Woods shoots 63 to earn his 60th tour win

Playing next to Tiger Woods for two days was daunting enough. It was when Steve Stricker watched him from 200 yards away on an elevated tee that he realized how tough it would be to beat him Sunday in the BMW Championship at Lemont, Ill.

He arrived on the par-three 12th tee in time to see Woods, in his customary black pants and red shirt, rap a putt that traveled from one side of the green to the other until the ball disappeared after a 50-foot journey and gave Woods an unlikely birdie.

“It looked like he looked back to make sure that we were watching him make birdie,” Stricker said.

Not so, Woods replied.

“I didn’t do a Sergio,” Woods said with a smile, referring to when Sergio Garcia stared him down at nearby Medinah eight years ago in a fruitless chase at the PGA Championship.

Woods only cared about making birdies, and he got enough of them at Cog Hill to close with an eight-under-par 63 for a two-shot victory over Aaron Baddeley. Along the way, Woods set the tournament scoring record, collected his 60th victory on the PGA Tour and moved atop the standings in the FedEx Cup with one week remaining.

“If you wanted to win this tournament, you had to make putts,” Woods said. “And I just happened to make them today.”

The 63 matched Woods’ lowest final round to win, and he finished at 22-under 262 to break by five shots the 72-hole record at Cog Hill first set by Scott Hoch in 2001 and matched by Woods two years later.

“There isn’t a lot you can do,” Stricker said. “I would have had to shoot 63 today to beat him. When you see him ahead of us making the birdies and hearing the roars, you know that he’s on a roll and not making many mistakes. It’s tough.”

Record heat over the last month in Atlanta has caused so much damage to the greens at East Lake that PGA Tour officials canceled the pro-am at the this week’s Tour Championship and told players they would not be able to set foot on the greens until the first round Thursday.

It was an unprecedented move to essentially eliminate practice before one of the Tour’s showcase event, and it could spoil the finale of a FedEx Cup competition.

Tour officials posted a two-page notice on everyone’s locker Sunday morning at the BMW Championship.

“All greens were impacted to varying degrees, and several greens are and will remain in poor conditions through the tournament,” it said.

Jonathan Moore hit a four-iron into four feet for eagle on the 18th hole to give the Americans the final point they needed to win the Walker Cup at Newcastle, Northern Ireland, the first time in 16 years they have won away from home.

The Americans won the Walker Cup for the second straight year against Britain-Ireland and hold a 33-7-1 record in the series.

Amateur Stacy Lewis finished atop the leaderboard at the rain-shortened LPGA NW Arkansas Championship at Rogers, Ark., when Jin Young Pak finished a three-day first round two strokes behind.

The LPGA Tour shortened the event from 54 holes to 18. Lewis, the NCAA champion, isn’t considered an official winner because the tournament did not last at least 36 holes.

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MOTOR RACING

Franchitti wins his first IndyCar series title

Dario Franchitti squeezed out half a lap more than Scott Dixon on their final fuel load and that’s all it took for him to win his first IndyCar Series title.

The two leaders, who came into the season finale at Chicagoland Speedway at Joliet, Ill., with Franchitti leading the standings by three points, stopped to top off their fuel tanks during a caution 54 laps from the end on the 1 1/2 -mile oval.

With two laps to go in the 200-lap race, Franchitti drove to the outside of Dixon and pulled alongside. But he wasn’t able to get past and it appeared Dixon had it made.

But, as they approached Turn 3 of the last lap, Dixon’s car suddenly slowed, Franchitti drove by and went on to win the race. Franchitti won the title and the $1 million prize that goes with it by 13 points.

Fernando Alonso won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, defeating Lewis Hamilton and closing to within three points of his McLaren teammate at the top of the drivers’ standings.

With four races left, Hamilton leads the standings with 92 points, while Alonso has 89.

MISCELLANY

Nigeria wins under-17 soccer World Cup

Nigeria won the under-17 World Cup soccer championship for the third time, beating Spain in a penalty-kick shootout at Seoul, South Korea, after extra time ended 0-0.

Vassilis Spanoulis made a three-point basket at the buzzer to lead Greece over Croatia, 81-78, at the European basketball championship at Madrid.

Jose Calderon scored 17 points to lift Spain over Russia, 81-69, and into the quarterfinals, and Joao Gomes had 23 points and 11 rebounds to help Portugal beat Israel, 94-85.

Spain and Russia lead Group E with seven points each, and Greece and Croatia have six points each. Israel and Portugal have five points apiece.

Defending champion Greece next plays Portugal, with the winner advancing to the last eight.

Michael Church, who has been with two ArenaBowl championship teams over the course of his nine seasons in the Arena Football League, has signed a two-year contract to be the Avengers’ new defensive coordinator, Coach Ed Hodgkiss announced.