Family of Tiger pitcher escapes kidnap attempt
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Michael Thompson’s dream of winning his first PGA Tour event was walking up the final fairway with a big lead and very little stress.
The reality was much different Sunday in the Honda Classic.
He had a one-shot lead as he stood in the 18th fairway, some 240 yards from the flag with trouble in the way in the shape of a large lake. The motto from his golf team at Alabama was to “finish strong,” and Thompson did just that.
Instead of laying up, he drilled a 5 wood into the bunker left of the green, setting up a simple sand shot and a birdie he didn’t even need. He closed with a 1-under 69, one of only five rounds under par on a punishing day at PGA National, to finally become a PGA Tour winner.
“That for me kind of sealed the deal,” Thompson said. “It allowed me to walk up the fairway and enjoy the experience, see the crowd and ... just finish strong.” The start wasn’t bad, either. Thompson holed a 50-foot eagle putt on the third hole, relied on a superb short game around the toughest part of the golf course to build a four-shot lead, and hung on for a two-shot win over Geoff Ogilvy that takes him places he always wanted to be.
He gets into his first World Golf Championship next week at Doral, and qualifies for two more WGCs this year at Firestone and in Shanghai. He’s in the PGA Championship, gets to start next year in Hawaii and earned a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour.
And to think just two weeks ago he was so down after a 78-80 performance at Riviera that he wondered if he would ever make another cut.
“This week was magical,” Thompson Michael Thompson celebrates after winning the Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., for his first PGA Tour victory. said. “Just had a groove and kept feeling it.”
It turned out to be a big week for Ogilvy too. The former U.S. Open champion missed his past four cuts and had plunged to No. 79 in the world ranking. He chipped in for birdie behind the 16th green and two-putted for birdie on the 18th for a 69 to finish alone in second, moving him up to No. 47 to get into Doral.
Luke Guthrie, tied with Thompson for the 54-hole lead, fell behind with a bogey on the second hole and closed with a 73 to finish third.
Tiger Woods was never in the picture. He started the final round eight shots behind, and closed with a 74 — his first time since the Masters last year that he failed to break par in any round of a 72-hole tournament — and tied for 37th.
ANOTHER TOURNAMENT
HSBC Women’s Champions at Singapore: Stacy Lewis, the 2012 LPGA Player of the Year, won the HSBC Women’s Champions for her sixth career title on the tour. She closed with a 1-under 71.
DETROIT — The Detroit Tigers say reliever Brayan Villarreal is not expected to leave spring training after his family escaped unharmed from a kidnapping attempt in Venezuela on Friday night.
Villarreal has remained with the team. Manager Jim Leyland did not want to comment further about the matter, saying Sunday: “The less said, the better.”
Villarreal went 3-5 with a 2.63 ERA last year in 50 appearances.
The 25-year-old righthander struck out 66 hitters in 54 2-3 innings.
Security back home has been a concern in recent years for Venezuelan players and their families because of a rising wave of kidnappings.
Washington Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos was abducted outside his family’s home shortly after the end of the 2011 season and rescued by police commandos two days later.
In June 2009, Colorado Rockies catcher Yorvit Torrealba’s 11-year-old son and brother-in-law were kidnapped and released a day later.
The mother of former pitcher Ugueth Urbina, a two-time All-Star, spent more than five months in captivity until she was rescued in early 2005.
DEVELOPMENTS
Cardinal shortstop, manager ailing: Rafael Furcal had hoped to make his spring training debut Sunday. Instead, the 35-yearold shortstop was told to stop baseball activities.
Trying to come back from a torn ligament in his right elbow, the threetime All-Star has been told he must have additional medical tests.
“He’s just not feeling good, kind of went in a bad direction,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said Sunday. “We don’t know the severity of it, but it wasn’t good news.”
With Furcal out indefinitely, Pete Kozma and Ronny Cedeno are the likely candidates to take over at shortstop unless there is a trade.
Meanwhile, Matheny has a ruptured disk in his back.
Matheny, a major league catcher from 1994- 06, is scheduled to have an epidural injection Monday to reduce inflammation and get a particle off a nerve. If the injection doesn’t help alleviate pain, he said surgery would “have to be something we would consider.”
EXHIBITION GAMES
Ryan Zimmerman went 1 for 3 with a RBI single in his spring training debut as the Nationals defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 7- 6 in Viera, Fla. The third baseman had arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder on Oct. 25. An All-Star in 2009, Zimmerman hit .282 with 25 homers and 95 RBIs for the NL East champions last season despite the injured shoulder, which needed cortisone shots in June and September. He was the designated hitter against the Cardinals rather than playing his usual third base and likely will not play in the field for several more weeks. ... With Brett Gardner the only regular in the Yankees’ starting lineup, New York beat the Boston Red Sox 5-2 Sunday in Tampa in a game likely to be very different from the teams’ opening- day matchup on April 1. Boston’s Mike Napoli, in just his second spring game after being diagnosed with avascular necrosis during the offseason, homered off Adam Warren leading off the second. ... Rangers pitching prospect Martin Perez was hit on the left forearm by a line drive Sunday, and Texas gave up homers to Kendrys Morales and Jesus Montero in a 7- 6 loss to the Seattle Mariners at Surprise, Ariz. The 21-year-old left-hander Perez was struck by a liner off Brad Miller’s bat and was taken to a hospital for X-rays.