GMac (66) chose D&D over Wentworth for right reasons

RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico — Viktor Hovland won the Puerto Rico Open on Sunday for his first PGA TOUR title, chipping in for eagle on the par-5 15th and racing in a 30-footer for birdie on the par-5 18th for a one-stroke victory over Josh Teater. Related: Leaderboard | Winner’s Bag: Viktor Hovland “The only or the first person to play out here was Henry Bjornstad,” Hovland said. “I grew up kind of watching him play or following the scores online. So to kind of follow his footsteps and be able to win kind of the first tournament for Norway is really special. A bunch of my friends and just normal people from back home paying attention, which is a lot more than I could ask for.” Hovland overcame a muddy triple bogey on the par-3 11th with the late surge at windy Coco Beach. The 22-year-old former Oklahoma State star shot a 2-under 70 to finish at 20-under 268. “It feels crazy being here,” Hovland said. “It was certainly a day of lots of ups and downs.” Teater closed with a 69 in the tournament played opposite the World Golf Championships event in Mexico. He rebounded from bogeys on Nos. 10 and 11 with birdies on 15 and 17. “Hats off to Viktor, that’s a great putt,” Teater said. “Actually, heard it on the radio that it went in before I saw it on TV. He’s a great player and we’re going to see it more often.” Hovland earned $540,000, a full TOUR exemption through the 2021-22 season and spots in the PGA Championship and THE PLAYERS Championship. “I was just thinking about trying to play as well as I could today and trying to get the job done,” Hovland said. “I hadn’t really thought about the perks yet, but I’m sure it’s going to be nice to get into some of the events that I wasn’t already qualified for.” Hovland shot a 64 on Saturday to take a one-stroke lead into the final round. He earned a PGA TOUR card last year in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals after winning the 2018 U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach, then sweeping low amateur honors at The Masters and U.S. Open. Kyle Stanley, Sam Ryder and Emiliano Grillo tied for third at 15 under. Stanley had a 68, and Ryder and Grillo shot 69. Martin Laird, a shot behind Hovland entering the day, closed with a 75 to tie for sixth at 14 under with Matthew NeSmith (67) and Ted Potter Jr. (69). Jhonattan Vegas shot 62 to reach 13 under.

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JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Jon Rahm is young enough at 26 that the FedExCup has been a big part of the PGA TOUR as long as he has been chasing his dreams, and winning the trophy would mean a lot to him. RELATED: Full leaderboard | FedExCup update: Keith Mitchell makes move after brilliant birdie run But for now, Rahm can only worry about the tournament at hand, and while he has produced a mixture of great shots and great saves to reach 12-under 130, he still has his hands full. “Believe it or not, hit my fair share of bad shots today,” Rahm said. “Much like yesterday, I was able to save a couple of good ones. … Coming into the weekend, I’m definitely going to have to clean a couple of those mistakes up.” Finau had a 64 with a bogey on the final hole as he tries to secure another spot among the 30 who make it to the season-ending Tour Championship, along with boosting his bid to play his way onto another Ryder Cup team. Olympic gold medalist Xander Schauffele tied his personal best on the PGA Tour and the course record at Liberty National with a 62 and was in the group at 10-under 132 along with Justin Thomas (69) and Keith Mitchell (64). Thomas, who shared the 18-hole lead with Rahm, couldn’t figure out which way the ball was going in making four bogeys in eight holes, only to play his last five holes in 5 under — that included an eagle at the par-5 eighth — to stay in the mix. Mitchell did his work at the start of his round by running off six straight birdies, a streak that ended on the 18th hole as he made the turn. He took two shots to get out of a longer bunker and made double bogey on No. 7, only to close with two birdies. More is at stake for Mitchell, who is No. 101 in the FedExCup and needs a high finish to be among the top 70 who advance to next week at the BMW Championship. Jordan Spieth got back in the game with a consecutive eagles — he holed out from the fairway on the par-4 fifth and holed a chip from the edge of the water on the par-5 sixth — and tied the course record himself at 62. That left him four behind, along with Brooks Koepka (64). Spieth started the day worried about making the cut, especially after a bogey on the opening hole. He ended it in a tie for 10th, and figures he led the field in luck with those eagles. “When things starting well, you go on a run, right? You get momentum and the ball finds the cup and when it’s not going well it bounces the wrong way,” he said. “I feel like I’m on the right side of some momentum right now and I just have to keep it going.” For others, their season is over. Adam Scott, who missed a 4-foot putt in a playoff that would have won the Wyndham Championship last week, followed an opening 67 with a 75 to miss the cut by one shot. He was among 28 players outside the top 70 in the FedExCup who missed the cut. For Rahm though he knows that the FedExCup is a trophy he’d like to have by the end of the season. “It’s a trophy that a very select group of people are going to be able to put their name on,” he said. “It’s one of those, kind of like in majors and great events like THE PLAYERS, to where … you have to show up and play good.” For now, Rahm can only do so much, focus on the event at hand and the world’s No. 1 player is doing it well.

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KAPALUA, Hawaii – Cameron Smith watched World No. 1 Jon Rahm ram home a 28-foot birdie on the 17th hole that must have felt like the 500th haymaker to the face in a heavyweight title fight. It was Rahm’s 11th of the day to go with an eagle and lone bogey and saw the Spaniard join the Australian on top of the leaderboard that Smith had owned over the first two rounds and most of the third at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. It surely was a blow that might leave the plucky Aussie on the canvas as he lined up a 28-foot attempt of his own. Instead, the gritty competitor from the working-class suburbs of Brisbane nailed his ninth birdie of the round to continue an incredible contest. Rahm won the battle on Saturday as he closed with another birdie to post a course-record 12-under 61 and join Smith at the top of the board at 26-under for the week. But Smith (64) is not ready to surrender the war as both take a five-shot buffer over Daniel Berger (66) and sit six clear of FedExCup champion Patrick Cantlay (66), Australian Matt Jones (62) and South Korea’s Sungjae Im (65). Smith knows Rahm will start the favorite on Sunday but he’s far from intimidated. In fact, he revels in the underdog role. “I love to compete. Probably over the break there more so than missing golf I think I just missed competing,” Smith said. “I didn’t do a lot of stuff and it’s great to be out here and in the hunt on the weekend. “It was really good fun out there today. Obviously playing nice golf helps. But watching Jon was pretty intense there on that back nine, some of the best golf I think I’ve ever seen, definitely some of the best putting. “Now it’s one more day to go with him. Hopefully we can do much of the same tomorrow and we’ll see what happens.” After both players were even through four holes, they matched birdies on the fifth, seventh and ninth holes while only a missed five-foot birdie try from Smith on the eighth allowed Rahm to close the gap. Further matching birdies came at 10, 11 and 14 before Rahm needed eagle to best Smith’s birdie on the 15th. Matching birdies on 16 and 17 followed before Rahm pulled level with another on the last. With the second (67.816) and third (67.711) rounds setting new low scoring average records at the Plantation Course since 1999, Rahm and Smith stopped short of calling it a two-horse race on Sunday. But they know they have the chance to make it one. “We had a fun battle today and I’m guessing tomorrow’s going to be more of the same. We’re going to need a lot of birdies to get ahead and get the win,” Rahm said. “If we get a similar day someone can come and shoot 10, 11, 12-under… What I have to keep doing is just keep hitting it as well as I am tee to green. Keep putting it in the fairway and keep hitting good iron shots, give myself plenty of looks, and some of them will go in. You can get hot on this golf course and hopefully I can do the same thing tomorrow.” In Friday’s second round, Rahm struggled with the speed of the greens and made just 48 feet, 4 inches of putts. On Saturday he led the field in Strokes Gained: Putting on the way to 132-feet, 10 inches worth. He also dialed in his approach play, gaining over three strokes on the field. “I only left one short and I couldn’t believe it stayed short,” he said. “It all started on 2. I made that putt, I made that putt on 4, and it gave me a lot of confidence and I kept going, made a couple of those putts that yesterday I left short and it gave me so much confidence. “But a number of those birdie/eagles were very short putts so it also speaks to the ball striking I had today.” Smith is chasing the Hawaii double having won the Sony Open in Hawaii in 2020. He has now held the lead, or a share of it, over the first three rounds. He is also seeking to be the third Australian to win at Kapalua after Stuart Appleby won three straight in 2004-06 and Geoff Ogilvy went back-to-back in 2009-10. “Hawaii reminds me so much of where I grew up, it’s insane. The grass that we hit off, the greens being quite slow and grainy. Yeah, it’s awesome, I love it here,” he said. “I know it will be a challenge tomorrow but I’m looking forward to it. We all want to win and you have to beat the best to do that on the PGA TOUR so it’s nothing to shy away from.”

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