Back-nine play lifts Ogilvy in Hawaii

Geoff Ogilvy, his six-shot lead down to one as he stood in the ninth fairway, drilled his approach shot onto the green and holed a 30-foot eagle putt to steady his nerves and send him on the way to victory in the Mercedes-Benz Championship at Kapalua, Hawaii.

With four consecutive birdies on the back nine to restore the margin, Ogilvy sailed home to a five-under-par 68 to join Ernie Els and Vijay Singh as the only wire-to-wire winners since the season-opening PGA Tour event moved to Kapalua in 1999.

Anthony Kim nearly made double eagle on the last hole for a 67 to tie for second place with Davis Love III, who also had a 67.

It was the fifth Tour victory for Ogilvy, who finished at 24-under 268 to earn $1.12 million and move up to No. 6 in the world.

“I’ve never had a six-shot lead before. It’s a pretty uncomfortable feeling, to be honest with you,” Ogilvy said. “I got to the green and saw I had a one-shot lead -- I figured it was mostly gone -- and it felt like a normal tournament again. I just told myself, ‘It’s a great spot to be after 63 holes, get on with it.’ ”

Singh (2007) and Els (2003) were tied for the lead after the first round when they went wire to wire. Ogilvy took the outright lead on the 14th hole of the opening round and never trailed over the final 58 holes of the tournament.

WINTER SPORTS

Holcomb wins bobsled national championship

Steven Holcomb won the four-man bobsled title at the U.S. Bobsled National Championships, leading all four heats during the two-day meet in the Olympic Sports Complex at Lake Placid, N.Y.

Holcomb piloted his sled to a combined time of 3 minutes 37.09 seconds.

John Napier compiled a four-run total of 3:38.66 to earn second place and qualify for the four-man event at the 2009 world championships Feb. 19-March 1 at Lake Placid. Holcomb already had qualified.

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Reinfried Herbst of Austria won the men’s World Cup slalom race at Adelboden, Switzerland, with countryman Manfred Pranger finishing second.

Herbst finished in a combined time of 1:42.95 to earn his fourth career World Cup win. Pranger finished 0.18 of a second behind Herbst and Felix Neureuther of Germany was third, 0.32 behind.

Ted Ligety was the top U.S. finisher in 15th, one place ahead of countryman Bode Miller.

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Maria Riesch of Germany won her fourth consecutive World Cup slalom to move to within one victory of tying the record for consecutive discipline wins.

Riesch held a commanding lead after the opening run at Maribor, Slovenia, and finished with a combined time of 1:29.64.

Lindsey Vonn of the U.S. used a blistering second run to climb from 18th to a tie for fourth with Anja Paerson of Sweden.

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Magnus Moan of Norway beat compatriot Jan Schmid to win a Nordic combined World Cup event at Val Di Fiemme, Italy, and move into second place in the standings ahead of American Bill Demong.

Moan won in 27:33.1, with Schmid finishing in 27:37.2.

Demong finished 14th and dropped to third place in the season standings with 515 points. Anssi Koivuranta of Finland is the leader with 643 points followed by Moan with 556.

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Snowboarder Shaun White won the men’s superpipe final and Kelly Clark topped the women’s field at West Dover, Vt., the second stop of the inaugural Winter Dew Tour.

White finished with 96.25 points. Steve Fisher was second at 92.75 and Kevin Pearce was third at 90.00.

Clark earned 90.75 points. Hannah Teter was second at 88.75 and Ellery Hollingsworth was third at 83.00.

BASEBALL

Braves, Japanese pitcher reach an agreement

The Atlanta Braves have reached an agreement to sign Japanese right-hander Kenshin Kawakami subject to a physical, Major League Baseball said on its website.

Kawakami, 33, spent the last 11 seasons in Japan’s Central League. He had a 9-5 record with a 2.30 earned-run average with the Chunichi Dragons last season.

TENNIS

Serena Williams rallies to win match in Australia

Serena Williams pulled out a 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-5 victory over Samantha Stosur at the Sydney International in Australia. . . . Sixth-seeded Sam Querrey had six aces on the way to beating wild-card Dan King-Turner, 6-4, 7-5, today to reach the second round of the Heineken Open at Auckland, New Zealand.