Sabbatini stays focused

Tiger Woods wasn't even playing in the Air Canada Championship in Surrey, British Colombia, on Sunday, but he still managed to overshadow the eventual winner, Rory Sabbatini, who birdied the last hole to take his first USPGA Tour title.

The reason? Woods confirmed his participation in this week's Canada Open, the first time since 1997 - when he missed the cut for the first time in his professional career. Within a day of Woods confirming his late entry, tickets for the final round were sold out as the Canadians played their part in the Tigermania phenomenon.

All of which failed to affect the 24-year-old Sabbatini, who went about his own business and sank a 30-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a one-stroke victory over New Zealand's Grant Waite, who had started the round with a one-shot advantage.

Sabbatini, a native of South Africa but living in Tucson, closed with a six-under-par 65 for a 16-under-par total of 268. It gave him the winner's cheque for $540,000. "I limited my mistakes and kept myself in the game," remarked Sabbatini. "I kept it solid and kept focusing on what I was trying to do." Sabbatini eagled the fourth hole on his way to a front-nine 33 and performed a complete turnaround on fortunes in recent weeks which had seen him miss the cut in three of his previous five tournaments.

Spain's Sergio Garcia finished in tied-fourth place after finished with a 69, which included three birdies in the final seven holes. "Unfortunately, I didn't play very well on the front nine," said Garcia. "I came back strong on the back nine, hit a lot of good shots and had a couple of really good putts."

Meanwhile, Christy O'Connor Jnr finished in tied-10th place - alongside Lanny Wadkins - in the Foremost Insurance Championship at Egypt Valley, Michigan. O'Connor trailed winner Larry Nelson by 11 shots but still picked up $27,500 in prizemoney to move to 51st place in the US Seniors Tour moneylist with season's earnings of $276,009.