Steve Stricker wins PGA Tour event, rises to 2nd in world ranking | Golf

LOS ANGELES — Steve Stricker is a man without a major championship. He is 42 years old and seemingly without a defining professional moment, yet when Stricker won the Northern Trust Open on Sunday at Riviera Country Club, he was exhausted, teary and the second-best golfer in the world.

And the best who is actually playing.

Tiger Woods is No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking but has been virtually invisible this year in the wake of a sex scandal.

The computer rates Stricker, humble and unassuming and absolutely unwilling to place his game at any level comparable to Woods, as the best man actually playing competitive golf at this time.

Woods has 13.10 points in the Official World Golf Ranking, Stricker has 7.91 and Phil Mickelson — who dropped one place to third — has 7.63.

If Stricker's final-round score of 1-under-par 70 and his four-day total of 16-under 268 felt more like hanging on than transcendent brilliance, if Stricker admitted he wasn't a good front-runner, unsure of how to protect what had been a six-stroke lead, it was still Stricker standing on the 18th green getting interviewed on television and wiping tears from his eyes after his eighth career victory.

He beat Luke Donald (66) of Britain by two shots and earned $1.152 million.

Tour rookie Alex Prugh (70), a former Washington Huskies player from Spokane, continued his strong play by tying for 10th at 8 under and earning $147,200.

Prugh, 25, entered the tournament with two consecutive top-five finishes.

Seattle native Fred Couples (68) tied for 37th at 3 under and made $26,880. Ryan Moore of Puyallup made the 36-hole cut but failed to make the 54-hole cut after a third-round 75 and earned $11,840.

Mickelson (73), seeking his third consecutive title at Riviera, tied for 45th.

Stricker, who had to finish the last four holes of his third round early Sunday, carried a six-stroke lead into the final round.

"The position I was in, if I don't win the tournament I'm going to be looked upon as the guy that didn't finish it off," Stricker said.

Other tournaments

• Miguel Angel Jimenez of Spain beat Lee Westwood of England with a par on the third playoff hole of the Dubai Desert Classic. Jimenez and Westwood closed with 72s and were at 11-under 277 after 72 holes.

• Jim Herman beat Chris Kirk in an all-American playoff at the Moonah Classic, a Nationwide Tour event in Fingal, Australia. Herman made a 6-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole and earned $126,000. Herman and Kirk closed with 70s and were at 11-under 277 after 72 holes.

Jess Daley, a Kentwood High School graduate, tied for 51st place at 2 over.