Ernie Els Wins British Open, Adam Scott Collapses Late

Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images(LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England) -- Ernie Els celebrated the 10th anniversary of his last British Open win in a playoff this weekend and capped it off with another major championship at Royal Lytham.  Adam Scott entered Sunday with a four stroke lead but bogeyed the last four holes and gave Els his fourth major championship for his career.

Els birdied the 18th hole for a 2-under 68, and then walked over to the putting green hoping he'd have a chance to get into another playoff for the title, just like 2002, but Scott made sure that would not happen.

"I'm a little numb at the moment," said Els, who started the final round six shots behind. "First of all, I feel for Adam Scott. He's a great friend of mind. Obviously, we both wanted to win very badly. But you know, that's the nature of the beast. That's why we're out here. You win, you lose.  It was my time for some reason."

Scott was seeking his first major championship.

"I had it in my hands with four to go," Scott said. "I managed to hit a poor shot on each of the closing four holes. Look, I played so beautifully for most of the week. I shouldn't let this bring me down."

Brandt Snedeker finished tied for third with Tiger Woods both finishing 3-under.

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British Open Round Three Recap

Stuart Franklin/Getty Images(LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England) -- Adam Scott will finally get a chance to get that long awaited major championship on Sunday.  Scott went 2-under 68 that gave him a four-shot lead entering the final round at Royal Lytham & St. Annes on Sunday.

 "A four-shot lead doesn't seem to be very much this year on any golf tournament that I've watched," Scott said. "That doesn't mean a lot. The good part is if I play a solid round of golf tomorrow, it will be very hard for the others to beat me, and that's all I'm thinking about."

As for Tiger Woods, he is five-shots behind Scott after his 70 on Saturday.

 "Considering that I got off to such a bad start, I figured if I could get to 1-over par or even for the day through the turn, that would have been a positive going to the back nine," Woods said. "I actually happened to turn at 1 under for the day, which was a bonus."

Brandt Snedeker posted a 73 after shooting a 64 on Friday and sits in a tie with Graeme McDowell for second four-shots back of Scott.

"I still have a chance," Snedeker said. "This course is not playing easy. I showed that today. If you don't keep the ball in play, you're going to struggle, and I did not do that today. So you never know what might happen."

Zach Johnson and Ernie Els are both six-shots back sitting in fifth.

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British Open Round Two Recap

Harry How/Getty Images(LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England) --  Round two of the British Open is in the books.  Brandt Snedeker cruised into the weekend with a 64 on Friday and is atop the leaderboard.

The 31-year-old Snedeker never made the cut in this major, but he will be playing this weekend.

"I'm sure everybody in this room is in about as much shock as I am right now," Snedeker said. "My mantra all week has been to get the ball on the greens as fast as possible. Once I'm on there, I have a pretty good hand on the speed of the greens. I'm just going to try and keep doing that over the weekend."

His round shooting 6-under 64 left him tied with Nick Faldo for the lowest 36-hole score in Open history.  One stroke behind Snedeker is Adam Scott, who shot a 67.

"I was good today, again a bit of a shaky start, there were tough holes early" said Scott.  "I got a little nervous after 11 and made a birdie and starting moving up the leaderboard a little bit."

Tiger Woods finished strong again in third with another round of 67.

"I was executing my game plan, I had a plan in which I thought would be effective on this golf course and I've executed it so far," Woods said who survived being in the bunker on 18.

Followed by Woods is Jason Dufner, Graeme McDowell, Matt Kuchar, and Paul Lawrie headed into the weekend.

Phil Mickelson, the runner-up last year in the tournament will have to watch the rest from home.  Mickelson shot three double-bogeys and finished with a 78.

"I really don't know what to say," Mickelson said after his worst Open round since 2008. "I obviously played terrible."

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British Open Round One Recap

Stuart Franklin/Getty Images(LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England) -- Adam Scott leads after the first round of the British Open Championship and almost broke a major championship scoring record before settling for a 64.

"It's nice just to take advantage of the calm conditions today," Scott said. "It was surprising but very pleasing to go out and play some solid golf. It's what I haven't done the first rounds of the majors this year, and that was my goal here, really, starting the week was to play today like it was Sunday and there was no tomorrow."

Tiger Woods shot a 67 and is tied for sixth along with seven others, including Graeme McDowell, Bubba Watson, Ernie Els, Steve Stricker, and Rory McIlroy.

"I felt like I played well today," he said. "I really hit it well. And as I said, I was very close on making a few more putts. Every ball was starting right on my line," Woods said. "I was very pleased with that. I've just got to hit the putts a little harder."

Zach Johnson, Paul Lawrie, and Nicholas Colsaerts trail Scott by one stroke.  Phil Mickelson will have some work to do on Friday; he shot a 73.

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Webb Simpson Wins 2012 U.S. Open

Stuart Franklin/Getty Images(SAN FRANCISCO) -- Webb Simpson has won the 2012 U.S. Open, defeating Graeme McDowell.

McDowell had a chance to tie Simpson and extend the U.S. Open to Monday with a playoff but at the 72nd hole he missed a birdie to give Simpson the 112th U.S. Open at The Olympic Club.

McDowell tied with Michael Thompson at 2 over.

Jim Furyk was also in the running but was unable to find a birdie all Sunday long and found the bunker on his final hole, finishing at 3 over.

Tiger Woods was seeking his 15th career major but was not a factor finishing his final-round 3-over 73 leaving him at 8 over for the tournament.

"That first six, I just didn’t play well at all," Woods said. "I just could never get anything going positively and I missed the ball in the wrong side a couple times and that’s all it takes."

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Americans Lead 13-9 Heading Into Final Round At Melbourne

(MELBOURNE, Australia) -- The American team built up a commanding lead after three rounds at Royal Melbourne on Saturday morning during the foursomes matches. 

Tiger Woods finally recorded a point and the team now leads 13-9 heading into the final round on Sunday.

The temperature dropped but did not stop the Americans from rallying past the International team who captured the final two matches on Saturday.

"We do have a very nice lead but in reality we needed those two points really bad and they got them for us," said team captain Fred Couples. "This team was rallying and playing some great golf in that junk but our guys somehow won the last two groups."

The rally came when Hunter Mahan holed a 20-foot birdie putt on the 17th right after Jason Day knocked in an even bigger birdie putt, this gave the team of Mahan and Bill Haas the win.

Following that was Jim Furyk who finished off the day with a clutch bunker shot on the 16th hole. His teammate, Nick Watney provided a par on the final hole and that ko'ed Adam Scott and Ernie Els, giving the Americans a 1-up decision.

The final round will consist of 12 singles matches on Sunday.

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