GOLF
Lee Westwood clinched the Race to Dubai title to end a season as the European Tour’s No. 1 player for the third time, at the age of 47, after a crazy finish to the DP World Tour Championship won in dramatic circumstances Sunday by Matt Fitzpatrick.
Westwood finished in second place at 14 under after a 4-under 68 in his final round, which was enough to jump to the top of season standings – but only after a meltdown by his rivals in the final holes.
Patrick Reed, seeking to become the first American to be Europe’s top player, bogeyed Nos. 16 and 17 to drop out of contention. Then Laurie Canter double-bogeyed No. 17 and bogeyed the last, leaving Westwood alone in second.
Fitzpatrick parred the final hole for a one-shot victory as he won the tour’s season-ending event for the second time, but Westwood was already celebrating a bigger prize after watching the final holes in the scoring hut.
LPGA: The latest U.S. Women’s Open on the calendar will last one more day because of relentless rain that drenched Champions Golf Club in Houston and forced the USGA to suspend the final round until Monday.
PGA: Matt Kuchar and Harris English broke a bunch of their own QBE Shootout records in a runaway victory at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida.
Kuchar and English became the first team to win the event three times, finished at 37-under 179 to break the mark of 34 under they set in 2013, and won by nine strokes to top their 2013 record of seven strokes.
BIATHLON
WORLD CUP: Cape Elizabeth’s Clare Egan posted her second straight top-15 result, finishing 13th in a 10-kilometer pursuit in Hochfilzen, Austria.
Egan started 10th based on her result in a sprint race on Friday, but dropped back to 29th after missing two targets in Sunday’s first shooting stage.
She regrouped to hit 14 of 15 targets in the last three shooting stages, however, and used strong skiing to climb back through the field. Egan ended up two seconds away from another top-12 result, which would have made her the first American to achieve the qualifying criteria for early selection to the 2022 Olympics. She can still earn that status with one more top-12 result, or by finishing in the top 30 in the final point standings.
SOCCER
ENGLAND: The Premier League’s top two teams – Tottenham and Liverpool – each played to a draw heading into their showdown on Wednesday.
Tottenham, which leads on goal differential, was held to a 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace. Liverpool escaped with a 1-1 draw at home against Fulham, thanks to a late penalty by Mohamed Salah.
• Jamie Vardy scored his 12th goal of the season in between a double from James Maddison, and Leicester moved into third place with a 3-0 win at home against Brighton.
• Arsenal’s season went from poor to dreadful as captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored an own goal and the Gunners were reduced to 10 men in a 1-0 loss at home against Burnley.
AUTO RACING
FORMULA ONE: Red Bull driver Max Verstappen won the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in dominant style for his second victory of the season and 10th of his career.
He finished 16 seconds ahead of Valtteri Bottas and 18.4 clear of world champion Lewis Hamilton as Red Bull enjoyed a rare and significant success over both Mercedes cars.
HOCKEY
NHL: Pierre Lacroix, the astute executive who was the architect of Colorado Avalanche teams that won two Stanley Cup championships, has died at age 72.
The Avalanche confirmed his death Sunday. No cause of death was given.
Lacroix was a driving force behind turning the Avalanche into a perennial power after the team relocated from Quebec for the 1995-96 season. The Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in their first season in the Denver, and again in 2001.
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