Westwood triumphs in playoff

MEMPHIS - Lee Westwood won the St. Jude Classic on Sunday for his second career PGA Tour victory, beating Robert Karlsson on the fourth hole of a sudden-death playoff.

The Englishman became the first European to win the tour's third-longest event only after Robert Garrigus blew a 3-stroke lead on the final hole of regulation with a triple bogey. He bogeyed the first playoff hole.

Westwood and Karlsson went par-par-bogey until they returned to No. 18 once again. Westwood stuck his approach 6 feet from the pin on No. 18. Karlsson left his birdie putt from 43 feet away to extend the playoff about a foot short.

Then Westwood, who went 17 straight holes between birdies, rolled in the six-footer for his first PGA win since New Orleans.

Throughout the day, many golfers and caddies had maroon ribbons pinned to their caps in a show of support on what could be the final round for an event that first started in 1958 - unless organizers find a new sponsor.

Elsewhere: Led by 15-year-old Alexis Thompson and 18-year-old Jennifer Johnson, the U.S. Curtis Cup team handily defeated Great Britain and Ireland, 12.5-7.5, in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass., the 36th biennial competition between teams of female amateur golfers.. . . Rain again delayed the LPGA State Farm Classic in Springfield, Ill., forcing officials to push the final round to Monday. Cristie Kerr and Anna Nordqvist shared the lead. . . . Thomas Bjorn ended a four-year title drought by winning the Estoril Open in Portugal by 5 shots. Bjorn's total of 265 was 1 stroke short of the Portuguese record set by Colin Montgomerie in 1989.