Canadian Open Goes to Furyk

Canadian Open champion Jim Furyk guaranteed the national championship will have at least one top non-Canadian player next year despite being crammed between the last two majors and another top event.

“I’ll be honest, I probably wouldn’t play if I hadn’t won. I feel it’s a point of honor,” Furyk said Sunday after his comeback victory on the Hamilton Golf and Country Club course at Ancaster, Ontario. “I feel I should be here, and I’ll come back to play.”

With the tournament shifting to late July next year to open September spots for the tour’s new FedEx Cup playoffs, the event at Angus Glen in Markham will be played the week after the British Open, with the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational and PGA Championship the following two weeks.

“I’ve never won a tournament and not shown up to defend,” Furyk said. “I’ll be here. I’m going to play the Canadian Open next year. I’ll figure it out.”

Furyk closed with a five-under-par 65 -- the best round of the day -- in cool and windy conditions to edge Bart Bryant by a stroke. Early in the round, three players were tied for the lead at 11 under and seven more were 10 under.

Set to make his fifth U.S. Ryder Cup appearance in less than two weeks, Furyk finished with a 14-under 266 total on the rain-softened course. He earned $900,000 for his second victory of the year and 12th overall.

Furyk, who followed an opening 63 with rounds of 71 and 67 to begin the day two strokes behind Justin Rose at nine under, made a 20-foot birdie putt on the par-four 10th for a share of the lead at 12 under with Jonathan Byrd.

The 36-year-old star just missed 15-foot birdie putts on the next two holes before holing a 12-footer on the long par-three 13th to take a two-stroke lead.

After Bryant and Sean O’Hair pulled within a stroke, Furyk two-putted for birdie on the par-five 17th to push the lead back to two and finished with a five-foot par putt on 18.

The 43-year-old Bryant finished with a 67. He made a 15-foot birdie putt on No. 17 to get to 13 under but missed a 60-foot birdie try to tie on the 18th.

O’Hair shot a 68 to finish third at 12 under. Brett Quigley (68) was another stroke back.

Rose shot a 74 to tie for 14th at seven under.

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Cristie Kerr rallied from a two-shot deficit in the final eight holes to beat Annika Sorenstam by two shots and win the John Q. Hammons Hotel Classic at Broken Arrow, Okla.

The 28-year-old Kerr shot a final-round three-under 68 to finish the three-round tournament at 14-under 199, the lowest score since the event moved to Cedar Ridge Country Club in suburban Tulsa in 2004.

Sorenstam, who finished 12 under, had won the event the last two years as well as in 2002, when it was played at Tulsa Country Club. She shot a two-under 69 in the final round.

Kerr’s 38-foot birdie putt on the par-three 15th gave her the lead and she secured her victory with an 18-footer for birdie on one of the 6,602-yard course’s toughest holes, the par-four, 422-yard 17th.

Kerr’s win came one week after she was the victim of a Sorenstam rally. Sorenstam shot a 62 -- tying the LPGA record for the lowest final-round score by a tournament winner -- and beat Kerr by two shots in the State Farm Classic in Springfield, Ill.

Lorena Ochoa, who began the tournament as the tour’s top money winner, started the day at four under, birdied five of the first 10 holes and pulled to within two shots of the lead with a birdie at No. 14 but came no closer. She finished third at 10-under 203 after her six-under 65.

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Bradley Dredge won the European Masters by eight strokes, shooting a four-under-par 67 after birdieing the first three holes. Dredge finished with a 17-under 267 on the Alpine resort course at Crans-sur-Sierre, Switzerland. Francesco Molinari (69) and Marcel Siem (73) shared second at 275.