ESPN predictions on who takes home the green jacket

NAPLES, Fla. – Scores in the 50s aren’t unusual at the QBE Shootout at Tiburon Golf Club at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort. Temperatures in the 50s are. But they say there’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing, and Steve Stricker, of wintry Madison, Wisconsin, and O’Hair, from outside Philadelphia, where his four kids went sledding over the weekend, weren’t bothered by the sweater weather. They shot a best-ball 64 at Tiburon on Sunday, good enough for a two-shot win over Ireland’s Graeme McDowell and Shane Lowry. “I was pretty cold,� O’Hair said with a laugh. “Today was tough. The wind was really cold, it was a heavy wind, and it made for difficult conditions. But it warmed up for us.� The winners will split the $820,000 purse for the unofficial win. They fell two behind on the front nine but reeled off three straight birdies before making the turn. Stricker/O’Hair were still nursing a one-shot lead when O’Hair eagled the 17th hole, all but ending it. It was the second QBE Shootout title for each player, who had previously won the event with different partners. Stricker, who hadn’t played much golf owing to his Presidents Cup captaincy, got to Naples a week early to bang the rust off. That was nothing unusual, as he’s such a frequent visitor to these parts he rents a house and belongs to Naples National Golf Club. It was a family affair as Nicki Stricker caddied for her husband, while Jackie O’Hair (nickname: Jackie O) walked all 18 holes with Sean. Back in Pennsylvania, Jackie’s parents looked after the four kids, who are in seventh, fifth, second and first grades, and were delighted with the snowy weekend. “They’re probably ready for us to come home,� Jackie said with a laugh. OBSERVATIONS Z.J. HOPES TO GET BORING IN 2018 Zach Johnson is trying to get back his usual fairways-and-greens game that made him a 12-time PGA TOUR winner. “I’m just really trying to get back to being boring,� said Johnson, who was hitting fairways at a greater than 71 percent clip in 2015, the year he won The Open, but has dipped to 66 percent over the past two seasons. “Fairways, greens, make putts,� he said. “We study stats, and I’ve gotten off that a bit.� DAD TEAM FINISHES T4 Keegan Bradley and Brendan Steele, who won the QBE in 2011, shot 67 and finished T4 with Finau/Thompson and Daniel Berger/Gary Woodland (64). More importantly, Bradley and Steele were each playing in their first tournament as new fathers. Brendan’s daughter, Victoria, was born Oct. 26, while Keegan’s son, Logan, arrived Nov. 13. “We’ve definitely been comparing notes, for sure,� said Bradley, who with his wife, Jillian, drove to Naples from Jupiter, Fla., with Logan tucked securely in the back seat. “It feels a little different, but they’re so young now, they’re just sleeping all day. I look forward to when he’s running around a little bit.� Reminded that the PNC Father Son Challenge is next week in Orlando, Bradley laughed. “I was just thinking about that,� he said. “Maybe in 15 years.� Brendan’s wife, Anastasia, and Victoria did not make the flight from Irvine, Calif. THOMPSON SUCCESSFUL IN RETURN Lexi Thompson missed a two-foot putt to lose the LPGA’s season-ending CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club last month, but she was resilient and back for more at the QBE. The field’s biggest draw, Thompson and partner Tony Finau shot a final-round 66 to finish T4 despite the course being nearly 7,400 yards long and Thompson playing from the men’s tees. “Definitely tested my whole game overall,� she said. “The distance that these guys play, especially in this wind—I was hitting 4-irons, 6-irons, hybrids.� QUOTABLES “I had my sweater on for the first two holes today, and I made a couple bad swings and was like: sweater off.� – Graeme McDowell, one of the only players in the field who competed in shirtsleeves for most of the weekend. “Her game held up. I mean, it’s long for us.� – Brendan Steele on Lexi Thompson playing from the men’s tees at 7,382-yard Tiburon. SUPERLATIVES Low round: Zach Johnson and Charley Hoffman shot a 9-under 63 to finish 8th. Best Dressed (unofficial title): McDowell/Lowry, the only team who wore matching uniforms each day. Low temperature: After strong winds and spitting rain Saturday, the temperature was 49 degrees when players teed off Sunday. The cold affected scoring; the winning total of 26-under was a far cry from the tournament record of 34-under, set by Fred Couples and Raymond Floyd in 1990.

Click here to read the full article…

Click here to read the full article…

Earlier this month, Gilberto Morales’ phone buzzed around 4 a.m. The message contained the latest reminder of his improbable victory almost three decades ago. A friend sent Morales a screenshot of a tweet that came out shortly after Tiger Woods announced his intention to play this year’s Farmers Insurance Open. The post mentioned Morales as the author of the aberration on Woods’ impeccable resume at Torrey Pines. Woods has won eight times at the South Course, tying his own record for PGA TOUR wins at a single site. That includes that memorable U.S. Open playoff in 2008. RELATED: Tiger chasing No. 83 at Torrey Pines When healthy, Woods is seemingly unbeatable on the South Course. And he’s proven to be the greatest closer in the game’s history. As a professional, Woods is undefeated with a 54-hole lead of three or more strokes. He’s 25 for 25 in that situation. That makes the idea of Tiger Woods losing a five-shot lead at Torrey Pines seem unfathomable. But it happened at the 1992 Junior World Championship. Morales said he still hears about the win at least once a year. “My kids think they have a famous dad,â€� Morales joked Tuesday. He now has three children (his oldest is 10) and is an entrepreneur living in Spain. Morales was one of the top junior players on the planet in 1992. Each summer, he’d fly from his home in Venezuela to play tournaments in the United States. The Junior World was one of the biggest events on the calendar. Woods had already won the tournament an unprecedented six times in various age brackets. So when he took a five-shot lead into the final round, a seventh title seemed like a certainty. Except in golf, nothing is guaranteed. Even for Woods. Even at Torrey Pines. Woods shot 75 that day, including a triple-bogey at the seventh hole, and Morales won by three with a final-round 67. It was the best round of the tournament. Morales was 15 years old. “He had a couple bad holes and I had a good start,â€� Morales said Tuesday. “After that, he wasn’t able to recover from the mistakes and I was having a very good day.â€� With Woods chasing history at Torrey Pines this week – a victory would give him the PGA TOUR’s all-time wins record – I was curious to see what happened to Morales. Details of his career are sparse. He played in the 1999 Open Championship, shooting 80-76 during that infamous week when Carnoustie was impossible. He competed on the Asian, European and Challenge tours. Morales wanted to travel the world, not play mini-tours, after his college career at UNLV, where his teammates included PGA TOUR winners Charley Hoffman, Chad Campbell, Chris Riley and Bill Lunde. The Official World Golf Ranking’s site shows Morales made 50 starts between 1999 and 2005. His best finish was third in 2000 Indian Open. He tied Trevor Immelman, who’d win the Masters eight years later, that week. That was Morales’ only top-10. There’s also a brief mention of Morales in a story about Woods’ first start after his emotional win in the 2006 Open Championship. After trying to Monday qualify for a nearby Korn Ferry Tour event, Morales headed to the Buick Open to see his old friend. Woods hugged Morales and spent 15 minutes reminiscing with him between shots in his practice round. That was toward the end of Morales’ pro career. He retired after failing to have the success his junior results may have portended. “I don’t know what happened,â€� Morales said Tuesday. “It was a lot of travel. I got very tired of the travel. I was 29 or 30 and I wanted to have a family and didn’t want time to go by. I wasn’t disappointed at all. I just took a different route. I still have all the best memories from all my years playing golf.â€� The 1992 Junior World wasn’t the only time Woods and Morales went head-to-head. Later that year, they shared the 54-hole lead of the Junior Orange Bowl with Zimbabwe’s Lewis Chitengwa. Chitengwa, who died at age 26 of meningitis, won after Woods and Morales shot over par in the final round. Woods and Morales were in contention again at the following year’s Junior World. They entered the final round tied for third place, three shots behind leader Chad Wright. Morales shot 70 to finish second, while Woods fired another final-round 75 to fall to fourth place. The winner? Future PGA TOUR winner Pat Perez. Morales relishes the time he spent with Woods. “He was No. 1 and I was right there in the top three (as a junior),â€� Morales said Tuesday. “We had a lot of fun. We practiced together, played practice rounds. He was so different than the other kids. He had a different focus and different mindset than everybody else. He wasn’t playing. It was amazing to see someone who had that discipline at that age.â€� So how did Morales prevail on that day in 1992? The trouble started at the seventh hole, where Woods made triple-bogey after hitting a shot out-of-bounds. Woods downplayed the significance of the miscue, though. “It was really no problem,â€� he said at the time. “I still had a two-stroke lead.â€� Morales birdied the next hole to pull within a stroke. Woods bogeyed the par-5 ninth, and bent the shaft of his 7-iron after striking a tree on his follow-through, to fall into a tie with Morales. “I said, ‘Break the 7-iron, hurt my wrist or whatever; I’m just going to play the shot,’â€� Woods told reporters. “(After that), I tried not to hit a shot where I would need a 7-iron. And I didn’t need to. I was very lucky.â€� Morales took the lead for good with a birdie two holes later. Woods had his chances to catch Morales. Woods lipped out a 17-foot birdie putt on 14 that would have tied him for the lead. Woods suffered another lip-out on the next hole, the ball spinning almost 360 degrees around the cup. “Come on,â€� he yelled in disgust. Woods’ 25-foot birdie putt on 16 stopped 2 inches short. Morales’ 12-foot birdie putt nearly stopped in front of the cup before trickling in. Woods trailed by two on the final hole. He had just 185 yards remaining for his second shot to the same par-5 where he holed his famous bouncing birdie putt on the 72nd hole of the U.S. Open. There would be no magic this day, though. Woods’  6-iron flew the green and bounded by the first tee, some 30 yards over the green. “I guess the golfing gods weren’t with me,â€� Woods told reporters. He’s had plenty of success at Torrey Pines since.

Click here to read the full article…