Jarrod Lyle honored with first tee tribute at Wyndham Championship

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (AP) — Webb Simpson celebrated another victory on Father’s Day, this time with a tartan jacket. In a wild sprint to the finish after a three-hour weather delay, Simpson ran off five birdies in a six-hole stretch on the back nine at Harbour Town and closed with a 7-under 64 for a one-shot victory over Abraham Ancer. Simpson won the U.S. Open at Olympic Club in 2012. The U.S. Open has been scheduled to end on Father’s Day every year since 1976, but it was moved to September this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Simpson has also won on Mother’s Day (THE PLAYERS Championship in 2018). The RBC Heritage filled the spot on the schedule and Simpson, now a father of five, became a winner for the second time this year with a record score at Harbour Town. He didn’t have much of a choice with so many low scores on a soft course with little wind. He finished at 22-under 262, breaking by two the tournament record set by Brian Gay in 2009. “It was a crazy day,” Simpson said. “I didn’t get it going until 12 and then the putts started going in and I started getting confident. It’s amazing to be standing here right now.” Simpson, who won the Waste Management Phoenix Open in February, moved to No. 5 in the world. He also moved to the top of the FedExCup standings. It was a tough runner-up finish for Ancer, trying to become the fifth straight winner of the RBC Heritage to capture his first PGA TOUR victory at Harbour Town. He hit all 18 greens in regulation and tied for the lead with a bold fairway metal over the trees to the par-5 15th that set up a two-putt birdie. He also stayed in the game with a birdie on the 17th. Ancer shot 65. There was just no catching Simpson, whose only birdies were on the par 5s on the front nine until he couldn’t miss. He rolled in birdie putts from 10 feet and 20 feet on the 12th and 13th, two-putted for birdie on the 15th and then sealed it with two more birdies from 15 feet and 18 feet. Charles Schwab Challenge winner Daniel Berger also stayed in the mix by chipping in for birdie on the 17th and closing with a 65. Tyrrell Hatton, whose last tournament was his victory in the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, was leading until a poor tee shot led to bogey on the 13th, and bogeys were hard to recover from on this day. He shot 66 and tied for third. Dylan Frittelli had the low score of a tournament filled with them, a 62 that put him in the lead before the final groups even teed off. Justin Thomas had a 63 and tied him. Both knew it wasn’t going to hold up, especially after returning from a storm delay to still conditions and even softer conditions. But it led to a carousel of contenders, and even Brooks Koepka got in the mix. Koepka hit driver on the 331-yard ninth hole that hit on the slope above the bunker and settled 3 feet for his eagle. He birdied the next two to get within one of the lead, but his hopes ended with a 5-foot birdie putt he missed on the par-5 15th. Koepka missed a pair of 5-foot par putts on the front nine. He closed with a 65 and finished seventh, his best result since the Tour Championship. Rory McIlroy closed with a 70 and tied for 41st, his second straight result out of the top 30 after going seven consecutive events worldwide with no finish worse than fifth. The PGA TOUR now heads to the Connecticut for the Travelers Championship.

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BLAINE, Minn. – When Bryson DeChambeau got his first look at TPC Twin Cities on Tuesday, he thought 14 or 15 under might end up being the winning score at the inaugural 3M Open. Turns out, he only needed two rounds to get there, though. Not four. So DeChambeau has to readjust his goals now after Friday’s course-record-tying 62 left him at 14 under and leading by four. The bogey-free round of 9 under matched Scott Piercy’s number on Thursday, a performance that DeChambeau said “opened the floodgates a little bit.â€� It was also the lowest score the 25-year-old has ever shot on the PGA TOUR. “Certainly, me doing that today inspires me to even do better over the weekend,â€� DeChambeau said. “I know I can do it. I know I still left a couple out there, lipped out a couple short putts. Although I made a lot of putts, I’m not going to take that for granted.â€� Charles Howell III, who played with DeChambeau and Keegan Bradley in the first two rounds, finished with a 66 that included a pair of eagles, one of which came courtesy of a wedge from 80 yards on the par-4 seventh that sucked back into the hole. As good as his own round was, though, Howell came away impressed. “Well, playing with Bryson, it was ‑‑ it was a good round,â€� Howell said when asked about his 5-under tally. “Not great. It was great playing with a guy going low out there, especially coming to a new venue where you quite don’t know what to expect. “You see these guys keep pressing and pressing like he was doing. He kind of drug Keegan and I along with him.â€� Bradley couldn’t quite keep pace with DeChambeau and Howell, shooting a 68 that left him 4 under for 36 holes. But he added to the highlight reel when he drained an improbable 61-footer at the second hole, his fourth birdie in the last five holes. Howell said seeing DeChambeau play so well set the tone for the round. “Bryson was obviously, he had two great days of putting, so it’s nice as a golfer to see balls going in the hole and see guys going low and doing well,â€� Howell said. “Yeah, and whatever you may want to call that, drafting, whatever it may be, it matters I think, yes.â€� DeChambeau has not made a bogey this week. He’s finding fairways, nine in each of the first two rounds, and was spot-on with the putter on Friday, making five birdie putts of more than 19 feet. “Whenever I can roll a couple putts in from 20 feet or more, that gives you a lot of confidence for the game,â€� DeChambeau said. “And when you’re striking it well and driving it where you’re looking, that’s obviously very positive. “I know it’s cliche to say that, but it’s just what it is unfortunately. Kind of get into a rhythm a little bit, the zone, and it just feels good sometimes.â€� 

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Will Zalatoris “found the end of Netflix.” He attended the Presidents Cup. He even married his longtime sweetheart, Caitlin. Zalatoris made the most of a four-month rehabilitation process after suffering two herniated discs in his back, but it’s a new year and he’s ready to return to competition at this week’s Sentry Tournament of Champions. It’s the PGA TOUR’s first designated event of 2023, with 17 of the top 20 players on the Official World Golf Ranking set to compete at the Plantation Course at Kapalua. There’s not much time to shake the rust; Zalatoris is quickly back to the throes of elite competition. Bring it on. “I’ve learned a lot about my body, probably more than I think I ever wanted to,” Zalatoris said Tuesday afternoon in Hawaii. “December 1, I think, was the first day I was cleared for full activity, and really just have been doing as much as I can since then … not being able to have a club in my hand for a couple months, I don’t think I’ve done that probably since I was 8 or 9. “But the speed’s the same; everything feels really good. So just keep doing what we’re doing and let the next win get in the way.” After his first TOUR victory at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in mid-August, the first of three FedExCup Playoffs events, Zalatoris was forced to withdraw during the third round of the following week’s BMW Championship due to injury. He then withdrew from the following week’s TOUR Championship, finishing a disappointing 30th in the FedExCup after entering the week at No. 3. During the hiatus, Zalatoris spent time with Greg Rose, a Doctor of Chiropractic at the Titleist Performance Institute, conducting an assessment with the goal of promoting career longevity. They examined the pressures of his swing, concluding a motor pattern was the root cause of the strain on his back. He tends to push off his right side later than most; with his level of side bend, his right hip is high with his spine tilted back. “As Dr. Rose said, duh, no wonder I had a back issue,” Zalatoris quipped. The fix: adjusting his setup, with the goal of reducing the strain on his back. “Be a little more centered, as opposed to having ball forward with more spine tilt at address,” Zalatoris said. “I’m trying to get more centered over it and work more around my right side, so more a turn as opposed to a lateral shift. When my right hip gets high and the spine tilts back, you’re all of a sudden creating all that stress on your back. “It was nice because I was able to bring the ball flight down; living in Texas, you’re used to hitting the ball low, but it’s doing it by itself as opposed to having to manipulate it. So it was actually kind of a nice fix.” Zalatoris led the TOUR last season in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green, after ranking No. 7 the season prior. He ranked top-three in both Total Driving and Greens in Regulation on the 2019 and 2020-21 Korn Ferry Tour, as well. The Wake Forest alum has been a premier ball-striker for four consecutive seasons in TOUR-sanctioned competition, and he admits it’s not natural inclination to want to change anything. But in the name of avoiding future injury, he’s working through the proverbial process. “We’ve looked at everything I was doing, to make sure I was doing all the right things and we were checking all the boxes, and it was strictly a motor pattern thing,” said Zalatoris, who has opted to temporarily decrease his driver length (to approximately 44.75 inches, down from 46 inches) as he works through the setup change. “Which is kind of a good thing and a bad thing, because when I was hitting the ball the way that I was, it’s hard to want to change anything, but at the same time I actually saw some benefits. I’m more efficient in my golf swing — so that’s why the speed is the same with the shorter driver; it’s just because of the efficiency now of how I push into a golf ball.” The 26-year-old has long displayed an aptitude for quickly bouncing back from injury. After withdrawing from the 2021 Open Championship due to a muscular issue, he finished T8 in his next start, the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational three weeks later. Back in 2015, he finished T4 at the Pacific Coast Amateur shortly after returning from an emergency appendectomy. Zalatoris experienced a string of close calls last year – namely six top-six finishes in an eight-event stretch, including runner-up finishes at the PGA Championship and U.S. Open – before his breakthrough victory at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. Suddenly the close-call narrative was put to bed – he memorably exclaimed, “What are they gonna say now!” upon draining a par putt on the 72nd hole to force a playoff with Sepp Straka at TPC Southwind. Zalatoris won on the third playoff hole. That’s the most recent tournament he completed before injury struck, and it’s a feeling he’s keen to recapture. “Being in contention as much as I was last year, there’s just no better feeling than it,” Zalatoris said Tuesday. “Whether you win or lose, it’s just what you practice for.” During Zalatoris’ rehab process, his routine might have looked like “have a few putts and then maybe need to go grab a few beers with my boys.” But he’s an unabashed golf addict who will eagerly play four or five events in a row. He admittedly got bored quickly with his recovery routine. Thursday afternoon in Hawaii can’t come soon enough. “Watching some of my friends play, going to the Presidents Cup, kind of keeping my mind active and spending some time with the guys back home, even just riding around in a cart when they were playing,” Zalatoris described his downtime, “keep my mind active, even though my body wouldn’t let me. “Then once I came back, it was pretty easy to keep the competitive juices flowing.”

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