group ahead – birdied five of his last seven holes, with his tap-in birdie at No. 18 giving him a 7-under 65 and tying for the lead as Rahm was putting on the 17th green.
Rahm’s birdie putt came up just short, so he needed a birdie on the par-5 closing hole for the win. His drive was perfect, his approach found the bunker, but he chipped out to 4 feet and rolled in the putt for a 68 as Fleetwood watched in the scorer’s tent.
Rahm, who finished 19-under par overall, earned $3 million for winning the event, and a bonus of $2 million for winning the Race to Dubai.
PGA TOUR: Tyler Duncan made a 12-foot putt on the second hole of a playoff with Webb Simpson in the RSM Classic at St. Simons, Georgia, for his first PGA Tour title.
Playing two groups ahead of Simpson on Sea Island’s Seaside Course, Duncan birdied three of the last four holes in regulation for a 5-under 65. He two-putted the par-5 15th for a birdie, made a 6-footer on the par-3 17th and a 25-footer on the par-4 18th.
Simpson birdied 15 and 16 and closed with two pars, making a 5-footer on 18 for a 67 to match Duncan at 19-under 263. They played the 18th twice in the playoff, matching pars on the first extra hole.
Sebastian Munoz was a stroke back after a 68.
FOOTBALL
CFL: Andrew Harris ran for 134 yards and a touchdown and caught a scoring pass to help the Winnipeg Blue Bombers win their first Grey Cup title since 1990, 33-12 over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Calgary, Alberta.
The Blue Bombers won their 10th title, becoming the first third-place team to reach and win the Canadian Football League championship since Edmonton in 2005.
With the temperature in the mid-30s with little wind, Harris opened the scoring in the first quarter with a 15-yard run and caught an 18-yard touchdown pass from backup Chris Streveler in the second quarter. Harris finished with six catches for 35 yards.
Zach Collaros, the former University of Cincinnati quarterback in his first season with Winnipeg and eighth in the CFL, completed 17 of 23 passes for 170 yards. Streveler was 3 for 3 for 39 yards.
Justin Medlock made six field goals, salvaging a single on his lone miss.
Dane Evans threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Bralon Addison in the third quarter for Hamilton. The Tiger-Cats won their last championship in 1999.
TENNIS
DAVIS CUP FINALS: Rafael Nadal beat Denis Shapovalov 6-3, 7-6 (7) at Madrid to give Spain its sixth Davis Cup title with a win over first-time finalist Canada.
Roberto Bautista Agut, playing three days after the death of his father, had given Spain a 1-0 lead by beating Felix Auger-Aliassime 7-6 (3), 6-3 in the first singles match.
The Spanish crowd that packed the Caja Magica center court erupted when Nadal converted his third match point to clinch the title at the inaugural Davis Cup Finals with an insurmountable 2-0 lead.
The top-ranked Nadal won all of his eight matches at the revamped competition that debuted a World Cup-style format.
BASEBALL
MAJORS: The Atlanta Braves filled another hole by agreeing to a $16 million, two-year contract with catcher Travis d’Arnaud.
D’Arnaud, 30, spent most of last season in Tampa Bay, where he rekindled his career by hitting .263 with 16 homers in 92 games.
D’Arnaud was cut by the New York Mets after appearing in just four games, and he got only one at-bat with the Los Angeles Dodgers before he was sent to the Rays. He took over the catching job in Tampa Bay and helped the Rays capture an AL wild-card berth.
SKIING
MEN’S WORLD CUP: Henrik Kristoffersen edged first-run leader Clement Noel to win the first men’s slalom of the season at Levi, Finland.
Competing in foggy conditions and snowfall, Kristoffersen trailed Noel by 0.68 seconds after the opening run but beat his French rival by 0.09.
Daniel Yule of Switzerland was 0.18 behind in third.
LUGE
MEN’S WORLD CUP: Austria’s Jonas Mueller and Italy’s Dominik Fischnaller both picked up a pair of medals on the first day of competition at Igls, Austria.
Mueller won the men’s race in 1 minute, 41.015 seconds. Russia’s Roman Repilov was second in 1:41.162 and Fischnaller took third in 1:41.207.
Italy won the first team relay of the season, with Fischnaller, Andrea Voetter and the doubles team of Ivan Nagler and Fabian Malleier prevailing in 2:09.638. Austria, with Mueller handling the second leg, was second in 2:09.663 and Germany was third in 2:09.866.
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