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The United States completed a 5-0 rout of Switzerland in the Davis Cup on Sunday, with 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and John Isner winning closing singles matches.
Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
Tessa Worley of France fought off gusting winds to win a second consecutive World Cup giant slalom Sunday in the Andorran Pyrenees. Overall leader Lindsey Vonn was more than a second behind and finished eighth.
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AP
AKRON, Ohio - Tiger Woods had everyone’s attention even before he joined them on the PGA Tour.
Tour commissioner Tim Finchem remembers the buzz inside the clubhouse at Firestone in 1996 during the old World Series of Golf, only it wasn’t about Phil Mickelson headed for his fourth victory of the year.
“Players were gathered around watching the U.S. Amateur,” Finchem said. “We had this championship going on, but everybody wanted to watch every move he made because they knew he was going to be out there next year.”
Woods was at Pumpkin Ridge in Oregon that week, trying to make history as the first player to capture three straight U.S. Amateur titles. He had played 14 times on the PGA Tour without coming seriously close to cracking the top 10, although he had his moments.
No one questioned his raw talent, only where it would lead.
“They knew he was going to be good,” Finchem said. “The only question was how good?”
The latest reminder came Sunday, the 10-year anniversary of the day Woods turned pro. Players again were inside the Firestone clubhouse watching TV, this time as Woods made a birdie putt to beat Stewart Cink in a playoff at the Bridgestone Invitational.
It was his 52nd victory on the PGA Tour, tied for fifth with Byron Nelson.
A week earlier, Woods won the PGA Championship for his 12th major, only six behind Jack Nicklaus.
Woods tied for 60th at the Greater Milwaukee Open in his pro debut 10 years ago this week. His first paycheck was $2,544.
This year, he is averaging $2,512 for every stroke.
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Not many have had much luck.
Love was Woods first victim, losing a playoff to him in the 1996 Las Vegas Invitational, and there have been 46 other players who have finished second to Woods on the PGA Tour. The list doesn’t quite go from A to Z, only (Paul) Azinger to (Mike) Weir.
Asked to assess his first decade as a pro, Woods chuckled when reminded that Sunday marked 10 full years on tour.
“More like 70,” he said. “It feels like dog years.”
Cink has been competing against Woods since he was a teenager, but he was just as skeptical as anyone else that the 20-year-old from Stanford could beat up on the pros the way he did the amateurs.
“I stopped making predictions about Tiger at that point. And I’m not going to do it now.”
Cink laughs at the memory, but he wasn’t alone.
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Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
After leading by 18 points in the first half, the Los Angeles Lakers were staring at a four-point deficit with less than two minutes to play.
Ryan Callahan scored for the fifth time in four days and defenseman Ryan McDonagh snapped a second-period tie to lift the New York Rangers to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Sunday.
