Live leaderboard: Round 1 of The Players

Fitzpatrick beats Hend in Euro Masters play-off

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LAKE FOREST, Ill. – Notes and observations from Sunday’s final round of the BMW Championship, where Australian Marc Leishman shot 67 to salt away his third PGA TOUR victory at age 33. Justin Rose shot 65 and briefly pressured the winner before finishing tied for second with Rickie Fowler (67), five shots back, and Jason Day (69) was fourth alone. For more coverage from Conway Farms Golf Club, click here for the Daily Wrap-up. LEISHMAN GOES WIRE-TO-WIRE Leishman’s 194 (-19) through three rounds was the second-lowest opening 54 holes this season, but a five-shot lead is not insurmountable. Three weeks earlier, at THE NORTHERN TRUST, Jordan Spieth had built a five-shot lead Sunday only to lose to Dustin Johnson in a playoff. Indeed, there were some tense moments at the BMW, but no one got closer to two shots, and Leishman birdied three of his final four holes to finish with the same big lead he started with. Around the TOUR, Leishman is known as a “good blokeâ€� who is understated, underrated, and as down-to-earth as they come. After his third-round 68, Leishman spoke about working the graveyard shift in a factory back in Australia. He was 18 or 19, needed money for tournament entry fees, and used a laser cutter to shape sheets of metal. After going from work to the golf course, he was so tired he once slept 18 straight hours. He lasted only a week or two on the job. Leishman and his wife Audrey, who nearly died of sepsis in 2015, spearheaded National Sepsis Month to spread awareness about a disease that is estimated to kill 250,000 people in the U.S. each year. Their Begin Again Foundation, which helps families that have been affected by sepsis and toxic shock syndrome, has impacted some 700 families in the last year and a half. In July, Audrey gave birth to the couple’s third child, Eva, whom they call their “miracle baby.â€� On a lighter note, Leishman has beer and pizza sent to NBC cameraman Murrill Boney on Saturday night. It was Boney who unwittingly became part of a video clip that went viral when he raised his leg to allow Leishman’s shanked chip shot to go between his legs at the Dell Technologies Championship at TPC Boston two weeks ago. “If that ball hits him, it goes back in the hazard,â€� Leishman said. “He saved me a lot of money.â€� Leishman’s playing partner Fowler opened with two straight birdies, but stalled with 10 straight pars. Day mounted a charge with three straight birdies to get within four, but drowned his tee shot at the watery par-3 11th. Then came Rose, who cut it to two before Leishman, who settled down after some loose shots on the front nine, responded with birdies at 15, 16 and 18. The winner moved from seventh to fourth in the FedExCup standings. GOOD SIGNS FOR INTERNATIONALS Louis Oosthuizen did not win or even come close, but he was feeling chipper about his finish nonetheless. He considered withdrawing from the tournament as he suffered from flu-like symptoms during rounds of 77-74 Thursday and Friday. After waking up Saturday feeling fine, Oosthuizen shot 66-67 on the weekend to get back to even par. That would get him a handful of FedExCup points, and Oosthuizen was told by a TOUR official that he would likely bounce in and out of the top 30 all afternoon. With his fate hanging in the balance, he flew home to West Palm Beach, Florida, only to later learn he finished 31st and would not qualify for East Lake and the season-ending TOUR Championship. “Played well on the weekend,â€� Oosthuizen said. “Could’ve had loads more birdies today and yesterday, but I’m pleased, in general. I didn’t have much momentum going into Saturday, had a lot to do. I thought if I could get to 2-under I wouldn’t have to rely on anyone else. “I don’t know if I was coming down with the flu or something. I felt horrible. I had no energy, wasn’t hitting it anywhere, was struggling everywhere. I was thinking about not playing Friday.â€� It turned out to be good that he did, if only to give him some positive momentum going into one of the most important tournaments all year. Oosthuizen’s more Louis-like form on the weekend provided reason for optimism for the International team as it prepares to take on the U.S. at the Presidents Cup at Liberty National, Sept. 28-Oct. 1. This, as pundits were already taking note of a surging Leishman and a suddenly revitalized Day. What’s more, captain’s pick Anirban Lahiri of India, who needed a miracle to make the TOUR Championship, actually came close with weekend scores of 68-66 to tie for ninth at the BMW. “Anyone having good form going into next week and Presidents Cup for our side is going to be great,â€� Oosthuizen said. “Leish has been playing well for a while, and it’s great seeing Jason’s name up there. If he can get going, he can be the best asset on the team to have.â€� CALL OF THE DAY SPIETH PLEASED WITH FINISH Jordan Spieth came into the BMW on the strength of back-to-back runner-up finishes, so his no-bogey 65 and T7 finish Sunday was bittersweet. On the one hand, Spieth may have played his best golf of the week, and he’ll go into next week’s TOUR Championship at No. 1 in the FedExCup Playoffs. But on the other hand, Spieth never seriously contended after following up a first-round 65 with middle rounds of 70-71. “Absolutely,â€� Spieth said, when asked whether he believes in the value of momentum from one week to the next. “I shot two bogey-free, 6-under rounds. I know the way I’ve been playing in the last few months, I know that that golf is still there, it’s just a matter of going out and executing and these rounds in between.â€� Jon Rahm (67, T5) did the best of the top five in the FedExCup, for whom it was a relatively flat week. All five maintained their positions with the exception of Hideki Matsuyama, who went from fourth to seventh after a final-round 69 and a T47 finish. Leishman took over in fourth. “I felt like today was a slight improvement on yesterday and I made a few more putts,â€� said Spieth, who started with two birdies in his first three holes. “Really good start. It was a round that could have been extra special.â€� ODDS AND ENDS Phil Mickelson waited for some 20 minutes while playing partner Sergio Garcia got a ruling on the 18th hole. Asked for his thoughts during the delay, Mickelson said: “I was thinking this is what my playing partners go through most of the time.â€� Was it hard to wait? “No,â€� Mickelson said after making birdie for a 70 (T20). “I needed that extra 38 minutes to read that putt.â€� … Playing by himself in the 7:30 a.m. tee time Sunday, Wes Bryan shot a final-round 69 in just an hour and 29 minutes. He finished 69th in the 70-man field (Danny Lee withdrew with a back injury) and will finish his season 41st in the FedExCup standings. … Rory McIlroy will become the eighth defending FedExCup champion to not make it back to East Lake and the TOUR Championship the following year. McIlroy, who went winless this season, began the week at 51st in the FedExCup and needed to at least contend at Conway Farms, but shot a final-round 71 to finish T58. He ends his season at 58th in the FedExCup. … Kevin Na shot the low round of the day, an 8-under 63, but it was too little, too late. Brooks Koepka later matched him with his own 63, shooting up the leaderboard to finish T12. SHOT OF THE DAY BEST OF SOCIAL MEDIA

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LA QUINTA, Calif. — Andrew Landry regrouped to win The American Express after losing a six-stroke lead on the back nine Sunday. Landry broke a tie with Abraham Ancer with a 7-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th hole and made a 6-footer on the par-4 18th for a 5-under 67 and a two-stroke victory. Related: Leaderboard | Amateur with one arm makes hole-in-one  “That was probably the shot of the tournament for me,” Landry said about the 17th. “Just to be able to go over there and, to that right hole location, and just hold one up and hit a good distance and have a 7-, 8-footer to look at. … Thankfully, it went in and kind of made 18 a little bit easier.” Landy won the pro-am event at PGA West two years ago after losing a playoff to Jon Rahm. “This is a golf course that has suited me very well in the past,” Landry said. “And just to look back on some of the things that happened a couple years ago and then now, just to be able to finally get it done. I didn’t want to have to go back into a playoff again and we’re running out of daylight, so it’s good to finally get the job done again.” The 32-year-old Texan has two PGA TOUR victories, also winning the 2018 Valero Texas Open. He jumped up 161 spots to 17th in the FedExCup standings.  “That’s why you just got to keep grinding it out,” Landry said. “We all search for these weeks, and the majority of players out here are going to have them, four, five, six times a year and top-10 players are going to have them a little bit more often. So, these are the weeks that we search for and we just continue to just play our ball and keep doing what we do, and hopefully they come sooner than later.” Trying to become the third Mexican winner in PGA TOUR history and first since 1978, Ancer matched the Stadium Course record with a 63. Playing two groups ahead of Landry, Ancer birdied the par-5 16th and the island-green 17th and parred the 18th. “All week, really, I hit the ball great off the tee and iron shots, and in the first three rounds, I feel like I didn’t score as low as I should have for how good I hit the ball,” Ancer said. “But stayed patient and today the putts started to fall in.” Playing two groups ahead of Landry, Ancer birdied No. 16 and 17 and parred the 18th, missing from 35 feet and saving par with a 4 1/2-footer. He realized he was tied for lead just before teeing off on 17. “I wasn’t paying much attention to the leaderboard,” Ancer said. “And then that’s when I noticed and I was like, `All right, well, we got to make two other birdies.’ I made the putt there on 17, which was big, and then just couldn’t make it happen on 18. But I played good, man. I’m proud of how I played.” After missing the cut in seven of his first eight starts this season, Landry appeared to be cruising to victory when he birdied the first three holes on the back nine to open the six-shot lead. But he bogeyed the next three holes, made a par on the 16th that felt like another bogey, and was tied when Ancer ran in a 25-footer on 17. Landry finished at 26-under 262. He opened with a 66 on the Stadium Course, shot 64 in the second round at La Quinta Country Club and had a 65 on Saturday on PGA West’s Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course for a share of the third-round lead with Scottie Scheffler — four strokes ahead of third-place Rickie Fowler. The anticipated duel between Landy and Scheffler fizzled on the first six holes. Scheffler bogeyed the par-4 first after his drive rolled back down a hill into a large divot. He also dropped strokes on the par-5 fifth and long par-3 sixth to fall four strokes behind Landry. On the water-guarded fifth, his aggressive play with a fairway wood from a downhill lie near a right-side bunker went well left and, after a long chip, he missed a 3-footer for par. He also failed to get up-down-for par on the 234-yard sixth hole after hooking his tee shot. Scheffler shot 70, briefly giving Landry a scare with an eagle on 16, to finish third at 23 under. The 23-year-old former University of Texas player is in his first season on the PGA TOUR after winning twice and topping the Korn Ferry Tour Finals and overall points lists last season. Fowler had a 71 in the final group with Landry and Scheffler to tie for 10th at 18 under. From nearby Murrietta, Fowler played the event for the first time in six years.

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