Zach Johnson, Chris Kirk tied atop leaderboard, Jordan Spieth falters late at Sony Open in Hawaii

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HOUSTON – When the decisive 6-foot par putt fell Sunday at the Houston Open, Lanto Griffin raised both arms in celebration while a look of rapturous disbelief crossed his face. Then he started sobbing, the long, unique and heartbreaking journey to becoming a PGA TOUR winner fueling his emotions. Some 1,200 miles away in Roanoke, Virginia, Steve Prater was jumping for joy, his head nearly reaching the ceiling. It had been the same reaction the day before when Griffin holed a bunker shot for a much-needed birdie. “I’ve jumped so much this week that I’ve got a headache,â€� Prater said. Prater is the Director of Instruction at Roanoke Country Club, but several years ago he worked at Blacksburg Country Club. That’s where he met Griffin, who back then was a boy with self-described “hippiesâ€� for parents — including his dad, Michael, who managed a health food store and knew a little about baseball and soccer, but not as much about golf. Related: Leaderboard | What’s in Griffin’s bag? | Griffin turns consistency into victory So they went to a junior clinic, where Michael met Steve to discuss young Lanto’s interest in golf. Prater soon took over the teaching. And then when Michael died of a brain tumor, Prater became much more to the 12-year-old Lanto. Friend, confidant, a father figure. The connection was golf but really, it became about life. “I remember when Lanto’s dad died,â€� Prater said. “I knew he was sick but it was still kind of a shock to me. Lanto was in the bag room when I saw him. … He was sad, crying. We hugged for a while. Ever since, we’ve had a bond.â€� Griffin was asked Sunday about his dad. “I bet he’d be pretty proud,â€� he responded while trying to hold off the tears. “He got me started. He got me a set – I don’t know if I’ll be able to tell this story – but for Christmas in 1996, he got me a 5-iron, 7-iron, 9-iron, putter, 3-wood and he got me into golf. “And then Steve Prater, he took it from there.â€� Losing a parent at any time is difficult is harsh, but for a teenager, it can be devastating. That same horrible day that Michael Griffin died, Prater told Lanto that he had secured him an honorary membership to Blacksburg. And as Lanto threw himself into golf, Prater was there to teach and support. When Virginia Commonwealth University came looking for golfers, Prater pointed to Lanto. They signed him to a scholarship. And as Lanto turned pro, Prater helped navigate him through the ups and downs – especially the struggles that left Griffin nearly penniless and caused him to question his career choice. In 2014, Griffin had $176 in his bank account. In the spring of 2017, he told his agent he was quitting the sport. But then he started seeing a sports psychologist, and turned things around, winning in Nashville on the Korn Ferry Tour. That led to membership on the PGA TOUR in 2018, but Griffin could not keep his card. He was too aggressive, firing at pins he had no business seeking. He lost his card but gained perspective. Back on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2019, he won again and earned a second shot at the TOUR. And now he’s a TOUR winner, breaking a tie with playing partner Mark Hubbard and Scott Harrington with a 33-foot birdie putt at the 16th hole – his caddie Chris Nash said Griffin called it before his stroke — and then parring the two hardest holes on the course to finish it off. The journey from the poor house to the penthouse was difficult to comprehend. He won’t have to worry about his TOUR card for a few years. He’s headed to Maui in January, and his Season of Championships schedule next year will be pretty full. He’s now No. 1 in FedExCup points, so the Playoffs are a given now. Griffin, in fact, has already achieved several of his goals for this season; he keeps the list on his phone and was happy to share Sunday. Among them: Playing in a final group on Sunday, keeping his card, top-70 FedExCup, qualify for THE PLAYERS Championship and other invitationals, and producing a Sunday scoring average within a 1/2 stroke of his normal scoring average. His No. 1 goal, though, was simply to win. “It’s incredible,â€� he said. Also on his phone, the text count was growing, reaching upwards of 500. Everybody who knew his journey wanted to congratulate him. No doubt one of those texts was from Prater, who had sent a text the night before the final round as Griffin prepared to sleep on a one-shot lead. It read: Are we having fun yet? On Sunday, Lanto Griffin had plenty of fun. But he also had plenty of people to thank. His mother, who had made Team Lanto T-shirts. His girlfriend, Maya, an attorney in Charlotte, North Carolina, who had flown in this weekend to walk outside the ropes. Stuart Swanson, who had provided so much support and used to drive him to junior events. So many others – “20 or 30 people that if they didn’t open their checkbooks to me in amateur golf, junior golf, mini-tours two years ago, I couldn’t have kept playing,â€� Griffin said. And of course, Steve Prater, the man with the headache. “I wouldn’t be here without him,â€� Griffin said. “He opened every door in golf that I ever had, teaching me for free, giving me a membership. He’s had my back the entire journey.â€� Said Prater: “It’s been a great relationship. He’s such a special person. At the time, when you’re doing those things, you don’t realize how beneficial they can be. Only later in life, you understand that those things were really important for him.â€� Prior to this season, perhaps around the time he was making out his list of goals, Lanto Griffin decided to put Prater on his payroll as part of Team Lanto. Until now, he had never been in financial position to do that. “He deserved every penny that I’m going to pay him,â€� Griffin said. “I can’t wait to write that check to him.â€�

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AUGUSTA, Ga. — Even without spectators in November, the Masters Tournament promised to deliver more drama with 10 players separated by a single shot going into a weekend filled with possibilities. And then Dustin Johnson turned it into a one-man show. RELATED: Leaderboard | Rory finding his stride | DeChambeau battles dizziness to make cut The reigning FedExCup champion looked every bit the part Saturday, racing away from a five-way share of the lead with an explosive start — 4 under through four holes — and never letting his foot off the gas until he had a 7-under 65 and matched the 54-hole Masters record. More importantly, Johnson had a four-shot lead. Sunday will be the third time Johnson takes a solo lead into the final round of a major, along with two other majors where he was tied for the lead. His only major was the 2016 U.S. Open when he came from behind. Most recently, he had a one-shot lead at Harding Park in the PGA Championship this summer, closed with a 68 and lost to a 64 by Collin Morikawa. This effort was master class. Johnson used putter from above a slope to the right of the 18th green to 5 feet and holed that for a par to cap off another bogey-free round and reach 16-under 200. That ties the record set by Jordan Spieth in 2015, when he went on to a four-shot victory over Justin Rose and Phil Mickelson. Not all the players chasing Johnson are as familiar. Two of them are Masters rookies. Sungjae Im, the supreme ball-striker from South Korea who won his first PGA TOUR title two weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down golf in the spring, birdied the last hole for 68. Abraham Ancer of Mexico saved par on the 18th for a 69. They were at 12-under 204, along with Cameron Smith of Australia. Smith opened with 12 pars before running off three straight birdies and scrambling his way home to a 69. Justin Thomas and Jon Rahm had their chances only to make untimely mistakes. Rahm nearly topped his second shot on the par-5 eighth and hit his next one off a tree and into the bushes on his way to a double bogey. Thomas sailed his second shot over the 15th green and into the water, making bogey on a par 5 where he was hoping to make up ground. Both bogeyed the 18th hole. Thomas shot 71, Rahm had a 72. Asked to describe his day, Rahm didn’t mince words. "Seriously? How would I describe? Pretty awful," he said. Defending champion Tiger Woods will stick around Sunday to present the green jacket, and he’ll have to leave his at Augusta National until he returns. Woods was 4 under through 10 holes to start the Masters, and he picked up only one more shot over the next 44 holes. He finished off a 71 in the second round, had a 72 in the third round and was 11 shots behind. It likely didn’t help the 44-year-old Woods to go 26 holes on soft turf of a hilly course, "It’s just part of the deal," he said. "If you have long days like this, I’m going to get a little bit sore, which I definitely am." U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau was more dizzy than sore. He felt so odd on Thursday night that he had another COVID-19 test to be sure — it came back negative — and the betting favorite of this Masters was in the middle of the pack. The scoring has been low all week. The 36-hole cut Saturday morning was at even-par 144, the lowest in Masters history, another update to the club’s record book. Still in front of Johnson is a chance to set the 72-hole record. All he cares about is a green jacket, and given his past experience, he knows better than to look ahead. "I feel like I’m swinging well and I’ve got a lot of confidence in what I’m doing. Everything is going well," he said. "There’s a lot of really good players right around me. I’m going to have play aggressive when I can and play smart when I can’t.” He was aggressive at the start. First, he drilled a 5-iron he nearly holed for an albatross on the par-5 second, leaving him a tap-in eagle. He followed that with a lofted pitch to 5 feet for birdie on No. 3, and a 40-foot birdie putt up the slope on the par-3 fourth hole as the lead began to grow. Thomas was within two shots until he made mistakes and Johnson kept going. Johnson had two-putt birdies on the par 5s on the back nine, and he hasn’t made a bogey since the sixth hole of his second round.

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