Jordan Spieth finds fight but misses cut at Sony Open in Hawaii

Spieth celebrates Open win with friends and family at airport

Click here to read the full article…

It was the calm before the storm that came after a mega storm. Returning to Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club Saturday after almost 10-inches of rain saturated the area on Friday and caused the postponement of the second round, Tiger Woods calmly took control at a quiet ZOZO Championship.  RELATED: Leaderboard | Tiger chases Snead’s record | Monday finish determined for ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP His second straight 6-under 64 pushed the 43-year-old to 12 under par through 36 holes, good enough for a two-shot lead over current U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland. Woods is of course now well and truly on track to join Sam Snead with a record-tying 82nd PGA TOUR win, a fact that will send returning spectators into a frenzy of epic proportions. The odds may be in his favor when you take into account the fact Woods has turned 38 of 49 halfway leads/co-leads to victory and on the 33 occasions he was an outright leader, 28 of them ended with wins. It is incredible considering this is his first tournament of the new 2019-20 season after a nine-week break that included knee surgery. While the two-time FedExCup champion is accustomed to feeding off huge galleries that create roars at every turn, it was a far different vibe on this occasion. Safety concerns after the previous days deluge meant PGA TOUR officials kept spectators off the grounds for the second round leaving an eerie silence around the golf course. Just days after thousands were 20-deep at seemingly every turn the place was a virtual ghost town save for the diehard fans who climbed trees and peered through fences just for a glimpse of their hero. Woods played as if the crowds were still there. As if on auto pilot he still waved after his seven birdies and provided a little showmanship when walking in some putts. When he encountered those people in the trees behind the fences he couldn’t help but flash them his trademark grin. “I made a couple putts today and I went to put my hand up and I’m like, don’t put your hand up, there’s no one clapping, so just move on about your business and just go ahead and keep trying to plug my way up the board, and I was able to do that,â€� Woods admitted. “I’m surprised that I was able to score as well as I have; usually that takes a little bit of time. But this golf course is a little bit on the softer side. I’ve been able to strike my irons pretty well this week so far and that’s been nice. “I left a lot of my approach shots below the hole and I was able to be pretty aggressive, and the greens are a little bit slower than they were yesterday. I had a good feel on the putting green, which was nice. Hit a lot of putts from below the hole and making sure that I put a lot of right hand into it and released it and it felt good all day.â€� The third round is scheduled to begin at 6:30 a.m. local time Sunday (5:30 p.m. ET Saturday) with Woods in the last group at 8:30 a.m. (7:30 p.m. ET) along with Woodland and Keegan Bradley (four back). The crowds will be allowed back in and are expected to be at capacity. The players will not be regrouped after the round and will continue into the fourth round, playing until darkness before the tournament will then conclude on Monday morning. The prospect of extra holes in one day will put more pressure on Woods recently repaired knee and his surgically fused back. It’s a different kind of storm he needs to weather … fatigue and stiffness. At one point during the round there was a long wait on the par-5 14th hole forcing some precautionary stretching and ultimately the addition of a vest. All part of the management needed in his game these days. “It’s just going to be a long day,â€� Woods said of Sunday. “Eat a lot of food tonight and then tomorrow, same thing, make sure that I eat enough and feel good about my warm‑up session. “I felt like I hit it a little bit better today … that’s nice going into a long day like tomorrow because it’s going to be a bit of a test physically and mentally to play for, what, up to 10 hours. Hopefully I can play well and get myself right there.â€�

Click here to read the full article…

DETROIT — Nate Lashley completed an unlikely wire-to-wire victory in the Rocket Mortgage Classic on Sunday for his first PGA TOUR title. Lashley closed with a 2-under 70 to finish at 25-under 263 and win by six shots, the margin he took into the day after opening with rounds of 63, 67 and 63. The 36-year-old Lashley’s parents and girlfriend were killed in a plane crash 15 years ago. He dabbled in real estate after graduating from the University of Arizona, quit playing professional golf several years ago and resumed playing in PGA TOUR circuits. “Without my parents, I wouldn’t have started playing golf when I was little,” said Lashley, who began playing when he was 8. “They did everything to help me have a career.” Monday qualifier Doc Redman shot a 67 to finish second. Rory Sabbatini (68) and Wes Roach (68) were another stroke back. Lashley slipped into PGA TOUR’s first event in Detroit as an alternate Wednesday. The Nebraskan took full advantage, shooting a career-low 63 in the first round to take a lead he refused to lose at Detroit Golf Club. Lashley stayed atop the leaderboard with a 67 on Friday and gave himself a cushion with another 9-under 63 Saturday. On the brink of breaking through during his second PGA TOUR season, his sister, girlfriend, buddies and family friends flew to Detroit to join him. Brooke Lashley, who lives near her brother in Arizona, was in awe of as fans followed and cheered for her little brother as they stood along the ropes from tee to green. “I’m sure a lot of these people didn’t know him a couple days ago,” she said, standing near the No. 8 green. “He’s doing all he can to focus, but this is so incredible. It’s foreign to him because he’s never had this much attention. He’s never played in front of a gallery like this with TV cameras all over the place.” In 2014, parents Rod and Char Lashley and girlfriend Leslie Hofmeister, all of Scottsbluff, Nebraska, were missing for three days before their bodies and the wreckage were found near the 13,780-foot Gannett Peak in Wyoming after watching him play in a tournament for the University of Arizona. “It rocked our community,” recalled Helen Reinhardt, a family friend from Nebraska. Reinhardt and her husband, Jim, boarded a charter plane in Nebraska that stopped in Minnesota to pick up Lashley’s girlfriend and arrived in the Motor City on Sunday. “It’s great to be here to watch his dream come true after watching him play in the Dakotas Tour and work his way up to here,” said Jeff Peck, one of about a dozen of Lashley’s friends at Detroit Golf Club. Lashley made a living as a real estate agent after graduating from Arizona and his playing career started, stopped and resumed again. He won the Waterloo Open, a professional tournament, in Iowa in 2011 and quit competitive golf the next year. When Lashley was flipping houses, he thought his playing career was over. Lashley gave the game another shot, playing on the PGA TOUR Latinoamerica circuit in 2015 and moved up to what is now called the Korn Ferry Tour two years later. He made his PGA TOUR debut last season in his mid-30s, but he had to end his year after 17 events because of a knee injury. He tied for eighth in February in the Puerto Rico Open — played opposite the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship — for his only top-10 finish previously on TOUR. He started the tournament No. 132 in the FedExCup standings. Lashley would’ve had to collapse and one of the contenders would’ve had to have a sensational performance to put the final result in doubt. Neither happened. Lashley played it safe, putting together a conservative round that kept his comfortable lead. He made a slow-rolling, downhill putt from 15 feet to birdie the first hole. At No. 3, he started confidently walking toward the cup before his 10-foot birdie putt went in to put him at 25 under. “The birdies on 1 and 3 really calmed me down,” Lashley said. Lashley had two bogeys on the front nine — one more than he had the previous three rounds — and coasted to victory on the back with two birdies and no bogeys. Family and friends stood near the edge of the green as he closed out the round. Lashley’s girlfriend and sister, choking back tears, went onto the green to give him a hug. “I’m just real emotional,” he said later. “I’m just thankful I got in the tournament.”

Click here to read the full article…