Branden Grace won the China Open on Sunday for his third European Tour victory of the year, closing with a 3-under 69 to hold off 2011 winner Nicolas Cols Aerts by three strokes.

The 23-year-old Grace, from South Africa, supplemented with less than 21-267 Binhai Lake. He won the Joburg Open and the Volvo Champions in consecutive weeks in South Africa in January.

” Three to get the same for the beginning of May is incredible. But I played well, I said that is in dispute and the best of the opportunities,” said Grace. ” In the beginning I tried to go, keep my card game designed this year, but now I feel I have the opportunity to go and win every week and I have been thinking for some time.”

Cols Aerts, the winner last year at the Luxe Hills, also shot a 69.

The event was organized by the China Golf Association and OneAsia Tour sanctioned.

Tiger Woods’ swing coach says criticism of his client is getting out of hand.

“I know everyone has a job to do, and I get it,” Foley said this week on “Fairways of Life,” a radio show hosted by Matt Adams on XM Sirius. “But if it is about the game of golf, Tiger Woods is an extremely important part of the game, and I think everyone understands that. It has just gotten to the point where the tearing down of Tiger as a person and a golfer has become just too much. I think it is just out of hand.”

Woods has been under more scrutiny than any other golfer since he turned pro in 1996 when he was 20 and won twice in seven starts on the PGA Tour. The criticism has sharpened in the two years since Woods was exposed for extramarital affairs that cost him his marriage and impeccable image.

He tied for 40th at the Masters, yet most of the attention was on how Woods kicked his golf club after missing a tee shot on the 16th hole of the second round. He said the next day, “I’m frustrated at times and I apologize if I offended anybody that that.”

Foley began working with Woods at the 2010 PGA Championship, and Woods has shown signs of getting back toward the top of his game. He won the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill last month for his first PGA Tour win since the scandal in his personal life unfolded the night of Thanksgiving 2009.

Foley has gone through his share of criticism, too, especially in the early stages of Woods learning a new swing.

“I realize it is 2012 and we have dotcoms, and you have to write five articles a day, and you run out of things to write about,” Foley said. “But we should be in a position where we are trying to help and lift up and support a player like Tiger Woods instead of tearing him down, because everyone in the golf industry is better off because of his existence.”

Foley’s comments came at the end of a 20-minute interview, and he raised the issue without prompting.

“That is basically one thing I want to get out,” Foley said. “Tiger is a wonderful person, and he is a good dude, and he lives a complex life. I think things have got to slow down, and it has got to stop, the daily referendums and the criticism.”

Woods’ performance in the Masters has kept him in conversations, however. It was his highest finish in a major as a pro — except for the three times he has missed the cut — and kicking his 9-iron became a lasting image of his week at Augusta National.

A few days after the Masters, former Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger said on Sirius XM Mad Dog Radio that Woods’ antics were an “embarrassment to the game, to the membership at Augusta.” The comments were startling because Azinger has long been a supporter of Woods.

“I was really disappointed to see him carry on that way,” Azinger said. “He’s not trying to endear himself to anybody. And after he won Bay Hill, I thought, ‘Here we go again, this is going to be Tiger just kicking butt and taking names.’ I don’t know. I thought he acted like the south end of a northbound mule.”

Jack Nicklaus was asked Tuesday about Woods’ game and said he didn’t know what was going on.

“I don’t know what goes (on) between his ears,” Nicklaus said. “That’s really the X factor. His golf game and his golf swing looks pretty similar to what I’ve been looking at and he hits a lot of great shots. But you never know what’s going on in somebody’s head.”

Matt Every arrived at the Texas Open having sworn off instructors, proudly cutting practices short and cringing at the sight of other players endlessly tweaking their swings.

His reward was a course record at a PGA Tour stop.

Outshining the few big PGA Tour names in a weakened field, Every made nine birdies in a bogey-free 9-under 63 for a three-stroke lead over Hunter Haas after the first round Thursday.

It was a career best on a notoriously unforgiving TPC San Antonio course that opened in 2010, but is partly blamed for why the tournament doesn’t attract more star power.

”I see the same guys tinkering with their swings, and they spend all day Tuesday and Wednesday practicing, and I think, ‘God, I’m glad I’m not one of these guys,”’ Every said. ”And I’m sticking to that. When I get on the course, I’m more interested in playing golf than my golf swing.”

Every, whose best finish in six years on the tour is third, coasted to his first lead since sharing the top spot entering the final round of the Sony Open in January. His wife, who is seven months pregnant, followed him for the entirety of a round that broke the course mark of 64 set by Ryan Palmer and Scott Piercy in 2010.

”Told her, only wanted her to go to nine today,” Every said. ”Said she had to keep going after the front nine. It’s cool.”

Haas finished with one of the round’s three eagles on the par-5 18th. Former British Open champion Ben Curtis, playing in his fourth PGA Tour event of the season after his status on the entry list plummeted near the bottom, was four strokes back at 67.

Fredrik Jacobson, Cameron Beckman, Jason Gore, Troy Matteson and Derek Lamely shot 68.

Haas shot a bogey-free round capped by a brilliant approach on No. 18, driving a 3-wood from the fairway to 5 feet. He has struggled this season, missing the cut six times and finishing no better than a tie for 37th in Mexico at the Mayakoba Golf Classic.

”It’s nice to finish a round like that. It’s been a while,” Haas said.

Matt Kuchar, the tournament’s top-ranked player at No. 15 and two weeks removed from his near miss at the Masters, closed with a bogey on the par-4 ninth for a 70. Johnson Wagner had a 74 after speaking optimistically about taking advantage of the absence of star players in the field.

Defending champion Brendan Steele had a 73. He made a double bogey on the par-4 fourth.

The other star of last year’s Texas Open didn’t even make it past the first round. Kevin Na, who returned to San Antonio poking fun at his memorable 16 on No. 9, tapped in a 6-footer for par this time, but withdrew after signing his card at 7 over.

Every was more at ease with his front-runner status than the last time in Honolulu. There he looked uncomfortable while being asked about his arrest on a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge in 2010 that resulted in a PGA Tour suspension his rookie season. He also attributed a tough night of sleep there to what he described as his first real time in contention.

After his round Thursday, a PGA Tour spokesman cautioned reporters that Every sometimes doesn’t ease into interviews as easily as other players. But the 28-year-old former Florida star was candid and carefree while discussing his love for the band Oasis and naming his first son Liam.

He only casually mentioned ditching his swing instructor two weeks ago and that he ”doesn’t care anymore” whether his feet or toes lift off the ground when he swings.

”Lately I’ve been trying to do as little as possible with everything involved with golf,” Every said. ”If I’m hitting bad in the range I won’t even work out – I’ll quit and go home. And it’s been working. It has. I’m playing better golf because of it.”