Stuart Appleby’s 59 leads to Greenbrier Classic title

Stuart Appleby hit golf’s magic number Sunday, shooting a 59 to win the Greenbrier Classic at White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.

Appleby’s 11-under-par round put him at 22 under, giving him a one-stroke victory to end a four-year winless drought. Third-round leader Jeff Overton (67) narrowly missed a long birdie try on the par-three 18th that would have forced a playoff.

Appleby is the fifth PGA Tour player to reach the milestone. The Australian’s round came less than a month after Paul Goydos had a 59 at the John Deere Classic.

The others to shoot 59 are Al Geiberger at the 1977 Memphis Classic, Chip Beck at the 1991 Las Vegas Invitational and David Duval at the 1999 Bob Hope Classic.

Appleby won for the first time since the 2006 Houston Open.

Appleby’s achievement was the first 59 on a par-70 course. Goydos’ came on a par 71 and the others on par 72s.

---

Bernhard Langer shot a final-round three-under 67 and took advantage of Fred Couples’ crucial mistake to complete a daunting transatlantic double and win the U.S. Senior Open championship at Sammamish, Wash.

Coming off a victory at the Senior British Open last week at Carnoustie, Langer finished at eight under for the tournament, fighting off jet lag and a partisan crowd hoping Couples could pull out a victory only 20 miles east of where he grew up.

Tied with Langer starting the day, Couples birdied the opening hole before his undoing on No. 2, a par five and probably the easiest hole on the course. Couples plopped his third shot in the greenside pond and by the time he walked off with a triple bogey, he was in chase mode.

Langer didn’t let him catch up.

Couples finished three shots back with an even-par 70.

---

Yani Tseng of Taiwan made a six-foot putt on the 18th hole to win the Women’s British Open by one stroke over Katherine Hull of Australia at Southport, England.

It was Tseng’s third major title and second of the year to go along with the Kraft Nabisco tournament.

Hull came into the round trailing by four strokes but was behind by only one heading into the 18th. Then she missed a 20-foot birdie try and had to settle for a 70, and Tseng made her par putt to shoot 73 and total 11-under 277 at Royal Birkdale.

ETC.

Masoli headed to Mississippi

Former Oregon quarterback Jeremiah Masoli has apparently decided to transfer to Mississippi.

Masoli, who pleaded guilty to second-degree burglary in March and was eventually dismissed from the Oregon team, enrolled in Mississippi’s graduate program and will be a walk-on in the fall.

Masoli flirted with jumping to the NFL before making the decision to join Mississippi. He will not have to sit out a year because he already has obtained his undergraduate degree.

---

Victoria Azarenka beat Maria Sharapova, 6-4, 6-1, to win the Bank of the West Classic at Palo Alto, her first title of the season.

---

Juan Carlos Ferrero won the Croatia Open at Umag, beating Potito Starace of Italy, 6-4, 6-4, for his third title this year.

---

With one huge surge around the far turn, Lookin At Lucky blew away a star-studded field at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J., in the $1-million Haskell Invitational to confirm his status as the best 3-year-old in the country.