Kizzire embodies ‘floodgates’ theory of winning

With everyone else having long-since packed up and headed home, Patton Kizzire outlasts James Hahn with a par on the sixth hole of a sudden-death playoff to win the Sony Open in Hawaii. Welcome to the Monday Finish, where Kizzire built on his breakthrough win at the OHL Classic at Mayakoba last fall to become the first multiple winner this season. He also takes over the top spot in the FedExCup. Not bad for a guy who until two months ago was winless in his career. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. Kizzire is mentally tough. Because even the winners on TOUR are gloriously imperfect, the trick is to not get bogged down in the messy details. Kizzire is used to that. Hitting fairways at a 58.7 percent clip this season, he is 187th in driving accuracy. But he makes it work with solid putting (.829 in strokes gained: putting, 20th best on TOUR) and scrambling (63.03 percent, 47th). “My golf game is a roller-coaster,â€� Kizzire said after outlasting Hahn. “It always has been. I’m up and down and all around.â€� Case in point: the first hole of the playoff, the par-5 18th, where Hahn was looking at a makeable birdie putt and Kizzire, facing a delicate third shot, tried to get too cute and dumped his ball in the bunker. His caddie, Joe Eter, gave him a pep talk. “Yeah, that was a little rough, no pun intended,â€� Kizzire said. “I caught a little rough between my ball and the club and came up short, and I showed my caddie all the grass that was on the face. He said, just get that thing up and down, man, and we’ll see what happens.â€� Kizzire did just that, and when Hahn’s birdie try stayed out, Kizzire had staved off elimination. “Joe was big,â€� he said of caddie Eter. “He was big all week. He kind of gave me a kick in the rear end when I needed it and made me laugh when I needed to.â€� 2. Hahn has age on his mind. There were lots of positives for Hahn, who was 2-0 in playoffs before losing this one. After starting the day seven shots off the lead, his nine-birdie, one-bogey 62 was the low round of the day. It was also his best since a 10-birdie effort in the third round of the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide last season. And his play at the Sony would seem to bode especially well considering Hahn is beginning a stretch of five starts in five weeks. But Hahn said he doesn’t do moral victories, copping to uncertainty about how many more chances he might get (he is 36), and stressing the need to convert those chances into victories. “Everything I’m doing is great on the golf course,â€� Hahn said. “But you get to this level where you might only have two, three, four opportunities to win out on TOUR. These guys are really good. Dustin Johnson is going to get a couple. You know Jordan Spieth is going to get a handful, Justin Thomas. So, any time you have an opportunity to win and you don’t close the deal, I feel like it’s just one less opportunity for me. “So I feel really defeated right now. I probably sound that way. I probably feel like the most depressed guy in the room. Sorry. We didn’t get nuked, all right? But it’s one of those things where, at the end of the day, I’m going to be replaying all the bad shots that I hit and how I can improve, and that’s just the kind of person I am. I just keep grinding and just try to get better.â€� 3. Hoge classy in defeat. In retrospect, the worst place to be on the back nine, if not the whole golf course, may have been the bunker left of the 16th green. Tom Hoge and playing partner Brian Harman each wound up short-siding themselves in that bunker, and with little green to work with, neither could so much as hit the putting surface. Although Harman, whose first bunker shot didn’t get out of the sand, salvaged bogey, Hoge, whose bunker shot got caught up in the rough, succumbed to double-bogey to lose the lead and ultimately finish third. There were two ways to look at it for Hoge. The first was that it was his best-ever finish on TOUR. The second was that he’d made a mess of 16 from the middle of the fairway, just 156 yards remaining for his approach shot. Hoge, who lives in Fargo, N.D., tried to see the silver lining, remaining upbeat for a Golf Channel interview and to compose this tweet: 4. Harman a top-10 machine. Brian Harman (64-63-68-70) never quite found his best stuff on the weekend, but his T4 finish was his fifth in five starts so far this season. As usual, he hit a lot of fairways (nearly 68 percent, tied for fourth best in the field), but he was also long (averaging over 313 yards per pop, 23rd best). And he was in the top 10 in greens in regulation (76.39 percent, T23) and strokes gained: putting (1.425, eighth best). We should all have such off-weeks. 5. Thomas, Spieth struggling on greens. Justin Thomas (T14) said, “Hit some good putts again today on the front nine.â€� Jordan Spieth made a 91-foot putt, the longest of his career, in finishing T18. Mostly, though, the two young stars, who finished first and second, respectively, in the 2017 FedExCup, reported frustration on the greens after failing to win or even contend in either Hawaii events. “I couldn’t get the speed matched up,â€� said Thomas, who at the Sony was defending his title for the second consecutive week on TOUR. “I had a problem with that all week. I don’t know if that’s just from being a little rusty or maybe not practicing it as much. But there’s nothing to really be too upset about my game. For the first two events back, and kind of where I felt coming here, I’m in a great spot for the rest of the year. I just need to tighten things up a little bit.â€� Year-to-date, Thomas is sputtering at -.428 (T173) in strokes gained: putting. Spieth, meanwhile, sounded a similar refrain. Although it’s a tiny sample size of just eight rounds this season, he’s even further down the list at -.678 (201st) in strokes gained: putting. “I’ve got a lot of work to do with the putter,â€� he said. “It’s as simple as that. Everything else is plenty ready to win.â€� FIVE INSIGHTS 1. Sunday’s playoff marked the longest ever at the Sony, and the longest on TOUR since Bryce Molder outlasted Briny Baird in six holes at the 2011 Safeway Open. 2. It was a well-played six holes, with Kizzire and Hahn both making birdies at the 18th hole the second time they played it. And the third. Hahn seemed to tire, though, mentioning his failure to eat enough throughout the day after making bogey at the par-3 17th hole to end it. 3. Kizzire, who will turn 32 in early March, is the latest player to embody the “floodgatesâ€� theory of winning. After not lifting a TOUR trophy in his first 62 career starts, he now has won twice in his last four tournaments, including the Sony and the OHL Classic at Mayakoba in November. 4. Tom Hoge was solid from tee to green, ranking in the top 12 in driving distance and accuracy, and hitting 83.33 percent of the greens in regulation, second best in the field. His solo third came after he took the 54-hole lead for the first time in his career. All of which suggests he’ll be back. 5. Sometimes you’ve just got to play. Since the start of 2012, Brian Harman (T4) has more TOUR starts than any other player, with 186. He is currently seventh in the FedExCup. TOP THREE VIDEOS

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