Harman has heavy heart as family friend who saved his young son from drowning remains in a coma

Former British Open champion Brian Harman ends his season with a heavy heart as a close family friend remains in a coma from a near drowning while trying to save the golfer's 6-year-old son.

Harman had gone to the Macao Open last month when his wife took their children and family friend Cathy Dowdy to Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, for a vacation. He said his son was on a boogie board when he was ripped out to sea by a rip current.

He said Dowdy went into the ocean after the child and couldn’t reach him when she began to struggle in the abnormally strong current. Harman said another man, Crane Cantrell, saw what was happening and went in to help.

“He makes it out fine, Cathy (is) injured really badly in the water,” Harman said Tuesday at the RSM Classic. “She’s been in a coma for going on six weeks now and so obviously our world down here was kind of turned on its head.”

The St. Johns Citizen reported a lifeguard pulled Dowdy from the water and performed life-saving measures until medical help arrived.

Harman was asked about his offseason, the new eligibility on the PGA Tour, even the five steps of making sausage. He brought up Dowdy at the end of his news conference, mainly to bring awareness and to ask for prayers.

“I don’t really know what I wanted to kind of say other than I wanted to use whatever platform I have to bring awareness to what Cathy did, what Crane did,” Harman said. “They disregarded themselves, went into the water, saved my son and how do you thank people like that? I don’t know other than to just say what you think.

“I think that bravery and doing something like that for people who aren’t your blood is just the most beautiful thing you can do in this life.”

Sergio Garcia has taken the first step toward taking part in another Ryder Cup.

Garcia, among the original players to bolt for Saudi-funded LIV Golf, resigned from the European tour when a British tribunal ruled the tour had the right to issue fines and suspensions. Garcia did not pay his fines and was not eligible for tour events.

Wanting one more crack, especially with close friend Luke Donald at the helm again as European captain, Garcia beat the Sunday deadline to apply for membership for 2025.

“He has paid his fines but will have to serve his suspensions before he can play on the DP World Tour,” a tour spokesman said.

Garcia still has top status from winning the Masters in 2017.

The Spaniard would match Lee Westwood and Bernhard Langer for most Ryder Cups if he gets on his 11th team. Rejoining the tour was a start. Now Garcia, who turns 45 in January, has to deliver on the course.

He tied for 12th in the U.S. Open this year. His only top 10 outside of LIV Golf was a tie for fifth in Oman in early 2023.

Nelly Korda won another major, tied an LPGA record by winning five straight starts and already has clinched her first award as LPGA player of the year.

What's left at the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship? A chance to break Lorena Ochoa's record for most earnings in a season set in 2007.

Korda, coming off her seventh win, has earned $4,164,430, leaving her $200,565 away from breaking Ochoa's record. That would require finishing fifth or better at Tiburon Golf Club.

Then again, everyone in the 60-player field can break Ochoa's mark. CME has provided an $11 million purse, with $4 million going to the winner.

Lydia Ko nearly broke the mark two years ago, coming up short by $591.

Ochoa won the season finale in 2007 for her eighth win of the year, including a major. First place at the Tour Championship was a mere $1 million. Total prize money for the year was just over $54 million, about half of what it is now.

The divided landscape in golf will be evident again next month.

The Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas on Dec. 5-8 has a 20-man field that features Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay, Tony Finau, Ludvig Aberg and Wyndham Clark.

The same week is the Saudi International with a field that includes Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Tyrrell Hatton, Cameron Smith, Joaquin Niemann and Patrick Reed. They are among 19 players from LIV Golf expected to play.

Of course, the year ends with a made-for-TV match in Las Vegas — Scheffler and Rory McIlroy against Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau, a battle between the PGA Tour and LIV.

LIV Golf has only announced nine tournaments on its 2025 schedule, but any hope by Jon Rahm and Cameron Smith of a better tune-up for the British Open will have to wait.

For the second straight year, LIV will be at Valderrama in Spain a week before going to Royal Portrush.

Smith missed the cut this year at Royal Troon as the defending champion.

“It was really two polar opposites of golf,” Smith told News.com in Australia. “It was really hot (in Spain), the ball was going a long way up in altitude, and then getting on to links where it’s quite cold and windy, it’s probably not the best prep.”

Smith wasn’t sure that could change for 2025 but “in the future it’s something that we want to do.”

Rahm tied for seventh at Troon, eight shots out of the lead.

“I didn’t think about it until after (the Open), but it’s undeniable how much it helps to play a links golf course the week before the Open,” Rahm told Golf Digest.

He said he realized just moving an event could be complicated, but he at least wanted to rally the other LIV golfers.

Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand withdrew from The Annika last week. That made her ineligible to win the Vare Trophy for the lowest scoring average because she would not have enough rounds. Thitikul did not start her LPGA season until April because of a thumb injury.

The upside: She locked up the Aon Risk Reward Challenge, which comes with a $1 million bonus.

The program identifies one hole per tournament that involves risk, typically a reachable par 5. Scores are kept throughout the year, and Thitikul beat out Ruoning Yin. The Thai was 27-under par on the Aon risk-reward holes she played.

She is the fifth winner of the award.

Edoardo Molinari, an assistant Ryder Cup captain who played in the 2010 matches, led 21 players who made it through Q-school to earn a European tour card. Also earning a card was British Amateur champion Jacob Skov Olesen of Denmark. ... Kevin Kisner tied for 29th at the Bermuda Championship, his best result since a tie for 29th two years ago in the RSM Classic at Sea Island. ... Jason Day is playing the Australian PGA Championship this week, his first competition since the Presidents Cup at the end of September.

In the last two weeks, Cameron Smith tied for third in the Queensland PGA Championship and tied for second in the New South Wales Open on the PGA Tour of Australasia. After each finish, he dropped one spot in the world ranking.

“Best week of my life.” — Rafael Campos, who at 36 won his first PGA Tour title just six days after his wife gave birth to their first child.

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

Nelly Korda, right, acknowledges the crowd after winning the LPGA Annika golf tournament at Pelican Golf Club, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024, in Belleair, Fla. (AP Photo/Steve Nesius)

Nelly Korda holds the championship trophy after winning the the LPGA Annika golf tournament at Pelican Golf Club, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024, in Belleair, Fla. (AP Photo/Steve Nesius)

FILE - Team Europe's Sergio Garcia reacts after missing a putt on the 11th hole during a Ryder Cup singles match at the Whistling Straits Golf Course Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021, in Sheboygan, Wis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)

FILE - Brian Harman hits off the second tee during the third round of the BMW Championship golf event at Castle Pines Golf Club, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024, in Castle Rock, Colo. (AP Photo/Matt York, FIle)

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil ’s federal police arrested Tuesday five officers accused of plotting a coup that included plans to overthrow the government following the 2022 elections and kill then-President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, authorities said.

The five also planned to kill Lula's running mate, Geraldo Alckmin, and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The arrested included four special operations military personnel, one of whom is a retired brigadier general, and a federal police officer.

The police said they also carried out three search warrants along with other measures, including seizing the suspects' passports and preventing them from contacting others. It was not clear when charges would be officially raised against the five suspects.

“The objective was to prevent the inauguration of the legitimately elected government and undermine the free exercise of democracy and the authority of Brazil’s judiciary,” de Moraes, who authorized the arrests, said of the plot in his order.

“These actions, peaking between November and December 2022, were part of a broader plan to carry out a coup d’état,” he added.

Lula returned as Brazil’s president for a third, non-consecutive term after narrowly defeating far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in October 2022. Bolsonaro, who frequently cast doubt on the election results without providing evidence and never conceded, left for the United States days before Lula’s January 2023 inauguration.

In the aftermath of the elections, die-hard Bolsonaro supporters staged nationwide protests challenging the results, closing highways and camping outside military installations. That culminated in a Jan. 8, 2023 uprising, when thousands of demonstrators stormed government buildings in the capital of Brasilia a week after Lula’s inauguration, seeking to oust him from power.

Retired Brig. Gen. Mário Fernandes, one of the officers arrested Tuesday, played a key role in linking these pro-Bolsonaro protest camps to Bolsonaro's Cabinet, according to details of the investigation that were included in the judge’s order and that were seen by The Associated Press.

Fernandes served as interim general secretary in Bolsonaro’s Cabinet from October 2020 until the end of his term. Police said they found evidence that he outlined a plan to kill de Moraes, Lula and Alckmin and visited the protest camps outside military installations, including at the army headquarters in Brasilia. According to the police, there's evidence that Fernandes gave instructions and financial support to the protesters.

Fernandes' plan, according to the document, also considered different scenarios — such as using explosives or poison at an official event — to assassinate the judge.

Bolsonaro had long railed against the Supreme Court, focusing his ire on de Moraes. The former president's supporters consider de Moraes their chief enemy.

The judge led a five-year probe into fake news and threats against Supreme Court justices, which has led to the ban of some far-right allies and supporters from social media and even some prison terms.

De Moraes also presided over the nation’s top electoral court when it ruled Bolsonaro ineligible for office until 2030, finding that he had abused his power and cast unfounded doubts on the validity of the 2022 election result.

Bolsonaro is also being investigated for a slew of potential crimes, including whether he was involved in inciting the capital uprising to oust his successor.

Fernandes’ plan also described a scenario of poisoning Lula. The federal police officer arrested Tuesday, Wladimir Matos Soares, allegedly provided the other military coup plotters with information about Lula’s security.

The document Tuesday contained no indication that any attempt to carry out an assassination on Lula or Alckmin was put into motion. However, investigators found messages and documents indicating that the plotters were monitoring and following de Moraes at the time.

Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro, the former president’s son, appeared to seize on that, saying no assassination attempt actually took place and claimed that “as repugnant as it is to think about killing someone, it’s not a crime.”

However, Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes told local TV network Globonews on Tuesday afternoon that the alleged actions went beyond just plotting and that they were in the process of implementation.

A document that police previously seized from another arrested military officer, Lt. Col. Hélio Ferreira Lima, detailed a plan to overthrow the elected government, including orchestrating a probe into alleged election fraud and calling for new elections with a presidential decree backed by Congress.

Investigators had previously found another document outlining a so-called Crisis Cabinet of 11 military personnel and headed by two high-ranking generals from Bolsonaro's administration, who would assume power after an attempted coup.

Police have also found evidence that some of these documents were printed inside the presidential palace during Bolsonaro's term and that part of the plan was discussed at the residence of his running mate, former defense minister Gen. Braga Walter Braga Netto.

In March, two top Brazilian military leaders told police that Bolsonaro had presented them a plan for him to remain in power after losing the 2022 election. However, both refused to take part in the plan and warned Bolsonaro they would arrest him if he tried it, according to judicial documents released earlier this year.

Lula was informed of the arrests on Tuesday morning, according to media reports, as he was hosting the final day of the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro where the Brazilian leader was to meet President Joe Biden and others. Lula made no mention of the arrests during his opening speech at the summit.

The army later said none of the arrested suspects were involved in providing security for the G20 but declined further comment the ongoing investigation.

Last Wednesday, a man set off an explosion outside the Supreme Court in Brasilia, which de Moraes described as a consequence of frequent far-right attacks and hate speech targeting the country’s institutions.

Federal police are investigating the blast as terrorism, according to the force's director, Andrei Passos Rodrigues.

President Joe Biden and Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva meet at the G20 Leader's Summit at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, Pool)

President Joe Biden and Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva meet at the G20 Leader's Summit at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, Pool)

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left, and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi shake hands during a bilateral meeting at the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)