Vijay Singh and Larry Nelson were inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame yesterday. Neither man took what could be called the traditional route to professional golf. Nelson never played the game before returning from the Vietnam War, and Singh gave golf lessons for $10 to work his way out of Borneo and eventually onto the PGA Tour … Annika Sorenstam will try to defend her title at the LPGA Tour Mizuno Classic in Japan this week. Sorenstam has won the event, held Nov. 3-5, the last five years.

K.J. Choi shot a 4-under-par 67 yesterday to win the Chrysler Championship in Florida. The victory gets Choi a place in the Tour Championship next week and the Mercedes-Benz Championship at the start of the 2007 season. It is also his fourth career title … Jeev Milkha Singh of India put the finishing touches on a great year yesterday by winning the Volvo Masters of Europe at Spain’s Valderrama. The victory bumps Singh, who took home more than $800,000, into the top-100 in the world rankings … South Korean Jin Joo Hong won the Kolon-Hana Bank Championship, her country’s only LPGA Tour ...

Tiger Woods has announced he will not compete in the Tour Championship next week, marking the first time in his career he will miss the event. Woods said he is mentally and physically tired from a hectic stretch through the Ryder Cup. Both Woods and Mickelson will miss the event, which will now have a field of 27 players. “I’m confident that this extended break will help me to recharge my batteries for the 2007 season,” said a statement Woods gave on his Web site … Long considered the greatest female golfer in history, Mickey Wright has been diagnosed with breast ...

Brian Gay shot a 7-under-par 64 to take the lead at the Chrysler Championship in Florida yesterday. He is two shots ahead of Mark Calcavecchia … For Gay, whose PGA Tour card is secure next year because he won the Canadian Open last season, giving him a two-year exemption, the Chrysler Championship is merely an opportunity to finish 2006 on a positive note, maybe even with a win. There’s much more at stake for many other players. The event is the last chance to finish in the top 125 this year and earn a 2007 tour card … There’s fierce competition going ...

Greg Norman’s business interests continue to expand. Sportswear company Adidas AG announced this week the sale of its Greg Norman Collection business to the Australian golfer and MacGregor Golf Co. for an undisclosed sum … Hundreds of PGA Tour hopefuls began the first stage of the qualifying school this week. The competitors are vying for a place in the Q-School final, a 108-hole marathon held Nov. 29 to Dec. 4 at PGA West in LaQuinta.

Former LPGA Tour world number one Karrie Webb will continue her comeback season at the inaugural Dubai Ladies’ Masters at the Emirates Golf Club this week. Webb, currently ranked number three in the world, will be going for her fifth win this season … Columbian Camilo Villegas will put the finishing touches on his successful first year on the PGA Tour at the Chrysler Championship in Florida this week. The 24-year-old former Florida Gator has won $1.7 million this year and ranks 37 on the money list. He has not won an event but finished second at Doral in March.

Stephen Ames will not compete in the season-ending Tour Championship because of a back injury, PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said yesterday. Only the top 30 money winners on the tour are eligible for the $6.5 million Tour Championship, held Nov. 2-5 in Atlanta. Ames, 42, is 18 on the list … The Chrysler Championship at the Westin Innisbrook Golf Resort in Palm Harbor, Florida, kicks of this week. The event, carrying a purse of $5.3 million this year, was won by Carl Pettersson last season.

Joe Durant won his first PGA Tour event in five years at the Funai Classic Sunday, shooting a final round 7-under-par 65. The 42-year-old finished the event at the Walt Disney World Resort’s Magnolia course in Florida with a 25-under 263 … Hee-Won Han of South Korea won the inaugural LPGA Thailand at the Amata Spring Country Club Sunday. She shot a 5-under-par 67 for her sixth career title … Donald Trump and Tom Watson defeated LPGA Tour stars Annika Sorenstam and Natalie Gulbis in a skins match Sunday at the Manhattan Golf Classic. “Donald played very well,” said Watson, a five-time ...

Justin Rose came up just short of shooting a PGA Tour record 59 at the Funai Classic at Disney yesterday. Rose missed a 14-foot birdie putt on No. 18, leaving him with a 12-under 60. Had he made the putt, he would have matched the tour record of 59 shot by Al Geiberger, Chip Beck and David Duval … Michelle Wie has gotten a new agent. Ross Berlin, who had represented the golf phenom since she turned professional in 2005, has left Wie to return to the PGA Tour. Greg Nared, who led Nike’s recruitment of Wie, is taking over the ...

Donald Trump and Tom Watson are taking on LPGA Tour stars Annika Sorenstam and Natalie Gulbis in a televised skins game Sunday on Governors Island in New York. It will be the last event in the Manhattan Golf Classic, which begins today … Jose Maria Olazabal and Sergio Garcia, among other European players, will compete this week in the Mallorca Classic in the Balearic Islands. Olazabal won his first title in more than three years there last season, finishing with a 4-under 66 for a five-stroke victory … Craig Perry is leaving the U.S. PGA Tour after next week’s Chrysler Championship in ...

Lorena Ochoa’s come from behind victory against Annika Sorenstam at the Samsung World Championship this weekend could signal a changing of the guards on the LPGA Tour. Sorenstam, 36, has dominated women’s golf for years, but her strangle hold on the tour is waning, partly because her off-course interests are expanding, and partly because of Ochoa, who has won five events this season and is looking like a strong contender for the U.S. LPGA player of the year … The LPGA Tour touches down in Asia this week for its first appearance in Thailand at the inaugural Honda LPGA Thailand at ...

Darren Clarke, one of the heroes of the 36th Ryder Cup Matches, will play in the Australian PGA Championship in December, organizers of the event confirmed today. Clarke joins Adam Scott, the number four-ranked player, at the event, among other top players … Golf has been booming in China since the first course opened there in the 1980s, and one university is trying to make sure it stays that way. Xiamen University will require students majoring in management, law, economics and software engineering to take a golf course “to achieve their elite ambitions,” the China Daily newspaper reported today … Jim Furyk ...

Rookie Troy Matteson won his first PGA Tour event yesterday at the Frys.com Open, shooting a final round 3-under 69. Matteson, 26, defeated Ben Crane and Daniel Chopra by one shot … Lorena Ochoa came from three shots behind Annika Sorenstam to win the Samsung World Championship yesterday with a final round 7-under 65. The victory brings her a step closer to winning the LPGA Tour player of the year award … Jay Haas won the Administaff Small Business Classic Sunday after heavy rain caused the event’s organizers to delay the final round of play. Haas was 16-under after two rounds, leaving ...

Annika Sorenstam moved one step closer to a third consecutive victory at the Samsung World Championship, carding a 66 to pull to a three-shot lead over Lorena Ochoa heading to the final round. A victory for Sorenstam would give her 70 in her illustrious career. Sophie Gustafson is in third place, followed by Stacy Prammanasudh at the tourney, held at Bighorn Golf Club in Palm Desert, Calif. Paula Creamer, who entered the third round in a tie for first, fell six shots off the pace and is tied for fifth along with Cristie Kerr and Sherri Steinhauer. Teen Michelle Wie sits ...

Annika Sorenstam sits atop the leaderboard at 6-under along with Sophie Gustafson and Paula Creamer after the second round of the Samsung World Championship. Women’s British Open champion Sherri Steinhauer is one shot off the lead after shooting a 67, while Lorena Ochoa and Karrie Webb are a shot off the lead. Michelle Wie shot a 72 to sit eight shots off the leaders … A tearful Arnold Palmer said he would retire from playing competitive golf after withdrawing from a Champions Tour event early in the first round. Palmer, 77, hit two balls into the water on the fourth hole ...

Bob Tway and Steve Flesch are the first round leaders at the PGA Tour’s Frys.com Open in Las Vegas, both finishing 8-under-par yesterday. Tway shot a 63 on the TPC Canyons course, Flesch a 64 … Meanwhile, Jim Furyk, who has won three times in Las Vegas, was 3-under-par after the first round … Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam share the lead at the Samsung World Championship after one round of play, both shooting 67s. Michelle Wie did not fare as well, finishing the day with a 2-over-par 74.

Michelle Wie kicks off her second full year as a professional today at the Samsung World Championship. She was disqualified from the event last year for taking an improper drop … World number two Jim Furyk is a favorite at the PGA Tour’s Frys.com Open, which begins today in Las Vegas. Furyk has always played well in Sin City, winning three of his 12 career victories there.

“Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07″ by Electronic Arts Inc. hit the shelves at stores yesterday. The video game, the latest in a series that has sold millions of copies, incorporates the swing changes that have returned Woods’ to PGA Tour dominance … Twenty LPGA Tour players will compete this week at the Samsung World Championship, where Annika Sorenstam will be trying to win the event for a record sixth time. Michelle Wie is also playing at the Bighorn Golf Club … A new professional domestic golf tour has formed in India under the auspices of the Professional Golf Tour of India. It ...

The $150,000 Lorena Ochoa won Sunday at the Corona Morelia Championship made her only the second player in the history of the LPGA Tour to earn more than $2 million in a season. Annika Sorenstam was the first LPGA player to do this, in 2001 … Kelly Tilghman will join Nick Faldo in the commentator’s booth for PGA Tour broadcasts by The Golf Channel. One of the most popular personalities on the station, Tilghman is the first woman to be a full time play-by-play announcer in the history of golf broadcasting.

Davis Love III won his first PGA Tour event since 2003 yesterday with a two-shot victory at the Greensboro Classic in North Carolina. The win is a kind of redemption for Love, who was passed over by Tom Lehman as a captain’s picks for the Ryder Cup Matches in Ireland last month … Padraig Harrington won the Dunhill Links Championship for the second time in his career Sunday, shooting a final round four-under 68. This is his first European victory in two years … TravelGolf.com’s Tim McDonald made some controversial choices in a story on the top 10 courses in Pinehurst, Howard ...

Nick Watney shot a 1-under-par 71 to head to the weekend at 9-under and with a one-shot lead at a rainy Chrysler Classic of Greensboro. Ryan Palmer and John Senden are a stroke back, with red-hot Eric Axley leading a group two shots off the lead … Lorena Ochoa gave her hometown fans a thrill as she shot a 64 to storm to a three-shot lead at the Corona Morelia Championship at the Jack Nicklaus-designed Tres Marias course in Morelia, Mexico. Sun Young Yoo was second at 8 under, followed by Kelli Kuehne. Teen Morgan Pressel sits six shots off the ...

Brent Geiberger, John Rollins and Nick Watney share the lead at the PGA Tour’s Chrysler Classic of Greensboro after one round of play, each shooting a 64. Scores were impressively low all day at Forest Oaks Country Club … Brandie Burton shot a first round five-under 68 to take the lead at the Corona Morelia Championship in Mexico. Mexican Lorena Ochoa is three stokes back.

As the golf world continues to look for ammunition in the debate over whether Tiger Woods is the greatest of all time, they’re finding it in some pretty obscure statistics, as this story in the San Diego Union Tribune shows. Tiger Woods has won 54 of 200 events in his decade as a professional, a 27 percent starts-to-win ratio. By comparison, Jack Nicklaus had a 17 percent ratio in his first 10 years … Lorena Ochoa will try for the fourth time this week to win in her native Mexico at the Corona Morelia Championship. Ochoa, who leads the LPGA ...

Jack Nicklaus will join six other inductees into the 2006 class of the PGA Professional Hall of Fame, the organization announced yesterday. “When you consider Jack Nicklaus’ career as a player, you also see how much emphasis he placed on contributing to the betterment of so many aspiring players and PGA professionals,” PGA Vice President Brian Whitcomb said in a statement. The inductees will be honored at the PGA Village in Florida Dec. 8 … For a second straight year, the PGA Tour is allowing Darren Clarke to hold on to his membership despite not playing the required 15 tournaments annually. Ryder ...

Tiger Woods said yesterday that his on course performance this year proves he made the right choice changing his swing after the 2000 season. Woods, who won his sixth consecutive PGA Tour event at the American Express Championship Sunday, was originally criticized for making the changes … Woods also said he plans to continue improving and has his eye on winning a Grand Slam … Michelle Wie fell from eighth to ninth place in the LPGA Tour’s rankings this week, her spot taken by Jeong Jang. Annika Sorenstam remain’s the world’s number one.

Tiger Woods won the American Express Championship in England yesterday with a final round 67 for his sixth straight PGA Tour victory … “What keeps me going?” he asked. “Ws. That’s all. Purely and simply, Ws.” D.J. Trahan won his first PGA Tour event yesterday at the Southern Farm Bureau Classic in Madison, Mississippi. He defeated Joe Durant in a playoff with a final round one-under 71.