Michael Brennan wins Wyndham Championship and Joaquin Niemann gets 9th LIV win

Sport

Michael Brennan wins Wyndham Championship and Joaquin Niemann gets 9th LIV win

2026-08-10 09:24 Last Updated At：09:30

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — Michael Brennan made five straight birdies to pull away from Beau Hossler and close with a 6-under 64 to win the Wyndham Championship and reach the PGA Tour’s lucrative postseason.

Brennan came into the final tournament of the regular season at No. 105 in the FedEx Cup. Now his season gets extended by at least one week after his second PGA Tour title in two years. The FedEx Cup playoffs start Thursday with the FedEx St. Jude Championship at the TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee. Only the top 70 players advance, and Brennan shot up to No. 47.

Jackson Koivun, who left Auburn in June and won the 3M Open in only his third start, narrowly hung on to the 70th spot and goes from college to the postseason in only two months.

Brennan made birdie on the final hole to finish at 22-under 258, matching the tournament record at Sedgefield shot three other times, most recently last year by Wake Forest grad Cameron Young.

Ben James, the No. 1 player from the PGA Tour University ranking who has a card already secure for 2027, fell out of contention on Saturday but roared back with a 61 to finish third.

BEDMINSTER, N.J. (AP) — Joaquin Niemann closed with a 2-under 69 Sunday for a three-shot victory in LIV Golf New York, extending his record with his ninth career victory in the last three years.

Jon Rahm shot 76 and tied for 41st, but that still was enough to win the season points title for the third straight time since the two-time major champion joined LIV Golf.

Niemann, who won earlier this year in South Korea, went wire-to-wire at Trump International. He finished at 16-under 268. Harold Varner III caught Niemann until the Chilean pulled away late with a birdie on the 13th and an eagle on the par-5 15th. Varner shot 70 to finish second.

Bryson DeChambeau shot 71 and tied for 38th, 23 shots out of the lead. He cannot catch Rahm with one tournament remaining.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Frankie Harris made an 18-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a 12-under 59 and won the Pinnacle Bank Championship on Sunday with a par on second playoff hole for his first Korn Ferry Tour title in only his sixth start this year.

Harris shot 27 on the back nine of The Club at Indian Creek by making just over 153 feet of putts. Alistair Docherty birdied his last four holes, including a 53-foot putt on the 16th, for a 64 to force a playoff at 22-under 262.

On the 18th for the second playoff hole, Docherty went long of the green, chipped to 6 feet and missed the par putt.

Harris became the fourth player in the last six weeks with a 59. He became the ninth player worldwide to have a sub-60 final round and win the tournament.

OOLTEWAH, Tenn. (AP) — California teen Asterisk Talley picked up her biggest win yet Sunday when she surged past Anna Iwanaga of Japan for an 8-and-6 victory to win the U.S. Women’s Amateur.

The 17-year-old Talley earned her second USGA title before even leaving high school. She also teamed to win the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball in 2024, the same year she was runner-up in the U.S. Women’s Amateur and U.S. Junior Girls.

Iwanaga, who shared the medalist honors during the 36-hole qualifying, won the ninth hole in the morning for a 1-up lead. But that was the last hole Iwanaga won. Talley squared the match with a birdie on the 11th, and she birdied the next two holes and never looked back.

The victory gets Talley into the U.S. Women’s Open next year at Inverness Club in Ohio.

Anna Huang won her fourth Ladies European Tour title when the 17-year-old Canadian closed with an eagle for a 3-under 70 and a two-shot victory over Charley Hull, who four-putted for double bogey on the 17th hole and shot 69. The 17-year-old Huang is the youngest player with four LET wins. ... Mirabel Ting closed with a 5-under 67 and made birdie on the first playoff hole against Rachel Kuehn to win the Smoky Mountain Championship for her first Epson Tour title. ... Christofer Blomstrand closed with a 3-under 68 for a two-shot victory over fellow Swede Adam Wallin in the Scottish Challenge. ... Darren Fichardt of South Africa closed with a 4-under 68 and won the Staysure PGA Seniors Champion by five shots over Mikael Lundberg at Trump International in Aberdeen, Scotland. ... Yuzuki Yoshizawa won the Hokkaido Meiji Cup on the Japan LPGA with a 4-under 68 for a two-shot victory over Kana Nagai. ... Eunsoo Jang closed with a 3-under 69 for a one-shot victory in Jeju Samdasoo Masters on the Korea LPGA.

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

A rare on-field headline in South Korea: Manchester City’s 3-1 comeback over Atlético

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Around 50,000 fans watched Manchester City beat Atlético Madrid 3-1 in a pre-season exhibition game at Seoul World Cup Stadium on Sunday, offering a rare example of soccer making headlines for on-field action here during a scandal-hit summer.

The big transfer news of the period saw South Korea’s star player Lee Kang-in move from Paris Saint-Germain to Atlético Madrid last month in a deal reportedly worth more than $40 million.

Despite Lee’s second-half introduction, he couldn't prevent Manchester City rallying from a goal down to win. Jorge Dominguez put Madrid ahead just before the break but two goals from Omar Marmoush and one from Rayan Ait-Nouri gave the English club the victory.

The match offered a welcome break from the World Cup fallout, which involved police raids and parliamentary hearings. A leaked government audit recently revealed that Korea Football Association (KFA) officials used corporate credit cards in 2011 and 2012 to pay for services at adult entertainment venues for foreign referees.

“We express our sincere apologies for causing concerns over a range of issues, from a parliamentary hearing and an unprecedented police raid to media reports about incidents from more than a decade ago that even members within the federation were unaware of,” the KFA said in a statement Saturday.

Leading soccer pundit Park Moon-sung was unimpressed with the extent of the apology.

“Are match-fixing and sexual services — things so disgraceful that I do not even want to mention them — something that can be brushed aside by saying, ‘Why bring up events from more than a decade ago that we did not know about?’” Park posted on social media

That was the latest controversy. Anger erupted in June after South Korea’s poor World Cup performance, with the Taeguk Warriors losing two of three games and failing to advance from the group stage in the tournament co-hosted by the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

The general reaction was so fierce that police revived a stalled investigation into the appointment of head coach Hong Myung-bo in July 2024. Hong’s appointment had prompted accusations that KFA President Chung Mong-gyu and technical director Lee Lim-saeng failed to follow the organization’s own hiring process.

In July, Hong and Chung, who have both stepped down from their KFA roles, were questioned by lawmakers at the National Assembly about their actions.

A government-backed K-Football Innovation Committee has been established to recommend changes to the governance structure of the national soccer federation. The committee is co-chaired by former Manchester United and South Korea star Park Ji-sung and Ryu Seung-min, president of the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee.

The committee has proposed expanding the electorate for the next KFA presidential election from 300 voters to about 20,000, to include players, coaches, referees and amateur football participants.

While South Korea is currently without a head coach and federation chief, the KFA is hoping to hire a temporary coach ahead of the 2027 Asian Cup which kicks off in Saudi Arabia in January.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer