Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
Day caused only a little drama Sunday in what otherwise felt more like another coronation for the 28-year-old Australian. He led by at least two shots the entire round, played bogey-free again on the back nine at the TPC Sawgrass and closed with a 1-under 71 to win golf’s richest tournament.
“I just wanted to win this so bad,” Day said.
Along the way, he put a stamp on his No. 1 ranking.
Day won for the seventh time in the last 10 months, titles that include a major, a World Golf Championship and a pair of FedEx Cup playoff events. He became the first wire-to-wire winner in 16 years at Sawgrass.
Day won $1.89 million from the $10.5 million purse.
He won by four shots over Kevin Chappell, who closed with a 69 to pick up a $1,134,000 consolation check.
The greens at the Stadium Course were not nearly as severe as Saturday, when only six players managed to break par and Day made a pair of double bogeys to slow what had been shaping up as a runaway. This time, Day inflicted his own damage by missing greens and flubbing three chips on his way to a bogey on the par-5 ninth that cut his lead to two shots going to a back nine filled with possibilities.
With two quick birdies, the outcome soon was inevitable.
Rome
Williams’ previous title came in Cincinnati in August — a month before her attempt at a calendar-year Grand Slam ended with a semifinal loss to Roberta Vinci at the U.S. Open.
Andy Murray blitzed top-ranked Novak Djokovic in the men’s final, 6-3, 6-3.
St. Petersburg, Russia
The third defeat in six games leaves the U.S. fourth in Group B, one place behind Germany with one game remaining against fifth-placed Slovakia. The top four advance to the quarterfinals.
Germany took the lead on Patrick Hager’s power-play goal in the first before Jake McCabe tied the game for the U.S., but Germany responded almost immediately with a goal for Christian Ehrhoff.
Auston Matthews’ power-play goal early in the second made it 2-2, but Holzer had the last word, scoring with 30 seconds remaining in the third.
In Moscow, Denmark beat the Czech Republic 2-1 in a shootout.
San Francisco
Hayne says: “I simply could not pass that chance up. The Olympics has been something I have admired since I was a little boy, and it is an opportunity I feel very similar to me joining the NFL.”
A 6-foot-2, 220-pound running back, the 28-year-old Hayne was a surprise to make the initial 53-man roster out of training camp last year with San Francisco. Playing eight games with one start for the 5-11 Niners, he had 17 carries for 52 yards and six catches for 27 yards while also returning eight punts for 76 yards.
He joined San Francisco as an undrafted free agent on March 3, 2015.
___
AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and AP NFL Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/AP_NFL