‘Miracle’ Tiger Woods brings speed to Masters return

Tiger Woods shot a solid 5-under Sunday but still fell just short at The Open.

Click here to read the full article…

MEXICO CITY — Phil Mickelson ended the longest drought of his career with a playoff victory Sunday over Justin Thomas in the WGC-Mexico Championship, capping off a final round of lustrous cheers in thin air that included Thomas holing a wedge for eagle on the final hole of regulation. Mickelson, who closed with a 5-under 66, won for the first time since the 2013 Open Championship at Muirfield, a stretch of 101 tournaments worldwide. “I can’t put into words how much this means to me,” Mickelson said. “I knew it was going to be soon — I’ve been playing too well for it not to be. But you just never know until it happens.” Thomas was coming off a playoff victory at The Honda Classic last week, and he delivered the biggest moment at Club de Golf Chapultepec. Tied for the lead, his shot to the 18th from 119 yards landed in front of the pin and spun back into the hole for an eagle and a 64. It almost was too good to be true. Thomas, who said Thursday he had never felt worse over the ball, had a 62-64 weekend and suddenly had a two-shot lead. Mickelson, who turns 48 in June, responded with a two-putt birdie on the par-5 15th and a 20-foot birdie putt on the 16th to tie Thomas. Tyrrell Hatton, playing in the final group with Mickelson, was stride for stride. He capped off a 3-3-3-3 stretch on the back nine with an eagle at the 15th. But on the final hole, Hatton missed the green to the right, chipped 10 feet by and missed the par putt for a 67 to fall out of a playoff. The sudden-death playoff — the sixth in eight PGA TOUR events this year — didn’t last long. Thomas went long on the par-3 17th hole and chipped to just inside 10 feet. Mickelson’s 18-foot birdie putt for the victory swirled around the cup, more agony for a 47-year-old who has seen plenty of it since his last victory. Thomas, however, never got his par attempt on the right line. They finished at 16-under 268. Mickelson won his third World Golf Championships title and, just a month after being on the verge of falling out of the top 50 in the world for the first time in two decades, moves to No. 18 in the world. Shubhankar Sharma, the 21-year-old from India who started with a two-shot lead, didn’t make his first birdie until the 12th hole. He finished with consecutive bogeys for a 74, six shots behind in a three-way tie for ninth. That will leave him on the bubble at No. 66 in the world for making it back to the next World Golf Championship, the Dell Match Play, in three weeks in Texas. Sharma first flies home for the Hero Indian Open next week. Hatton tied for third with Rafa Cabrera Bello, who holed a bunker shot for eagle on the opening hole and was among six players who had at least a share of the lead. Mickelson was the first player who appeared to seize control with a birdie on No. 10 to take the lead, and facing a reachable par 5 and a drivable par 4. Instead, Lefty made it as entertaining as ever. Going for the green in light rough with the ball below his feet, he hooked it deep into the bushes right of the green, and played his next one when he could barely see the golf ball. That stayed in the trees, and his fourth shot narrowly missed another tree before settling 10 feet away. He made bogey, and just like that, it was a sprint to the finish 7,800 feet above sea level. Brian Harman and Kiradech Aphibarnrat both had chances until dropping shots at the wrong time. Thomas made a bogey on the 17th hole twice on Sunday. He missed a 5-foot par putt in regulation that dropped him out of the lead, only to respond with the perfect shot at the right time. It just wasn’t good enough. Mickelson, now with 43 victories on the PGA TOUR and 46 around the world, made good on his pledge earlier this year that more victories were in store for him. He has four consecutive top 10s for the first time since 2005. That also was the last time he had won in a playoff. It all seems so long ago — playoffs, trophies, consistent play. Now he’s just more than a month away from the Masters, and feeling invigorated. And feeling like a winner.

Click here to read the full article…

Last month, Dustin Johnson won his 21st PGA TOUR event at the Travelers Championship. After a rare stumble at last week’s Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide — he shot 80-80 to miss the cut, calling it “one of those weeks” even though, of course, he rarely has those weeks — DJ’s back in action at this week’s 3M Open in Minnesota. He’ll be one of the favorites at TPC Twin Cities, as he almost always whenever he tees it up. It’s a reputation earned by having won at least one event in each of his first 13 seasons on TOUR, a remarkable stretch of success. “I’m looking for a good tournament,” Johnson said Tuesday. “I like the golf course. I think it sets up well for me, a lot better than last week’s golf course. So I’m looking forward to it.” Do we have a full appreciation of what Johnson has accomplished? And where might he ultimately land among the TOUR’s all-time greats? PGATOUR.COM’s experts weighed in on a few DJ-related questions. 1. He’s at 21 wins now at age 36. Does DJ get to 30 wins? 40 wins? CAMERON MORFIT: I see Dustin racking up somewhere between 25-30 wins, with one more major. He’s had too many injuries for me to predict he’ll just sail along unbothered into his mid-40s. SEAN MARTIN: I think 30 is doable, but that would be my ceiling for him. That’s averaging one win a year until he turns 45. That’s a tall ask. His Travelers win was promising for two reasons: it was his first win when losing strokes off the tee and he played the par-5s in just 2 under, showing that he doesn’t need his driver to carry him to victory. BEN EVERILL: I’ll live in the 25-30 bracket. Not saying he can’t have more – I still think he’s capable of a 4-5 win season – but his schedule will likely reduce over time and be against deep fields. I expect at least one more major over the next 4 years also. It’s been a great run so far. ROB BOLTON: DJ’s first win as a 24-year-old in 2008 looked different than his peers. It just did. His natural athleticism emitted a vibe that we were looking at a future World Golf Hall of Famer. At the time, 30 wins already seemed within reach of his long arms. Today, I’d feel more confident about him touching that milestone if he had, say, 25 right now, but it’s not off the table just yet. Statistically, while he’s yet to experience a winless season, the projection is hurt by the fact that eight of his 12 completed seasons featured only one win. Now that he’s past-prime and entering the reality that his body requires more time to recover from wear and tear, put me down for him falling just short. JIM McCABE: Forty? No. Thirty is a possibility, though if he continues to average just 20 tournaments a year – virtually all of them against the toughest fields – I wouldn’t be surprised if he stalls out at 27 or 28. Way more intriguing will be the watch to see if he can win another major. The August-of-2020-to-July-of-2021 stretch with two Masters, two U.S. Opens, two PGA Championships, and an Open Championship will be prime opportunity for him. Truthfully, 27 career wins, two of them majors, resonates louder than 31/1. MIKE McALLISTER: Thirty’s definitely in reach. He’s already won six World Golf Championships events; I can see him winning at least three more. He’s won four FedExCup Playoffs events; I can see him winning two more. He has at least one more major in him. So that’s six right there. Three other TOUR wins puts him at 30. 2. What’s the one thing that impresses you the most about his career? MORFIT: His consistency has been impressive, but everyone talks about that. What’s interesting is just how much he reinforced that golf is a sport with that super-athletic swing. I’ve seen even Tiger stop to watch him hit driver. MARTIN: I know the improvement to his wedge game is mentioned ad nauseum but it is impressive to see a player so successfully address a weakness in his game. EVERILL: I love the answers from both Cameron and Sean here but I’ll add resilience. Some of the meltdowns or losses DJ has experienced would have been career-enders for some players but he’s always been able to find a way back. Reminds me of Greg Norman in that way. BOLTON: It’s not sexy but his consistently superb form has been outrageous. Since his sophomore season of 2009, he’s averaged three-and-half top 10s to every missed cut. He’s remained largely healthy, too. A fantasy workhorse. McCABE: For a guy who has an abundance of power, he’s reigned it in admirably and turned himself into a marvelous short-game player. His improvement with the wedges is well-documented and his course-management skills deserve more praise. McALLISTER: Winning at least one PGA TOUR event in 13 straight seasons is the reason he’s a certain World Golf Hall of Famer. It also may be the shortest acceptance speech in history. 3. What’s the one thing that goes underappreciated about DJ? MORFIT: He’s actually a pretty darn good putter at times – uncanny, even, in the final round of the Travelers – which will always be obscured by the fireworks off the tee. MARTIN: How hard it is to win 20+ times in today’s game. Sure, he’s nowhere near Tiger and Phil, but he has the most wins of anyone under the age of 40. He’s one of the best players of his era and a certain World Golf Hall of Famer. EVERILL: Everything. We all just think what he does is easy because he kind of makes it look like he’s not trying. But if I have to nail it down to one thing, I guess you could frame it as his competitive will. Johnson does care about winning and is locked in trying to do more of it. BOLTON: As an elite player, he’s constantly scrutinized, so just about every rock has been overturned. That said, it’s probably taken for granted that he’s been able to adapt to all styles of courses and all kinds of grass. Furthermore, lost in his billing and ill-timed misfortunes was a reputation as a bad-weather specialist, so he’s thrived in all kinds of conditions, too. His ball flight withstands the wind, which undoubtedly has contributed to his confidence. McCABE: He takes ownership of his faults, his mishaps, and his errors better than anyone. The fiasco at the 72nd hole at Whistling Straits in 2010, the 3-wood he hit OB at Royal St. George’s in 2011, the unforgettable mishap at the close of the Chambers Bay in 2015. They were his mistakes and he owned up to it. McALLISTER: The ability to always look ahead – and not dwell on things you can no longer control – is a common attribute for successful athletes. Tom Brady doesn’t fret after throwing an interception. Michael Jordan never worried about a missed shot. DJ never seems to brood over the negative stuff, which has been a key component to his remarkable consistency. “DJ’s a guy that forgets pretty quickly,” Rickie Fowler once said when DJ was world No. 1. “… That’s one of the reasons why he is the best player in the world right now. He quickly forgets, moves on.” 4. Describe DJ in one word. MORFIT: Laconic. He seems to just sort of glide through life with that gait and low-key drawl, but he’s most likely gliding toward the Hall of Fame. MARTIN: That’s a tough one. Let’s go with Winner. He just keeps on winning. EVERILL: Cool. If you have to ask why, you don’t understand. BOLTON: Athlete. When a golfer passes the eye test that he could play a major team sport, we’re lucky that he chose golf, or vice versa. McCABE: Serene. It explains why he’s a joy to watch; he brings a sense of calm to the landscape, even sweeping observes into the tranquility. McALLISTER: Reliable. You always know what you’re getting with DJ, whether it’s a win each season, qualifying for the FedExCup Playoffs or an innocuous response to a question from the media.

Click here to read the full article…