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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). Air Max 98 Cheap . 4 Villanova with a 96-68 drubbing on Monday. Wragge hit 9-of-14 from behind the arc, matching Kyle Korvers school record for 3-pointers in a game set in 2003, as Creighton (16-3, 6-1 Big East broke a conference record with 21 treys in the rout. Wholesale Air Max 98 . Sgt. Eric ONeal says most of the arrests at Monday nights game were for public drunkenness, though one person was taken into custody on suspicion of trying to steal a seat from the stadium. http://www.airmax98outlet.com/ . -- Charlie Graham stopped 67 shots as the Belleville Bulls edged the visiting Guelph Storm 6-5 on Saturday in Ontario Hockey League action. Air Max 98 Outlet Online . -- The boos poured down on Tom Brady and the New England Patriots at the end of a horrible first half. Cheap Nike Air Max 98 For Sale . Vettel was 0.168 seconds faster than Red Bull teammate Mark Webber around the Suzuka circuit. Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg was two tenths of a second off Vettel. "The car balance is decent, but I think we can still improve," Vettel said. LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- The play J.P. Macura made with 1.7 seconds left wont show up in any boxscore, and certainly wont appear in any highlight video.But it helped No. 11 Xavier escape and remain unbeaten.Edmond Sumners free throw with 0.3 seconds left in overtime gave the Musketeers an 83-82 win over Missouri in the opening round of the Tire Pros Invitational on Thursday. He was fouled after Xavier inbounded near midcourt, after a heady timeout that Macura called to give his team a chance to set something up at the end.He understands time and score and puts himself in positions to make hustle plays and plays that determine the outcome of a game, Xavier coach Chris Mack said. It doesnt surprise me that he had presence of mind to call timeout that quickly.Sumner was fouled by Missouris Terrence Phillips as both went for the ball along the sideline on the deciding play. He missed the first one short, then rattled in the second for the win.I decided to call timeout because I didnt want us to just fire up a halfcourt shot, Macura said. I thought wed have better chances of making a shot if we got a timeout.He was right, and the Musketeers -- who won a tournament at the Disney complex last year -- are now in the semifinals of this event. Sumner and Macura each scored 19 points for Xavier, which got 13 apiece from Trevon Bluiett and Sean OMara.Frankie Hughes scored 24 points for Missouri (1-1), and Kevin Puryear finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds. Phillips scored seven of his 21 points in overtime for Missouri, which never got off a desperation shot after Sumners deciding free throw.I think he was just being aggressive, Missouri coach Kim Anderson said. Im sure hed love to take it back, but you know what? He made a lot of great plays to get us to where wwe were, so if it wasnt for that it wouldnt come down to that play.ddddddddddddissouri led by 10 in the first half and held the lead most of the second half, but needed to scramble both late in regulation and then from an early five-point deficit in overtime. Missouri went on a 7-0 run late to grab the lead, but Macura made two free throws with 17.8 seconds remaining to tie the game for the 15th and final time.A great basketball game, first of all, Anderson said. I thought our guys did a lot of great things and played one of the top 10 or 15 teams in the country toe-to-toe.BIG PICTUREXavier: It was the second time in three games that the Musketeers were put to the test -- they beat Lehigh 84-81 to open the season last week. ... Xavier missed its last 12 3-pointers, shooting 2 for 22 in the game from long range.Missouri: Hughes is averaging 23.5 points after two games. Only 10 Missouri players have managed to go their entire freshman season averaging more than 10 points. ... The Tigers were outrebounded 52-39.HELLO, AGAINThis is the third straight season that Xavier and Missouri have played.Xavier won 74-58 at Missouri on Dec. 13, 2014, in the start of what was going to be a two-game series, and prevailed again at home 78-66 exactly one year before this meeting -- Nov. 17, 2015.Missouri will be in that position with another non-conference foe later this season, when it meets Arizona for the third consecutive year.UP NEXTXavier: Faces Clemson in the tournament semifinals Friday.Missouri: Faces Davidson in the consolation semifinals Friday.---More AP college basketball: www.collegebasketball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25 ' ' '