Grillo ace on 16th sparks wild celebration at TPC

Landon Donovan is generally regarded as the best American male soccer player of all time, so accomplished the Major League Soccer's MVP award is named in his honor. On Wednesday, though, the 38-year-old steps outside his comfort zone to play with Tony Finau against Paul Casey and singer Jake Owen in the American Express Charity Challenge at PGA WEST in La Quinta, California. Donovan, who is co-owner and coach of the San Diego Loyal Soccer Club, took some time before the event to talk about how he got his start in golf and the particular skills he thinks set the game apart. PGATOUR.COM: You've been playing golf since you were in elementary school. What drew you to the game? DONOVAN: I believe it was in third grade. The reason I started was I was having some problems in school with my behavior and my parents told me that if I behaved well, they would take me on some sort of outing of my choosing. And I have no idea why one of the times I said I want to golf. And they were like, okay. So, I actually went out with my mom and started golfing. So, there’s a nostalgic piece of it. And then it’s kind of come and gone as I’ve been an adult — mainly based around my schedule and if I physically felt up to it or not when I was playing. But now that I’m coaching, there’s not a ton of time, but when I can I just love the sport. PGATOUR.COM: So how good a golfer are you? DONOVAN: Well, when I play a decent amount, I shoot in the low 80s. But I also don’t play from the tips. I don’t drive the ball particularly well, but my iron game and short game is OK by an average person’s standards. If I had to play from the tips at PGA WEST it probably would not be a pretty outcome, but I think they’re going to give us a little bit of leeway on some of the holes. PGATOUR.COM: Are you nervous? After all, it's going to be televised. DONOVAN: No, I’m not nervous. I’m excited. I hope nobody expects that I know how to golf. I just want to enjoy it. I mean, obviously it’s for a great, great cause, but more so, personally on the day, it’ll just be fun to get one, to get to play with Tony, and then just to see these guys up close and see how they hit the ball. I went to the Masters a few years ago. … Just to see the way they strike the ball and then listen to the sound is really remarkable. And you don’t realize that watching them on TV, obviously. So, when he gets to do it up close and then I just want to hear, I mean, probably the last thing Tony wants to do is talk about golf, but I just want to speak a little bit about like his process as he goes through lining up a shot and deciding how he’s going to play a certain hole and those kinds of things. I love learning, and that would be really fascinating to hear. PGATOUR.COM: You were such an awesome soccer player — the best of all time. Is it frustrating to play a sport that you haven’t mastered yet? DONOVAN: Yeah. I mean, that’s the beauty of all sports other than the one you played — and golf in particular. I play a lot of tennis, as well. And tennis is a sport where you can play a bad point and still win the point. You can actually play a relatively bad set or match and still win a match just based on how it’s going. In golf there’s nowhere to turn. There are no other variables. It’s just you on the ball. And that’s the daunting part because I’m so used to a sport where there are so many variables involved and so many players and referees and fans, the climate. What the beauty of golf is, you don’t have any excuses. It’s just you either did it or you didn’t. And so that’s what I love about it — but that’s also what’s very frustrating. I’m sure like everyone experiences the ability to hit a shot almost like a professional would hit, even though it’s once in a blue moon, it makes you feel like it’s a sport you can conquer. But then the reason why they are where they are is because they can do it every time or almost every time. Once in a blue moon, you can strike a ball like a professional, but you could never, ever, ever compete with them because you can’t do it twice in a row and they do it 200 times in a row over the course of a weekend. PGATOUR.COM: What frustrates you most about the game? DONOVAN: Honestly the level of respect I have for what they’re able to do is so high because in my opinion, tennis and golf are the two most mentally challenging sports. And I think golf is a little more than tennis because of what I just said. It’s a game and a sport that is far ahead of other sports in the way players mentally prepare. And if we could take that level of mental work and preparation and put it into other sports, athletes would be a lot better. And it’s still sort of the last plateau or I guess the last the last area to conquer in team sports because it’s seen as not macho or just toughing through it or get on with it, whereas in golf it’s like the mental side is you could say more important than the physical side. So, we can learn so much from that sport because they have no choice, but to get on with the next shot, regardless of what happened before and in soccer you’ll see guys who make a bad play or miss a shot and it affects them for the rest of the game and they can’t recover. And in golf you just have to learn no matter what happened — good, bad, ugly, indifferent — you have to get on with the next shot. That’s the only one that matters. And I think that’s a great metaphor for life and for other sports as well could be really helpful. PGATOUR.COM: And I also think the fact that a golf tournament is held over four days - not just a single game — makes it even more challenging mentally DONOVAN: That’s well said. And also, what people don’t realize is when amateur golfers golf, we all golf with the cart, right? At least a push-cart or most of us have like a motorized cart. If I walk seven or eight holes, I am exhausted. I mean, exhausted. And in the sun, right? So, you don’t realize how fit they are because that’s not easy. Yes. I know someone’s carrying their bag, but you just try walking 18 holes without hitting golf shots and without the mental strength. It’s really hard. It’s exhausting. So, it makes you realize what great shape they’re at. And then by Sunday afternoon, they still have the energy - it's really impressive. PGATOUR.COM: This may be a weird question because soccer is so fast paced but is there anything about soccer that helps you as a golfer? DONOVAN: It's actually a great question. Only since I stopped playing soccer did I realize in tennis and in golf, both, the value of just watching the ball when you strike it. And I never thought about it in soccer because I was so programmed to do it without thinking and it was just second nature for me. But in both tennis and golf, when I actually just watched the ball all the way to the racket or watch the club all the way until it hits through the ball, there’s a different outcome. And it’s so difficult because human nature is always to want to see where the ball is going. You always want to know where the ball is going. And so, in soccer, when there were times where I wasn’t scoring goals or something felt off with my shooting, I would always go back to, OK, just keep your head down and watch yourself, kick the ball all the way through the ball. And that’s exactly the same thing that happens in golf. Exactly. For me, it’s almost every time I watched myself swing all the way through the ball that I hit at least a decent shot. And when I don’t, I don’t. PGATOUR.COM: What's the funniest thing that’s ever happened to you on the golf course? DONOVAN: So, when I was with the under-17 national team, my coach at that time — and this was 20-plus years ago — he likes to tell this story. We were in, I think it was in Florida, and we were on a golf course and I hit a ball somewhere near the water and walked over and started lining up my shot. And without me realizing it, a gator or a crocodile had trickled his or her way up, like, really close to me. And then, my coach said, ‘Hey, Landon, you may want to check out what your surroundings are right now.’ And I looked out and needless said to say, I just left the ball. I was happy to lose a couple of dollars and get the hell out of there.

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JACKSON, Miss. — Sam Burns ran off four birdies in a six-hole stretch to start the back nine and pulled away for a 5-under 67 to win the Sanderson Farms Championship on Sunday for his second PGA TOUR victory this year. RELATED: Leaderboard | Winner’s Bag: Sam Burns, Sanderson Farms Championship Against a list of contenders looking for their first win, Burns showed what it takes at the Country Club of Jackson by playing flawlessly on the back nine until it didn’t matter. He seized control with a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-3 13th, a 5-iron to 15 feet that set up a two-putt birdie on the next hole and then a perfect pitch from behind the green on the reachable par-4 15th for a tap-in birdie. Staked to a two-shot lead going down the 18th, he took a safe bogey from the greenside bunker to secure a one-shot win over resurgent Nick Watney and PGA TOUR rookie Cameron Young. Watney, coming off his worst season in more than a decade, closed with a 65 and had his best finish in more than three years. Young’s hopes began to fade on the 14th with a clunker out of the rough into a fairway bunker that led to him having to make a 4-footer for bogey. Still, he made a slick up-and-down from off the 18th green for par that gave him a 68 and a share of second, which sets him up well for the season. That starts with playing next week in Las Vegas instead of having to go through Monday qualifying. “I love being in contention, I love feeling the nerves, so it was fun today. I enjoyed it, even though it might not have looked like it,” Young said. “I knew Sam was ahead of me and I had to make a couple and just didn’t, but I will another time.” Sahith Theegala, the California rookie who began the final round with a one-shot lead, had control of the final round until he reached the back nine. He failed to get up-and-down from a greenside bunker on the par-3 10th, missing a 7-foot putt. With a 7-iron in his hand for his second to the par-5 11th, he leaked the shot to the right and into the water, and missed a 4-foot putt to take bogey. Two holes later, he three-putted from 18 feet for bogey. From there, it was about limiting the damage. He played the final five holes in 1 under for a 71. Theegala tied for eighth, which gets him into the field next week in Las Vegas. For Burns, the 25-year-old from Louisiana is just starting to cash in. He won the Valspar Championship at Innisbrook in the spring and has had more chances than that throughout the year, losing a playoff in Memphis in August and coming up one shot away from a playoff at Riviera in February. Burns did well enough to earn some serious consideration from Steve Stricker as a captain’s pick for the U.S. Ryder Cup team. And now with his second win of the year — in his first start of the new season — Burns moves into the top 20 in the world ranking for the first time. He ended a trend in which six of the last seven winners of the Sanderson Farms Championship captured their first PGA TOUR title. Burns was among the few who had winning experience. Six players in contention at the start of the final round had recently earned PGA TOUR cards through the Korn Ferry Tour. Among the exceptions was Watney, first slowed by a lower back injury and then by a loss in confidence. He went back to working with Butch Harmon in the summer, and then put together a superb week with his putter, leading the field in the key putting statistic. “There was definitely some lean times, especially last year, but I’m not trying to think about that any more,” Watney said. “I’m trying to continue to get better and this was a great step this week. I’m ready.”

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Click here for the latest field at Colonial CC as of May 19. Former Winners of the DEAN & DELUCA Invitational Keith Clearwater Sergio Garcia Zach Johnson Chris Kirk Phil Mickelson Tom Purtzer Jordan Spieth Steve Stricker Boo Weekley Winner – The Players Championship (Last 4 Yrs Plus Year of Win) Si Woo Kim Winner – U.S. Open (last 5 years) Webb Simpson Winner – PGA Championship (last 5 years) Jason Dufner Winner – THE TOUR Championship (Last 3 years) Billy Horschel Winners of the Arnold Palmer Inv. & the Memorial (Last 3 Years) Matt Every Marc Leishman David Lingmerth William McGirt Winner – Tournament Winner in the Past Year Aaron Baddeley Jonas Blixt Wesley Bryan Greg Chalmers Cody Gribble Adam Hadwin Brian Harman Mackenzie Hughes Billy Hurley III Ryan Moore Rod Pampling Pat Perez Jon Rahm Cameron Smith Jhonattan Vegas Member of Last Named U.S. Ryder Cup Team Matt Kuchar Brandt Snedeker Member of Last Named U.S.Presidents Cup Team Bill Haas Member of Last Named International Presidents Cup Team Steven Bowditch Anirban Lahiri Danny Lee Charl Schwartzel Players selected by winners of DEAN & DELUCA Invit. Beau Hossler Jamie Sadlowski Top 15 and Ties from Previous Year’s DEAN & DELUCA Invitational Harris English Ryan Palmer Kyle Reifers Martin Piller Chad Campbell Kevin Kisner Bryce Molder Chris Stroud Sponsors Exemptions – Web.com Tour Finals Martin Flores Rory Sabbatini Sponsor Exemptions – Unrestricted Angel Cabrera Jazz Janewattananond Curtis Luck Robert Streb Sponsors Exemptions – Members not otherwise exempt Jason Bohn Tim Herron Matt Jones Davis Love III Hunter Mahan Sam Saunders Top 50 – World Golf Ranking Paul Casey Emiliano Grillo Yuta Ikeda Charley Hoffman Top 80 on Prior Year’s FedEx Points List Sean O’Hair Jason Kokrak Scott Piercy James Hahn Fabian Gomez Tony Finau Graeme McDowell David Hearn Kevin Streelman Brian Stuard Vaughn Taylor Daniel Summerhays Ben Martin Ricky Barnes Patrick Rodgers Harold Varner III Martin Laird Johnson Wagner Scott Brown Top 80 from YTD FedExCup Points List Luke List Sung Kang Lucas Glover Kyle Stanley Ollie Schniederjans Kelly Kraft Kevin Tway Bud Cauley J.J. Spaun Michael Kim Patton Kizzire Stewart Cink Graham DeLaet Cheng Tsung Pan Chez Reavie Morgan Hoffmann Seung-Yul Noh Below 80th from YTD FedExCup Points List Camilo Villegas Nick Taylor John Huh Blayne Barber Dominic Bozzelli J.T. Poston Derek Fathauer Brian Gay Zac Blair Michael Thompson Geoff Ogilvy Nick Watney Ryan Blaum Tyrone Van Aswegen Whee Kim Brandon Hagy J.J. Henry Cameron Percy Bryson DeChambeau Cameron Tringale Scott Stallings

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