INCAgolf All you ever wanted to know about golf (well almost)

Many players came to the Wyndham Championship for a push into the PGA Tour’s playoffs.

Not Arjun Atwal. He was playing for his spot on tour.

Atwal won by a stroke Sunday at Sedgefield Country Club, becoming the first Monday qualifier to win on the tour in 24 years.

After leading or sharing the lead after each of the first three rounds,  Atwal shot a 3-under 67 in the final round. He finished at 20-under 260 and earned $918,000 — or, more than double the amount he previously earned this year, the reason why his future on tour had been in jeopardy.

”I told my caddie, ‘We’ve got nothing to lose this week. Just go out there and try and win it,”’ Atwal said. ”Guys are going to be out there trying to secure their FedEx Cup spots or whatever. We’ve got nothing. I don’t have a card. I don’t have anything. Just go out there and free-wheel it, and that’s what I did this week.”

He’s the first Indian-born player to win on tour and the first to win both the qualifier and the tournament that follows since Fred Wadsworth at the 1986 Southern Open.

SHEBOYGAN, Wisconsin (AP)—Dustin Johnson was knocked out of the playoff at the PGA Championship on Sunday after he was penalized two strokes for grounding his club in a bunker he didn’t even realize existed.

He’d already given one major championship away. He never got a chance to finish this one.

Instead of 71 to join Martin Kaymer and Bubba Watson in the three-hole playoff, he changed his score from a 5 to a 7 and signed for a 73 to tie for fifth. Kaymer won the playoff to collect his first major title.

“I don’t know if I can describe it,” said Johnson, who showered quickly and was on his way to his car before Kaymer and Watson finished their first hole. “If it was up to me, I wouldn’t have thought I was in a bunker. But it’s not up to me.”

http://sports.yahoo.com/golf/pga/news?slug=ap-pga-johnson

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. – Martin Kaymer was barely 4 months old when Bernhard Langer won the first of his two Masters, and yet the age difference is hardly a barrier.

When you are from a country that produces a dearth of golfers, let alone world-class players, you are going to share a bond.

And it can’t get much stronger than it did on Sunday at Whistling Straits, where Kaymer, 25, became just the second German to win a major championship.

Langer, as you would expect, was riveted to his television at home in Florida.

“It would be huge,” Langer said by telephone as he watched Kaymer play the back nine. “It’s very important for Germany. He’s got a great head on his shoulders. He’s still very young, but he is much more mature than his age. He’s got good looks, a great temperament and it would be wonderful for not only if he were to win this major but also to get in the Ryder Cup.’

http://espn.go.com/golf/pgachampionship10/news/story?id=5463627

AKRON, Ohio – Hunter Mahan took a big step toward joining the elite in golf on Sunday, winning his first World Golf Championship title to lock up a spot on the U.S. Ryder Cup team.

Four shots behind to start the final round at Firestone, Mahan ran off five birdies on the front nine to take the lead, then had three clutch par saves down the stretch to finish off a 6-under 64 and a two-shot victory over Ryan Palmer.

It was the second victory this year for Mahan, and the $1.4 million he earned moved him to No. 2 in the Ryder Cup standings with only the PGA Championship remaining before the top eight Americans qualifying.

The battle for No. 1 was far less inspiring.