THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Zach Johnson put together the storybook finish at Sherwood on Sunday that for the longest time belonged to Tiger Woods.

Johnson rallied from four shots behind with eight holes to play, holed out from a drop area for par on the last hole to force a playoff, and beat the No. 1 player in golf at the World Challenge when Woods missed a 5-foot par putt on the first extra hole.

“Pretty impressive what he did,” Woods said. “He got me.”

It was an extraordinary sendoff at Sherwood, which hosted the World Challenge for the 14th and final time before it moves to Florida next year.

The big surprise was the winner in so many ways.

“I feel very fortunate, and a bit lucky,” said Johnson, who moved into the top 10 in the world ranking for the first time in his career.

For Woods, it was only the fourth time in his career that he lost a lead of at least two shots going into the final round, the second time at Sherwood. Graeme McDowell overcame a four-shot deficit in 2010 and beat Woods in a playoff.

This was far more dramatic.

They were tied after Johnson hit his tee shot to 4 feet for birdie on the 17th hole. Playing from the left rough, Woods came up just short and watched his approach tumble down the elevated green and into the bunker. Johnson followed with his worst shot of the week, an 8-iron so weak that it came up well short and into the hazard.

Johnson knew Woods had a difficult bunker shot, and if he figured if he could stick his wedge close from 58 yards away in the drop zone, a bogey might be enough to get into a playoff. The ball bounced three times and then spun back a few inches into the cup for an unlikely par and a 4-under 68.

“A little too dramatic for me,” Johnson said.

Woods’ hit a superb bunker shot to 2 feet and matched his par for a 70. They finished on 13-under 275.

Woods was between clubs from the 18th fairway in the playoff and tried a smooth 7-iron that he lost enough to the right that it again found the bunker. He hit an exquisite sand shot, this one sliding 5 feet by the hole, and the par putt spun out of the left side.

Johnson won $1 million and should go to No. 9 in the world.

Woods ended what he called a “damn good year” _ five wins, the most of anyone in the world _ with a shocking loss to Johnson. Two years ago, Woods ended the longest drought of his career when he went birdie-birdie at Sherwood to beat Johnson by one shot.

Matt Kuchar (67) and Bubba Watson (70) tied for third at 9-under 279.

The attendance Sunday was 24,922, a record for any round in 14 years at Sherwood. Traffic outside the tony club in the Santa Monica foothills looked like an LA freeway in what could be the last chance in the near future to see Woods in southern California.

Woods appeared to have his sixth title at Sherwood sewed up when Johnson missed a short par putt on the 10th hole to fall four shots behind with eight holes to play. Woods had said on Saturday that Johnson wasn’t the kind of player who went away easily, and he was right.

Johnson picked up birdies on the 11th and 12th holes, and then got back in the game on the 14th when Woods three-putted from long range on the 14th, and Johnson saved his par with an 8-foot putt to get within one shot.

The rest of the way looked like the final rounds of a heavyweight fight, even if only one of them looked the part.

Johnson laid up on the par-5 16 and nearly holed a sand wedge from 88 yards, setting up a tap-in birdie. Woods, with a tough chip left of the green, rehearsed the shot over and over and it came out perfectly for a matching birdie. Johnson finally caught him with a tee shot to 4 feet for birdie on the 17th, leading to the big finish.

Johnson looked almost apologetic when Woods missed his par putt in the playoff, and it was shocking to see. No one from his generation as made more clutch putts than Woods, who spoke about the topic earlier in the week.

But not this time. It was not the way he wanted to leave Sherwood, where Woods has five wins and now five runner-up finishes. The only consolation was $400,000 for finishing second, bringing to just over $14 million the earnings he has donated to his foundation from the three tournaments (AT&T National, Deutsche Bank, World Challenge) that support his education programs.

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. –  After a day of so much uncertainty about where the ball was going, Tiger Woods landed in a place where the outcome is rarely in doubt.

He was in the lead.

Woods survived a rough round of swirling swing at Sherwood on Saturday with two birdies on his last three holes. That enabled him to salvage an even-par 72 and maintain his two-shot lead over Zach Johnson going into the final round of the World Challenge.

Woods’ round featured a tee shot into the water, a three-putt from 6 feet and a long delay on the 18th fairway as he tried to figure out which way the wind was blowing. He took a little off an 8-iron when he felt the wind switch yet again and holed a 12-foot birdie putt.

“I’m pleased at having the lead _ not real pleased with the way I putted today,” Woods said. “I left a few out there today.”

But he wasn’t alone.

The average score was just under 73, and everyone ran into problems somewhere along the way, particularly on the 15th, a par 3 that played to an average score of 4.17. Johnson made two double bogeys on par 3s on the back nine, and didn’t feel as though he hit a poor shot on either hole. It was simply a matter of getting the wind to co-operate.

“I didn’t take myself out of it,” said Johnson, who also birdied two of the last three holes for a 72.

Woods was at 11-under 205, two shots ahead of Johnson, just like he started the day.

There are 18 holes to go, and Woods has a 48-5 lead worldwide when he has the outright lead going into Sunday. He has won all four times with the lead this year, and the last time he gave up a lead on Sunday was at Sherwood in 2010, when Graeme McDowell came from four shots behind and won in a playoff.

It can be done, and two shots can be erased in one hole in conditions like this.

Woods is trying to end his year with a sixth title, which would be the ninth time he’s done that in his career. What began as an elite field of 18 players _ all of them from the top 30 in the world ranking _ has effectively been whittled to three barring a late charge from deep in the pack.

Bubba Watson was within one shot of the lead briefly until a three-putt bogey on the 18th, and two late birdies by Woods. Watson had a 69 and was four shots behind. No one else was within six shots of Woods.

“This golf course is very difficult,” Watson said. “Right now, there’s a pretty good player leading. He’s won here before. He knows this golf course pretty well. But I’m just going to come out there and play. I’ve shot under par my last few rounds. I want to keep doing that. If I can shoot in the 60s, give myself a chance, we’ll see what happens.”

Rory McIlroy had the low round Saturday of 68, and that included a double bogey on the par-3 15th, which was playing 193 yards from an elevated tee. Keegan Bradley and Steve Stricker each took a 7 on the par 3.

Johnson was one shot out of the lead when his 5-iron went into the creek, and it wasn’t particularly close. He made double bogey. Woods hit 6-iron well to the left, and while he three-putted from long range for bogey, that was about par for the day.

“I thought Zach hit it perfect,” Woods said. “He hit a little cut 5 and it was right on the flag. I mean, I thought it was the perfect flight to get there. I had a 6, and I knew that if my ball kicked up at all, it wasn’t going to get there after seeing his ball get smoked at the end. So I went ahead and flipped it over to the left and bailed out.”

Johnson briefly took the lead with a birdie on No. 9, though Woods caught him with a birdie on the 10th. Johnson lost momentum with one bad shot, a fairway metal for his second shot on the par-5 11th that went right into a bed of leaves under a small cluster of trees. He tried to punch under the trees and onto the green, but his shot hit one branch and led to bogey.

Johnson made a double bogey on the par-3 12th and just like that was three shots behind. He got back to within one shot on the next hole when Woods three-putted from 6 feet for bogey and Johnson made bogey.

Ultimately, they ended up where they started the day, putting Woods one round away from his sixth win at Sherwood. The tournament is moving to Florida next year.

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – For the final tournament at Sherwood Country Club, Tiger Woods seems intent on leaving a lasting impression.

He only missed one fairway Friday in the World Challenge. He putted for birdie on every hole. Only once was he under stress to make par. And when he finished his second round with a pair of pars, Woods matched his course record with a 10-under 62 and was in a familiar position going into the weekend.

Woods, a five-time winner at Sherwood, had a two-shot lead over Zach Johnson.

“It was fun to watch,” said Graeme McDowell, who tied for the second-best round of the day and fell six shots behind.

Woods was at 11-under 133 and will be paired in the last group Saturday with Johnson, who missed a few good birdie chances on the back nine but still managed a 68. Johnson is a two-time runner-up at the World Challenge, both times to Woods.

Matt Kuchar had a 68 and was three shots behind, and no one else was closer than five shots.

Woods had little reason to believe he would tie his course record at Sherwood, which he set in 2007 during one of his victories. Nothing was going right on the practice range. And even though he opened with two birdies, the pin was accessible on No. 1 and the second hole is a par 5 that featured a front pin.

“I hit a good tee shot down No. 1, good second shot in there to a kick-in, and it still didn’t feel very good,” Woods said. “But think the third hole was a nice shot in there. It was the first swing I made, even during warm-up, that felt really good, and I tried to keep that feeling the rest of the day. And I did. I hit a lot of good shots after that.”

It was the 10th time Woods has shot 62 or lower in a tournament. He went on to win six of those events. The exceptions were the 1999 Byron Nelson Classic (61 in the first round), the 2005 Buick Open (61 in the second round) and the 2012 Honda Classic (62 in the final round).

This is his final event of the year, though Woods has been around long enough to keep it in perspective.

“Two more rounds,” he said.

No one is ready to concede this tournament to Woods, except for those at the far end of this 18-man field. Hunter Mahan had an 80, Dustin Johnson had a 79 and Rory McIlroy, coming off a win at the Australian Open, had a 77.

“Amazing what Tiger did out there. It’s just some incredible golf,” Kuchar said. “I kind of felt sorry for Graeme McDowell. I saw he posted a 5-under-par round, and it must have felt like it was 2 or 3 over. It’s tough when you’re paired with a guy like that. It makes you feel like you’re not doing much. But the rest of us just go about our business.”

Even after watching what he felt like was an exhibition _ Woods’ golf, not the tournament _ McDowell figured he could still defend his title if he could nail down the speed of the greens, which are running on the fast side.

That’s what set Woods apart on another chilly day at Sherwood. Not only did he make the putts, he rarely was in a position where he had to stress over par. The lone exception came on the par-3 12th, when Woods was in such a precarious spot above the hole that he had no intention of trying to make birdie. He would have had to start the ball high on a ridge to get it to roll near the hole, and that would mean more speed going by. So he aimed for the low side and made the 10-foot par putt coming back.

“I don’t think I’ve seen them quite this fast unless we get Santa Ana’s blowing when it’s dry,” Woods said. “I mean, this is the last tournament of the year for a lot of us. I’d think they’d make it a little easier on us. But they gave it to us pretty good the last couple days. You miss the ball in the wrong spots, you’re making bogeys.”

Woods never went more than two holes without a birdie. One of the few times he was above the hole, Woods hit his putt on a perfect line with the right pace and dipped his knees when it dropped in the right side of the cup.

Even as he dropped further behind, McDowell couldn’t help but appreciate a flawless round of golf.

“I enjoyed that,” he said. “It was cool to see that kind of golf. He was under control. He hit it down the middle of every fairway. He didn’t have that kind of violence with his speed through the ball.”

Woods said he was similar to the 61 he shot this summer at Firestone, where he went on to win by seven shots.

“I think Firestone is obviously a much more difficult golf course than Sherwood,” Woods said. “But as far as quality ball-striking, I hit it equally as good today, if not even better.”

What could challenge Woods, along with everyone else, is a forecast of rain and then wind for the final two days.

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Zach Johnson already is looking ahead to next year, and one of his priorities is to score better on the par 5s. He got started on that Thursday in the World Challenge.

Johnson birdied four of the five par 5s on a chilly afternoon at Sherwood Country Club, sending him to a 5-under 67 and a one-shot lead over Matt Kuchar. They were among only five players in the elite 18-man field who broke par.

One of them was tournament host Tiger Woods, who had a new driver in the bag and missed only two fairways. The problem was his putter. Woods opened his round by missing a short par putt, and he finished it by missing a four-foot birdie putt on the 18th. He wound up with a 71.

Kuchar played with Woods — they were partners at the Presidents Cup — and hit his approach into two feet for birdie on the final hole.

Hunter Mahan and Bubba Watson were at 70. They are among seven players who have yet to win a tournament anywhere in the world this year, even though all 18 players in the World Challenge are in the top 30 in the world ranking.

The tournament counts toward the ranking, though everything else about it is unofficial. For some players, it’s a time to shake off some rust and test new equipment. For others, it’s the end of a long year.

Johnson had his annual “summit” with his team of coaches at the start of the week. They go over the year, crunch statistics and lay out goals for where to improve in 2014. One of the areas was par-5 scoring.

“A highlight that we’re looking into next year is trying to play those holes a little bit better,” Johnson said. “I don’t know what I did that today. I hit it close. I had good shots in there with the proper spin, nothing more than that. But you’ve got to take advantage of them. You’ve got five of them. The thing is … one errant shot, you’re staring a six right in the face, if not more. There’s a lot of penal areas.”

There was plenty of punishment for some players in the field.

Steve Stricker was among those under par until a bogey-bogey-double bogey finish put him at 75. Jordan Spieth, coming off a sensational rookie season and playing for the first time since the HSBC Champions in Shanghai a month ago, had a 77 and was last in the field. Jason Day, who won the individual and team title at the World Cup two weeks ago at Royal Melbourne, had a 76.

Rory McIlroy, with girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki following him, was hopeful of building momentum from his first win of the year last week in the Australian Open. He missed a few short putts, found the water on the par-3 15th and had a 73. He played with defending champion Graeme McDowell, who had a 72.

McDowell saw a note that his last eight rounds at Sherwood were in the 60s. That streak ended Thursday, though for good reason.

“The course hasn’t been this tough in a couple years,” McDowell said. “The scoring reflects that. The greens are much firmer. The speed of them caught me by surprise a little bit today. My speed was a little clumsy, and it showed today on the greens.”

This is the final year the tournament is being played at Sherwood. It moves to Isleworth just outside Orlando, Fla., next year.

Woods has played only one tournament since the Presidents Cup, and that was a tie for third in the Turkish Open. He said he struggled with his irons — even though he missed only two fairways, he hit only 12 greens — and couldn’t get enough putts to fall.

“I made a few mistakes today,” Woods said. “I also hit a couple of good shots that ended up in some interesting spots. That can happen out there. I shot about the score … maybe could have gotten one or two more out of it.”

Johnson had few complaints. He opened with two birdies, and then surged ahead on the back nine with five birdies in a seven-hole stretch, three of them on the par 5s. Johnson has a pair of runner-up finishes at this event, and with the tournament moving, this is his last shot at Sherwood.

“I did everything decent,” he said. “Just a real solid day all around. I was aggressive when I needed to be aggressive, and I was conservative when I needed to be conservative. It’s nothing more than a decent start.”

SUN CITY, South Africa – Ernie Els is considering cutting his golf schedule even more to spend time with his family, saying life on the road after 25 seasons as a pro is getting “tougher and tougher.”

The four-time major winner has already slowed down over the past few years, playing 19 tournaments on the PGA Tour and only seven European Tour events last season.

The 44-year-old Els expects to trim that again, he said at the Nedbank Golf Challenge, his first tournament in a month.

The South African, who turned professional in 1989, said that with his daughter Samantha now 14 and son Ben now 11 “there are other things that come into play.”

“It’s always been difficult leaving the house, but now you really see your kids growing up and it gets more difficult,” Els said.

He almost skipped the Nedbank to stay on vacation with his family, and had to send Samantha back home to Florida on her own for school while he set off in search of a fourth title at Sun City.

“I feel a little bit guilty about that,” he said.

Els is recognizing the trend with a couple of other players on tour.

“Family life is important and you don’t want to miss out on their best years before they leave the house,” he said. “A lot of us are in that boat now. Phil (Mickelson) has kids the same age as mine, so does (Steve) Stricker. Guys get to my age and your kids get to teenage years and it becomes a bit of a difficult scenario. It’s getting tougher and tougher. The younger guys don’t have too many hassles traveling … but things change.

“I haven’t really got a game plan for next year yet, but I definitely have to play a slightly different schedule. I’ve got to look at my schedule and see where I’m going to.”

One thing that will remain is his commitment to trying to win another major – maybe two. His British Open title in 2012, a decade after his first Claret Jug, bolstered Els’ hopes of another big win before he eases off completely.

“I’m 44 and with the equipment I can really stay with the longer hitters,” Els said. “I feel I have a chance. I just need to sharpen up some things, get the right venue and get the right mojo. Then I think we can pull something off again. It’s not going to be easy, but I believe there are one or two left, so I’ll keep searching.”

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Tiger Woods believes it’s harder than ever to win on the PGA Tour because of the increasing depth of talent of the players.

And most of them are at his tournament this week.

The World Challenge gets underway Thursday, held at Sherwood Country Club for the last time, and the field is so strong that the entire 18-man field is in the top 30 in the world ranking. That’s what makes it difficult to win trophies.

And what’s why Woods laughs at using the phrase “pretty good” to describe a year in which he won five times on the PGA Tour.

“I think it’s deeper now than it ever has been,” Woods said. “There is more young talent. There are more guys winning golf tournaments for the first time. If you look at the major championships, how long did we go from basically Phil winning and Phil winning?”

He was referring to the 13 majors played between Phil Mickelson winning the 2010 Masters and the British Open this year. Eleven of those champions had never won a major, the exceptions being Ernie Els and Rory McIlroy.

Of those 11 first-time major champions, only Darren Clarke has fallen lower than No. 40 in the world.

“It’s more difficult to win events now,” Woods said.

He pointed to advancements in equipment, particularly from wood drivers and wound golf balls. Woods says the younger players who hit the ball high “are shocked to see the ball get moved by the wind.”

“For a lot of us who grew up playing balata balls, you wanted to get that thing down. You didn’t want it up in that wind because it got pushed around like you wouldn’t believe,” he said. “It’s a totally different game. Guys have evolved, and I think they’ve become much more aggressive now than they ever used to be because of equipment.”

Separating the best players is getting more difficult.

Graeme McDowell set a target to get back into the top five in the world at the start of the season. He wanted a certain amount of world ranking points that he figured would do the trick, and he about reached that level. Little did he know that so many other players also raised the level of their game.

“It’s fun to be part of it,” McDowell said.

Woods dominated the PGA Tour with five wins against five tough fields, which also gave him another Vardon Trophy and money title. Henrik Stenson became the first player to win the FedEx Cup on the PGA Tour and the Race to Dubai on the European Tour.

Adam Scott and Phil Mickelson had multiple wins around the world that included historic majors – Scott was the first Australian in a green jacket at Augusta National, Mickelson won a British Open that not even he thought he could ever win.

Jordan Spieth finished No. 7 in the FedEx Cup even though he didn’t have status on the PGA Tour at the start of the year. Hideki Matsuyama became the first rookie to win the Japan Golf Tour money title, and he didn’t even turn pro until April.

And this list of characters doesn’t include McIlroy, who began the year at No. 1 and is just now starting to emerge from a slump.

“You’ve got to play really well to win,” McIlroy said. “I think that’s why you see so many first-time winners, because the field is so deep, and it is tough to win out here. But I think golf is in great shape.”

Comparing eras is never easy, though Woods detected a big difference from a generation ago.

At the end of the 1990s and early in the 2000s, golf was strong at the top – Woods, David Duval, Mickelson, Els, Vijay Singh. But there was a reasonable gap between the biggest stars and the next level. From 1999 through 2002, there was a massive gap between Woods and the other stars.

Woods said a player now has to be consistent to be among the best.

The World Challenge is the end of the year for the majority of the field – a few players are headed to Thailand next week – and it should set the table for a fascinating season in 2014. Stenson and Scott will try to sustain their excellence, along with a newcomer such as Spieth.

Woods said that he still looks at the way players hit the ball to determine who has game, though the direction is different. When he first joined the tour in 1996, it was players who could work the ball both ways. Now he looks at the players who can manoeuvr the trajectory.

“You don’t see shot-makers like you used to. The ball doesn’t curve like it used to,” Woods said. “It just doesn’t move as much. But you look at the guys who are pretty good players at the top. They cannot really shape the golf ball necessarily, but they can move their trajectory up and down. I think that’s where the shape has changed. They don’t shape it as much from right to left, but more in altitude.”

After this year, the tournament is going through a change in latitude.

This is the 14th year the World Challenge is held at Sherwood, a Jack Nicklaus design with emerald fairways set against the brown foothills of the Santa Monica mountains. The Tiger Woods Foundation announced last month that it is moving to Isleworth outside Orlando.

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Joost Luiten better hope his decision to hit one shot at the BMW Masters doesn’t keep him out of that other “Masters.”

This is the last big week of tournaments around the world as players try to finish inside the top 50 to earn an invitation to Augusta National in April. Luiten is at No. 52 going into the Nedbank Challenge, but here’s where it gets interesting.

Luiten had a sore shoulder in Shanghai. He had to play two of three “Final Series” events on the European Tour to be eligible for the finale in Dubai. So he chose to hit one shot off the first tee at Lake Malaren in the BMW Masters and withdraw. He rested his shoulder for two weeks, played Turkey and then tied for fourth in Dubai.

However, that added one tournament to his total in the world ranking formula. If he had not been required to play the BMW Masters, Luiten would be at No. 49.

Ultimately, however, his performance will dictate whether he gets into the Masters. Even though it’s late in the year, the fields on three continents are packed with good players at the World Challenge in California, the Hong Kong Open and the Nedbank Challenge in South Africa.

The strongest field is in California, though it will have no bearing on the Masters because all 18 players at Sherwood are already eligible (and all of them are in the top 30).

Miguel Angel Jimenez (No. 48) is playing in Hong Kong, by far the weakest of the three fields. If he doesn’t play well, the Spaniard risks being passed in the ranking by Richard Sterne (No. 51) or Luiten in South Africa. Also playing in South Africa are Gary Woodland (No. 57 but already in the Masters), Kiradech Aphibarnrat (No. 60) and Peter Uihlein (No. 67).

The final tournament of the year is the Nelson Mandela Invitational, though the field is expected to be weak. Among those expected to play are Branden Grace, currently at No. 50.

For the players who don’t quite crack the top 50, Augusta National takes the top 50 one week before the Masters. Then again, Geoff Ogilvy missed the top 50 by one shot in Australia at the end of last year and went backward at the start of a new season.

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Of all the memories from Tiger Woods’ roots in Southern California, it’s easy to overlook the time he made an appearance in the Tournament of Roses parade.

Ok, so he wasn’t the grand marshal. And he had just turned 18.

Woods, coming off his first U.S. Amateur title, rode on the Chiropractic Centennial Foundation float that required seven tons of flowers to build. He wasn’t the only celebrity on the float on Jan. 2, 1995. Also riding were singer Lee Greenwood, Hall of Fame baseball player Joe Morgan and Olympic champion speedskater Cathy Turner.

The majestic float was toward the end of the order, trailed only by the Icelandic Horse Adventure Society and the International House of Pancakes.

For sure, there were far greater moments with a golf club in his hand.

Woods was only a toddler when he first went head-to-head with Sam Snead. It was only two holes, and Woods made bogey on both of them. Now, he is only four victories from breaking Snead’s record for career PGA Tour victories.

Woods made his PGA Tour debut at Riviera in the 1992 Nissan Open when he was a 16-year-old junior in high school. He might have made the cut if not for a growth spurt during the week that made the shaft in his driver too short. More on that later.

He never won what he often referred to as his “hometown event” at Riviera. He made up for it by winning five times at Sherwood Country Club, and that doesn’t include his win over David Duval at the illustrious “Showdown at Sherwood” in what amounted to Monday Night Golf.

Woods returns to Sherwood this week, in effect closing a chapter on golf in the area he always called home.

The Tiger Woods Learning Center, a superb complex that recently received a Golden Bell Award for excellence in education, remains his tie to Southern California. And the Tiger Woods Foundation headquarters will stay in Irvine.

But he stopped playing Riviera in 2006 after he narrowly made the cut. The only regular event in California that Woods still plays is in Torrey Pines, a two-hour drive from his hometown of Cypress in Orange County. The only time Los Angeles area golf fans could see him play was the World Challenge, a holiday event that attracts an 18-man field of players from the top 50 in the world.

This is the last year at Sherwood. Woods is moving the event to Isleworth, his old home in central Florida. Then, it could be headed to the Bahamas.

When he won the Canadian Open in 2000 with that 6-iron out of a bunker and over the water, his late father, Earl, said that day, “In every tournament, he’ll hit shots that people will be talking about for 30 years.”

One thing is certain _ Woods leaves a trail of stories behind. Here are five from his time in Southern California.

TIGER VS. SLAMMIN’ SAMMY

Woods was just starting kindergarten when he was invited to join Snead at Calabasas Country Club just north of LA. They played two holes, starting with a par 3. Woods hit into a creek fronting the green, and Snead suggested he just pick it up and drop it.

“That kind of ticked me off, so I decided to play it out of the water,” Woods once recalled. “I knocked it on the green and two-putted for my 4.”

THE DEBUT

Woods missed his first seven cuts on the PGA Tour, starting with the 1992 Nissan Open in his debut at age 16. He opened with a 72 and was in reasonable shape to make the cut until what his father said was a growth spurt. Woods shot 75 the next day and headed back to high school.

“I was hitting the ball good the first few days of the week, but then I suddenly outgrew my club shaft,” Woods said a year later.

His father said they didn’t figure out what happened until the tournament was over.

“He was in a growth cycle, and those teenage muscles just grew overnight,” Earl Woods said.

THE END OF RIVIERA

A beautiful afternoon off Sunset Boulevard turned nasty without warning, and Woods was on his back nine at Riviera without rain gear in 2006. He bogeyed two of his last three holes for a 74 to presumably miss the cut – until three more players dropped shots coming in and Woods made the cut on the number.

He was to be paired Saturday with J.B. Holmes, a big-hitting rookie who had just smashed his way to victory in Phoenix. The next morning, Woods was a no-show. He withdrew because of the flu, and he has not been back to Riviera since.

THE POWER MOVE

It was baking hot in August for the “Showdown at Sherwood” in 1999, a nationally televised exhibition against David Duval, who had returned to No. 1 in the world. Because it was not an official PGA Tour event, the caddies wore shorts.

A PGA Tour rules official ordered them to change into pants. Duval’s caddie complied. Woods’ caddie, Steve Williams, did not. The rules officials made it clear to Williams that if he did not change into trousers, it would be the last time he caddied on the PGA Tour.

Woods, listening to this conversation, interrupted by saying, “Guess I’ll be playing in Europe next year.”

Williams wore shorts. Woods won the match. And it wasn’t long before shorts were approved for caddies on the PGA Tour.

THE WIN

Of the five wins at his World Challenge, none was more meaningful than in 2011. One shot behind with two to play, Woods birdied his last two holes to beat Zach Johnson. It was his first win since his personal life came crashing down, a span of 26 official tournaments over 749 days.

“If he steadily progresses, keeps getting confidence and moving forward,” Jim Furyk said that day, “he’s going to return and be one of the best players in the game again.”

Woods won three times the following year, five times this year. For his swan song at Sherwood, he is No. 1 in the world.

Brandt Snedeker carded a 2-under 70 on Sunday to win the 2013 RBC Canadian Open by three strokes at Glen Abbey Golf Club.

On a breezy day that saw Glen Abbey play much tougher than the previous three rounds, Snedeker held off Dustin Johnson, Matt Kuchar, William McGirt and Jason Bohn who all finished in a tie for second at 13-under par.

Tied with Johnson through 15 holes at 15-under, Snedeker, unaware Johnson had made a triple-bogey on the short par-4 17th, birdied the par-5 16th to lead by three with two holes remaining.

“I had no clue, I don’t look at leaderboard because you can’t control anything anybody else is doing,” Snedeker said following his round. “Coming down 18, it felt like the tension was out of the air. I felt like I had a chance and a pretty cushioned lead to get it done.”

With this win, Snedeker becomes the fourth multiple winner on the PGA TOUR this season and moves to No. 3 in the FedExCup standings.

“This is a tournament I said early on in my career I wanted to win just because my caddie is actually from Canada and it’s his national open,” he said. “It meant a lot to him and it means a lot to me. It’s the third oldest tournament on tour and it has some great history to it and now to put my name on that trophy it means a lot.”

In his 11th appearance at Canada’s National Open Championship, David Hearn of Brantford, Ont., earned low Canadian honours, clinching the Rivermead Cup with a final-round score of 1-over-par 73. Hearn finished T44 at 4-under par 284 for the championship.

Bright’s Grove, Ont.’s Mike Weir finished in a tie for 49th at 3-under 285, while Roger Sloan of Merritt, B.C., finished in a tie for 52nd at 2-under.

The 2014 RBC Canadian Open will be contested July 21-27, 2013 at Royal Montreal Golf Club in Montreal, Que.