Johnson pulls off stunning win at Glen Oaks

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, WV. – Phil Mickelson has his sights firmly set on breaking his winning drought and surging into Team USA for the Presidents Cup over the next two months. Starting this week at The Greenbrier Classic, where Mickelson will be without long time caddy Jim “Bonesâ€� Mackay for the first time since 1992, the 47-year-old says he’s driven to make his season count. Currently sitting a respectable 40th in the FedExCup thanks to four top-10s, Mickelson has loftier goals. He is approaching the four-year anniversary since his 42nd, and last, PGA TOUR win at the 2013 Open Championship. “It is a big goal of mine to make it on that Presidents Cup team. I’m a member at Liberty National. I love the golf course. I love playing golf in the metropolitan area and would love nothing more than to be on that team and continue the streak,â€� Mickelson, who has played in all 11 Presidents Cups, and every Ryder Cup since 1994, said. “After having received a captain’s pick last time, I feel it’s important I make it on my own. I’ve got six events to make this team. I’ve been working hard with my instructor to make be sure I’m swinging the way I need to. “So I’ve got six good tournaments, and I am going to be putting everything I can into it to get on that team.â€� With five of the 10 players currently in the automatic pick slots for Team USA having no experience in either Presidents Cups or Ryder Cups, a veteran like Mickelson could be extremely valuable. He currently sits 15th on the points list. “We have a lot of really good young talent, a lot of really great personalities that bring out the best in each other, and I would love to be a part of that,â€� he added. Mickelson is now an ambassador for The Greenbrier, but has not yet turned his love for the course and area into results. In three previous attempts from 2011-2013, he missed the cut at The Old White TPC but feels this year can be different. “My record here has not been stellar, but I’ve really gotten some good work in these last couple days in the one area I had struggled in the past, which is distance control with my irons,â€� he said. “Given the altitude being significantly higher than sea level, getting dialed in with the altitude and how different the ball flies for different trajectories (has been the key). “I’ve had a chance the last two days getting adjusted to that, and I believe that’s going to make a difference. “I feel like my game is at the level that I’ve been playing well enough to win, but I haven’t had those results and put myself in contention the way I would like to. It would mean a lot to me if I were able to get it done.â€� As for playing without Mackay for the first time, Mickelson preferred to focus on who he does have on the bag – brother Tim. He will work with him throughout the remainder of 2017, but as yet has no long-term plans for a new bagman. “I’m so appreciative of the time I have had with Bones for 25 years that anything I say positively about what I’m looking forward to with Tim and so forth I feel would be taken as a shot at Bones. I don’t want to do that. I have too much respect for him and our time together over the years,â€� Mickelson explained. “The thing I would say is Tim is one of my favorite people. I love being around him. He’s one of the people I respect the most, and throughout my career he’s been so supportive of me. “After having not won for four years, knowing that my game is at a level that is good enough to win but not having done it, I think the one thing is an element of maybe being comfortable with my brother and maybe he gets me a little bit more relaxed and takes pressure off me and maybe I’ll play my best that way. “We’re going to have fun the last half of the season, and I play my best when I’m having fun.â€�

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ATLANTA – Joaquin Niemann was 24 shots off the lead, and the tension was thick. Playing as a single and determined to beat Kevin Na’s speed record (1:59) for an 18-hole round at the TOUR Championship, Niemann had the clubhouse in sight, and he was flying. A group of 30 to 40 supporters, many of them college kids and younger, were running with him, witnesses to history. Na, waiting for his tee time on the practice putting green next to the 10th tee, kept up with the breathless commentary and the timed splits on his phone. “Oh, he’s breaking it,” Na said. He smiled. “He needs a ruling on 18.” There was no such hinderance. Niemann creamed his drive – about a foot or two from being too far and in the water – found the front greenside bunker with his second, blasted out to 6 1/2 feet, missed the birdie, and tapped in for a 2-over 72. Elapsed time: 1:53. He’d made history. “I’m tired,” Niemann said, out of breath and smiling at his ridiculous feat. Asked about the intrepid fans who legged it right along with them on the back nine, Gary Matthews, his caddie, said, “It felt like the Tiger Woods time here.” Andy Pazder, Chief Tournament/Competitions Officer for the PGA TOUR, met them in the scoring trailer and notified Niemann that he would be receiving a $10,000 fine for his conduct. Before a fuming Niemann could say anything, Pazder said he was only kidding. “I was like, ‘Oh, I hate you,’” Niemann said with a laugh. The rushed round required some preparation. “He had three golf balls,” said caddie Matthews, when asked if he’d strategically emptied out the bag. “He didn’t have the usual nine. He didn’t have a rain cover. He didn’t have any little instruments that we had. He only had one glove, five tees.” And if it had rained? “Umbrella was gone,” Matthews added. Niemann rubbed the caddie’s belly. “Didn’t have breakfast this morning so he was light.” Wesley Bryan has the fastest round on record on the PGA TOUR, 1:29 at the BMW Championship. The record-breaking round was a welcome diversion amid the tension of Patrick Cantlay and Jon Rahm trading blows with the $15 million FedExCup first prize on the line. It also won Niemann some fans. Brendan Reilly and Will Arsenault, students at the University of Miami who were in town for the Hurricanes’ football game against Alabama on Saturday, were sweating and out of breath on 18. “We saw him at 11 and realized he was only an hour into his round,” Reilly said. “He picked up the pace and next thing you knew he was on 14 already, and it was on from there.” Added Arsenault, “There were a good 30 to 40 kids like us running with him. Never in my life did I see myself participating in a Tiger moment like this. He really grew a following.” Tyler and Evan Henley, teenagers from Beaufort, Georgia, carried the scoring standard and were also exhausted and pushing fluids by the end of the round. “I wrestle,” said Tyler, 17, “so I’m probably in the best condition I’ll be in, and it still wore me out.” Did they know on the first tee what Niemann was going to do? “No,” Tyler said. “He was talking to his caddie; me and my and my brother heard the word ‘run.’ Then he kind of took off and then stopped, so we thought he was jokin’ around and he was gonna take it kinda slow. And then on 10 and he just took off.” Told at the turn he was off the pace; Niemann knew he had to step on it. He had double-bogeyed the eighth hole, a misadventure that seemed to take forever. It was time to blow off some steam. Although he professes to hate running since his school days, when he ran track, he took off down the 10th fairway, telling the brothers over his shoulder, “We’re beating this record!” The next five holes were a blur. When Niemann reached the watery, par-3 15th hole, Stewart Cink and Hideki Matsuyama, who’d started 10 minutes behind him, were teeing off at the eighth. Niemann and Matthews resolved to finish the round before Cink and Matsuyama finished the front nine. Niemann hit the 15th green and made a 29-foot birdie putt, his shot of the day. Really, though, it was the time that he would remember, and being on the clock – in a good way. “It’s been a long week, a long three or four weeks,” he said, “and I wasn’t playing my best golf this week. I was in last place and wasn’t going to win. I was pretty far behind from the guys in front of me, so I was like, let’s make it fun and have fun. It was a lot of fun.”

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