NAPA, Calif. -- By the end of the opening week of a new PGA Tour season, no one felt more vulnerable than Brendan Steele.Winless since his rookie season five years ago, Steele was confronted with some bad memories of Silverado when he three-putted the 12th hole on Sunday in Safeway Open. It was the same hole where last year he began a sloppy stretch of five bogeys in six holes that sent him to a 76 and cost him a chance to win.He was trying not to make mistakes last year. Now he had to try to make birdies.And he would have to make them with a conventional putter, having never won with anything but the long putter. Steele switched to a short putter when the rule that outlawed the anchored stroke for long putters first was proposed in 2014. He had done fine with it, though he still had doubts he could make putts when they mattered.He made birdie with a great lag on the par-5 16th. He rolled in an 18-footer for birdie on the 17th. And he made a 7-footer on the 18th, his third straight birdie that carried him to a 7-under 65 and -- finally -- another PGA Tour victory when Patton Kizzire faltered and couldnt catch him.Thats really a sweet feeling to know that I can do it under those circumstances, he said.Before long, he was headed to Malaysia, the next stop on a long PGA Tour season that began in Napa Valley just three weeks after it ended in Atlanta.The season-opening tournament that began with promise ended in the rain.This was supposed to be the week where Tiger Woods returned to the PGA Tour for the first time in 14 months. Instead, he mysteriously withdrew just three days after he committed to play, saying his game was vulnerable and not where it needed to be.The opener still had Phil Mickelson, playing a domestic event in the fall for the first time in a decade, and Mickelson still managed to have an influence with a surprisingly large gallery for the dour weather over the last three days.Mickelson ended a third straight year without a victory, though he tried to make it interesting on the back nine with a pitch shot from the mud to 4 feet that offered the promise of a late charge, only to miss the putt and too many other chances.He still tied for eighth, raising his career total over 25 years on the PGA Tour to finishing in the top 10 in one-third of his events.And he had an influence on Steele.Mickelson took Steele and another rookie, Keegan Bradley, under his wing in 2011 and played one of his fabled money games with them at The Players Championship. The stakes werent high -- they were only rookies, so Mickelson set the wager at a mere $50 -- but the idea was to teach them to play to win.Steele already had won a month earlier at the Texas Open, and he shared the 54-hole lead at the PGA Championship later that year in Atlanta, which Bradley wound up winning in a playoff. Steele thinks now early success might have been too much, too soon. So he sought out Mickelson over the last year and asked him for tips on how to play down the stretch. Mickelsons answer was to play to win, and it worked for Steele.He needed some help, typical of most tournaments.Starting the final round four shots behind, he got in the mix and still was two shots behind Kizzire, who looked like a winner when he stuffed his tee shot on the 11th hole to 2 feet for a birdie. Kizzire started missing fairways. The only putts he made were for par. He had birdie chances on the last three holes and missed out with a poor tee shot (No. 16), a poor wedge (No. 17) and a 9-iron that missed the green on No. 18.Kizzire wasnt the only player who left Silverado feeling as though he had let one slip away.Paul Casey, Scott Piercy and Johnson Wagner all had their chances. Wagner finished with eight straight pars. Casey and Piercy dropped shots at the wrong time. Casey had his fourth straight finish in the top 4 dating to the FedEx Cup playoffs.So close, isnt it? Casey said. I mean, I played great. I had another wonderful week.Steele now gets to go back to Augusta National, where he hasnt been since 2012 and started to wonder if he would ever play again.Mickelson headed into a three-month offseason. He wont show up again until the California desert.The question leaving wine country was when anyone would see Woods at a golf tournament. Woods said his next target was the Hero World Challenge the first week of December in the Bahamas, an 18-man field of low expectations and even less stress.Still unanswered is what happened to his game in three days from the time he entered (Friday) until he withdrew (Monday). Wholesale Custom Sharks Shirts . The FA rejected Wilsheres appeal that the length of his punishment was "clearly excessive" and said Thursday his suspension begins with immediate effect. He will miss league matches against Chelsea on Monday and West Ham on Dec. Custom Sharks Jerseys . - Blake Griffin had 30 points and 12 rebounds, J. http://www.customsharksjersey.com/ .35 million, one-year contract that avoided salary arbitration. Plouffe batted .254 with 14 home runs and 52 RBIs in 477 at-bats last season, his second as a regular in the lineup. Custom Evander Kane Jersey . Radwanska, making her debut in the Seoul tournament, hit eight aces in a match that lasted 1 hour, 4 minutes at Olympic Park tennis stadium. "It was definitely a very good match -- I was playing really good tennis," Radwanska said. Authentic Custom Sharks Jersey . Vaives lawyer Trevor Whiffen claims the former 50-goal man wasnt provided with a copy of the claim beforehand and that he would not have agreed to the allegations made against the NHL had he been asked to review its contents. MEXICO CITY -- The party in the stands started early in the second NFL regular season game ever played in Mexico with loud cheers and chants from before kickoff until the final whistle. The Oakland offense took a little longer to get going, but once they did Derek Carr and the Raiders came out with yet another win.Carr woke up a struggling offense by throwing two touchdown passes in the fourth quarter as the Raiders capped a successful trip to Mexico with a 27-20 victory over the Houston Texans on Monday night.We got punched in the mouth, Carr said. We werent doing things the way we usually want to do things executing wise. But there was no doubt in anybodys mind that wed come back and win the football game.Oakland had been held to 120 yards through three quarters with the running game going nowhere and Carr finding few open receivers downfield. But that suddenly changed in the fourth quarter to give the Raiders (8-2) their fourth straight win for the first time since 2002 .With star receiver Amari Cooper lined up in the backfield, Carr found fullback Jamize Olawale open for a 75-yard catch and run that tied Houston (6-4) at 20.We felt like that was the momentum shifter, Cooper said.Then Oakland took advantage on two questionable spots by the officials to take over on downs at the 15 and drove 85 yards in five plays to take the lead on a 35-yard pass to Cooper to send the Texans to their fourth loss in five games outside of Houston.Very tough loss, defensive lineman Jadeveon Clowney said. We should have won the game, we are trying to win every game. You dont leave the game in the refs hands.That set off loud celebrations from the pro-Raiders crowd of 76,743 in the second regular season game ever played in Mexico. What was originally scheduled as an Oakland home game featured Raiders music during stoppages, Tommie Smith lighting the Al Davis torch in a memorable return to Mexico City nearly a half-century after his Black Power salute at the 1968 Olympics and frequent RAI-DERS! chants.While the atmosphere was electric, the field was a bit slippery leading to some falls and the high elevation 7,380 feet above sea level played a factor. The Raiders needed to use a timeout on defensse at one point in the fourth to catch their breath and receiver Michael Crabtree was seen gasping for breath at one point.ddddddddddddTo be able to play here was amazing, Carr said. Theres so much history, so much rowdiness. I love soccer and it gave me a kind of soccer feel.CLOSE SPOTS: The Texans were upset on two spots on the fourth-quarter drive before Oakland went ahead. On third-and-2, Lamar Miller was stopped just short of the first down even though Houston believed he got it. Coach Bill OBrien went for it on fourth down but Akeem Hunt was stopped about an inch short on fourth down and the play stood after a replay challenge.LASER SHOW: Houston QB Brock Osweiler had to deal with an unusual distraction during the game as a fan with a green laser frequently shined it on the Houston quarterback as he dropped back to pass in an act more familiar in soccer games played here than in NFL games. That wasnt the only soccer tradition imported for this game. Fans also used a homophobic chant on kickoffs. Mexicos soccer federation has been punished by FIFA in the past for the chant during World Cup qualifiers. Fans threw paper airplanes on the field in the third quarter with Oaklands Sean Smith taking a turn throwing one that reached the field during a break.STREAK BROKEN: Carr had thrown 170 straight passes without an interception before getting picked by A.J. Bouye on a deep ball on the first play from scrimmage in the second half. It was Carrs fourth interception of the season and the first since Kansas Citys Marcus Peters got one Oct. 16.INTERNATIONAL SCORER: With his extra point in the second quarter, Oaklands Sebastian Janikowski scored a point in his third country, having previously done it in the United States and United Kingdom. Joe Nedney is the only other player to score in Mexico, the U.S. and the U.K. Five other players have scored in Canada, the U.K. and the U.S.: running back Steven Jackson and kickers Robbie Gould, Matt Bryant, Dan Carpenter and Jay Feely.---For more NFL coverage: http://www.pro32.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP-NFL ' ' '