Winner’s Bag: Harris English, Sentry Tournament of Champions

The images are indelible: Tiger Woods raising the roof, missing on high-fives; the fans yelling; and the empties flying. We look back at his famous hole-in-one from 25 years ago at TPC Scottsdale.

Click here to read the full article…

LOS ANGELES — Adam Scott has another victory at Riviera, and this time it counts. Scott survived a calamitous Sunday with just enough clutch putts — for birdie, par, even a bogey — and closed with 1-under 70 for a two-shot victory in the Genesis Invitational. Related: Leaderboard | Scott starves himself of competition to stay hungry The victory comes 15 years after Scott won a playoff at Riviera that didn’t count as official because rain shortened the tournament to 36 holes. He earned every bit of this victory, his 14th on the PGA TOUR and 29th worldwide. Nearly a dozen players had a chance to win. Five players had a share of the lead at some point. Riviera was such a strong test that everyone made mistakes, including Scott. He went long off the fifth green, had a flop shot come back to his feet, putted the next up the hill and made double bogey. But he bounced back with a slick, scary 18-foot birdie putt on the par-3 sixth to regain a share of the lead, and he never trailed the rest of the way. Rory McIlroy was tied for the lead when he went long on the fifth, took two flop shots to get on the green and then compounded the error with a three-putt triple bogey. McIlroy never recovered. His tee shot on the par-3 sixth went on the wrong side of the bunker in the middle of the green, leading to another bogey. He closed with a 73 and tied for fifth. Harold Varner III, looking for his first PGA TOUR victory, was tied for the lead until he tried to hammer a 3-wood on the reachable 10th hole and chunked it so bad it barely reached the fairway, traveling a mere 129 yards. That led to double bogey, and he made bogey on the par-5 11th to fall out of contention. His day ended by missing a 3-foot par putt that gave him a 74 to finish out of the top 10. Tiger Woods had his problems, too, but he was never in contention. Woods played a five-hole stretch late in his round at 5 over and shot 77 to finish last among the 68 players who made the cut. It was the first time Woods has finished last alone since the Memorial in 2015. “Good news, I hit every ball forward, not backwards, a couple sideways,” Woods said. Matt Kuchar, who started the final round tied with Scott and McIlroy, birdied the par-5 opening hole and didn’t make another until the 17th when it was too late. He shot 72 and tied for second with Sung Kang (69) and Scott Brown (68). The clincher for Scott was his 10-foot birdie putt on the par-5 17th that gave him a two-shot margin, and when he knocked in his par putt on the 18th, he stood back and thrust his right fist in the air.  Scott finished at 11-under 273 for his first PGA TOUR title since the World Golf Championships event at Doral in 2016. “I’m stoked with this,” Scott said. “It’s a big step, whatever point in my career I’m at. I haven’t won for three years. This feels very special.” It was his second straight victory — he last played three days before Christmas and won the Australian PGA — and takes him to 16th in the FedExCup standings.  Hideki Matsuyama made the cut on the number and finished three shots behind in a tie for fifth with McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau, Max Homa and Joel Dahmen. Homa and Dahmen were in the mix late, but Homa caught a plugged lie in the bunker on the par-3 16th and made bogey to stop his threat, and Dahmen missed the 18th green to the left and failed to save par. Scott saved par on No. 12 with a 10-foot putt. He seized control with a 12-foot birdie putt on the 13th. And when he got in big trouble with his approach into a buried lie in the sand on the 15th, he got up-and-down from the other side of the green with a 5-foot putt to escape with bogey. This was a long time coming on the PGA TOUR, and it came on his favorite course on the PGA TOUR.

Click here to read the full article…

AUSTIN, Texas – Tiger Woods walked off Austin Country Club glad he did not have to record a stroke play score. The three-time champion returned to the World Golf Championships – Dell Technologies Match Play for the first time in six years as a winner… but it wasn’t exactly pretty. The 80-time PGA TOUR winner was far from crisp in his match against PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year Aaron Wise, but prevailed 3 and 1 in a scrappy affair. Despite having just four birdies in his 17 holes with four bogeys, Woods outlasted a wayward Wise. The 22-year-old had more birdies than his illustrious opponent with six, but also carded seven bogeys and a double bogey to fall to the three-time event champion. “The way we were playing today, we’re very thankful it’s not stroke play… I broke 80,â€� a relieved Woods joked afterward. “I won the match. It wasn’t exactly the best of golf out there from both of us. We gave a few holes away with bogeys and three-putts, and we won a few holes with some good birdies. It was an emotional round because there weren’t a lot of halved holes.â€� Wise admitted his first ever round with one of his idols had him a little nervous during the first couple of holes, but stopped short of saying it contributed to his wayward play. The former NCAA champion and winner of last season’s AT&T Byron Nelson actually turned an early two-hole deficit to a 1-up lead through 10 holes, but was unable to hold firm. Four bogeys in his last five holes sealed his fate. “(I was) a little bit (nervous). The first hole is always where I’m most nervous. I’m never kind of nervous coming down the stretch. I’m always nervous starting the round, because there’s a lot of uncertainties,â€� Wise said. “I got off to a really bad start but luckily in match play you’re still two down through 2, and I knew I could come back from that. It wasn’t like the world was over.” “I don’t think either of us played as good as we wanted to, but he played a little bit better than me and got the win.â€� While bummed with the loss Wise said he will take plenty away from the experience of going head to head with one of the greatest of all time. “It was pretty cool to get in his group today, be able to play him, especially in match play, where it’s me against him. It was a fun experience,â€� Wise said. “I really respect what he’s done in the game, and it was pretty cool to be able to watch him compete today and be alongside of him.â€� The 13th seeded Woods takes on 44th seed Brandt Snedeker on Thursday as he seeks to advance from the group. Snedeker halved his match with Patrick Cantlay thanks to a clutch birdie on the 18th hole.

Click here to read the full article…