NAPA, Calif. -- By the end of the opening week of a new PGA Tour season, no one felt more vulnerable than Brendan Steele.Winless since his rookie season five years ago, Steele was confronted with some bad memories of Silverado when he three-putted the 12th hole on Sunday in Safeway Open. It was the same hole where last year he began a sloppy stretch of five bogeys in six holes that sent him to a 76 and cost him a chance to win.He was trying not to make mistakes last year. Now he had to try to make birdies.And he would have to make them with a conventional putter, having never won with anything but the long putter. Steele switched to a short putter when the rule that outlawed the anchored stroke for long putters first was proposed in 2014. He had done fine with it, though he still had doubts he could make putts when they mattered.He made birdie with a great lag on the par-5 16th. He rolled in an 18-footer for birdie on the 17th. And he made a 7-footer on the 18th, his third straight birdie that carried him to a 7-under 65 and -- finally -- another PGA Tour victory when Patton Kizzire faltered and couldnt catch him.Thats really a sweet feeling to know that I can do it under those circumstances, he said.Before long, he was headed to Malaysia, the next stop on a long PGA Tour season that began in Napa Valley just three weeks after it ended in Atlanta.The season-opening tournament that began with promise ended in the rain.This was supposed to be the week where Tiger Woods returned to the PGA Tour for the first time in 14 months. Instead, he mysteriously withdrew just three days after he committed to play, saying his game was vulnerable and not where it needed to be.The opener still had Phil Mickelson, playing a domestic event in the fall for the first time in a decade, and Mickelson still managed to have an influence with a surprisingly large gallery for the dour weather over the last three days.Mickelson ended a third straight year without a victory, though he tried to make it interesting on the back nine with a pitch shot from the mud to 4 feet that offered the promise of a late charge, only to miss the putt and too many other chances.He still tied for eighth, raising his career total over 25 years on the PGA Tour to finishing in the top 10 in one-third of his events.And he had an influence on Steele.Mickelson took Steele and another rookie, Keegan Bradley, under his wing in 2011 and played one of his fabled money games with them at The Players Championship. The stakes werent high -- they were only rookies, so Mickelson set the wager at a mere $50 -- but the idea was to teach them to play to win.Steele already had won a month earlier at the Texas Open, and he shared the 54-hole lead at the PGA Championship later that year in Atlanta, which Bradley wound up winning in a playoff. Steele thinks now early success might have been too much, too soon. So he sought out Mickelson over the last year and asked him for tips on how to play down the stretch. Mickelsons answer was to play to win, and it worked for Steele.He needed some help, typical of most tournaments.Starting the final round four shots behind, he got in the mix and still was two shots behind Kizzire, who looked like a winner when he stuffed his tee shot on the 11th hole to 2 feet for a birdie. Kizzire started missing fairways. The only putts he made were for par. He had birdie chances on the last three holes and missed out with a poor tee shot (No. 16), a poor wedge (No. 17) and a 9-iron that missed the green on No. 18.Kizzire wasnt the only player who left Silverado feeling as though he had let one slip away.Paul Casey, Scott Piercy and Johnson Wagner all had their chances. Wagner finished with eight straight pars. Casey and Piercy dropped shots at the wrong time. Casey had his fourth straight finish in the top 4 dating to the FedEx Cup playoffs.So close, isnt it? Casey said. I mean, I played great. I had another wonderful week.Steele now gets to go back to Augusta National, where he hasnt been since 2012 and started to wonder if he would ever play again.Mickelson headed into a three-month offseason. He wont show up again until the California desert.The question leaving wine country was when anyone would see Woods at a golf tournament. Woods said his next target was the Hero World Challenge the first week of December in the Bahamas, an 18-man field of low expectations and even less stress.Still unanswered is what happened to his game in three days from the time he entered (Friday) until he withdrew (Monday). Grossiste Air Max Belgique . Fred Couples, captain of the U.S. side, put it all into perspective. "We know whos in charge," he said. Air Max Belgique Pas Cher . He was followed closely by David Clarkson, donning red, seconds later. Clarksons actions one night earlier, leaping off the bench in defence of Kessel during a pre-season game against the Buffalo Sabres, will cost him the first 10 games of the regular season. http://www.airmaxbelgique.be/ . Olli Jokinen, Mark Scheifele, and Bryan Little each had a goal and an assist as Winnipeg won 5-2, handing Calgary its record-setting seventh consecutive loss on home ice. Magasin Air Max Belgique . President of baseball operations Larry Beinfest was fired Friday after 12 years with the Marlins. The move came as the team neared the end of its third consecutive last-place season in the NL East. Nike Air Max Pas Cher Belgique .ca looks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable.Mason, OH (Sports Network) - Ninth seed Angelique Kerber of Germany rallied to win her first-round match and American Venus Williams breezed into the second round Monday at the $2.369 million Western & Southern Open tennis event. Kerber, last years finalist, disposed of Italian Karin Knapp, 6-7 (6-8), 6-0, 6-1. Williams, playing in only her second event since a first-round loss at the French Open, carved up a 6-4, 6-1 victory against Slovakian qualifier Jana Cepelova. Williams has been hampered by a low back injury this year, but she moved into round two in a swift 66 minutes. Former U.S. Open champion Samantha Stosur posted a first-round victory. The 11th-seeded Aussie got past former top-five Russian star and fellow former U.S. Open winner Svetlana Kuznetsova, 6-1, 7-5, on the hardcourts at the Lindner Family Tennis Center. Stosur was a hardcourt titlist in Carlsbad, Calif., two weeks ago. Italian Roberta Vinci, the No. 12 seed, ousted American wild card Bethanie Mattek-Sands, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3. Meanwhile, 16th-seeded Russian Maria Kirilenko outlasted Georgian qualifier Anna Tatishvili, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-4). In action involvinng Americans on Day 1, Sloane Stephens held off Croatian qualifier Petra Martic 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, qualifier Vania King topped Frances Kristina Mladenovic 6-3, 6-4, and wild card Lauren Davis surprised Czech veteran Klara Zakopalova 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-1).dddddddddddd Stephens is rewarded with a second-rounder against 2011 champion, 2010 runner-up and former world No. 1 Maria Sharapova, while King will meet former top-ranked star Victoria Azarenka in her next outing. Also advancing were qualifiers Marina Erakovic of New Zealand and Eugenie Bouchard of Canada, Russian Alisa Kleybanova and Romanian Simona Halep, who has won three WTA titles since mid June. Up next for Halep will be Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli. This weeks top seed is last weeks Toronto titlist, Serena Williams, whos also the reigning U.S. and French Open champ. Chinas Li Na beat Kerber in last years Western & Southern finale. Li will meet Davis in the round of 32 here. This weeks winner will earn $426,000. The tournament is part of the U.S. Open Series, or the North American hardcourt events that lead up to the U.S. Open, which will commence August 26. ' ' '
