Sports in Brief | Long layoff no bother as Woods rolls

Tiger Woods

won the final golf tournament of the year yesterday, closing with a 4-under 68 to match the tournament record at the Target World Challenge in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

He also set a record for the largest margin of victory, by 7 shots over Masters champion

Zach Johnson

.

Woods had not played since Sept. 30 at the Presidents Cup, but he didn't show much rust in winning his tournament for the fourth time at Sherwood Country Club and becoming the first player to win in consecutive years.

"Doesn't help us, does it?"

Colin Montgomerie

said of Woods' long break. "If he took a bloody year off, it would help. Never mind 10 weeks."

The only challenge came from

Jim Furyk

, who got within 2 shots after nine holes. Woods finished at 22-under 266, tying the tournament record set by

Davis Love III

in 2000.

James Kingston

shot a 1-under 71 to beat

Oliver Wilson

by 1 stroke at the South African Open in Paarl.

The South African finished at 4-under 284 overall at the Pearl Valley Golf Estates course.

Annika Sorenstam

won the Dubai Ladies Masters by 2 strokes over Denmark's

Iben Tinning

and England's

Laura Davies

in her first victory since she won the same event in 2006 in the United Arab Emirates.

The Swede closed with a 2-under 70 to finish at 10-under 278 at the season-ending tournament of the Ladies European Tour.

Craig Parry

made a 15-foot par putt on the 17th hole to shoot a 3-under 69 for a 1-stroke victory over

Brandt Snedeker

,

Lee Won-joon

and

Nick O'Hern

in the Australian Open in Sydney at the Australian Golf Club.

Zack Schilawski

scored the winning goal in his return to his hometown, lifting Wake Forest to a 2-1 soccer win over Ohio State in the NCAA College Cup championship in Cary, N.C.

Schilawski snapped a 1-1 tie in the 77th minute to help the No. 2 Demon Deacons (22-2-2) win their first NCAA men's soccer title in school history. The Buckeyes finished at 17-4-5.

Third-seeded Penn State (34-2) got 26 kills from tournament MVP

Megan Hodge

and 19 from

Nicole Fawcett

to upset top-ranked Stanford, 30-25, 30-26, 23-30, 19-30, 15-8, for the NCAA women's volleyball title late Saturday night in Sacramento, Calif. The Cardinal finished at 32-3.

Junior guard

Eric Devendorf

of Syracuse will miss the rest of the season after suffering a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.

Alex Rodriguez

denied using performance-enhancing drugs, telling CBS's

60 Minutes

in an interview aired last night that he has never felt as if he needed them to compete.

The Yankees slugger also said he isn't sure he's worth his record $275 million, 10-year contract, and described being "white like a ghost" when news of his opting out of his deal with New York broke during Game 4 of the World Series.

Rodriguez's interview was aired just three days after

George Mitchell's

report on performance-enhancing drugs in baseball was released.

Jose Canseco

, the former Oakland slugger who was one of the first to admit using steroids, said he couldn't believe Rodriguez wasn't included in the former Senate majority leader's findings.

The 32-year-old Rodriguez won his third AL Most Valuable Player award last month after hitting .314 with 54 home runs and 156 RBIs.

Former Phillies star

Lenny Dykstra

, who was named last week in the Mitchell Report as someone who received steroids, has invested $3 million so far in a new magazine, The Players Club. The publication is designed to help professional athletes manage and invest their millions.

Oakland Athletics righthander

Chad Gaudin

, 24, will have surgery tomorrow in his hometown of New Orleans to repair a torn labrum in his left hip. He also will have a bone removed from his right foot on the same day.

Gaudin went 11-13 with a 4.42 ERA in 34 starts last season.

Australian

Danny Green

scored a unanimous decision over

Stipe Drews

for the Croatian's WBA light-heavyweight title in Perth, Australia.

Green (25-3, 22 KOs) had Drews backpedaling for much of the 12-round fight. The judges' cards had Green in front by 118-111, 118-110 and 120-108. Drews is 32-2 with 13 KOs.

The Arena Bowl, held in New Orleans last summer as part of the Arena Football League's efforts to help the city recover from Hurricane Katrina, will return next summer.

German speedskater

Jenny Wolf

broke her world record in the women's 100 meters with a time of 10.22 seconds at a World Cup race in Erfurt, Germany. Her previous mark was 10.28, set in Calgary, Alberta, on March 4.

Kikkan Randall

became the first U.S. woman and second American to win a World Cup cross-country race when she defeated world sprint champion

Astrid Jacobsen

of Norway in the final meters of a 1.2-kilometer freestyle in Demino, Russia. She is the first American to win a World Cup cross-country race since

Bill Koch

in 1983.