Brooks Koepka struggles with putter, but still within shouting distance in Memphis

SAN DIEGO - Patrick Reed is at his best when he is under pressure. He almost craves it. So perhaps it was a foregone conclusion that he would march to a dominant win at the Farmers Insurance Open. Reed's final-round 4-under 68 helped him finish at 14 under at Torrey Pines - enough to secure a five-shot win over Viktor Hovland, Xander Schauffele, Tony Finau, Ryan Palmer and Henrik Norlander. The now nine-time PGA TOUR winner broke free of a log jam of contenders with an early eagle and then doggedly shook off a challenge from Hovland late in the day. The margin was ultimately large, but it wasn't all that easy. Reed needed to produce some stellar short-game play to stay in control. When things got shaky on the notoriously difficult South Course, Reed had one cliché in the back of his mind: When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Each missed shot just fueled his fire and gave him a chance to showcase a trait he values in his game. Resilience. "You look at all the great players throughout times, all of them are really resilient. It doesn’t really matter what’s going on around them, what’s going on on the golf course, whether they’re getting good breaks or bad breaks, they seem to really figure out a way to get the job done, to really just drive in and to keep on improving each shot each day," Reed said. "That’s golf, that’s what you’re supposed to do. That’s why I love the game. It throws punches at you; you throw punches at it. And at the end of the day hopefully you’re the one standing. "Golf’s hard as it is, and you come to a place like this where it’s so demanding. Not just off the tees. It doesn’t matter if it’s a drive, an iron shot, a wedge shot, putt, you have to be all locked in 24/7." On Sunday, things started in neutral for Reed with five straight pars before a brilliant eagle putt on the par-5 sixth. The Texan connected from outside 45 feet a day after doing similar from 40 feet. He would make the turn at 13 under with only Hovland (one back), Jon Rahm (three back) and Carlos Ortiz (three back) legitimate threats to his ambitions. Ortiz was gone quickly with bogey at the 11th and double bogey at 12. Hovland suffered a slow bleed as Reed became a short-game wizard under pressure. The Norwegian missed a short birdie putt on the par-5 13th to join the lead and then made back-to-back bogeys. On the 14th hole, Hovland went from a fairway bunker into a canyon forcing a penalty drop, and then on No. 15 he drove the ball directly behind the base of a large tree, forcing a simple pitch out. Despite being three back with two to play, the two-time TOUR winner felt he could force the issue with a finishing flourish and his birdie putt on the 17th from 32 feet went within a whisker of going in. Sadly, perhaps still disappointed it didn't drop, he missed the 2-foot par attempt. Meanwhile, Reed could easily have been leaking shots just as fast as the other contenders. But staying true to his mantra, he knuckled down. He got up and down for par from the rough on No. 10, and from greenside bunkers on Nos. 12 and 14. Then, with Hovland sticking his tee shot on the 16th hole ahead of him inside 20 feet, Reed was brilliant in securing another par from 50 yards on the 15th after a forced punch-out from a wayward tee shot. He just refused to open the door for others. The victory sees Reed surge to 10th in the FedExCup standings and to 10th in the world rankings. Reed was also able to move past a ruling from the third round. The 30-year-old had acted in a "textbook" manner when taking relief from a ball deemed to be embedded on the par-4 10th hole. Reed's victory on Sunday was the result of some changes. It was after the last U.S. Open - played in September due to the COVID-19 pandemic - that Reed switched to David Leadbetter for a swing coach. He was pleased that - for the most part - the new swing held up under pressure. "The hard work that my team is going through and working with me on trying to dial it in, get it where it is right now is amazing," Reed said of his new swing. "The good thing is, Led’s always told me... you’re working towards something, there’s no reason why you can’t go ahead and win. Because of that I had that kind of attitude going into today that, hey, even though the swing’s not 100%, you know how to get it around this golf course, you can go out and shoot a number and put up a fight. "This one was pretty special. To be tied for the lead going into today and in that final group and seeing the swing kind of hold up throughout the round and allowing my short game to kind of save me there towards the end meant a lot, meant that I’m on the right path."

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Saturday at The Honda Classic, the Bear Trap at PGA National awoke from hibernation. Even with the tee moved up to 154 yards at the 15th, where a hole location was cut a few paces off the right edge of the green, there were plenty of golf balls plunking into the water. On the par-4 16th, there were no birdies to be had. Not one. At the par-3 17th, there was one lone birdie yielded to Saturday's contestants. RELATED: Jones handles wind to regain lead | Affect of water balls on the Florida Spring Keegan Bradley was making a great early run on Saturday. He stepped to the 15th hole at 6 under on his round, and 8 under for the tournament, within earshot of the lead. But he rinsed his tee shot at the 15th, made double, and followed with a bogey at 16. He'd shoot 67. Denny McCarthy (74) was even par for his round and tied for third when he got to the tee at 15; when he walked through the tunnel from the 17th green to the 18th tee, he was 4 over, having rinsed his tee shot at 15 (double) and approach at 16 (he did well to make bogey). He tumbled to T18. The 15th hole featured more double bogeys (10) than birdies (8). In order of toughness in the third round, the Bear Trap holes would rank third, fourth and first, respectively, in difficulty. (The par-4 sixth hole ranked second). Leader Matt Jones said he really wasn't trying to hit the green at any of the Bear Trap holes. He played the holes in level par, getting up and down from short left of the green on 15 and 16, then making a beautiful bunker save for par from the left side at 17. "They’re not birdie holes at all," Jones said. "They’re just ‘Don’t-make-the-biggest-mistake' holes, and I managed to play them even par, which is great." J.B. Holmes, who enters Sunday in second place, three shots behind Jones, made birdie at 15 (one of only eight) but surrendered a shot to par at 16. Aaron Wise, who at one point Saturday possessed a six-shot lead, made bogeys at both of the par-3s in the Trap. His bogey on 15 cost him the lead. Sungjae Im, trying to join Jack Nicklaus as the Honda's only back-to-back champion, was 3 under on his round and making a nice move before plugging his tee shot in the left greenside bunker at 17. With water beyond the flagstick, he played well left, away from the hole, with his second, went long, and failed to get up and down. Double. Yes, Saturday was the day that Honda's feared Bear Trap stirred from its slumber. Which meant very little fun for those brave enough to take it on, but fun for those watching in person, and at home. Rest assured, the Bear Trap will have its say on Sunday. "Anything can happen coming down the stretch here in general, and especially with the holes playing all back into the wind it makes it that much tougher," Wise said. "... If you’re in the mix you’re going to have a chance coming down the stretch, because anything can happen." Anything, and everything. What more could we ask for?

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Phil Mickelson beat Tiger Woods in overtime Friday in their $9 million pay-per-view match in Las Vegas. Mickelson won on the 22nd hole, making a 4-foot birdie putt on a specially set up 93-yard, par 3. The match at Shadow Creek Golf Club finished under floodlights. Mickelson said to Woods after the match: “Just know I will never let you live that down. It’s not the Masters or the U.S. Open, but it is nice to have a little something on you.” Woods said he enjoyed the match, even if he was on the losing end. “You couldn’t have made this event any better than it was,” he said. “It was back and forth and very competitive on a golf course that was playing on the tricky side.” Only 700 invited guests were allowed to watch the event at Shadow Creek. The match was billed as a chance for viewers to watch an untraditional golf broadcast as both golfers and their caddies were mic’d up. It also featured live odds from MGM resorts and a drone was used for live shots. There was some banter between Woods and Mickelson early on but not much as the stakes increased. Mickelson said on the 15th hole to Woods that “I’m trying to be more talkative but I’m not on this back nine.” Woods understood and responded that they were going back to their old mode of “trying to beat each other’s brains in.” The most revealing moment on the front nine happened after Woods missed a 4-foot, short par putt on the second hole to give Mickelson an early advantage. “I was half a second from giving him that putt because he always makes those,” Mickelson said to his brother, Tim, who was his caddie. Mickelson was 1 up through the front nine before Woods seized the lead with birdies on the par-4 11th and 12th holes. Mickelson then squared it with a birdie on the par-3 13th and retook the lead when Woods bogeyed the par-4 15th. Woods tied it with birdie from the fringe of the green on the par-3 17th. Both birdied the par-5 18th and then parred the first playoff hole before it went to the par-3 extra hole — which was pitch shots off the practice putting green — that they kept playing until there was a winner. After he birdied the 17th, Woods said to caddie Joe LaCava “just like old times, buddy.” Mickelson also said it was like old times for him against Woods after that trademark shot. “You’ve been doing that to me for 20 years, I don’t know why I am surprised now,” he said. Mickelson also had the advantage in challenge bets. Woods won the first challenge for $200,000 when Mickelson didn’t birdie the first hole. Mickelson though won the next three, which were closest-to-the-pin challenges on par-3 holes, which totaled $600,000. Both said they couldn’t see challenge bets become a part of regular PGA TOUR events. “Maybe at match play you could but that might not be the best thing,” Mickelson said. “I think it added to the competition. It had that flavor of a Tuesday practice round with more at stake.”

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