GOLF

GOOSEN RALLIES PAST WOODS TO WIN SEASON FINALE

In a fitting end to the PGA Tour season, Retief Goosen closed with a 6-under 64 to win the Tour Championship by four shots and became only the third player to overtake Tiger Woods in the final round of a tournament. Goosen made up a four-shot deficit on the front nine at East Lake, took the outright lead with a 35-foot birdie putt on the 13th, and ended all the suspense with the best shot of the tournament.

Woods ended the season with only one victory, matching his lowest output in nine years on tour. Woods’s only 2004 win was the Match Play Championship in late February, and he now has gone 20 stroke-play tournaments without winning, the longest drought of his career.

SORENSTAM TAKES FOURTH STRAIGHT MIZUNO TITLE

Annika Sorenstam matched the LPGA Tour record for consecutive victories in a tournament yesterday, winning the Mizuno Classic for the fourth straight season to lock up her seventh player of the year title.

Closing with a 7-under 65 for her second straight nine-stroke victory in the event, Sorenstam won her seventh LPGA Tour title of the year and 55th overall – tying Betsy Rawls for fifth place on the career list. The Swedish star had a 22-under 194 total, two strokes off her tour-record 2003 mark on the Seta course.

TENNIS

SAFIN TIES RECORD WITH THIRD PARIS MASTERS WIN

Marat Safin overwhelmed Czech qualifier Radek Stepanek 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3 with the help of 16 aces yesterday to win his record-tying third Paris Masters title. Safin, the 2000 U.S. Open champion, claimed his 14th career championship. Safin also won the Paris Masters in 2000 and 2002, and lost to Andre Agassi in the 1999 final. Boris Becker is the only other player to have won the Paris indoor event three times. Safin, a former no. 1, has won five Masters titles, including in Madrid last month.

MAURESMO SUCCESSFULLY DEFENDS ADVANTA TITLE

Amelie Mauresmo shook off a slow start and beat Vera Zvonareva 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 yesterday to successfully defend her Advanta Championships title for her fifth tournament victory of 2004.

Mauresmo has a shot at ending the season at no. 1, where she spent five weeks after the U.S. Open despite no Grand Slam titles.

– Associated Press