PALM HARBOR, Fla. (AP) — Viktor Hovland found a swing that worked down the tough closing stretch at Innisbrook on Sunday, making three late birdies to rally past Justin Thomas with a 4-under 67 for a one-shot victory in the Valspar Championship.
Hovland has changed coaches five times since he last won at East Lake to capture the FedEx Cup in 2023. He won for the seventh time on the PGA Tour when he least expected it.
Hovland and Thomas finally separated from the pack during a final round so tight that nine players had at least a share of the lead at some point.
Hovland was three shots behind Thomas when he holed a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-5 14th to start his amazing run. He hit 7-iron to a tucked pin on the 16th to 5 feet for birdie, and then made a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th for the lead.
Thomas, who made four birdies in a five-hole stretch to take the lead, made bogey on two of the last three holes and shot 66.
MACAU, China (AP) — Carlos Ortiz of Mexico made two early birdies and pulled away Sunday for a 6-under 64 and a three-shot victory over Patrick Reed in the International Series Macau, his second Asian Tour title since joining LIV Golf.
Ortiz, Reed and Jason Kokrak — all with LIV Golf — were the top three players and earned spots in the British Open this summer. It will be the first major for Ortiz in two years.
Sergio Garcia finished fourth, one shot away from getting one of the International Finals Qualifying exemptions to the British Open.
Ortiz, who has one victory on LIV Golf, also won the International Series Oman a year ago. He finished at 22-under 258 at Macau Golf and Country Club and earned $360,000.
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Miguel Angel Jimenez became the first multiple winner on the PGA Tour Champions this year when he chipped to within a foot for birdie on the par-5 18th for a 4-under 67 and a one-shot victory in the Hoag Classic.
The 61-year-old Jimenez also won the Trophy Hassan II in Morocco in February.
This one came down to the wire. Jimenez and Freddie Jacobsen were tied at 14-under par, with Stewart Cink having just birdied the 18th hole ahead of them for a 65 to join them.
Jacobsen missed well to the right and was unable to get up-and-down for birdie. Jimenez came up just short of the green, leaving him a simple chip that he executed perfectly. Jacobsen missed his 25-foot birdie putt and shot 67 to share second place with Cink.
Fred Couples, who started the final round tied for the lead with Jimenez, only managed one birdie and shot 71 to tie for eighth, four shots behind.
SINGAPORE (AP) — Richard Mansell of England claimed his first European title Sunday when he two-putted from about 100 feet for birdie on the 18th hole for a 6-under 66 and a one-shot victory in the Porsche Singapore Classic.
Mansell, who started the final round one shot behind, ran off five straight birdies on the front nine to take the lead. His final birdie gave him the title over Keita Nakajima of Japan, who closed with a 65.
The tournament was reduced to 54 holes because of rain that washed out play on Thursday.
Tom McKibbin of Northern Ireland, who gave up a PGA Tour card this year to join LIV Golf, had a 68 and tied for third with Adrien Saddier of France, who also shot 68.
Quim Vidal of Spain closed with a 1-under 71 and defeated Joshua Berry with a birdie on the third playoff hole to win the Delhi Challenge for his fifth title on Europe’s Challenge tour. ... Mimi Rhodes of England won her first Ladies European Tour title with a 2-under 69 for a two-shot victory over Kirsten Rudgeley of Australia in the Ford Women’s NSW Open. ... James Conran closed with a 7-under 65 for a one-shot victory in the Heritage Classic on the PGA Tour of Australasia. ... George Coetzee shot 3-under 69 and won The Serengeti Playoffs by three shots over Daniel van Tonder on the Sunshine Tour of South Africa.
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Viktor Hovland, of Norway, reacts as he hold the trophy after winning the Valspar Championship golf tournament Sunday, March 23, 2025, at Innisbrook in Palm Harbor, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court refused Wednesday to lift an order barring the Trump administration from deporting Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under an 18th century wartime law.
A split three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit wouldn't block a March 15 order temporarily prohibiting deportations under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
Invoking the law for the first time since World War II, President Donald Trump’s administration deported hundreds of people under a presidential proclamation calling the Tren de Aragua gang an invading force.
The Justice Department appealed after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg blocked more deportations and ordered planeloads of Venezuelan immigrants to return to the U.S. That did not happen.
Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of five Venezuelan noncitizens who were being held in Texas.
The case has become a flashpoint amid escalating tension between the White House and the federal courts.
Judges Karen LeCraft Henderson and Patricia Millett voted to reject the government’s request to lift the order. Each wrote concurring opinions. Judge Justin Walker, a Trump nominee, wrote a dissenting opinion.
Millett, who was nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama, said Boasberg's order merely froze the status quo “until weighty and unprecedented legal issues can be addressed” through an upcoming hearing.
“There is neither jurisdiction nor reason for this court to interfere at this very preliminary stage or to allow the government to singlehandedly moot the Plaintiffs’ claims by immediately removing them beyond the reach of their lawyers or the court.”
Henderson, who was nominated by Republican President George H.W. Bush, said the court's ruling doesn't prevent the government from arresting and detaining migrants under Trump's proclamation.
“Lifting the injunctions risks exiling plaintiffs to a land that is not their country of origin,” she wrote. "Indeed, at oral argument before this Court, the government in no uncertain terms conveyed that — were the injunction lifted — it would immediately begin deporting plaintiffs without notice."
Walker said the plaintiffs' claims belong in Texas, where they are detained.
“The Government has also shown that the district court’s orders threaten irreparable harm to delicate negotiations with foreign powers on matters concerning national security,” he wrote.
Democracy Forward president and CEO Skye Perryman, whose legal advocacy group also represents the plaintiffs, said Wednesday's ruling is “an important step for due process and the protection of the American people.”
“President Trump is bound by the laws of this nation, and those laws do not permit him to use wartime powers when the United States is not at war and has not been invaded to remove individuals from the country with no process at all,” Perryman said in a statement.
Boasberg, the chief judge of the federal district court in Washington, has vowed to determine whether the government defied his order to turn planes around. The administration has invoked a “state secrets privilege” and refused to give Boasberg any additional information about the deportations.
Trump and his allies have called for impeaching Boasberg. In a rare statement, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said that “impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.”
The Alien Enemies Act allows noncitizens to be deported without the opportunity for a hearing before an immigration or federal court judge.
Boasberg ruled that immigrants facing deportation must get an opportunity to challenge their designations as alleged gang members. His ruling said there is “a strong public interest in preventing the mistaken deportation of people based on categories they have no right to challenge.”
People hold a banner that reads in Spanish, "Migrating is not a crime; sanctioning a people is," at a government-organized march to protest the deportation from the U.S. of alleged members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, who were transferred to an El Salvador prison, in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
In this photo provided by El Salvador's presidential press office, prison guards transfer deportees from the U.S., alleged to be Venezuelan gang members, to the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (El Salvador presidential press office via AP)
