Criminal expert: Tiger Woods made mistake issuing statement

Here are nine tidbits from the final round of the THE PLAYERS Championship that gamers can use tomorrow, this weekend or down the road. THE PLAYERS Stadium Course TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, has been the host since 1982 and plays 7,189 yards to a Par-72. Winner Webb For the first time in 107 starts on TOUR Webb Simpson is back in the winner’s circle. His final round 73 saw him post 18-under-par 270 to defeat a trio of chasers by four shots. The 2012 U.S. Open champion becomes the ninth player to win THE PLAYERS Championship and the national championship. Simpson’s record-setting seven-shot lead after 54 holes was never sliced to less than four as he meticulously navigated Pete Dye’s house of horrors. His worst golf of the day came on a three-hole stretch (Nos. 8-10) that saw him square two bogeys and give the field hope that a collapse just might be on the cards. Nope. He birdied both of the Par-5 holes on the back and not even a water ball on the last could make this interesting for the peloton. Simpson played the Par-5 holes in 13-under for the week and led the field in driving accuracy (46 of 56) and SG: putting. He holed just over 455 feet of putts on the week to claim his first top-10 in nine PLAYERS starts. His previous best finish was T16 last year so to say he’s figuring it out here is a huge understatement. In 11 starts in 2018 he’s now cashed T5 or better in five of them, including three of his last six. He held the 54-hole lead at Colonial last year, collected T8 at the Travelers and hit the podium at the Wyndham Championship in third alone. One of his daughter’s names is Wyndham in case you’re wondering where you might use him next. PGA TOUR Fantasy Game presented by SERVPRO top selections: Gamers watched in horror in the final round as Stenson couldn’t keep up, Spieth closed with a quad and Johnson couldn’t break par on a course with four Par-5 holes playing 7,013 yards. Nobody said this would be easy and this week never is. PGA TOUR One & Done presented by SERVPRO top selections: The only thing worse in this game besides a MC is burning a guy in a big event and he doesn’t fire. The brilliant front-runner Day continues to reinforce that winning fuels his fire instead of satisfying the need. He closed with bogey-free 68 and those who piled on this week were rewarded and will move up. Wrong Newcomer There wasn’t any argument that Bryson DeChambeau entered the week on fire with three top-four finishes in his last four starts and should have commanded attention in his maiden voyage. Instead it was Xander Schauffele who took home the honor, and major cash payment, as the best newcomer this week (T2). He’s collected top-10 finishes at Erin Hills, TPC Old White, East Lake GC, Riviera and now TPC Sawgrass in not even two full years on TOUR. He led the field in SG: tee to green and sand saves. Dy-No-Mite Gamers were leery entering the 2017-18 season as they saw Jimmy Walker deal with Lyme disease last year. The season-long and weekly investors have both been rewarded for their patience as he’s now rattled off nine of his last 10 weekends. On top of that he’s cashed four top-25 checks in a row with a pair of top 10’s. His T2 included a bogey-free 68 in the final round is his best finish at THE PLAYERS. #Play72 All eyes were on Tiger Woods-Jordan Spieth pairing Sunday after they both shot 65 in Round 3 to break into the top 10. Woods played his first 13 holes on Saturday in eight-under. He played his first 13 holes on Sunday six-under and was on the prowl. For the second round in a row he bogeyed No. 14 and the momentum died. He fell out of the top 10 with a double on No. 17, his first ball in the water in his last 13 events on that hole. There were plenty of positives to take but he’s not the finished article. … Charl Schwartzel rebounded from a tough 73 in Round 3 as he stormed home in 32 to T2. He only made six bogeys on the week and that play as resulted in three top-10 finishes on the bounce. Noted. Not yet. But it’s coming. New No. 1 Justin Thomas posted 68-66 on the weekend with the only blemish on the card to finish T11 and take over the No. 1 spot in the OWGR. He’ll never be happy with T11 but not too many guys have been No. 1 in the world so I think he’ll survive. Thomas will be bummed this event is moving to March as eight of his 15 rounds have been in red figures and his stroke average is 70.73. Johnson, who needed to beat Thomas and end up in the top 10, achieved neither as he ended T17. This season Johnson has a win, two seconds and two other top-10 paydays and is NO LONGER NO. 1?!?!?!?! Defending Champ Curse For the 36th time at TPC Sawgrass the defending champ went quietly into the good night. Only Adam Scott (T8, 2005) posted a top-10 finish in defending this century. Si Woo Kim opened with the best score of a defender with 67 on Thursday but faded playing his final three rounds three-over for T63. Sunday Silence I could have stuck Jordan Spieth in #Play72 above since his quad on the final hole knocked him from T17 to T41. I’m not sure which rounds I’ll remember most from the week, the 75 to open and 74 to close or 68-65 in the middle two rounds. … World No. 14 Tommy Fleetwood stuck all four rounds under-par for the week and finished T7. I don’t think I saw one shot of his on Sunday as he crept up the leaderboard while others faded away. Study Hall The final round scoring average was the lowest of the week at 70.014 as TPC Sawgrass played just 7,013 yards. The scoring average for the week was 71.275, almost a full shot under-par for the last May event, as the course was in all-time best condition according to many of the pros. … Brooks Koepka tied the course record (63) but couldn’t crack the top 10 (T11). His bogey-free round was one of four on Sunday. … Charles Howell III collected T17 for his first top 25 in 16 tries. … Bubba Watson’s form couldn’t carry through four rounds this week. His 68-71 was followed by 73-73 for T57.

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LA QUINTA, Calif. – Jon Rahm could’ve grown frustrated after another missed opportunity at a par-5 and a chip shot that miraculously stayed out of the hole. Instead, he hit his best shot of the week on the Stadium Course’s toughest hole. The Sunday hole location was tucked in the narrow back section on the 210-yard, par-3 13th hole. The green canters right-to-left, calling for a draw instead of Rahm’s preferred fade. So, what did he do? Hit a low, drawing 6-iron that rolled to 2 feet, the closest shot of the day on a long par-3 guarded by a lake on the left. Just 35 percent of the field hit that green in regulation Sunday, and only seven other players made birdie. His birdie was nearly 1.5 strokes below the field’s final-round scoring average on that hole. “There’s very few times in the game of golf that you visualize a perfect shot and you actually execute it,� Rahm said. “That was one of them. “To hit that shot, it changed the tournament.� Rahm couldn’t spare a single stroke to win his second PGA TOUR title. He had to hold off a plucky Andrew Landry, who birdied the 72nd hole to force a four-hole playoff. Landry had birdie putts inside 25 feet on each of the playoff holes, but Rahm was the first one to make birdie, sinking a 12-foot birdie putt on the Stadium Course’s 18th green. Victory was Rahm’s when Landry couldn’t convert from a foot closer. The victory moved Rahm to No. 2 in both the FedExCup and Official World Golf Ranking. It’s been a rapid rise for the 23-year-old who is less than two years into his pro career. He joins Sergio Garcia, Jose Maria Olazabal and Seve Ballesteros as the only Spaniards to reach the top two in the OWGR. The late Ballesteros is the only one of their countrymen to hold the top spot. Rahm may not be far from joining him. He’s now won two of his past three starts, with a runner-up finish to World No. 1 Dustin Johnson sandwiched between victories at the European Tour’s season finale in Dubai and the CareerBuilder. “It’s hard to believe,� Rahm said. “You dream of doing these things, you want to do them, you believe in yourself, but … it’s beyond belief.� Rahm’s victory came almost a year after his first PGA TOUR win, at the Farmers Insurance Open. He will arrive for his title defense this week at Torrey Pines as a different player, and person, than the one who won last year. Like most 23-year-olds, Rahm is still maturing and learning from his mistakes, and it’s paying off in his golf game. “I’m improving a little bit when it comes to controlling my emotions,� Rahm said Sunday. “I was just patient and trying to hit good shots. I think I’m just a little more mature in every aspect of the game.� His impressive physical skills have been on display from the second he turned pro in June 2016. After a legendary college career at Arizona State, he finished third in his pro debut and joined the elite list of players who have earned PGA TOUR cards without setting foot at Q-School. Rahm won three times worldwide in 2017, adding two of the European Tour’s strongest events to his win at the Farmers Insurance Open, where he holed a 60-foot eagle putt on the final hole. But, with his rapid rise through the pro ranks, the spotlight also showed a fiery player whose temper could get the best of him. It boiled over at the U.S. Open, where cameras caught him punching a tee sign. “He’s grown up a lot,� his caddie, Adam Hayes, said Sunday. “He never let it get him down. He learned from it.� PGA West’s Stadium Course may be the perfect place for a player to prove his patience. Pete Dye’s design, which features more square footage of sand than putting surface, is fraught with hazards waiting to catch players who lose their cool. In the third round, Rahm endured what he termed a “survival� day in the CareerBuilder’s third round, shooting 70 despite fighting his swing on a blustery day on the most difficult of the three courses used this week. He maintained his composure Sunday despite failing to birdie any of the four par-5s and struggling with the putter. “It would have been really easy today to get extremely frustrated with the putter,� Rahm said. Instead, he kept his cool and ended the day clutching another trophy.

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