Florida Sentinel Bulletin

Tiger Woods had a good round working Sunday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational until the final two holes. He was 3-under par and working his way up the leaderboard, but stumbled on 17 and 18.

Woods bogeyed the par-3 17th and double-bogeyed the par-4 18th, knocking his second shot in the water on the latter, to close with a disappointing even-par 72. He finished at 1-under 287 for the tournament at the sun-baked Bay Hill Club and Lodge.

“Very simple,” Woods said, a six-time winner of the event hosted by Arnold Palmer. “I hit three water balls this week and missed a few putts here and there, and I’m not that far behind. Add all that together, you can’t afford to make those mistakes.”

All the top seeds have gone home, all the “smart money” is down the tubes and millions of brackets are in the trash.

Even in the unpredictable world of March Madness, this is a Final Four nobody could have imagined.

Kentucky, Connecticut, Butler and Virginia Commonwealth fill out a Final Four that, by most ways of looking at it, is the most unimaginable in the history of an NCAA tournament that has never lacked surprises.

In one game in Houston on Saturday, No. 4 seed Kentucky will play No. 3 Connecticut. In the other, it will be No. 11 Virginia Commonwealth against No. 8 Butler.

“Seeds are so overrated,” Kansas coach Bill Self said, stating the obvious after his top-seeded team lost 71-61 to VCU on Sunday. “It’s about matchups. And their players could play for us any day.”

Kentucky emerged from the weekend as the new Vegas favorite, at 8-5. VCU is 7-1 – the long shot again, though nowhere near the 2,500-1 pick it was back when the season started.

NCAA Mens Final Four

National Semifinals – VCU vs Butler- Apr. 2, 2011, Saturday, 6:09 PM @ Reliant Stadium, Houston, TX.
Kentucky vs UConn- Apr. 2, 2011 Saturday, 8:49 p.m. @ Reliant Stadium, Houston, TX
National Championship Game Apr. 4, 2011, Monday, TBD @ Reliant Stadium, Houston, TX.

NEW ORLEANS — Florida had a double-digit lead in the second half, was dominating in the low post and slowly suffocating Butler’s second-straight Final Four run.

How it all went wrong will haunt the Gators for a long, long time.

“I don’t really know what to say,’’ Florida guard Kenny Boynton said, his head leaning against his locker and a blank stare on his face. “We didn’t get a few loose balls, we were outrebounded and then just missed some shots. They just wanted it more, I guess. It’s hard to explain.’’

Shelvin Mack scored 27 points, Matt Howard added 14 and Butler came from behind to beat Florida 74-71 in overtime, denying the Gators a third trip to the Final Four in six seasons.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has come up empty in the Final Four.

Like millions of other fans around the country, Obama lost his last Final Four team — and his national champion — when top-seeded Kansas was stunned by Virginia Commonwealth in the Southwest Regional final Sunday.

Obama picked all four No. 1 seeds to reach the Final Four in Houston, but Pittsburgh, Ohio State, Duke and Kansas have all been eliminated during a wild NCAA tournament filled with upsets.

No. 8 seed Butler will play 11th-seeded VCU in one national semifinal Saturday. No. 3 seed Connecticut faces fourth-seeded Kentucky in the other one.

Obama filled out a bracket for ESPN for the third straight year. He is in the 94th percentile out of 5.9 million brackets submitted on ESPN.com

NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Hornets have signed forward Patrick Ewing, Jr. to a 10-day contract.

The move comes a day after the club learned leading scorer David West will be lost for the rest of the season with a torn ligament in his left knee.

Ewing is a former Georgetown standout and the 26-year-old son of Hall of Fame center and current Orlando assistant coach Patrick Ewing.

The younger Ewing is 6-foot-8 and 235 pounds. He has spent much of this season in the NBA Development League with Reno and Sioux Falls. He has averaged 17.7 points and 9.4 rebounds in 49 games.

The Hornets next play Sunday night against the Lakers in Los Angeles.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers picked up an extra 2011 draft pick Friday when the NFL announced compensatory picks for players lost during free agency last year.

Tampa Bay, which lost safety Will Allen and defensive end Jimmy Wilkerson, received a compensatory seventh-round selection, the 237th overall.

The Bucs now have eight picks overall, including one each in rounds one through six and two seventh-round selections.

JUPITER ISLAND — Tiger Woods can spend his two-week break between last weekend’s fourth-place finish in the Australian Masters and the 18-player Chevron World Challenge brushing up on his game, driving, chipping and putting to his heart’s content outside his new $50 million singles pad.

In between, he can do laps in one of his pools or relax in the oxygen therapy room that is part of a personal gym.

The lush island town has stamped the paperwork as completed on the nearly 10,000-square-foot, two-story home at the south end of the town, which means that – if Woods hasn’t already done so – he can now move in.

Woods, who has fallen to No. 2 in the world golf ranking behind Lee Westwood, hasn’t publicly announced his intentions for the 12-acre parcel he retained as part of his highly publicized divorce with ex-wife Elin Nordegren in August.

Nor are town officials commenting on its latest millionaire taxpayer.

Alyse Johnston & Tiger Woods

Alyse Johnston,
Tiger Woods’ New Girlfriend

Tiger Woods apparently has a new girlfriend.

According to the Daily Mail, Tiger has been seeing a 22-year-old student named Alyse Lahti Johnston from Cleveland, Ohio.

The two have reportedly been seeing each other for “a few months” and they “have been spotted on Woods’ yacht.”

Last year, Johnston was arrested on suspicion of DUI in Orlando, Fla.

She is reportedly attending the Ohio-based Northwood University which has a campus in West Palm Beach, Florida – near Tiger’s new $60 million bachelor pad.

Woods Finalizes Returns To Bay Hill, Augusta

Tiger Woods has committed to March’s Arnold Palmer Invitational and April’s Masters Tournament, he announced Wednesday.

Woods is a six-time winner at Bay Hill Club & Lodge, having captured titles in 2000-03 and 2008-09.

In 2008, Woods buried a 25-foot birdie putt on the final hole to edge Bart Bryant by one stroke. In 2009, making only his third start since having undergone reconstructive knee surgery, Woods sunk a 15-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to beat Sean O’Hair by one shot. It equaled his biggest 54-hole comeback on the PGA Tour — five — which he established at the 2000 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Woods has also had great success at Augusta National Golf Club, where he is a four-time champion (1997, 2001-02, ‘05). He also tied for second in 2007 and was solo-second in 2008.

PHILADELPHIA — Penn State, led by 184-pound champion Quentin Wright, won its first NCAA wrestling title in 58 years Saturday night by outpointing Cornell.

The Nittany Lions finished with 107-1/2 points to Cornell’s 93-1/2.

Arizona State’s Anthony Robles, who was born without a right leg, took a 7-1 decision from Iowa sophomore Matt McDonough.

Robles got the only takedown in the first period of the opening match and worked a pair of tilts to secure five back points.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Mike Anderson is returning to Arkansas to become the Razorbacks’ basketball coach.

The school confirmed the move on Wednesday night.

Anderson leaves Missouri after five seasons to return to the school where he was an assistant to Nolan Richardson for 17 seasons. He replaces John Pelphrey, who was fired on March 13.