Johnny Golfball? Manziel chasing Tour spot

ORLANDO, Fla. — Lee Westwood made a pair of 30-foot putts over the final three holes Saturday, one for eagle and the other a closing birdie, for a 7-under 65 that gave England’s ageless wonder a one-shot lead in the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. RELATED: Leaderboard | Tyrrell Hatton continues charging up leaderboard at Bay Hill Westwood turns 48 next month and is feeling younger by the years. Now he goes up against U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, whose 68 included a birdie on the par-5 sixth hole in which he cut off so much of the water he had only 70 yards for his second shot on the 531-yard hole. Corey Conners of Canada, who started with a one-shot lead, could only manage a 71 on a cool, breezy day at Bay Hill with only a few drops of rain. He also was one shot behind. “It’s nice to still be playing in these tournaments,” Westwood said. “You’ve got to be top 50 in the world and if you would have said to me 20 years ago will you still be top 50 in the world at 48 I might have been slightly skeptical. And it just shows that I’m still capable of playing well in these tournaments with all the good young players around me and obviously contending, because that’s what I’m doing this week.” Sunday was shaping up as another thriller at Bay Hill. Jordan Spieth opened with a birdie and a hole-in-one, took the lead by holing a bunker shot on the par-3 seventh, saved par after a tee shot into the water and shot 68 with the kind of round he’d rather do without. Spieth prefers boring golf, and this was anything but that. He was two shots behind, along with former PGA champion Keegan Bradley, who had the low score of the week at 64. Spieth didn’t have the only ace. Jazz Janewattananond made on on the 14th hole that thrust him into the ix with a 69, leaving him four shots behind in a group that included Rory McIlroy, who bogeyed the last for a 72. Despite such a pedestrian round, McIlroy was very much in contention. They will be chasing Westwood, who first played the Arnold Palmer Invitational in 1998. He was at 11-under 205. Westwood posted his lowest score ever at Bay Hill and made only six pars. He had eight birdies and the eagle on the 16th hole, along with a pair of three-putt bogeys. Westwood has five victories since turning 40, including last year in Abu Dhabi, among the strongest fields on the European Tour. He rallied to win the Race to Dubai late last year, his third time finishing the year as Europe’s No. 1. So this didn’t surprise him, especially on a course that fits his eye, even though he has only one finish in the top 10. “I haven’t lost any of my length and I haven’t lost any of my enthusiasm to go and work in the gym,” Westwood said. “My nerves are still intact, I still get into contention and enjoy it rather than kind of back off.” Spieth is getting used to being in contention, too. He had chances in Phoenix and Pebble Beach, and he was in the peripheral of contention at Riviera. Starting four shots behind, he made up ground quickly with an 18-foot birdie on the first hole and then hit a 5-iron that rolled up the right side of the green, turned toward the cup and dropped for an ace. “That was obviously a really cool moment,” Spieth said. He will play Sunday with Tommy Fleetwood, who had a 68 and was three behind. Spieth had to play as a single most of Saturday when Justin Rose, who made a 9 on the third hole, withdrew soon thereafter citing back spasms. DeChambeau got one of the loudest cheers of the day by hitting into the rough. The biggest gallery lingered behind the sixth tee to see if he would go for the green. He aimed well to the right, but it still was a thrill to them to see DeChambeau grab driver and blast away. The fans packed behind the ropes on the other side of the water let out a huge cheer when his ball descended and tumbled into the rough, 70 yards from the pin. “Oh, man, I felt like a kid again, for sure,” DeChambeau said. “It was exciting, especially when you pull it off. It was almost like winning a tournament. It’s kind of the feeling I had. It was like, `Oh, I did it.’ I got the same chills and feeling when I saw it clear and there was no splash. I gave the fans what they wanted.” The tournament isn’t decided until Sunday, and with hardly any rain, the greens are unlikely to lose their speed and firmness. McIlroy likes his position. Westwood likes his even more.

Click here to read the full article…

Winning on the PGA TOUR as a rookie is always a tall task. Having to deal with a broken club on the driving range before the final round adds another level of difficulty to the situation — especially when the club happens to be the one that gives you an edge over the field. That was the dilemma Cameron Champ had to deal with on Sunday afternoon at the Sanderson Farms Championship, after the face on his PING G400 Max driver cracked as he was warming up. “I was on the range and actually had my headphones in at the time,” Champ said. “I hit the first drive and kind of fell out of the air. I was like, Oh, that’s kind of weird. Probably cracked there but didn’t crack on the top yet. Then I hit another one and it just split straight and a half. “Yeah, it was very unexpected. Then my backup is actually my old one I have that week. I didn’t bring a new new head. It was an older one from my previous driver. I know the weighting was just a little bit off, so just tried to hit as many balls as I could on the range with it just to get used to it a little bit.” Already dealing with what he called a mix of “nerves and adrenaline” as the 54-hole leader, Champ was forced to make do with his old driver during the final round. Although the driver was practically identical to his previous build, Champ struggled off the tee, hitting just five fairway (his lowest total for the week) and ranking 29th in Strokes Gained: Off-the-tee. He still managed to hit drives that topped 320 yards on four of the last six holes, setting the stage for a torrid finish to the tournament that saw Champ birdie five of his last six to win by four. Reed’s new wand: Patrick Reed rarely tinkers with the putter, which is part of the reason why his decision to go with something other than the trusty Odyssey White Hot Pro #3 took many by surprise at the WGC-HSBC Champions. Reed opted for a Scotty Cameron Timeless 2.5 GSS with a dark finish and a single strip of lead tape on the sole. According to Scotty Cameron Tour rep Johnny Delprete, the putter is a Timeless 2 GSS with a welded .5 neck. Cameron has done 2.5 retail versions in the past, including the Select Newport 2.5 that featured 3/4 shaft offset with a Newport 2 style head. Reed finished T7 in China with the new putter. Rory swaps putter: Rory McIlroy added a new putter to the rotation at the WGC-HSBC Champions in the form of a TaylorMade TP Black Copper Soto with a custom plumber’s neck.   Compared to his old TP Black Copper Soto, the custom Anser-style blade lacked TaylorMade’s red Pure Roll insert and slant neck, giving it a similar look and feel to the old Scotty Cameron Newport GSS putter McIlroy had success with in the past when he was a Titleist staffer. McIlroy struggled mightily with the putter over 72 holes, finishing the week T54 at 10 over. While it isn’t a direct indicator of struggles or success, he averaged 1.756 putts per green in regulation at Sheshan International Golf Club. DeChambeau’s electric driver: It took Bryson DeChambeau until the FedExCup Playoffs to put Cobra’s King F8+ driver in the bag. The switch to Cobra’s next driver might not take nearly as long. DeChambeau, who’s in the field this week at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, posted a slow-mo video on his Instagram account of what appears to be Cobra’s 2019 driver offering. The club appears to have electric yellow paint around the back portion of the head (sole), which is a dead giveaway he’s no longer using F8+. It remains to be seen if he’s merely testing the club or plans to put it in the bag this week at TPC Summerlin. PGA TOUR SUPERSTORE: Buy equipment here

Click here to read the full article…

CROMWELL, Conn. (AP) — Xander Schauffele shot his second straight 7-under 63 on Friday to take a five-stroke lead in the Travelers Championship. The Olympic champion shot a 31 on the front nine at TPC River Highlands with four birdies, then had a 32 on the back, making birdies on 11, 14 and 17. He has hit 33 of 36 greens in regulation and is the only player in the tournament without a bogey. His closest call came close at the par-3 16th, where he hit his tee shot found the rough behind a greenside bunker. “It plays really interesting with the wind swirling through there,” Schauffele said. “It was my least committed swing of the week and just really happy to get up and down there and save par.” Kevin Kisner (64), Nick Hardy (64), defending champion Harris English (65), Cam Davis (66) and Patrick Cantlay (67) were tied for second at 9 under. First-round leaders Rory McIlroy and J.T. Poston followed opening 62s with 70s to drop six strokes back. Cantlay, who shot a 60 at TPC River Highlands as an amateur in 2011, played in the same morning group as English. “(I’m) still right here in this tournament, and looking forward to the weekend,” Cantlay said. “I enjoy the challenge, and that’s all you can do in golf, is give yourself as many chances as you possibly can.” English, who won on the eighth hole of a playoff last year, is playing in his third tournament since returning in May from Valentine’s Day surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right hip. “The toughest thing is walking and playing,” English said. “I mean, I feel like back home I can go hit a bunch of balls on the range, but up and down these hills and being on your feet for five or six hours is the toughest part. It’s getting better and better, and I feel like the more I play competitive rounds out here, it’s just going to get stronger.” Hardy, starting on the back nine had four consecutive birdies on 16, 17, 18 and 1. He also is coming back from injury after damaging the tendon is his left wrist in April. “I just was in great rhythm,” Hardy said. “That’s kind of been the name of the game for me since I came back. Just being in good rhythm. I think I’m swinging the club well and my mind is in a good spot.” Kisner had some good luck on 15 when his tee shot went right and rolled toward the course’s signature lake before getting hung up on a microphone cable, inches from the water. “Five shots is not insurmountable but I’m a going to need (Schauffele) to slow down a little bit,” Kisner said. Schauffele, played one group ahead of McIlroy, who was still leading by a stroke at 13 under before getting into trouble on the 12th hole. McIlroy hit his tee shot left and out of bounds into the woods, then found the deep rough to the right on his next shot. He put the ball into a green-side bunker from there, then chipped out short of the green and into the rough again, before finishing with a quadruple bogey. He left the hole trailing by three strokes and then found more trouble on the 15th. He went right on his tee shot, finding the high grass, then ran his third shot over the green, down the hill and into the water. He finished that hole with a 6. But he made birdie on 16, finishing with an even-par 70 when his birdie putt lipped out on 18. “I should be closer to the lead,” he said. “Feel like I let a lot of guys into the golf tournament because of it.” The last player to make a quadruple bogey and go on to win a PGA Tour event was Adam Scott at the 2016 Honda Classic. Scott put two shots in the water on the par-3 15th hole. The cut was at 2 under, with 2017 winner Jordan Spieth (1 over) dropping out with Sam Burns (even par), Zach Johnson (4 over) and Jason Day (6 over).

Click here to read the full article…