Bryson DeChambeau embraces closer role during second victory of season

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – The Waste Management Phoenix Open prides itself on being a zero-landfill event, with cardboard receptacles marked “Recycleâ€� and “Compostâ€� all over the TPC Scottsdale course. Now, it seemed, Rickie Fowler was throwing away the tournament. Or was it being taken from him, ripped out of hands by the golf gods? Heads shook. Jaws dropped. Minds reeled. And it fell to the PGA TOUR Vice President of Rules and Competition Slugger White to explain that Fowler, who was cruising toward certain victory, had just made a bizarre triple-bogey 7 at the par-4 11th hole, changing everything. “I hope I never have to go through that again,â€� Fowler said when it was over, and he had secured his fifth TOUR win and the first witnessed by his father, Rod, and maternal grandpa, Taka. On a course where he has sometimes seemed cursed, Fowler survived a shocking calamity the likes of which no one could remember, making clutch birdies on 15 and 17 to gut out a final-round 74 and beat Branden Grace (69) by two. Justin Thomas, Fowler’s friend and roommate for the week, shot 72 to finish third. In breaking a nearly two-year win drought, Fowler moved to 7th in the FedExCup; qualified for the Sentry Tournament of Champions; and bucked a trend that had seen him convert only one of his last six 54-hole leads/co-leads to victory on TOUR. When people remember this WMPO, though, they’ll remember the craziness at the 11th hole. MUST READS: Round 4, Waste Management Phoenix Open Winner’s Bag: Rickie Fowler, 2019 Waste Management Phoenix Open Miller’s retirement week includes Cheez Whiz story Champ marks Black History Month with black, white shoes Lyle memorial brings perspective to rowdy 16th hole “Pretty much everything that could go wrong went wrong,â€� Fowler said. Well, almost everything. His caddie, Joe Skovron, could have fallen in the water, too. The saga began when Fowler’s approach to the 483-yard hole came up short. He got too aggressive with his third, which skidded through the rain-soaked green, trickled down the hill behind it, and tumbled in the pond. “The ball looked like it was on ice,â€� he said. The shot was overdone, but slightly unlucky. Had the ball veered just a touch to the right, it would have caught the sand, from where he might’ve gotten up and down for bogey. Fowler took a drop at water’s edge and walked up the hill to look at the green. Then, as he says on one of his TV commercials, things got weird. With the rain intensifying and Fowler having turned his back, the ball that was at rest rolled down the hill and into the water. After some discussion with White, it was determined that Fowler would be penalized one more shot for the ball going in the water. He hadn’t hit it there, but it had been in play. “That’s an interesting one,â€� Fowler said of the Rules of Golf, which the governing bodies have tried to simplify and make more user-friendly. “We did nothing to cause it to happen, and it’s a one-shot penalty.â€� He dropped again, chipped his sixth shot onto the green, and rolled in a 17-foot putt for 7, or what he later called “a really good triple.â€� Grace birdied the 13th hole, Fowler bogeyed 12, and just like that he’d gone from five ahead to one behind in less than an hour. It was all slipping away again. With his mom and dad, Lynn and Rod, and maternal grandparents, Jeanie and Taka, watching again, this was going to be the day Rickie exorcised the demons of his crushing runner-up to Hideki Matsuyama in 2016. That day Fowler knocked his drive over the par-4 17th and into the water in regulation, and hooked a 3-wood into the water on the same hole in the playoff. He’d choked back tears afterward, so badly had he wanted to win in front of his dad and grandpa. He’d finished runner-up to Hunter Mahan in 2010, too. Last year Fowler had had a chance to win yet again but bogeyed three of the last four holes and finished T11. All those close calls? All that craziness this time around? “To have it end the way it did today was unbelievable,â€� said Fowler’s father, Rod. “I think that made it even more special.â€� This time, Fowler played to win instead of not to lose. He reached the green in two at the par-5 15th, his second shot from 239 yards clearing the hazard and leaving him with an easy two-putt birdie from 50 feet. He was tied with Grace, who was beginning to falter ahead of him. Fowler saved par from just right of the 16th green. He drove the green on 17, the hole that had tormented him for years. Again, he needed only two putts for another birdie. He was back to 17 under, two ahead of Grace, who’d bogeyed 17. “To hit the shots that he did on those holes, after everything that had happened, was amazing,â€� said friend Aaron Baddeley, who lives five minutes from the course and had driven over with his wife and four of his five kids to see Fowler win. (Baddeley had done the same thing last year and in 2016, only to wind up giving condolences instead of congratulations.) Friend Thomas said he believed Fowler’s win, under such harsh conditions and with bad breaks, will do more to steel him for future battles than had he coasted to victory. “It was insane,â€� Thomas said of the events at the 11th hole. The winner didn’t dispute that, or the fact that everything had turned out in the end. He flipped the winning ball to grandpa Taka, who caught it and beamed as grandma Jeanie captured the moment on her iPhone. “Cheers,â€� Fowler said, raising a glass of Champagne as he met the media afterward. “I finally got it done.â€�

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Cameron Smith came from four shots back to win The Open at St. Andrews for his first major championship title. Here’s a look inside his bag and the equipment that helped lead him to the Claret Jug. Driver: Titleist TSR2 (10 degrees @ 10.75 degrees, D4) Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 6 X 3-wood: Titleist TSi2 (15 degrees @ 15.75 degrees, D4) Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 8 X Irons: Mizuno Pro Hi-Fli (3, 3), Titleist T100 Black (5-9) Shafts: KBS Tour 130 X Custom Matte Black Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM9 Jet Black (46-10F, 52-08F, 56-08M), Titleist WedgeWorks Proto Jet Black (60-T) Shafts: KBS Tour 130 X Custom Matte Black Putter: Scotty Cameron 009M Prototype Grip: Scotty Cameron Ball: Titleist Pro V1 Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Super Tack

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POTOMAC, Maryland – A tiny square of chocolate sat nestled in cupcake frosting. Rory McIlroy, celebrating his 33rd birthday at the Wells Fargo Championship pro-am at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm, plucked the decorative part off the top and ate it. He thanked everyone and discretely left the cupcake under a tent next to the 10th tee. RELATED: McIlroy extends agreement with TaylorMade | McIlroy looks to improve wedge play “I try not to eat a lot of that stuff,” he said on the walk to his pre-tournament press conference. A 22-year-old McIlroy might have eaten the whole cupcake. That’s how old he was when he won the 2011 U.S. Open at nearby Congressional Country Club, which on Wednesday he called “the best week of golf I’ve ever played in my life.” Now, though, he’s older, and wiser. He’s an athlete, and athletes don’t often eat that stuff. McIlroy drove past a familiar looking course on his way to TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm for the first time Tuesday. Familiar, he realized with a start, because it was Congressional, the place where he rebounded from his Masters meltdown with an emphatic statement win. Since then, of course, he’s won nearly all the important hardware, at THE PLAYERS Championship, PGA Championship (twice), Open Championship. He’s the only other player besides Tiger Woods to win the FedExCup twice. Somehow, though, he’d never had occasion to play TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm. He hadn’t even heard much about it. “But from what I’ve seen the last couple days,” he said, “I really like it … green complexes are tricky, pretty small targets, the rough maybe isn’t up as much as they usually have it here because of the time of year. “But overall, really solid test,” he continued. “Looking forward to getting out there.” The usual Wells Fargo venue, Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, is busy preparing for the Presidents Cup, but rest assured, McIlroy, who won the Wells Fargo for the third time a year ago, knows how to adapt. He also knows how to relate. He was the pro-am partner of choice for the four HBCU graduates and former First Tee kids who got him for the front nine. McIlroy made sure everyone walked away smiling, and offered tips to at least one of his young playing partners, Lennard Long of Morehouse College, now a First Tee coach. “Super friendly,” Long said. “Super just helpful. Asked him some tips for chipping and he was willing to give them to me, so I’m going to take them back and give them to our kids when I coach them so they’re really appreciative of it.” None of this should be surprising. McIlroy could be No. 1 in Strokes Gained: Self-awareness. A 20-time PGA TOUR winner, 11th in the FedExCup, seventh in the world, he is also a husband (Erica) and father (Poppy). He’s coming off a three-week break, his last competitive round a wild 64 at the Masters that vaulted him to second place, his best-ever finish at Augusta. He and playing partner Collin Morikawa each holed out from a greenside bunker on 18, touching off a wild celebration, after which McIlroy said he’d never had so much fun playing golf. Now he hopes to build on that success, as he’s on the precipice of playing six times in the next eight weeks. Those eight weeks should begin to tell us if anyone can challenge FedExCup leader Scottie Scheffler. Whatever shakes out between the ropes, McIlroy is sure to command eyeballs. He has become one of the game’s elder statesmen (albeit a young one), a Player Director on the PGA TOUR policy board who isn’t afraid to speak his mind. “He’s a leader I think for us in a lot of ways,” said Webb Simpson. “Very articulate. And he’s been a global player for a long time, so I think his opinions matter. Him being on the board now, I think he brings a lot to the table. He’s certainly a guy who I think has been fun to listen to because he’s not just going to give you the right answers, he’s going to give you what he thinks.” Small example: Saturated from overnight rain, TPC Potomac would seem to offer the kind of soft targets that suit McIlroy nicely. Those were the conditions, after all, when he won his first major at that 2011 U.S. Open. Asked about the favorable conditions, though, he offered the gentle reminder that he’s won 30 trophies worldwide, not all of them on soggy grass. Instead of being chastened, though, the assembled journalists laughed right along with him. Still, Congressional really was special, and McIlroy planned to drop in. “We’ll see if I can rekindle some of those vibes from 11 years ago,” he said of the Wednesday afternoon visit, the first time he will have gone back to Congressional since participating in a First Tee clinic there a few years ago. Coming off the time of his life at the Masters, defending at his beloved Wells Fargo, and on his birthday, no less, McIlroy is in his element, that enviable, happy place where all the vibes are good and all the cupcakes fully frosted.

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