Rory conquers ‘cathedral,’ wins Pebble Beach by 2

The Ladies European Tour postponed two tournaments on Tuesday which were due to be held in Australia in February, 2021 due to the ongoing travel restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Click here to read the full article…

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Three-time champion Phil Mickelson got off to a ho-hum start with an opening-round, 3-under 68 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open on Thursday. It wasn’t great. It wasn’t terrible. “I didn’t probably play my best,â€� Mickelson said. “I didn’t really putt great and didn’t drive it great. But I shot 3 under and it’s an OK start.â€� Mickelson hit just 5/14 fairways, and 14/18 greens in regulation. Neither stat was all that unusual for him, but he made only 43 feet of putts on the greens and finished the day in negative numbers in Strokes Gained: Putting. That was an aberration in light of his recent play. Mickelson is coming off a T2 at the Desert Classic two weeks ago, when he flirted with a 59 but settled for a 60 in the first round. He is enjoying a mini-career revival, which he credits in part to increased swing speed after leading the field in driving distance (302.5 yards on all tee shots) in the desert. The gain has been surprising given that he’s the oldest player in many fields. MUST READS: Round 1, Waste Management Phoenix Open Rickie Fowler, Justin Thomas share house and lead at TPC Scottsdale Oklahoma State amateur Matthew Wolff impresses with unorthodox swing He also has enjoyed a resurgence in his short game. He was around the lead in Strokes Gained: Putting for much of last season, when he broke a nearly five-year win drought with his playoff victory over Justin Thomas at the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship. He tried to focus on the positive Thursday, which was that he birdied 15 and 18 to end the day. “Tomorrow we’ll have a chance with an early morning tee time to hopefully get a hot round going,â€� he said. “I didn’t play as well as I wanted to, but I didn’t shoot myself out of it.â€� This marks his 30th start in the event, one of his two hometown tournaments. He first played here as an amateur sensation out of Arizona State in 1989, and has since won it three times (1996, 2005, 2013). “I just can’t believe that it’s been 30 years,â€� he said earlier this week. “It just has gone by so fast.â€�

Click here to read the full article…

LA QUINTA, Calif. – Even Adam Long wasn’t certain where he stood after hitting his approach into the Desert Classic’s final hole. Winning wasn’t at the top of his mind when he teed off in Sunday’s final group with Phil Mickelson and Adam Hadwin. A top-10 finish, and a spot in next week’s event, would have been nice. Long was an afterthought in a final group that included a World Golf Hall of Famer and a Canadian playing in front of countrymen who flock to the California desert in the winter. Long was just a 31-year-old rookie making his sixth PGA TOUR start. And then he was the champion. He won in a way that most players can only dream of: by making a 15-footer for birdie on the last hole. Long arrived at the final hole tied with Hadwin and Mickelson. After hitting his drive into the right rough, Long hit his 175-yard onto the green. That’s when he asked his caddie to confirm that he shared the lead. “I wasn’t 100 percent sure. I didn’t care. I had nothing to lose,� Long said. The stage was set for him after Hadwin’s bunker shot stopped inches from the hole and Mickelson barely missed a long birdie try. Mickelon’s miss helped Long see the line for his career-changing putt. His 65th stroke of the day found the bottom of the hole. Long, who was 20 over par in his previous five PGA TOUR starts, shot 26-under 262 on the Desert Classic’s three-course rotation. He shot 63 in the first and third rounds, then fired a 65 that was Sunday’s second-lowest score on PGA West’s tricky Stadium Course. Long, who started the final round three shots behind Mickelson, chipped in twice on the back nine. He didn’t make a bogey. “I just kept plugging away and it was kind of the Phil and Adam Hadwin show for most of the way,� Long said. “Everyone was chanting Phil’s name most of the way and there are a lot of Canadians down here. I was just in the background.� Not when it was time for the trophy ceremony. He was the last player left on the 18th green. Before the win, he was an alternate for next week’s Farmers Insurance Open. Now THE PLAYERS Championship, Sentry Tournament of Champions, Masters and PGA Championship are among the events he can add to his schedule. Long leapt to 12th in the FedExCup standings. He started the week ranked 205th, ahead of just 13 players. The win was worth 500 points. He began this week with just four FedExCup points after missing the cut in four of five starts this season. His best finish was T63 at the Safeway Open. “He hit shot after shot and putted great, had a couple chip-ins and did what you had to do to win,� said Mickelson, who owns as many major titles (5) as TOUR starts Long had made before this week. Hadwin was still three shots ahead after Long’s chip-in on the 12th hole. Hadwin played the final six holes in 1 over, though, while Long birdied half of the remaining holes. He holed a 5-footer for birdie on 14 before holing another chip on the next hole. Then he birdied the last hole, an incredible finish for a player who admitted that just receiving the text with his final-round tee time gave him nerves. Long didn’t look intimidated, though, when he birdied Sunday’s first two holes. “Birdieing those first two really calmed a bit, like, ‘All right, I got this, I can compete, I can play, I belong,� Long said. He’d spent nine years as a professional waiting for this moment. His only TOUR start before this season came at the 2011 U.S. Open. That was the same year that he won his only previous professional title, the Woodcreek Classic on the now-defunct Hooters Tour. He estimates that the winner’s check was $25,000. He played his first Web.com Tour season the following year but finished 127th on the money list. He didn’t get back on that tour until 2015. He never doubted that he could make it, though. “I wasn’t doing great, but I never really doubted it,� he said. �I still wanted to play and I still loved it and I still wanted to see how good I could get.� He became a PGA TOUR winner on Sunday. And it was worth the wait.

Click here to read the full article…