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Romero Wins Final Champions Major in Playoff

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From the Associated Press

Eduardo Romero knocked in a two-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole against Lonnie Nielsen on Sunday to win the Tradition at Aloha, Ore., the final major this season on the Champions Tour.

Romero almost eagled the sudden-death playoff hole, leaving his 19-foot putt just short on No. 18. Nielsen bogeyed it.

Romero was in the clubhouse at 13-under-par, after closing with a 15-foot birdie putt, when Nielsen also birdied the par-five 18th to force the playoff.

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Romero crept up the leaderboard with an eagle and three birdies on the front nine. His eagle on No. 4 bounced on the green from 71 yards out and rolled in the cup.

He finished with a 65, the low round of the tournament, for a total of 275. Nielsen had a final round of 70 on the par-72, 7,150-yard course at the Reserve Vineyards and Golf Club west of Portland.

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Will MacKenzie made a 10-foot birdie putt on the final hole to close out a one-under 71 and pick up his first PGA Tour victory by one stroke over veteran Bob Estes at the Reno-Tahoe Open in Nevada.

MacKenzie led by three strokes with five holes to go and was ahead by one before he bogeyed the par-five 17th. Estes could have taken the lead there but missed a 20-foot birdie attempt and missed another on the 18th from about 16 feet. He shot an even-par 72 in the final round. MacKenzie, a 31-year-old in his second year on tour, finished at 20-under 268.

Joe Ogilvie was third after tying the course record with a 10-under 62, including 11 birdies -- eight of them on the back nine for a tournament-record 28 at the 7,472-yard Montreux Golf and Country Club course.

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Lorena Ochoa won a head-to-head duel with Jee Young Lee, pulling away with two consecutive birdies to shoot a seven-under 65 and win the Wendy’s Championship for Children in Dublin, Ohio, by three shots.

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Ochoa and Lee, playing in the same group, were tied at 22 under through 12 holes. But Ochoa birdied the next two holes for a two-stroke lead and was never threatened again as she parred out to finish at 24-under 264.

The victory was the 24-year-old’s third of the season on the LPGA Tour. She also has five seconds, a third, two fourths and a fifth-place finish in 18 starts.

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Richie Ramsay became the first Scotsman to win the U.S. Amateur Championship in 108 years, beating John Kelly, 4 and 2, at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn.

Ramsay made only two bogeys and hit 30 of 34 greens. Kelly conceded the match on the 16th hole. Ramsay is the first Scotsman to win the Amateur since Findlay Douglas in 1898.

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