Americans win Presidents Cup for 10th straight time; Hidalgo outlasts Rahm in Spain

MONTREAL (AP) — Xander Schauffele ran off four straight birdies to lead an onslaught of red scores on the board Sunday and the Americans made the outcome as inevitable as it usually is, winning the Presidents Cup for the 10th straight time.

Sam Burns completed an unbeaten week, Russell Henley capped off his impressive debut in the Presidents Cup with a win and Keegan Bradley — the Ryder Cup captain next year — delivered the deciding point when Si Woo Kim missed a 10-foot putt putt on the 18th hole.

Max Homa finished the scoring with his first point of the week, a 2-and-1 victory over Mackenzie Hughes that made it 18 1/2-11 1/2, the largest margin of victory for the Americans away from home, even if was just north of the border at Royal Montreal.

The Internationals needed everything to go right at Royal Montreal. All they could manage was a good fight, more tight matches, but still no cup.

Their only victory since these matches for players from everywhere but Europe came in 1998 at Royal Melbourne, so long ago that Tiger Woods was making his Presidents Cup debut. The U.S. winning streak dates to 2005.

The Americans made a winner out of captain Jim Furyk, who was at the helm in France five years ago when they lost to Europe in the Ryder Cup.

Furyk sent out Schauffele in the opening match against Jason Day, and the Californian made five birdies in eight holes to seize control early. It ended on the 15th hole.

MADRID (AP) — Ángel Hidalgo birdied the second playoff hole to defeat Jon Rahm and win the Spanish Open for his first European tour victory in a battle between Spaniards.

The 26-year-old Hidalgo had missed a short birdie putt at the same 18th hole for a 1-under 70. That allowed Rahm into the playoff and gave the two-time major champion a shot at becoming the first player to win four Spanish Open titles.

Rahm birdied the final two holes at the Club de Campo Villa de Madrid for a 68.

They both made birdie on the reachable par-4 18th on the first extra hole. Returning to the 18th for the third time, Rahm hit a poor chip over the green and Hidalgo put it close and made the birdie for his first European title.

Rahm won the LIV individual title and was back in Europe to try to reach the minimum of four European tour starts required to be considered for the Ryder Cup next year. He is being allowed to play after appealing the European tour sanctions against him for playing the LIV circuit.

ROGERS, Ark. (AP) — Jasmine Suwannapura made a 12-foot eagle putt on the second hole of a playoff with Lucy Li to win the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship.

Suwannapura — playing in the group behind Li — also eagled the par-5 18th in regulation to force the playoff at Pinnacle Country Club. They each birdied the 18th on the first extra hole.

Suwannapura shot a career-best 10-under 61, playing the back nine in 7-under 28, to match Li at 17-under 196. Tied for 25th entering the day, Li shot a tournament-record and career-best 60, making her third eagle of the round on 18.

Suwannapura won her third LPGA Tour title, playing the last 22 holes without a bogey. The 31-year-old Thai player jumped into husband-caddie Michael Thomas’ arms after the winning putt.

Li, the 21-year-old American who played in the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open at age 11, missed a chance for her first LPGA Tour victory.

Sei Young Kim was a stroke back after a 63. She also eagled.

Takahiro Hataji won for the second time in four months on the Japan Golf Tour when he closed with a 6-under 65 for a one-shot victory over Takumi Kanaya in the Vantelin Tokai Classic. ... Suteepat Prateeptienchai of Thailand completed a wire-to-wire victory in the Yeangder TPC when he closed with a 3-under 69 to win by two shots over John Catlin for his second title in as many years on the Asian Tour. ... Rio Takeda closed with a 2-under 70 for a two-shot victory over Akie Iwai in the Japan Women’s Open, one of the majors on the Japan LPGA. ... Euan Walker of Scotland shot a bogey-free 66 for a three-shot victory in the Swiss Challenge in France. The Challenge Tour event was shortened to 36 holes because of a flooded golf course. ... Chiara Tamburlini of Switzerland won her second Ladies European Tour title when she closed with an even-par 71 and beat Kirsten Rudgeley of Australia in a playoff in France. ... Da Som Ma had seven birdies on the back nine for an 11-under 61 that led to a nine-shot victory over Ina Yoon in the Hana Financial Group Championship on the Korea LPGA. Minjee Lee finished third, 10 shots behind. Lydia Ko, coming off an LPGA win last week in Cincinnati, shot 67 and finished 10th.

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Jasmine Suwannapura, of Thailand, celebrates with her trophy after winning the LPGA Walmart NW Arkansas Championship golf tournament, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Rogers, Ark. (AP Photo/Michael Woods)

Jasmine Suwannapura, of Thailand, celebrates with her caddie and husband Mike Thomas after winning the LPGA Walmart NW Arkansas Championship golf tournament, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Rogers, Ark. (AP Photo/Michael Woods)

United States team member Xander Schauffele, right, celebrates with caddie Austin Kaiser, left, following the U.S. win over the International Team at the Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal Golf Club in Montreal, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press via AP)

United States team captain Jim Furyk hoists the Presidents Cup after winning at Royal Montreal Golf Club, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Montreal. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

United States team member Keegan Bradley celebrates with teammates after winning the Presidents Cup golf tournament at Royal Montreal Golf Club, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Montreal. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

United States team member Keegan Bradley reacts after a putt on the 18th green during a fifth-round singles match at the Presidents Cup golf tournament at Royal Montreal Golf Club, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Montreal. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press via AP)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kris Kristofferson, a Rhodes scholar with a deft writing style and rough charisma who became a country music superstar and an A-list Hollywood actor, has died.

Kristofferson died at his home on Maui, Hawaii on Saturday, family spokeswoman Ebie McFarland said in an email. He was 88.

McFarland said Kristofferson died peacefully, surrounded by his family. No cause was given. He was 88.

Starting in the late 1960s, the Brownsville, Texas native wrote such country and rock ‘n’ roll standards as “Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down,” “Help Me Make it Through the Night,” "For the Good Times" and "Me and Bobby McGee." Kristofferson was a singer himself, but many of his songs were best known as performed by others, whether Ray Price crooning “For the Good Times” or Janis Joplin belting out “Me and Bobby McGee.”

He starred opposite Ellen Burstyn in director Martin Scorsese's 1974 film “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” starred opposite Barbra Streisand in the 1976 “A Star Is Born,” and acted alongside Wesley Snipes in Marvel’s “Blade” in 1998.

Kristofferson, who could recite William Blake from memory, wove intricate folk music lyrics about loneliness and tender romance into popular country music. With his long hair and bell-bottomed slacks and counterculture songs influenced by Bob Dylan, he represented a new breed of country songwriters along with such peers as Willie Nelson, John Prine and Tom T. Hall.

"There's no better songwriter alive than Kris Kristofferson," Nelson said at a 2009 BMI award ceremony for Kristofferson. “Everything he writes is a standard and we're all just going to have to live with that.”

Kristofferson retired from performing and recording in 2021, making only occasional guest appearances on stage, including a performance with Cash's daughter Rosanne at Nelson's 90th birthday celebration at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in 2023. The two sang “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again),” a song that was a hit for Kristofferson and a longtime live staple for Nelson, another great interpreter of his work.

Nelson and Kristofferson would join forces with Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings to create the country supergroup “The Highwaymen” starting in the mid-1980s.

Kristofferson was a Golden Gloves boxer, rugby star and football player in college; received a master’s degree in English from Merton College at the University of Oxford in England; and flew helicopters as a captain in the U.S. Army but turned down an appointment to teach at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, to pursue songwriting in Nashville. Hoping to break into the industry, he worked as a part-time janitor at Columbia Records’ Music Row studio in 1966 when Dylan recorded tracks for the seminal “Blonde on Blonde” double album.

At times, the legend of Kristofferson was larger than real life. Cash liked to tell a mostly exaggerated story of how Kristofferson landed a helicopter on Cash’s lawn to give him a tape of “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” with a beer in one hand. Over the years in interviews, Kristofferson said with all respect to Cash, while he did land a helicopter at Cash’s house, the Man in Black wasn’t even home at the time, the demo tape was a song that no one ever actually cut and he certainly couldn’t fly a helicopter holding a beer.

In a 2006 interview with The Associated Press, he said he might not have had a career without Cash.

“Shaking his hand when I was still in the Army backstage at the Grand Ole Opry was the moment I’d decided I’d come back,” Kristofferson said. “It was electric. He kind of took me under his wing before he cut any of my songs. He cut my first record that was record of the year. He put me on stage the first time.”

One of his most recorded songs, “Me and Bobby McGee,” was written based on a recommendation from Monument Records founder Fred Foster. Foster had a song title in his head called “Me and Bobby McKee,” named after a female secretary in his building. Kristofferson said in an interview in the magazine, “Performing Songwriter,” that he was inspired to write the lyrics about a man and woman on the road together after watching the Frederico Fellini film, “La Strada.”

Joplin, who had a close relationship with Kristofferson, changed the lyrics to make Bobby McGee a man and cut her version just days before she died in 1970 from a drug overdose. The recording became a posthumous No. 1 hit for Joplin.

Hits that Kristofferson recorded include “Watch Closely Now,” “Desperados Waiting for a Train,” “A Song I’d Like to Sing” and “Jesus Was a Capricorn.”

In 1973, he married fellow songwriter Rita Coolidge and together they had a successful duet career that earned them two Grammy awards. They divorced in 1980.

The formation of the Highwaymen, with Nelson, Cash and Jennings, was another pivotal point in his career as a performer.

“I think I was different from the other guys in that I came in it as a fan of all of them,” Kristofferson told the AP in 2005. “I had a respect for them when I was still in the Army. When I went to Nashville they were like major heroes of mine because they were people who took the music seriously. To be not only recorded by them but to be friends with them and to work side by side was just a little unreal. It was like seeing your face on Mount Rushmore.”

The group put out just three albums between 1985 and 1995. Jennings died in 2002 and Cash died a year later. Kristofferson said in 2005 that there was some talk about reforming the group with other artists, such as George Jones or Hank Williams Jr., but Kristofferson said it wouldn’t have been the same.

“When I look back now — I know I hear Willie say it was the best time of his life,” Kristofferson said in 2005. “For me, I wish I was more aware how short of a time it would be. It was several years, but it was still like the blink of an eye. I wish I would have cherished each moment.”

Among the four, only Nelson is now alive.

Kristofferson's sharp-tongued political lyrics sometimes hurt his popularity, especially in the late 1980s. His 1989 album, “Third World Warrior” was focused on Central America and what United States policy had wrought there, but critics and fans weren’t excited about the overtly political songs.

He said during a 1995 interview with the AP he remembered a woman complaining about one of the songs that began with killing babies in the name of freedom.

“And I said, ‘Well, what made you mad — the fact that I was saying it or the fact that we’re doing it? To me, they were getting mad at me ’cause I was telling them what was going on.”

As the son of an Air Force General, he enlisted in the Army in the 1960s because it was expected of him.

“I was in ROTC in college, and it was just taken for granted in my family that I’d do my service,” he said in a 2006 AP interview. “From my background and the generation I came up in, honor and serving your country were just taken for granted. So, later, when you come to question some of the things being done in your name, it was particularly painful.”

Hollywood may have saved his music career. He still got exposure through his film and television appearances even when he couldn’t afford to tour with a full band.

Kristofferson’s first role was in Dennis Hopper’s “The Last Movie,” in 1971.

He had a fondness for Westerns, and would use his gravelly voice to play attractive, stoic leading men. He was Burstyn's ruggedly handsome love interest in “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” and a tragic rock star in a rocky relationship with Streisand in “A Star Is Born,” a role echoed by Bradley Cooper in the 2018 remake.

He was the young title outlaw in director Sam Peckinpah’s 1973 “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid," a truck driver for the same director in 1978’s “Convoy," and a corrupt sheriff in director John Sayles' 1996, “Lone Star.” He also starred in one of Hollywood biggest financial flops, “Heaven’s Gate,” a 1980 Western that ran tens of millions of dollars over budget.

And in a rare appearance in a superhero movie, he played the mentor of Snipes' vampire hunter in “Blade.”

He described in a 2006 AP interview how he got his first acting gigs when he performed in Los Angeles.

“It just happened that my first professional gig was at the Troubadour in L.A. opening for Linda Rondstadt,” Kristofferson said. “Robert Hilburn (Los Angeles Times music critic) wrote a fantastic review and the concert was held over for a week,” Kristofferson said. “There were a bunch of movie people coming in there, and I started getting film offers with no experience. Of course, I had no experience performing either.”

Hall reported from Nashville. AP National Writer Hillel Italie contributed to this report.

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Rosanne Cash.

FILE - Producer Jon Peters, from left, Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson appear at a preview of the film, "A Star is Born," in Dec. 23, 1976, in New York. Kristofferson, a Rhodes scholar with a deft writing style and rough charisma who became a country music superstar and A-list Hollywood actor, has died Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Suzanne Vlamis, File)

FILE - Kris Kristofferson poses for a portrait in Nashville, Tenn., Aug. 15, 1995. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

FILE - Country stars Johnny Cash, left and Kris Kristofferson sing during the Country Music Awards in Nashville, Tenn., Oct. 1983. Kristofferson, a Rhodes scholar with a deft writing style and rough charisma who became a country music superstar and A-list Hollywood actor, has died Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Kris Kristofferson performs in concert at The American Music Theatre, April 12, 2019, in Lancaster, Pa. (Photo by Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - Kris Kristofferson performs on stage in August 1973. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Kris Kristofferson performs at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, June 13, 2010, in Manchester, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

FILE - Actor Kris Kristofferson walks down the red carpet during the premiere for his new movie "Dreamer," Oct. 9, 2005, in the Westwood section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ric Francis, File)