Mahan wins, becomes top-ranked American player

Hunter Mahan shot 1-under-par 71 Sunday to win the Houston Open, edging Carl Pettersson by one stroke.

Mahan, 29, who won the Match Play Championship in February, is the first two-time champion on the PGA Tour this year. He has six top-25 finishes in seven starts for the season and the victory moved Mahan up to No. 4 in the world rankings, the first time he's been the highest-ranked American.

"That's a pretty surreal thing to think about," said Mahan, who finished 16 under with a 272 total for four rounds. "It shows me what I can do, shows me what I'm capable of. It's easy to let your mind run wild and get down on yourself. That's what I used to do. I'm trying to pump myself up more and just believe in myself."

Phil Mickelson (71) tied at 12 under with three others. Ernie Els finished 10 under and fell short in his bid to earn an automatic invitation to the Masters, the year's first major, which begins Thursday. Els needed a victory to avoid missing Augusta for the first time since 1993.

The Masters could offer a special invitation to Els, but he said he'd decline an invitation. "To go through all of this, and then get an invite, I wouldn't take it," he said. "They can keep it."

First major for Yoo

With a major championship resting on a 1-foot putt, I.K. Kim lived every golfer's nightmare. She had done the unthinkable. She had missed the unmissable.

A few minutes later, the Kraft Nabisco Championship was in a playoff -- and with an improbable second chance to win, Sun Young Yoo didn't flinch.

Yoo won the LPGA Tour's first major of the season at Mission Hills in Rancho Mirage, Calif., with an 18-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole, earning her first major title after Kim's mind-boggling miss on a tap-in on the final hole of regulation.

"I played straight, and it actually just broke to the right, even that short putt," Kim, 23, said. "So it was unfortunate on 18, but . . . I feel good about my game. It's getting better."

After tapping in for a bogey that dropped her into a tie with Yoo, Kim raised both hands to her ears as she left the green, staring down blankly at the bridge while walking to the scorers' tent. The playoff ended four strokes later, with Yoo confidently seizing her second career LPGA Tour victory.

"On the playoff hole, it's just hard to kind of focus on what's going on right now," Kim said. "Because I was still a little bit bummed [about] what happened on 18, honestly."

"I thought I had no chance," Yoo said. "I thought I.K. was going to make the putt, but it didn't happen."

Kim and Yoo shot 3-under 69s for 9-under 279 totals for four rounds. Top-ranked Yani Tseng finished third at 8 under with a disappointing final-round 73.

Tseng was one stroke back on the 18th fairway when Kim missed her 1-footer. "I feel so bad for her," Tseng said. "I wish she had made it."

Olesen holds off Wood

Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark shot a 69 to win the Sicilian Open by one shot, holding off England's Chris Wood, who equaled the course record with an 8-under 64. Olesen, 22, finished with a four-round total of 15-under 273 at Verdura Golf and Spa Resort in Sciacca for his first career victory on the European Tour.-- AP