LA QUINTA, Calif. – Bill Haas pulled ahead with a 20-foot birdie putt on the par-4 16th and parred the final two holes for a one-stroke victory Sunday in the Humana Challenge.

Haas closed with a 5-under 67 for his sixth PGA Tour title and first since the 2013 AT&T National. He won the 2010 event at PGA West for his first tour victory.

Haas was making his first start since November. He took the long break to rest his left wrist, fractured in April when he fell down stairs at Hilton Head.

Part of a six-man tie for the lead after a par save on the par-3 15th, Haas got to 22 under with the birdie putt on 16 on the Arnold Palmer Private Course.

Haas two-putted for par from 20 feet on the par-5 18th after pulling off an awkward layup with his ball perched on the front lip of a right-side fairway bunker.

His father, Jay, won the 1998 tournament. Haas’ great uncle, 85-year-old Bob Goalby, watched the final holes. Goalby won the 1968 Masters.

Matt Kuchar, Charley Hoffman, Brendan Steele, Steve Wheatcroft and Sung Joon Park tied for second. Hoffman and Steele shot 64, and Park had a 65, and Kuchar and Wheatcroft shot 67.

Kuchar had a two-stroke lead with four holes to play Saturday, but bogeyed three of the last four holes in the third round to fall a stroke back.

Haas eagled the par-5 sixth for a share of the lead, setting up his 15-foot putt with a 260-yard, 5-wood from the dormant left rough with the ball below his feet.

The 32-year-old former Wake Forest player birdied the par-4 eighth, punching a low, spinning wedge from 70 yards to 8 feet, and got to 21 under with a 7-foot birdie putt on the par-5 11th.

He made a key par save on the 131-yard 15th to keep a share of the lead. Short-sided in the left bunker, he blasted to 6 feet.

Haas broke out of the tie on 16, and then missed a 10-foot birdie try on the par-3 17th with a bighorn sheep grazing nearby at the foot of the Santa Rosa Mountains.

On the par-5 18th, with water running the length of the hole on the left, his drive stopped on the top edge off the right-side bunker. Standing in the bunker with the ball in the dormant grass at nearly waist level, he choked up on an 8-iron and slashed 80 yards down the fairway. That left him 170 yards to the green and he hit safely to the middle.

Justin Thomas, Webb Simpson and Boo Weekley tied for seventh, two strokes back.

Thomas, playing alongside Haas and two-time heart transplant recipient Erik Compton in the final group, dropped out of the lead on 16 with a double bogey after hitting his approach from a bunker into the All-American Canal. The 21-year-old former Alabama player birdied 18 for a 69.

Simpson finished with a 64, and Weekley shot 65.

Compton had a 70 to tie for 10th, three strokes back at 19 under.

Phil Mickelson shot his second straight 68 to tie for 24th at 15 under in his first start since the Ryder Cup in September.

Graham DeLaet finished as the top Canadian, tying for 30th at 14-under. Adam Hadwin was the other Canadian to make the cut, he tied for 48th at 13-under.

KAUPULEHU-KONA, Hawaii – Miguel Angel Jimenez shot an 8-under 64 in windy conditions Saturday for a share of the lead with Rocco Mediate in the Champions Tour’s season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship.

Jimenez had nine birdies and a closing bogey to match Mediate at 11-under 133 at Hualalai Golf Club. Mediate, the first-round leader after a 66, had a bogey-free 67.

Jimenez is making his third Champions Tour start. The Spaniard won the Greater Gwinnett Championship last year, a week after finishing fourth in the Masters. In May, he won the Spanish Open at 50 years, 133 days to break his own record as the oldest European Tour champion.

Mediate won twice on the 50-and over tour in 2013.

“With this wind, you just have to pay attention and play the right shot,” Mediate said.

Olin Browne was third at 9 under after a 67. Fred Couples, Colin Montgomerie and Mark O’Meara were another stroke back. Couples shot 64, Montgomerie 66, and O’Meara 67.

Couples had an eagle and three birdies on the four par 5s.

“I putted really well,” Couples said. “I hit some really good putts early in the round and they didn’t go in, then I started making them and they all went in.”

Defending champion Bernhard Langer was 7 under after a 65. He had a 10 on the par-5 seventh hole in his opening 72.

The 40-player field features major champions from the last five years, other tournament winners in the last two seasons and sponsor invitees.

LA QUINTA, Calif. — Matt Kuchar’s ball crashed into the rocks at the foot of the Santa Rosa Mountains and shot sideways into the All-American Canal.

More rocks and water gobbled up another ball — and with it, his third-round lead on Saturday in the Humana Challenge.

“It’s too bad, but it’s what happened,” Kuchar said. “I still got one more day left to try to make some birdies and still pull this thing out.”

Two strokes ahead after a birdie on the par-5 14th, Kuchar bogeyed three of the final four holes for a 1-under 71 on PGA West’s Arnold Palmer Private Course. That left him a shot behind two-time heart transplant recipient Erik Compton, Bill Haas, Justin Thomas and Michael Putnam.

The highest-ranked player in the field at No. 11, Kuchar lost a shot on the par-3 15th when he drove to the right, sent his second to the back edge and missed a 14-footer.

“Just nearly an impossible up-and-down if you miss the green right,” Kuchar said.

He bogeyed the par-3 17th after his tee shot went right, bounced off the mountain rocks and raced across the green into the canal.

“With a pitching wedge, you’re looking to hit a good shot,” Kuchar said. “Unfortunately, I let it hang too much and it caught a rock and went in the water.”

The seven-time tour winner closed with another rocky bogey, ending his birdie-eagle string on the par 5s. On the first 12 pars 5 of the week, he had an eagle and 11 birdies.

On 18, his 235-yard approach sailed long and left into the rocks and water. After his ball rolled away on a penalty drop, he placed it deep in the dormant grass, blasted out to 8 feet and two-putted.

“I hit a great drive and was in between a 3- and 4-hybrid,” Kuchar said. “I went with a 3-hybrid, trying to get it back to the hole and hit a solid shot that just didn’t fade.”

Compton shot a 67 on the Jack Nicklaus Private Course to join Haas, Thomas and Putnam at 17-under 199. Haas, the 2010 winner, had a 69 on the Nicklaus layout. Thomas shot 68 on the Palmer course, and Putnam had a 69 at La Quinta Country Club.

Compton birdied three of his last five holes in breezy, warm conditions.

“I had a couple shots that were loose on the drives, but I salvaged the round,” Compton said. “Tomorrow’s a new day.”

On the final day of the pro-am competition, Compton played in a group with amputee Chad Pfeifer and Baltimore Orioles pitcher Bud Norris. Pfeifer lost his left leg in Iraq.

“On the third hole, he said, ‘Hey, listen, you know, you really inspired me learning about your story,'” Compton said. “And I’m kind of speechless, because I see him with a huge adversity that he’s gone through and it speaks volumes.”

Haas is making his first start since November. He took the long break to rest his left wrist, injured when he fell down stairs at Hilton Head.

“So far, something to build on, but I also know in the back of my head I don’t think I’m a hundred percent,” Haas said. “So, I’ll go on the range and work on it. I just got to stay in the moment and try not to hit too many foul balls tomorrow.”

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Thomas birdied two of the last three holes. The 21-year-old former Alabama player hit a 91-yard shot to a foot for birdie on the par- 4 16th and two-putted for birdie on the 18.

“I’m pleased where I’m at going into tomorrow,” Thomas said.

Ryan Palmer, Scott Pinckney and Steve Wheatcroft were a stroke back along with Kuchar.

Palmer followed his 61 on Friday on the Nicklaus course with a 68 on the Palmer layout. Wheatcroft had a 68 on the Nicklaus course, and Pinckney shot 69 in the Palmer.

Defending champion Patrick Reed, paired with Kuchar, was tied for ninth at 14 under after a 67. He’s coming off a playoff victory two weeks ago in Hawaii in the Tournament of Champions.

Phil Mickelson was 11 under in his first start since the Ryder Cup in September. He had eight birdies and four bogeys in a 68 on the Palmer course.

“It was a day that could have been really low,” Mickelson said. “It had a lot of potential and I ended up making too many bogeys and letting some birdie opportunities slide.”

The 44-year-old Mickelson won the event in 2002 and 2004.

Both Graham DeLaet of Weyburn, Sask. and Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C. posted a third-round 66. DeLaet is tied for 24th at -12, while Hadwin sits tied for 63rd at -8.

DOHA, Qatar – Branden Grace shot a decisive eagle on the 16th to win the Qatar Masters on Saturday by one stroke and clinch his sixth European Tour title.

The South African fired a final round 6-under 66 for an overall 19-under 269 to hold off runner-up Marc Warren (67) of Scotland.

Bernd Wiesberger’s two bogies on the second and third holes proved costly as the Austrian settled for third place at 17 under.

Grace’s eagle came after he drove to five feet on the par-four No. 16 and then finished with his fourth birdie on the last hole.

Grace has now won all six European Tour events which he has been leading or sharing the lead going into the final round.

ROSEBERY, New South Wales, Australia—Corey Conners’ impressive run of golf Down Under finally came to an end Saturday.

The National Amateur Squad member fell to Australian Kevin Yuan in a back-and-forth affair, 2&1. Conners held a 1-up lead late in the match until a three-putt bogey on the 15^th left the match all-square. The Listowel, Ont., native couldn’t recover after that, losing two of the three remaining holes.

The 23-year-old will leave Australia with his head held high. In preparation for his ticket to this year’s Masters tournament (by way of U.S. Amateur finalist), Conners collected three impressive finishes Down Under. He started with a T12 finish at the Master of the Amateurs, won the Lake Macquarie Championship the following week and left the Australian Amateur in the quarter-final round—all high ranked events in the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR).

The Kent State graduate will board a lengthy flight back to Georgia to defend his Jones Cup title at the Ocean Forest Golf Club in Sea Island.

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Dustin Johnson is returning to the PGA Tour from a six-month break in which he said Friday “it was time to grow up,” though he refused to discuss a published report that a positive test for cocaine is what led to his leave of absence.

“I’m not worried about what people think or what they say,” Johnson told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “I’ve just got to be me. I’ve got a son, a future wife, and I’m really happy. I’m going to enjoy my life.”

Johnson has not competed since he missed the cut at the RBC Canadian Open July 25. Five days later, he said in a statement he was taking a leave of absence to seek professional help for what he described only as “personal challenges.”

Golf.com reported that he failed a drug test three times – for marijuana in 2009, and for cocaine in 2012 and 2014. The report said the PGA Tour suspended him for six months, though the tour took the rare step of publicly refuting that he was suspended.

Still, the fact Johnson returns exactly six months from announcing his leave of absence is sure to raise questions. His first tournament back will be the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines on Feb. 5-8.

Asked if the report was true that he failed a cocaine test, Johnson replied, No.” And then he declined to say more.

“With that, I’ve said all I’m going to say,” Johnson said. “I think I’ve answered them, and I don’t think I need to answer them again.”

He gave an interview earlier this week to Sports Illustrated and to ESPN, part of a strategy to ease back into golf. Still to be determined is how Johnson is received by the public and by his peers. He said he hasn’t talked to many players except for the occasional round of golf and workout session with Keegan Bradley because they have the same trainer.

Johnson is engaged to Paulina Gretzky, the daughter of hockey great Wayne Gretzky. She gave birth to a son, Tatum, on Monday in Los Angeles. Johnson said they are renting a home in Thousand Oaks, California, but he plans to live in West Palm Beach, Florida.

“The baby is healthy and we’re really happy,” he said.

Johnson declined to say whether the tour threatened to suspend him or recommended he get help. He said he has never been to rehab in his life. He said his issue was how he handled stress – drinking and partying – though he said he did not drink to the point that he felt he needed outside help.

“It was more of a compounded thing,” he said. “I was not enjoying myself. I was not playing the way I wanted to play. I did my fair share of partying. It’s not like I was drinking every day. It was more like alcohol abuse – that’s not the right word, but more along those lines. When I drank, I drank too much.”

As for seeking professional help that he mentioned in his statement in August, Johnson said he was working with “a few different people,” including one man whom he described as a life coach.

“He’s someone who helps me, give me advice,” Johnson said, adding that what he was taught was “nothing I didn’t already know.”

“What I’ve learned a lot is … with what I do, there’s a lot of stress that comes with it,” he said. “I never really learned to deal with it. To party was more my way of dealing with stress instead of going to the gym or going for a run. Things that were unhealthy, that was my way to get away.”

Johnson, 30, is among the most talented Americans and certainly among the most athletic figures in golf. He already has eight victories – last year was the first year he failed to win since he joined the PGA Tour in 2008 – and has contended in three majors. One of those was at Whistling Straits, where he grounded his club without realizing he was in a bunker on the final hole and was given a two-shot penalty. That kept him from a playoff in the 2010 PGA Championship.

In his most recent major, Johnson played in the final group on Saturday at the British Open with eventual champion Rory McIlroy. He wound up tying for 12th.

His leave of absence kept him from playing the PGA Championship, the FedEx Cup playoffs and the Ryder Cup, where he was assured a spot on the team. Johnson said he watched a little bit of the matches from Gleneagles and felt bad that he wasn’t there.

But he doesn’t feel he owes an apology – or an explanation – to anyone.

“I don’t care what people think,” he said. “I mean, do. I want my fans to know I do care about them, and I’m glad for all the ones who have stuck by me. I’ve had an unbelievable amount of support from my family, friends and fans. And those who aren’t fans anymore, that’s their choice.”

Johnson said he more excited than nervous about his return, and mostly he is happy about becoming a father.

“Obviously, I needed to better myself,” he said. “I used this time to work on me, and to work on becoming a better fiancée, soon-to-be husband, father. The son has been born now, and it’s given me a whole new perspective. Nothing else in the world matters.”

LA QUINTA, Calif. – Humana Challenge leader Matt Kuchar was asked if was surprised that there have only been six 59s on the PGA Tour and that no one has shot 58.

“No. We’re talking about golf,” Kuchar said. “It’s a difficult game. It’s a very challenging game. Fifty-nine, that’s a lot under par. That is quite an amazing feat.”

Ryan Palmer was in position to do it Friday after playing an eight-hole stretch in 10 under. Needing to go 3 under on the final eight to shoot 59, he bogeyed the next two holes and ended up with an 11-under 61.

“Walking off 10, after I got to 10 under, I was staying calm, trying not to think about anything, just trying to keep my momentum going, my pace with my walk,” Palmer said. “It’s hard not to think about it.”

After opening with two pars, Palmer had two eagles and six birdies on the next eight holes to match the longest eagle-birdie streak in PGA Tour history. He stumbled with the bogeys on the par-4 second and par-3 third and couldn’t get a couple of late putts to fall.

“Couple loose swings there,” Palmer said. “I guess the bogeys did kind of calm me down a little bit more and I didn’t worry about, obviously, the number.”

Palmer birdied the fourth and sixth holes and made another on the par-5 eighth after missing an 8-foot eagle try. A 59 no longer possible, he missed a 6-foot birdie putt on the ninth in a closing par.

The 38-year-old Texan holed out from 97 yards for eagle on the par-4 12th to start the streak on PGA West’s Jack Nicklaus Private Course. He birdied the next three holes, made a 20-foot eagle putt from the fringe on the par-5 16th and added three more birdies.

“I putted well,” Palmer said. “I didn’t make anything long, except for the eagle on 16.”

He tied the birdie-eagle streak record set by Billy Mayfair in the 2001 Buick Open and matched by Briny Baird in the 2003 FUNAI Classic. Mayfair and Baird were 9 under during their runs, making seven birdies and an eagle.

At 9-under 27, Palmer matched the tour record for relation to par for nine holes and was a stroke off the record of 26 set by Corey Pavin on a par-34 nine in Milwaukee in 2006.

Six players have shot 59 on the PGA Tour. Al Geiberger did it in the 1977 Memphis Classic, Chip Beck in the 1991 Las Vegas Invitational, David Duval on the Palmer course in the final round of his 1999 Bob Hope victory, Paul Goydos in the 2010 John Deere Classic, Stuart Appleby in the 2010 Greenbrier Classic and Jim Furyk in the 2013 BMW Championship. Ryo Ishikawa shot the lowest round on a major tour, a 58 to win the 2010 Crowns on the Japan Tour.

Palmer had a 12-under 132 total after opening with a 71 on Thursday at La Quinta Country Club. He was three strokes behind Kuchar.

Kuchar, the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 11, had a 64 on the Nicklaus course. He tied for third last week in Hawaii in the Sony Open.

“Game feels solid,” Kuchar said. “I feel like I know where it’s going, feel like I’m hitting it in the center of the clubface.”

Bill Haas and first-round leader Michael Putnam were a stroke back. Haas had a 63 at La Quinta. He had nine birdies in a 10-hole stretch, making seven in a row on Nos. 2-8.

“The putter was what’s got me in the hunt,” Haas said. “We don’t play better greens on tour than these greens here.”

Putnam shot a 67 on the Arnold Palmer Private Course.

Justin Thomas, Nick Watney and Scott Pinckney were 13 under. Thomas had a 63, Watney shot 64, and Pinckney 67 – all on the Nicklaus course.

Two-time heart transplant recipient Erik Compton had a 66 at La Quinta to get to 12 under.

“I’m kind of surprised, but I had a really good offseason,” Compton said. “I’m more surprised with my emotions and temper. It’s been a goal of mine just to be as steady as I can and to control the emotions.”

Phil Mickelson was 7 under in his first start since the Ryder Cup in September. He birdied his final five holes for a 66 on the Nicklaus course.

“It took me 31 holes to get my game to click,” Mickelson said.

The 44-year-old Mickelson won the event in 2002 and 2004. He’s winless in 27 PGA Tour starts since the 2013 British Open.

Canada’s Nick Taylor is tied for 11th after a second-round 67 left him at 11-under par.

NEW YORK – Peter Oosterhuis of England is retiring after 20 years as a golf analyst for CBS Sports and Golf Channel.

Oosterhuis won 20 times on the European Tour, won the RBC Canadian Open in 1981 and played the PGA Tour for 11 years. He played on six Ryder Cup teams and a 14-11-3 mark, a remarkable record considering that Europe lost every Ryder Cup from 1971 to 1981.

He worked the first two events Golf Channel ever broadcast in 1995, and then he joined CBS in 1998.

Oosterhuis says golf has been a big part of his life since he was growing up in England and that television allowed him to stay involved even after he stopped playing. He says now is the right time to retire so he can enjoy other things he always wanted to do.

ROSEBERY, New South Wales, Australia — Team Canada’s Corey Conners has continued his red-hot play as of late, advancing to the quarterfinal match Friday at the Australian Amateur.

Conners, 23, took down defending champion Tae Koh of New Zealand, coming back from an early deficit to grind out a 2-up victory on the 18^th.

The Listowel, Ont., native is set to square-off against Australia’s Kevin Yuan in tomorrow’s match. The winner will play in the semi-final round, commencing later that afternoon.

Conners, the No. 11 ranked amateur in the world, is coming off an impressive victory last week at the Lake Macquarie Championship—just a two-hour drive from this week’s action at The Australian Golf Club.

On the women’s side, Team Canada’s Jaclyn Lee fell in the round of 16 by losing in a playoff amidst some drama against Australian native Liz Elmassian.

With a 1-up advantage and a short putt for par on the final hole, Elmassian mistakenly conceded Lee’s third shot from the bunker—giving her a birdie three.

Lee, a Calgary native, had no choice but to play on. In the end, Lee ran into trouble on the par-3 11^th, conceding the match to Elmassian. The 17-year-old was the lone remaining member of Team Canada’s Development Squad left in the field.

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DOHA, Qatar – Branden Grace and Bernd Wiesberger birdied their last holes to keep a share of the lead after round three at the Qatar Masters on Friday.

Scotland’s Marc Warren and Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo would have stood alone atop the leaderboard with 13-under2-3 totals if Grace and Wiesberger hadn’t achieved a final flourish at Doha Golf Club.

They were two shots ahead of England’s Eddie Pepperell (65), Spain’s Alejandro Canizares (68) and South Africa’s George Coetzee (70), and four in front of first-round leader Oliver Fisher of England (69).

Grace’s 4-under round of 68 featured a remarkable birdie after driving into the trees on the fifth hole. He snap-hooked a wedge to six feet to stay in contention.

Wiesberger also carded 4 under, while Grillo shot a bogey-free 5 under to be in contention for his maiden European Tour title.

Warren shot four birdies in his first 10 holes, but bogeyed at the 14th before hitting birdies on the next two to match Grillo’s score for the day.