Don Ryan Associated Press Mika Miyazato, the Safeway Classic trophy slung over her shoulder, celebrates with supporters.

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Miyazato (Mika) gets first win

Published: Monday, Aug. 20, 2012 - 12:00 am | Page 2C

NORTH PLAINS, Ore. – Mika Miyazato made a name for herself in the Safeway Classic.

Long stuck in fellow Japanese player Ai Miyazato's shadow, Mika Miyazato won her first LPGA Tour title Sunday, finishing with a 2-under-par 70 to beat Brittany Lincicome and Inbee Park by two shots.

Ai Miyazato, a nine-time LPGA Tour winner, ran onto the 18th green to congratulate Mika Miyazato after the breakthrough victory. She is the 11th Japanese player to win on the LPGA Tour and the third to win the event, following Ayaka Okamoto in 1986 and Ai Miyazato in 2010.

"It is very fulfilling for me to win along with those other famous players," Mika Miyazato said.

Miyazato, 22, shared the first-round lead and had a two-shot advantage after the second.

Lincicome closed with a 67, and Park a 70.

Miyazato, in her fourth season on the LPGA Tour, is the sixth first-time winner this year. Since June, she has had six top-10 finishes, including second-place ties in the NW Arkansas Championship and LPGA Championship.

"At the beginning of the season, my short game was no good. I try to work more on short game," Miyazato said. "My golf game is getting better. I have more confidence in my golf game."

PGA Tour in Greensboro, N.C. – It's been four years since Sergio Garcia's last PGA Tour victory. He'll have to wait one more day before he can try to win another.

A downpour at the Wyndham Championship meant another day of uncertainty for Garcia and players on the FedEx Cup playoff bubble.

Garcia had the lead at 15 under through four holes when the final round in the last event before the FedEx Cup playoffs was suspended because of heavy rain.

Tim Clark, Jason Dufner and Bud Cauley were 14 under through varying stages of their rounds, and 38 players – half the field – were still on the course when play was stopped.

The top 125 players on the FedEx Cup points list qualify for the Barclays this week. Heath Slocum, who started the week at No. 128, was at 11 under through 13 holes and was at No. 120 on the projected standings.

Champions Tour in Endicott, N.Y. – Willie Wood won the Dick's Sporting Goods Open, beating Michael Allen with a par on the first hole of a playoff.

Wood made a 35-foot birdie putt on the final hole of regulation to match Allen. Wood closed with a 4-under 68; Allen shot a 66.

Woods earned $270,000 for the victory, his first since he won the 1996 Deposit Guaranty Golf Classic for his lone PGA Tour title.

Throughout the past 16 years, Wood toiled on the Web.com Tour against players half his age.

"I knew that when I turned 50, I would have a new challenge ahead of me," he said.

U.S. Amateur in Cherry Hills Village, Colo. – Steven Fox made an 18-foot birdie putt on the 37th hole, completing a remarkable underdog run with a 1-up win over Michael Weaver.

Fox, 21, from Hendersonville, Tenn., was 2-down with two holes to play before rallying to force the extra hole.

Weaver, from Fresno and a 21-year-old redshirt junior at Cal, was ahead most of the day. When he rattled in a 12-foot birdie putt on the 34th hole, he went 2-up, forcing Fox to win the remaining two holes to stay alive.

"Once he made that, you know, I thought it was over," Fox said. "I thought it was his day. But I just kind of played my hardest to see where it went … and then it kind of switched."

Fox made an 11-foot birdie putt to win the 35th hole. Still with a 1-up advantage, Weaver needed to make a 5-foot par putt on the 36th hole to secure the win, but it lipped out, extending the match.

Fox and Weaver survived a 17-for-14 playoff to qualify for the 64-player match-play field. Fox entered match play as the No. 63 seed. Both players earned spots in the U.S. Open and Masters next year.

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