Choi wins Skins Game on final hole

K.J. Choi holed an 11-foot birdie putt worth $270,000 on the 18th hole Sunday to win the 26th Skins Game with $415,000.

Stephen Ames missed a nine-footer that would have tied the hole and forced the foursome including Phil Mickelson and Rocco Mediate into a playoff at Indian Wells Golf Resort.

Instead, Choi’s putt gave him $340,000 for Sunday’s nine holes and made him the fifth international player to win the title.

“I’m very proud to have won the Skins Game, the first time ever for a Korean player,” said Choi, who said he watched the Skins Game and the Masters growing up in South Korea.

Christina Kim gave Annika Sorenstam a big victory in her second-to-last event before retiring, birdieing the par-five 18th for a halve and the deciding half-point for the International team in the Lexus Cup in Singapore. Kim’s halve with Namika Omata in the last match to finish gave the Sorenstam-captained International team a 12 1/2 -11 1/2 victory over Asia. . . . Robert Karlsson and Henrik Stenson gave Sweden its second World Cup title, shooting a nine-under 63 in alternate-shot play to beat Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez and Pablo Larrazabal by three strokes in Shenzhen, China.

JURISPRUDENCE

Burress to plead not guilty

Plaxico Burress plans to turn himself in to police today in New York City and plead not guilty to criminal possession of a weapon, his lawyer said.

Benjamin Brafman wrote in an e-mail to the Associated Press that he was advised the New York Giants’ star receiver will be charged after accidentally shooting himself in the right thigh.

“I do not expect that Mr. Burress will make a statement,” Brafman wrote.

He met with Burress for about an hour Sunday at the player’s home in New Jersey.

“I would ask that his fans, the Giants and the media withhold judgment in this matter until all of the facts have been disclosed,” Brafman said.

Brafman is a well-known criminal lawyer who has defended mobsters and other high-profile figures, including hip-hop impresario Sean “Diddy” Combs on a bribery and gun possession charge in 2001.

Burress shot himself at a Manhattan nightclub Friday night and was released from a hospital early Saturday, the Giants said. “As far as we know, he’s going to be OK,” General Manager Jerry Reese said.

WINTER SPORTS

Maier gets victory No. 54

Hermann Maier of Austria won a super-G in Lake Louise, Canada, for his 54th career World Cup win. Maier, who last won a World Cup race in January 2006 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, won in 1 minute 29.84 seconds.

Defending overall champion Bode Miller, who finished 16th in Saturday’s downhill, lost a ski before the halfway mark and did not finish.

Sarka Zahrobska of the Czech Republic got her first World Cup victory, taking the slalom in a combined time of 1:39.32 to beat Austrian Nicole Hosp in Aspen, Colo. Lindsey Vonn was the top American, taking fourth with a time of 1:40.73.