It’s Cink From Start to Finish

If anyone had questions about Stewart Cink’s selection to the Ryder Cup team, he answered them with authority Sunday at the NEC Invitational, never letting anyone within two shots and becoming the first wire-to-wire winner this year on the PGA Tour.

The last man to make the U.S. team, Cink was first at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, from start to finish.

He closed with an even-par 70 in a final round where par was a worthy score, ending the day in style with a 15-foot birdie putt that gave him a four-shot victory over Tiger Woods and Rory Sabbatini.

Cink finished at 11-under 269 and earned $1.2 million, the largest payoff of his career.

Woods never had a chance after chipping through the green and into a bunker for bogey on the opening hole. He finished with a birdie for a 69. Sabbatini shot 68, his best finish in a World Golf Championship.

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Catriona Matthew made a short par putt on the first playoff hole to beat defending champion Hee-Won Han and win the Wendy’s Championship for Children at Dublin, Ohio.

Matthew shot a four-under 68 for a 10-under 278 total for her second career LPGA title, and first since 2001. Matthew and Han, playing in the same group, each parred the 18th to force the playoff. Han shot a 72.

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Doug Tewell rolled in a 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to win the Greater Hickory Classic at Conover, N.C., with an eight-under 64. He finished at 14-under 202, one shot ahead of second-round leader Bruce Fleisher, who shot 68.

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Rookie Vaughn Taylor claimed his first PGA Tour victory, rolling in an 11-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole to win a four-way playoff at the Reno-Tahoe Open.

Taylor made a 14-foot birdie putt on the last hole of regulation for a three-over 75 and tied Scott McCarron (71), rookie Hunter Mahan (74) and Steve Allan (74) at 10-under 278.

In the playoff, McCarron missed a 14-foot birdie putt and Mahan failed to convert from 16 feet. Allan’s approach to the 429-yard, par-four 18th was short.

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Ryan Moore won the last four holes to beat Luke List, 2 up, in the 36-hole final of the U.S. Amateur at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y.

The Nevada Las Vegas senior, who won the U.S. Amateur Public Links in July, becomes the fourth golfer to win two USGA championships in the same year, joining Bob Jones and Chick Evans (U.S. Amateur, U.S. Open), Jay Sigel (U.S. Amateur, U.S. Mid-Amateur) and Pearl Sinn (U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links, U.S. Women’s Amateur).

Tennis

Top-seeded Lindsay Davenport won her fourth consecutive WTA championship, defeating second-seeded Vera Zvonareva, 6-3, 6-2, in the Cincinnati Open.

Davenport, ranked fourth, is the first player this year to win four consecutive tournaments, and her five overall is tops on the tour. She has lost three sets in her last 17 matches.

Second-seeded Lleyton Hewitt defeated Gilles Muller, 6-3, 6-4, to win the Legg Mason Classic in Washington to become the fifth player this year with at least three ATP Tour titles. His other victories came in Sydney, Australia, and Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Soccer

Defending champion Arsenal matched a 25-year-old record of 42 league games without a loss in the top tier of English soccer by defeating Middlesbrough, 5-3.

Arsenal, which scored three second-half goals in 11 minutes, went unbeaten last season in 38 Premier League games. The latest victory equaled a record set by Nottingham Forest in the 1977-78 and 1978-79 seasons.

Pro Football

The Jacksonville Jaguars released defensive end Tony Brackens because the team’s all-time sack leader struggled this exhibition season with the latest in a string of leg injuries. Brackens, 29, had been on the sidelines since Aug. 10 because of a strained muscle in back of his right knee.

Free-agent running back Dorsey Levens will return to the Philadelphia Eagles and replace the injured Correll Buckhalter, Levens’ agent said.... Carolina Panther defensive end Kavika Pittman will sit out the season after tearing a ligament in his left knee, the same injury that sidelined him most of last season.