Woods Remains Best of the Best

The PGA Grand Slam of Golf is turning into the Tiger Woods Invitational.

Woods won his fourth consecutive Grand Slam on Wednesday, finishing with a record 12-under-par total of 132 for a three-stroke victory over David Toms at Poipu Beach, Hawaii.

Woods, the Masters champion, also matched the tournament record with a seven-under 65 in the final round on the Poipu Bay course. Toms, the PGA champion, shot a 67.

“I don’t know what it is,” Woods said about his dominance on the 7,053-yard oceanside course. “One thing, it’s always great to come here because you’ve either won a major or done really well.”

Woods earned $400,000 from the $1 million purse.

Toms received $250,000. U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen closed with a 71 to finish third at 137, and British Open champion David Duval was last at four-over 148 after a 72.

Woods broke the tournament record of 11 under set by Ernie Els in 1997 and also broke a tie with Greg Norman for the tournament victory record.

Woods jumped out early in the closing round of the two-day tournament that features the winners of the four major championships. He birdied five of the first seven holes and was four under after nine.

Soccer

The Galaxy’s Greg Vanney, voted Major League Soccer’s best defender last season, is getting a tryout with FC Nuremberg, the Bundesliga club said.

Nuremberg is testing the 27-year-old U.S. national team player as a defender and with an eye toward using him in left midfield.

D.C. United and U.S. national team defender Eddie Pope had arthroscopic surgery to remove cartilage in his left knee. Pope, expected to play in next year’s World Cup, is scheduled to resume training in January.

Jurisprudence

UCLA volleyball All-American Kristee Porter had her eligibility restored by the NCAA on Wednesday, in time for the NCAA tournament that begins next Thursday.

Porter sat out 13 matches since being suspended by UCLA on Oct. 19 for accepting extra benefits. The NCAA informed UCLA that Porter’s penalty would be 50% of the season, with the matches she missed counting toward the penalty.

Porter, a three-sport standout, is eligible to compete in basketball and track and field.

Former boxing champion Dave Hilton Jr. can appeal the length of his seven-year sentence for sexually assaulting two girls.

An appeals court in Montreal approved the move Wednesday and will hear the case April 15. The boxer is not appealing the conviction.

Hilton was found guilty in March on all nine sex-related counts he faced involving the two girls.

The abuse began when the sisters were 12 and continued from 1995 to 1998.

The WBC stripped the 38-year-old fighter of his super middleweight title.

Prosecutors intend to appeal the dismissal of felony charges in the Olympic bribery case that came with the Winter Games fewer than three months away.

The appeal could be considered at once by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, although it could take months for a ruling, keeping the case going through the Winter Olympics in February.

Miscellany

Twisting down a strip of man-made snow amid brown, barren mountains, Norway’s Andrine Flemmen won a World Cup giant slalom at Copper Mountain, Colo.

Flemmen, who tied reigning World Cup giant slalom champion Sonja Nef of Switzerland for the best time on the first run, had the second-fastest time on the second run for a winning total of 2 minutes 23.81 seconds.

French skier Christophe Saioni broke his right leg and damaged several knee ligaments in a crash while training this week at Georgetown, Colo.

The 32-year-old Saioni, who already has undergone 13 knee operations, will not ski this season and is contemplating retirement.