Cristie Kerr brings her views to TV at Honda Classic

Tiger found asleep at wheel, blew 0.00 on test

Click here to read the full article…

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Notes and observations from Sunday’s final round of the Wyndham Championship, where Henrik Stenson shot a final-round 64 to reach a tournament-record 22 under and edge rookie Ollie Schniederjans (64) by one. Webb Simpson (67) finished third, four back, while a handful of players moved into the all-important top 125 in the FedExCup. For more coverage from Sedgefield Country Club, click here for the Daily Wrap-up. STENSON CLOSES DOOR Technically, Henrik Stenson was tied with countrymen Jesper Parnevik and Carl Pettersson as the most decorated male Swedish player ever, all of them having won five times on the PGA TOUR. In reality, Stenson was first among equals. Those other guys hadn’t won The Open Championship, the TOUR Championship and the 2013 FedExCup. In any case, Stenson put the matter to rest at Sedgefield, where he reeled off three straight birdies on holes 15-17 to edge a surging Ollie Schniederjans and collect his sixth PGA TOUR win. In the process, Stenson bolstered his chances for the upcoming FedExCup Playoffs, moving from 75th to 23rd going into the opening tournament, THE NORTHERN TRUST. “It’s certainly a good time to start firing,â€� he said. “We know the kind of damage you can do during the Playoffs when the points are up to four times the normal season, right, so if you get hot and keep on playing well, certainly a chance to challenge for the overall. “… It’s the first step, and delighted to get a win this year.â€� Stenson’s previous three starts at the Wyndham had yielded two missed cuts and a WD with the flu, but he needed a start to get to 15 tournaments on TOUR. And this time he changed things up, taking his driver out of the bag and using only a 3- and a 4-wood off the tees, plus some long irons. The 41-year-old also stuck with a decision he made at the recent World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational, using four wedges for the first time in his career. After he’d salted away the victory with a tough two-putt par from behind the pin on 18, Stenson said it was the first of his 20 professional victories that came without a driver in the bag. It was also his first win since The Open last July, when he outdueled Phil Mickelson, then 46, in a classic. Was it especially gratifying to push back a challenge from a 24-year-old like Schniederjans in this, a season in which his young peers like Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas have reigned? “It’s always good to beat the 24-year-olds,â€� Stenson said with a bemused smile. “And the 34-year-olds, and sometimes the 46-year-olds.â€� SCHNIEDERJANS EYES EAST LAKE Ollie Schniederjans likes to say he’s on his own trajectory, which is worth remembering given the success of peers like Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas. The soft-spoken Schniederjans didn’t even take up golf until he was 12 — he was into baseball and basketball — but got good fast, reaching No. 1 as an amateur and becoming an All-American at Georgia Tech. Now the hatless rookie is hitting his stride on TOUR, thanks in part to a newfound belief in his putting and his putter, a Callaway Toulon that he put in the bag this week. He birdied three of the last four holes Sunday, when he was the only player in the field who went without a bogey. “Probably the best I ever played for four days,â€� he said. “I putted awesome all week.â€� (He was sixth in the field in strokes gained: putting at +1.825.) Schniederjans moved from 74th to 39th in the FedExCup, the significance of which was not lost on him. As a member of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and a resident of Alpharetta, about 30 minutes away from East Lake, he has played the TOUR Championship venue numerous times. He’ll need to move up just nine more spots in the standings over the next three tournaments, when points are quadrupled, in order to get there for the season-ender, Sept. 21-24. “The goal to start the year was to make it to the TOUR Championship, so this is a huge boost,â€� Schniederjans said. His best score on the course? “I think 64,â€� he said. CALL OF THE DAY ACES WILD IN FINAL ROUND Roberto Castro made a hole-in-one at the 174-yard third hole on the way to a final-round 66 and a T28 finish. Then things got crazy. Ben Crane started the week at 147th in the FedExCup, so he needed to make a big move in order to play his way to New York and the first Playoffs event, THE NORTHERN TRUST. With scores of 69-64-72-67, Crane didn’t quite get it done, never contending and finishing T37. But he got a great consolation prize when he aced the 172-yard 16th hole at Sedgefield, a master stroke that — as the first hole-in-one there this week — brought 105,000 Wyndham rewards points for not only Crane but also his caddie, Joel Stock. “It’s been a special week,â€� said Crane, who stayed with friends in Greensboro. “And then, you know, kind of playing pretty good but need something to get over the hump. Got to 16 there and hit a beautiful shot. As soon as I hit it: ‘Oh, be right, baby.’ “Sure enough, it landed two paces short there and rolled in just like a putt. You know, most PGA TOUR players — I have to brag — don’t nail the celebration, but Billy Horschel and I did a lot of choreography work beforehand and nailed it, did the right high-fives, the caddies did the right high-fives. … It was awesome. We had a lot of fun with it.â€� Crane’s fate was similar but different than that of Martin Flores, who also aced the 16th two hours later. Although Flores did not get the Wyndham points — only the first golfer to ace the hole got the prize — he shot a final-round 63 to tie for seventh, as did playing partner Cameron Smith (63). The difference: While Smith was already squared away for the FedExCup Playoffs, Flores played his way in, moving up from 139th to 118th.   “I was really thankful that I got to watch Cam hit first,â€� Flores said of his hole-in-one at 16, “because that kind of changed a little bit of how hard I was going to hit my 8-iron.â€� ODDS AND ENDS Ryan Armour (64, T4) had missed the cut in his three previous starts at the Wyndham, in 2007, 2008 and 2015. But with a slight equipment modification this time — new shafts — he finished in the top 10 for the first time since a T6 at the 2007 Valero Texas Open. Armour, 41, moved from 187th to 159th in the FedExCup. … Shane Lowry (67, T7) notched his first top-10 finish since a runner-up at the 2016 U.S. Open. … Three-time Wyndham winner Davis Love III, vying to become the oldest TOUR winner at 53, shot a final-round 69 to finish T10, his first top-10 since winning the 2015 Wyndham. He was making his 746th official start on TOUR. … Matt Every, who opened with a 61, finished strong, too, with a 66 to finish 13th — a promising result at the end of a season in which he missed 20 cuts. He still has one more year of full eligibility on TOUR from his win at the 2015 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard, a tournament that offers a three-year exemption for a win. … Hunter Mahan, who came into the week at 197th in the FedExCup, shot an even-par 70 to tie for 16th, his best result of the season. Mahan, who once reached as high as fourth in the Official World Golf Ranking, moved up 15 spots to 182nd in the FedExCup.   BEST OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Click here to read the full article…

HONOLULU, Hawaii – Just under a decade ago Charles Howell III came to a conclusion not always felt by elite athletes … winning isn’t everything. Having already won twice on the PGA TOUR, Howell III had been bitter about not closing the deal more often. It was bothering him like it would most players. But then he became a father and a sense of reality set in. Does winning define me? Does winning define the person I am or ultimately how successful one is? Of course winning is sensational. Of course we look at Tiger Woods’ 80 PGA TOUR wins in awe. But there’s something to be said for consistent performance also. And there is a lot to be said for being a kind and caring person and a doting dad and husband. Howell did not want golf to ever become miserable. He didn’t want his golf game to dictate his moods. The ruthless would say this attitude contributed to a win drought for Howell III that spanned nearly 12 years. But when he claimed The RSM Classic late last year for his third career win, first in 333 starts, no one begrudged his moment. “I realized you can still have a fantastic career and not win all the time. I don’t mean that as defeatist, because it’s not. It’s just the reality of it,â€� Howell III said of his epiphany. “I think having kids you realize you just can’t do that. It’s like, No, I’m going to go do the best I can do and that’s going to be what it is and I’m going to go home. Work on it in practice, but this is going to be it. “Honestly, that may not sound like the right thing to say, but it is the reality and makes this a lot easier.â€� It was an attitude that has helped Howell III earn over $37 million in on-course earnings in his PGA TOUR career – ranked 20th of all time. It wasn’t like he wasn’t trying to win … it just didn’t always fall his way. “The line between first and second is a big line,â€� Howell III added. “I think Tiger coming along made winning look a lot easier than it really is. “You always really push yourself along to try to get better and improve, and that’s a great thing to do but at the end of the day you have to stop and realize, okay, hang on, it’s really hard to win. “If I’m able to keep staying in the mix and having a nice career, eventually the win will happen.â€� If Howell III is right about the latter line perhaps he should be the red-hot favorite for this week’s Sony Open in Hawaii. Since his first trip to Waialae Country Club in 2002 Howell has made 17 straight cuts in the event. The Augusta native has nine top-10s including two runner ups and two thirds. Clearly it is a course that suits his game and could see him lift his position in the FedExCup up from his already lofty fourth position. “I do love it here. Funny thing is I really can’t give a reason why I’ve had those finishes here, but I do like the golf course,â€� he explains.  “It’s quite a bit different than a lot we play. This is a nice change from the norm. It’s old-style.â€� These days a lot of the courses on TOUR seemingly suit those who hit the ball a long way. At an average 292 yards in driving distance so far this season Howell III is not classed as a bomber by any means. He has seen a shift from his early days on TOUR towards younger and more athletic players. But it drives him. “When I first started on TOUR the best players were the older players. Now I’ve gotten older it’s shifted the other way and the best players seem to be the younger players,â€� he said. “It makes me keep working hard. I know that. It makes me keep trying to find new and creative ways to get better, new ways to push myself along.â€� Howell III has never really been under threat of losing his TOUR card since he began what has now spanned 530 starts. His worst finish in the FedExCup was 97th in 2008. He’s cashed over one million dollars a season since his first full season in 2001. His latest win means he’s exempt through the 2020-21 season which will see him push towards an incredible 600 TOUR starts but he won’t take it for granted. “There isn’t a good player that has come out of college that doesn’t hit it 300 yards and doesn’t putt good,â€� he says. “So if that isn’t motivation enough to practice then I don’t know what is. They’ll take your job from you like that. If you look around, a lot of them keep doing that “If I want to still be sitting here in a few years I need to kick my butt in gear and keep working and practicing.â€�

Click here to read the full article…