McILROY AND TIGER COULD MEET IN TURKISH FINAL THIS WEEK

FROM THE BBC SPORTS WEBSITE
Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods are set to face each other at this week's Turkish Airlines World Golf Final.

World No 1 McIlroy and 14-time major winner Woods, the World No 2, have been drawn in the same group.
It means the world's top two players will play each other at least once in the new £3.2m eight-man event.
Charl Schwartzel and Matt Kuchar complete Group One, with Lee Westwood, Justin Rose, Hunter Mahan and US Open champion Webb Simpson in Group Two.

Head-to-head matches will be played in a medal match-play format, with the lowest strokeplay score over 18 holes winning a point.

The winner of Group One will face the runner-up of Group Two, and vice versa, in Thursday's semi-finals with two players contesting a £935,000 first prize in Friday's final.
McIlroy and Woods will not face each other until the final game on Wednesday, by which time they could already be through to the semi-finals.
"It's something I am looking forward to," said McIlroy. "Tiger has been a hero of mine growing up so to compete against him is a dream come true.
"This will be the first match we have had head-to-head and it's a match I would really like to win."
The 23-year-old, who almost missed the start of his Ryder Cup singles match after a time mix-up at Medinah, added: "I haven't touched a club since the Ryder Cup so I am going to get to the course a little early tomorrow [Tuesday] to hit a few balls and see if it's still there.
"And I will make sure I am in the right time zone."
Woods, meanwhile, admits he apologised to the four rookies on the US Ryder Cup team for not winning a single point in his three team matches as the home side squandered a 10-6 lead going into the singles to lose 13½-14½ .
"Stricks [Steve Stricker] and I went out there and tried to earn points for the team and didn't do that and it was frustrating," said Woods, who has won 15 and lost 17 of his 35 Ryder Cup matches.
"We had a four-point lead and we went 0-3. If we could have earned a couple of points it would have been a pretty good lead going into Sunday's singles."
The World Golf Final is not an official event on either the European or US PGA Tours.

REPORT SAYS TIGER APOLOGISED TO RYDER CUP ROOKIES FOR LETTING THEM DOWN

FROM THE GOLFWEEK WEBSITE
The night the U.S. Ryder Cup team lost in dramatic fashion to the European squad at Medinah Country Club, Tiger Woods sat down with the U.S. rookies and apologiSed, according to a broadcast report.
GolfWorld magazine's Tim Rosaforte told The Golf Channel's "Morning Drive" program today that after the 14½-13½ European victory, Woods gathered the four U.S. Ryder Cup rookies -- Keegan Bradley, Jason Dufner, Webb Simpson and Brandt Snedeker -- and personally apologised for not getting the points needed to clinch a U.S. victory. 
The Europeans tied the greatest Ryder Cup comeback with a 14½-13½ victory, which was sealed by Martin Kaymer's 6ft putt.
Woods went 0-3-1 in the 39th Ryder Cup and owns a career 13-17-3 record. Despite his poor overall record at Medinah, Woods did have some impressive stretches, including a seven-birdie performance during a Friday afternoon four-ball match with Steve Stricker. 
That U.S. pairing lost one down to Lee Westwood and Nicolas Colsaerts, who had eight birdies and an eagle in the victory.
The U.S. had led the European team 10-6 before falling apart.
Woods has played on seven Ryder Cup teams, but was part of only one American victory, the come-from-behind triumph at Brookline in 1999.
As a whole, the American rookies were impressive: Bradley (3-1-0), Dufner (3-1-0), Snedeker (1-2-0) and Simpson (2-2-0) compiled a 9-6-0 combined record.

STEVEN O'HARA NEEDS TO STEP UP A GEAR TO KEEP EUROPEAN TOUR CARD

FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR 

Steven O’Hara is hoping a return to the country where he claimed his best finish on The European Tour last year will give him a timely boost as he chases a successful week at the inaugural D+D Real Czech Challenge Open.

The Motherwell man has divided his time between The European Tour and Challenge Tour this season after taking the fifth card on offer at last year’s Qualifying School Final Stage.

But the 32 year old has not made a big enough impact on either tour to guarantee a stay on the top
tier for next year, and now needs some improved performances in the next two weeks if he is to force his way into the top 45 of the Challenge Tour Rankings, and so earn a place in the lucrative season-ending Apulia San Domenico Grand Final.
O’Hara finished tied fifth at the Czech Open last year, after a third round 65 gave him a share of the lead going into the final day alongside eventual winner Oliver Fisher, and he will be hoping those good memories will spur him on this week at Kunetická Hora GC, in Drítec.
“I had a good tournament in the Czech Republic last year up until the last four or five holes and I kind of let it slip a bit,” said O’Hara.
 “But I have good memories of that tournament. The weather was perfect and the greens were nice and I putted solidly for the main part, which was good.
“I don’t know what the course is like for this week, but I hope it suits me and the greens are not too severe.
“I made some unforced errors last week in Lyon, just a lack of concentration, and without those errors my game is good so hopefully I can have a good week.”
O'Hara, who gained a European Tour card via the Challenge Tour in 2008 thanks to a ninth place finish in the Rankings, is not too downbeat about his season so far despite not producing his best form.
If he cannot force his way into the reckoning for a Challenge Tour top 20 finish, O’Hara is still keen to have some positive form entering the Qualifying School, having performed so well at PGA Catalunya Resort last time out.
“I have actually hit the ball well all year, but my short game has really let me down,” he said.
“I’ve been working hard on it and I haven’t had the improvements yet that I would’ve liked to have seen, but I feel like it’s getting better and you just have to be patient because you just never know what’s around the corner.
“I was hoping for a good tournament last week in France and I played okay, but I shot two over in the third round and it should have been a couple under at worse. I had a good final round though, and hopefully that will continue into this week.
“If you get into the Grand Final and win it you have a great chance of a card for The European Tour, but if not I’ll go back to the Qualifying School. I’ve been there before and know what it takes to get through, so it’s not the end of the world.”
With the Apulia San Domenico Grand Final just two weeks away, the stakes are high for many of the players in the Czech Republic this week and a strong field gathers at Kunetická Hora GC, which was designed by 14-time European Tour winner Graham Marsh.
The last time the Challenge Tour visited the Czech Republic was in 2008, when Englishman Seve Benson – this year’s Barclays Kenya Open champion – won the Ypsilon Golf Challenge presented by Alex Cejka.
Benson is one player in need of a strong finish to the season if he is to earn a return to The European Tour next year, having slipped to 30th in the Rankings.
There will be 11 Challenge Tour winnerS from the 2012 season in attendance, including the winner of last week’s ALLIANZ Open de Lyon, Chris Doak.

HENDERSON AND KELLY SHARE HALFWAY LEAD AT THE DUKE'S

Scott Henderson and Chris Kelly are disputing the lead at the halfway stage of the final event on the 2012 Tartan Tour, the Optical Express Scottish PGA 36-hole tournament over The Duke's Course, St Andrews. They both shot four-under-par 68s. Each player had five birdies, Henderson (36-32)  at the fifth, long 11th, 12th , 14th and 17th, Kelly (35-33) at the first, seventh, 11th, 14th and 15th. They are a shot ahead of Neil Fenwick (Dunbar) 34-35), Alan Lockhart (Ladybank) 35-34 and Christopher Currie (Caldwell) 35-34. Greig Hutcheon (Banchory), already winner of the Scottish PGA Order of Merit, looks out of it as far as the Optical Express Order of Merit is concerned. He had a 75 after being three over par on the third tee - a double bogey at the first and another shot shed at the second. FIRST ROUND SCORES Par 71 68 S Henderson (Kings Links), C Kelly (Cawder). 69 N Fenwick (Dunbar), A Lockhart (Ladybank), C Currie (Caldwell). 70 M King (Kingsfield), G Cowan (Westerhope), E Wood (Crow Wood). 71 J McKinnon (Irvine), P McKechnie (Braid Hills), D Patrick (Elie SC). 72 M Kerr (unatt). 73 S Gray (Hayston), K Hutton (Downfield), G Brown (Montrose Links), C Ronald (Carluke), D Orr (Mearns Castle), G Wright (West Linton) 74 J McGhee (Duddingston), Shaun McAllister (Craigie), M Isaacs (Paul Lawrie Golf Centre) 75 G Hutcheon (Banchory), P Wardell (Whitekirk), J Findlay (Paul Lawrie Golf Centre), Stephen McAllister (Renaissance Club). 76 A Oldcorn (Kings Acre), E Saltman (Archerfield Links), S Taylor (Bothwell Castle), G McBain (Gamola Golf), Heather MacRae (Gleneagles), C Matheson (Falkirk Tryst). 77 J McCreadie (Buchanan Castle), K Nicol (Fraserburgh), L Kelly (Prodream USA), A McIntyre (Ranfurly Castle) 78 J Lomas (unatt), S Reekie (Blairgowrie), D Laing (Craigielaw), D Wood (Hirsel). 79 R Cameron (Saltire Energy), C McCalman (Turnhouse). 81 E Walker (Burntisland), I Brown (Newent), S Young (Turnhouse). 83 N Colquhoun (Merchants of Edinburgh). 86 G McSporran (Kinross) 88 M Loftus (Mearns Castle), R Scarafile (Eastwood). 89 K McNiven (Gleneages). ends

STEWART SHARES LEAD IN SAUDI ARABIA

Duncan Stewart, pictured above, from Grantown on Spey is a long way from home this week - in Saudi Arabia to be precise - but his good form on the PGA EuroPro Tour is continuing. He shot a four-under-par 68 to share the lead with England's William Harrold, like Stewart a former US college circuit player, and Pakistan's Shafiz Masih, a former teaching pro at the Dirab Golf and Country Club venue for this week's MENA Tour event, the American Express Dirab Championship. "The pins were in some quicky tricky places so I'm very happy to come with a 68 from the first round," said Stewart who had a birdie at the eighth and an eagle at the ninth. Gavin Dear (Murrayshall) had a 73, Tom Drummond a 74 and Greg Nicolson (Mortonhall) a 75. AMERICAN EXPRESS DIRAB CHAMPIONSHIP Dirab Golf and Country Club, Saudi Arabia LEADING FIRST ROUND SCORES Par 72 68 D Stewart (Sco), W Harrold (Eng), S Masih (Pak) 69 Z Scotland (Eng), A El Malki (Pak) (am) SELECTED SCORES 71 D Owen (Eng), Y Ali (Eng), I Keenan (Eng), D Marmion (Eng) 72 B Lee (Wal), J Housby (Eng) 73 G Dear (Sco), C Smith (Wal), J Westwood (Eng0, P Walker (Eng) 74 T Buchanan (Sco), R Dixon (Eng). 75 T Marshall (Eng), M Barrett (Eng), G Nicolson (Sco), D Wardrop (Eng).

PHILIP McLEAN NOW ONE OF PRO FAVOURITES FOR SCOTTISH ALLIANCE CHAMPIONSHIP

Jordan Findlay, winner of the first professional prize in the Scottish Golfers Alliance championship for the past two years, is not in the field for this year's 54-hole event which tees off tomorrow (Tuesday) at Monifieth and Arbroath.
He is playing in the Optical Express Tartan Tour event at The Duke's, as is another possible winner from Fraserburgh, Kris Nicol.
Come to think of it, many Tartan Tour pros who normally play in the Scottish Alliance championship, such as Paul McKechnie, have opted, not surprisingly, to play in the Optical Express event in which the prizemoney is far greater.
As Jordan Findlay says: "It's disappointing to have to miss the Scottish Alliance championship but I can't be in two places at the same time."
A third North-east rookie pro, Philip McLean (Paul Lawrie Golf Centre) is now one of the favourites for the first pro prize of £1,000.
Entries are being accepted up from amateurs and professionals right up to the last tee off time.
Tournament secretary Ed Sherry can be contacted at 01333 329605 and Lee Sutherland at 01382 532945.
Lee Sutherland can also be E-mailed at:
leesutherland@btconnect.com
Failing that late entries can be made at Monifieth Golf Club, the headquarters for the tournament, tomorrow up to the last tee time.

LANGER'S BIRDIE-BIRDIE FINISH WINS HIM SAS CHAMPIONSHIP

CARY, North Carolina (AP) -- Bernhard Langer rallied to win the US Champions Tour's SAS Championship on Sunday to take the lead in the Charles Schwab Cup points race, shooting a 9-under 63 to beat Jay Don Blake by two strokes

SAS CHAMPIONSHIP

Results, money
Sunday notebook
Langer's closing 63
Charles Schwab Cup
Standings: Langer No. 1
 

Four shots back entering the final round, Langer birdied the final two holes to finish at 13-under 203 at Prestonwood Country Club. The German star has two victories this year and 16 overall on the 50-and-over tour.
"I knew I had to go deeper and lower to make up some ground," Langer said. "And thank goodness ... it was 9 under because Jay Don came very close to tie me.
"So a lot of good golf, probably only two bad shots and everything else was good or really good."
Blake closed with a 68. He needed a birdie on the par-4 18th to force a playoff, but hit a tree with his drive and bogeyed the hole. Mark Wiebe also shot 68 to finish third at 10 under.
"Probably the rhythm that I was in wasn't very good because I was just making pars; Bernhard was making all the birdies," Blake said. "You just feel like you have to be more aggressive. But sometimes being aggressive doesn't always work out. Trying to be too aggressive on 18 kind of hurt me."
Langer's last victory came at the 3M Championship in Minnesota, in which he rallied from six strokes down with a 10-under 62 on the final day.
Langer took a 69-point lead over Tom Lehman in the points race for a $1 million annuity. Lehman did not play this week. The bogey-free 63 was the best final round by a winner in the history of the tournament.
Langer, who earned $315,000 and leads the Champions Tour money list with $1,818,896, had 11 one-putts during his round, including five of his last six holes.
"This week was pretty neat to have won from being four behind and played the round that I played today to take over the Schwab Cup lead, to take over the money list, leading in the money list," Langer said. "Those are big goals of mine that I set at the beginning of the year, and obviously it's not done, but I'm a little closer to maybe achieving it."
The start of play was delayed 90 minutes because of rain.