Fleetwood tops Race to Dubai; Rahm wins finale

TRUCKEE, Calif. — Richy Werenski holed a flop shot from the 16th fairway for a five-point eagle and birdied the last for a one-point victory over Troy Merritt on Sunday in the Barracuda Championship. Werenski won for the first time on the PGA TOUR, scoring 13 points in the final round on Tahoe Mountain Club’s Old Greenwood Course — the first-time venue after 21 years at Montreux Golf and Country Club. The 28-year-old former Georgia Tech player won the event three years after losing to Chris Stroud on the second hole of a playoff. The fifth straight first-time winner in the TOUR’s lone modified Stableford scoring event, Werenski earned a spot next week in the PGA Championship in San Francisco. He and Merritt, also in the field next week at TPC Harding Park, secured spots in the U.S. Open in September at Winged Foot. Werenski finished with 39 points, with players getting eight points for albatross, five for eagle, two for birdie, zero for par, minus-one for bogey and minus-three for double bogey or worse. Merritt failed to convert the 54-hole lead into a victory for the second straight year. Last year at Montreux, Collin Morikawa rallied to beat Merritt. Merritt left a 30-foot birdie try short on the par-4 18th to give Werenski the victory. Matthias Schwab and Fabian Gomez tied for third with 37 points. Playing on a sponsor exemption, Schwab had 13 points in the round. He needed to finish in a two-way tie for second or better to earn special temporary membership on the PGA TOUR. Gomez had a 16-point day.

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BLAINE, Minn. – James Hahn cracked a bottle of Michelob Ultra upon approaching the podium to meet the media Sunday afternoon at the 3M Open. It was well earned. Hahn, 40, had just completed a final-round, 6-under 65 at TPC Twin Cities, marking the day’s low round in windy conditions outside Minneapolis. The performance propelled Hahn to a season-best T4 finish, moving him from No. 133 to No. 109 in the FedExCup standings. Hahn arrived at the 3M Open knowing it was crunch time to earn a spot in the FedExCup Playoffs for the eighth time, with this week marking the third-to-last event of the PGA TOUR’s regular season. With a stretch of six consecutive 3s on the back nine Sunday, including a hole-out eagle from 69 yards on the par-5 12th, Hahn all but secured a Playoffs berth. “Magical,” said Hahn of his final-round performance in Minnesota. “That’s what it felt like. We’re getting gusts up to 25 miles per hour and then it would lay down and then it would gust again for 25 miles per hour. I’m hitting some pitching wedges 170 yards and on the next hole you’re hitting 6-iron from 150. “It’s just one of those days where you had to pick your clubs very well and commit to it, and I felt like I did a good job of that today.” Hahn entered the week with back-to-back T9 finishes in early May marking his best showings to this point in the season (Wells Fargo Championship, AT&T Byron Nelson). The former shoe salesman has won twice in a successful TOUR career, meaning at worst he will always carry past champion status. The University of California-Berkeley alum knows the importance of fully exempt TOUR status, though, and he doesn’t shy away from the implications of Playoffs qualification. “Coming down the stretch, we’re obviously trying to win a golf tournament, but one stroke here or there could also mean not keeping my card for next year,” Hahn said. “It means a lot to be able to make the Playoffs, to earn full status for next season, but just to feel like you’ve accomplished something, that’s definitely a goal for everyone starting the season that, A, you want to make it long into the Playoffs, but you have to make the Playoffs to start. For me, I just feel like it’s a long season, and I’m going to enjoy this beer.” That beer was very much earned. Other pros to move inside the top-125 on the FedExCup with strong showings at the 3M Open included Scott Piercy, Greyson Sigg and Robert Streb. Piercy, a four-time TOUR winner, held a four-stroke lead through 54 holes at TPC Twin Cities but was undone by a triple bogey on the par-4 14th hole Sunday en route to a T4 finish. The San Diego State alum entered the week at No. 138 on the FedExCup and moved to No. 112, on the verge of securing a Playoffs berth. Sigg finished T7 at the 3M Open to move from No. 126 to No. 107, all but cementing a Playoffs berth in his rookie TOUR season. Streb, a longtime pro and two-time TOUR winner, finished T11 at TPC Twin Cities and moved from No. 128 to No. 115. TOUR rookie Callum Tarren finished the week T7 to move from No. 144 to No. 126. For a player who went until The Honda Classic in February before his first made cut of the season, he’s trending at the right time as he strives to secure his first Playoffs berth – and avoid a trip to the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. Players who finish Nos. 126-200 on the FedExCup, not otherwise exempt, will have the opportunity to regain status via the three-event Korn Ferry Tour Finals in late August and early September. Nos. 126-150 will be assured no worse than conditional TOUR status next season. The PGA TOUR regular season concludes across the next two weeks with the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit and the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina.

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PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Jordan Spieth holed out from 160 yards for eagle on the 16th hole at Pebble Beach, the start of a stunning turnaround that took him from two shots behind to a two-shot lead Saturday in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. RELATED: Leaderboard | Mickelson smiles after tough finish at Pebble Beach These moments used to happen when Spieth was winning all the time. This was the second time this week he holed out from the fairway, and now he is on the cusp of ending more than three years without a victory. He shot 1-under 71 as he goes for a second victory at Pebble Beach in the last five years. A pedestrian round that included bogeys on two of the par 5s left Spieth two shots out of the lead with three holes to play. And then it all changed. His hard draw to a left pin on the 16th landed about 8 feet right of the hole and took the slope all the way to the bottom of the cup. Two holes later, Daniel Berger sent his drive well to the right, over the bunkers and onto the cart path. It settled next to the hedges, and was out-of-bounds by mere inches. Berger called over an official for a linear measurement, but it was out. That led to double bogey and a 72. Patrick Cantlay, whose third round began with such promise when he hit it to 8 feet for eagle, birdied the 18th for a 70 and joined Berger two shots out of the lead. Tom Hoge (68) and Russell Knox (69) also were two shots behind. Spieth was at 13-under 203. He was tied for the lead going into the final round last week in the Waste Management Phoenix Open, only to fall back when he couldn’t make any putts. He shot 72 and finished two back. Jason Day was very much in the mix, too, after a 68 left him in the group at 10-under 206. Paul Casey stayed three shots behind with a great break on the 18th when his tee shot tumbled down onto the rocks, but had a flat enough lie he could hit off the rock back into the fairway. He shot 71. Maverick McNealy had a 69 that included a penalty shot behind the fifth green when his ball moved right as he set the club behind the ball. Spieth didn’t have to contend with what he predicted to be a “mean” day at Pebble Beach. The rain in the forecast was gone by the time he teed off. The raging wind was more of a stiff breeze along the ocean holes that Pebble gets all the time. Spieth didn’t do anything great Saturday. He made bogey on the easiest hole at Pebble Beach from the middle of the fairway on the par-5 second hole, coming up well short of the green, pitching short of the putting surface and missing a par putt from 5 feet. He also bogeyed the par-5 14th when his lob wedge was too tentative and spun all the way off the front of the green. But there was enough good golf — and no wild shots that have cost him so dearly over the last three years — to keep him close enough to work a little magic at the end. He also needed some help, which Berger supplied. Even so, a dozen players were separated by four shots going into the final round at a tournament that moves much faster this year without amateur partners creating groups of four players.

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