Win probabilities: Farmers Insurance Open

BLAINE, Minn. – Richy Werenski made a short birdie putt on the par-5 18th for an 8-under 63 to take the first-round lead Thursday in the 3M Open. The 24-year-old Werenski is winless on the PGA TOUR. He broke a tie with Michael Thompson with his ninth and last birdie on the warm, windy afternoon at the TPC Twin Cities. Defending champion Matthew Wolff, Tony Finau, Nick Watney, Ryan Moore, Xinjun Zhang and Max Homa were tied for third at 65. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Finau parts ways with caddie, shoots first-round 65 | Dustin Johnson withdraws citing back injury Dustin Johnson withdrew because of a back injury after a 78. His victory at the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Connecticut, last month did not spark a post-shutdown surge. After posting back-to-back 80s last week at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide for the highest 36-hole score of his pro career, Johnson’s first appearance at the 3M Open north of Minneapolis lasted just one round. At the end of his first nine, Johnson started the 599-yard, dog-leg 18th hole with a solid drive off the tee. With 209 yards to get to the flag, he used his 6-iron for a shot — “perfect,” he said — that was swallowed up in the pond just short of the rough. “Hit it right at it and never once did I think it was going to go in the water,” said Johnson, who did mention his back during a brief post-round interview. His next two tries met the same fate. Three penalty strokes later, Johnson finally landed his ball on the green for a tap-in putt and a quadruple-bogey nine on the scorecard. “Kind of the same last week. I just struggled with my iron play, and that makes it difficult,” he said. Watney, who was the first PGA TOUR player to test positive for the coronavirus, at the RBC Heritage on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, failed to make the cut two weeks ago at the Workday Charity Open in Dublin, Ohio, after a two-round score of 150. The 39-year-old Watney, who has five career PGA TOUR victories, went back to the basics in practice last week — aim, balance, posture — while most of his peers played the Memorial. “I’m trying to put that to bed, get past it and hopefully play some nice golf after coming down with that,” Watney said. “It’s great to be up here after playing a good round as opposed to just other things.”

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In the final round of the OHL Classic at Mayakoba, Patton Kizzire holds off nerves and a hard-charging Rickie Fowler with a bogey-free 67 at El Camaleon Golf Club. Welcome to the Monday Finish, where Kizzire, who won twice on the Web.com Tour in 2015, enters the winner’s circle for the first time on the PGA TOUR to earn 500 FedExCup points and entry into the 2018 Sentry Tournament of Champions, THE PLAYERS Championship, the Masters, the PGA Championship and other select invitational events on TOUR. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. Kizzire is a fast starter. Of his three top-10s last season, when he was 99th in the FedExCup, his best was a runner-up at the season-opening Safeway Open. He entered the last round at Silverado with a one-shot lead over Scott Piercy but shot a 2-under 70 to drop one behind winner Brendan Steele. Two years ago, also in his season debut, Kizzire tied for second at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. And now, after missing the cut at the Safeway (a rare hiccup) and a solid Sanderson Farms Championship (T10) and Shriners (T4), he wins in his fourth start of the new season. Don’t count him out at this week’s RSM Classic at Sea Island, either. He lives there. 2. El Camaleon’s first hole was a brute. The 438-yard par-4 played to a 4.321 average, hardest of the final round, and gave players fits in the third round, too. Charles Howell III (T4) and Patrick Rodgers (T14) each double-bogeyed it. Martin Piller (T4) triple-bogeyed it. That was particularly hard on Rodgers and Piller, who were embarking on a 36-hole Sunday. “I just tried to stay patient and say, Okay, you’ve got 35 more holes to make it up,� Piller said. “I didn’t hit the tee shot that bad, but it got up in the wind and went right. It was only like a foot out of bounds. The provisional went down the middle, and then I hit it on and promptly three-putted.� 3. Rickie Fowler is a top-10 machine. Fowler, who was making his season debut and his first start at Mayakoba, shot 65-67-67-67 and might have won but for the fact that he bogeyed the par-5 fifth hole and couldn’t buy a putt in the middle of his round, from holes 7-12. Last season Fowler had 10 top-10 finishes, including a win at The Honda Classic, in 21 starts. Now he’s one-for-one in top-10s for the new season, and his earnings of $766,800 for solo second put him over the $30 million mark in career earnings at age 28. Not a bad consolation prize. 4. Hard work pays off. Martin Piller (65, T4) played just three practice holes on Tuesday, and none Wednesday. He putted. “I hadn’t been putting the way I normally do,� said Piller, who will turn 32 on Tuesday. “So I just camped out on the putting green. I’m an okay ball-striker, but if my putting is good I’ll be in good shape.� His putting at Mayakoba was beyond good. Piller took just 22 putts in the final round Sunday and totaled 97 for the tournament, eight fewer than the next best, Fowler and Russell Knox. “I made a bunch from the fringes this week,� Piller said. 5. Si Woo Kim is going to win this tournament. Kim (65, solo third), who became the youngest winner of THE PLAYERS Championship last season, was 6-under through 13 holes in the final round but blocked his tee shot into the hazard and double-bogeyed the 14th hole. He bounced back with birdies at Nos. 15 and 17 to notch his best result since coming out on top at TPC Sawgrass last May. In 2015, Kim was tied for third at the halfway mark at El Camaleon but fell back with weekend rounds of 72-70 that saw him finish T17.  FIVE INSIGHTS 1. Kizzire was four for four in scrambling in the final round, and 13 of 18 (13th best) for the week. He took just 107 putts over the four rounds, tied for fifth best in the field, and hit 54 of 72 greens in regulation, tied for seventh best. 2. The winner was one of four players who went bogey-free in the final round, the others being Brian Stuard (65, T9), Charles Howell (66, T4) and Ryan Moore (68, T6). 3. Fowler was second in both average driving distance (299.2 yards), which was not a terribly important stat at El Camaleon, and putts per round (26.25), which was.  4. Charles Howell III achieved his T4 finish, going 66-66 in the third and fourth rounds, the old-fashioned way: hitting fairways and greens. He hit 42 of 56 fairways, tied for 12th best (and a crucial stat at tree-lined El Camaleon), and 59 of 72 greens in regulation, tied for second best. 5. It was a great week for Mexico in many ways, especially with the scores. Four of the five Mexicans in the field made the cut, a record in the 11-year history of the OHL. Abraham Ancer, who has dual U.S./Mexico citizenship, went 65-68 to finish T9 and lead the native sons.   TOP THREE VIDEOS Rooftop rob hangout Hanging on the edge Better than birdie for Byrd

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