Rickie Fowler and Phil Mickelson are among the early starters in the PGA Tour event in Scottsdale, Ariz.
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AUGUSTA, Ga. –  Staring his opponent face-to-face, especially in front of a hostile crowd, brings out Patrick Reed’s best. He’ll meet a foe from one of his most memorable performances on Masters Sunday. Reed will start the final round with a three-shot lead over Ryder Cup nemesis Rory McIlroy. Sunday’s setting will be much different than the context of international Cup competition in which Reed has excelled. The patrons of Augusta National are too polite to be partisan, of course, and Reed has ties to the home of the Masters after leading nearby Augusta State to consecutive NCAA titles. He may not have a rowdy crowd to fuel his fire on Sunday, but he’s facing an opponent much larger than a screaming mass of humanity. He’s playing against history. Reed stands between McIlroy and the Career Grand Slam. Two impressive rounds in Saturday’s soft conditions set up this final-round showdown. Reed shot 67, including two eagles on Augusta National’s famed par-5s, while McIlroy was two shots better after a bogey-free round. Reed insists that his focus will be on the golf course. Alister Mackenzie’s masterpiece is challenging enough, after all, but there’s no way to ignore the stakes when he steps to the first tee Sunday. “We’ll obviously still be feeling it,â€� McIlroy said. “It’s the last round of a major championship. Patrick is going for his first and I’m going for something else.â€� That “something elseâ€� may be the biggest achievement in professional golf. Using McIlroy’s quest for history as motivation could work to Reed’s advantage. He said Saturday evening that he’s trying to tap in to the energy and emotion that he exhibits in match play. This is the man who shushed the Scottish crowd at Gleneagles. He hurt Jordan Spieth’s hand with a violent high-five after holing out for eagle at Hazeltine. His singles match against McIlroy in 2016 may have been the peak of his match-play heroics. They played a four-hole stretch on Hazeltine’s front nine in 9 under par. McIlroy held his hand to his ear after making a long birdie putt on the par-3 eighth, imploring the American fans to increase the intensity of their cheers against him. Reed wagged his finger at McIlroy after making a birdie of his own on the same hole. He closed out the 1-up victory by hitting his approach shot to 6 feet on the final hole, setting off a celebration that whipped the crowd into a college-football frenzy. On Saturday, Reed and McIlroy combined for nine birdies and three eagles. McIlroy nailed a bump-and-run into the hole for eagle on the par-5 eighth, punching downward in excitement as he tied the lead. Playing in the group behind, Reed responded with three consecutive birdies on Nos. 8-10. “I was able to get into that (Ryder Cup) mode,â€� he said. That run set the stage for his dramatics on the second nine. Reed’s lead was down to two shots after his bogey at the 12th hole, but he responded with eagles on both 13 and 15. He pumped his fist furiously, showing the fire we’ve grown accustomed to in Cup competition, after chipping in on the par-5 15th. He was five shots ahead at the time, but his bogey at the par-3 16th and McIlroy’s birdie at 18 cut the advantage to three shots. “Patrick has a three-shot lead,â€� McIlroy said. “All the pressure is on him. He has that to sleep on that tonight.â€� A major is the next step in Reed’s progression. He already owns a World Golf Championship and a FedExCup Playoffs event among his five PGA TOUR victories. McIlroy knows how to win majors – he owns four of them – but now he has the extra weight of a historic accomplishment on his shoulders. Only five men have won all four of golf’s major championships. How important is the accomplishment? Tiger Woods called it “the ultimateâ€� after completing the Career Grand Slam at St. Andrews in 2000. Few know better than McIlroy that anything can happen on Masters Sunday. He may have finished in the top 10 in each of his past four trips to Augusta National, but this is the first time since 2011 that he’s had a realistic opportunity to win the Green Jacket. He started the final round with a four-shot lead, only to go down in flames with a final-round 80. The tee shot that he hooked near the cabins left of the 10th fairway was the start of a second-nine 43. It was McIlroy’s first chance to win a major, and the only 54-hole lead he’s lost in one of golf’s Grand Slam event. It’s easy to say that McIlroy would already own all four major championships if he’d closed it out here seven years ago, but he isn’t so sure. He called that loss “a turning point in my career.â€� “I feel like it made me a better player,â€� he said earlier this week. “I feel like it made me a better person.â€� Reed and McIlroy can’t ignore the rest of the leaderboard on Sunday, though. Rickie Fowler is in third place, two shots behind McIlroy and five behind Reed. Jon Rahm is another shot back. Both shot 65 on Saturday. But by the time they reach Amen Corner, it could be a mano-a-mano duel. That’s where Reed thrives. It’s a theme that dates back to his college days at Augusta State. He led the small school, which only competed at the Division I level in golf, to back-to-back NCAA titles. He went 6-0 in match play at those two NCAA Championships. His finest performance came against a hostile crowd. He beat Peter Uihlein, then the No. 1 amateur in the world, 8 and 7 in front of Uihlein’s home fans in Stillwater, Oklahoma.  “They are going to have a good time going at it,â€� Fowler said of the two men in the Masters’ final group. And we’ll enjoy watching it. This could be the classic Masters that we all anticipated.
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – Tiger Woods looked lost when he left Riviera. Now he looks capable of contending. What a difference six days and some 2,700 miles can make. Woods was a new player as he opened the Florida Swing with a solid 70 at PGA National. It tied the lowest score of this nascent comeback, but it undoubtedly was his best day on the course. “I feel like I’m really not that far off,� Woods said. “Today was a day that I’m really proud of because I missed the ball in the correct spots. I didn’t do that in L.A.� Woods’ stat line wasn’t overly impressive, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. He hit half his fairways and 10 of 18 greens Thursday. Most importantly, the majority of his misses were not far from his target. PGA National’s Champion Course is one of the toughest on TOUR, but Woods was able to keep even his worst shots out of the water hazards that have given the course notorious reputation. Riviera and Torrey Pines are not pushovers, but PGA National is one of those water-lined Florida courses where players can rack up penalty strokes in a hurry. Justin Thomas remembers taking nine penalty drops when he missed the cut here in his rookie season. Woods did have two big misses Thursday, both hit with the one club that continues to plague him: the driver. The rest of his game looked solid as he controlled his trajectory and shaped his shots through the strong south Florida winds that blew even early Thursday morning. His tee shot at the 12th hole, his third of the day, flew well left of the fairway and came to rest behind a lemonade stand that had to be moved before he could attempt his approach shot. On the sixth hole, his drive sailed so far right that even he had to laugh as he walked back to his bag. He saved par both times. Woods made only had two over-par holes Thursday, a bogey and double-bogey, but offset them with three. He was only four shots off Alex Noren’s lead after the morning wave completed play. Woods bemoaned the inconsistency of his game as he left last week’s Genesis Open, but this time he was on the right side of the variance that is inherent in this game. Woods said he didn’t make swing changes after he returned from California but continued to work on the same keys that he’s focused on since returning to the PGA TOUR. “I felt like I hit the ball really well, and it was tough out there,� Woods said. “I had to hit a lot of knock-down shots. I had to work the golf ball both ways and, occasionally downwind, straight up in the air. I was able to do all that today, so that was very pleasing.� The double-bogey, at the par-5 second hole, started when he hit his driver into a fairway bunker and was forced to lay far back from the green. He hit his 6-iron approach into a bunker, left that shot in the rough and then missed a 4-foot putt. Woods hit driver five times Thursday, finding the fairway just once. He hit 6 of 9 fairways when employing an iron or 3-wood off the tee. This was just the second time this season that he hit at least half his fairways and greens on the same day. It also was the first round that he was in the positive in all four Strokes Gained categories. He said it was “easily� his best ball-striking round of the season. Brandt Snedeker could offer perspective after playing with Woods in the third round at Torrey Pines, where he shot 70 despite hitting just three fairways, and Thursday. “His iron play was significantly better today than it was at Torrey. That’s what I expected to see,� Snedeker said. “This is way tougher (than Torrey), iron-wise. It’s not as tough off the tee. You don’t have to hit as many drivers around here, but the approaches are way tougher. He controlled his ball-flight really well, hit a bunch of really good shots that he wasn’t able to hit at Torrey because he was just kind of rusty. It was cool to see him flight the ball, hit some little cut shots and three-quarter shots and some stuff that I’m accustomed to seeing him do.� Woods’ first two birdies came after hitting something shorter than driver off the tee. After teeing off on No. 10, he birdied two of his first four holes and his name appeared atop the leaderboard. He made his only bogey on his front nine after hitting his approach shot at No. 16 into a greenside bunker. The double-bogey at his 12th hole dropped him to 1 over, but he hit a wedge shot close at the next hole to return to even-par. Woods had a chance to turn in a sub-par scorecard, but missed birdie putts of 14 feet and 20 feet on his final two holes. He couldn’t get it under par, but it was progress nonetheless.
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — The Americans won the Presidents Cup for the seventh straight time, and this one was no contest. With most of the work already done, a dominant U.S. Team needed only one point from the 12 singles matches Sunday. Kevin Chappell halved the first match with Marc Leishman, and victory was assured when Daniel Berger went 3 up with three to play against Si Woo Kim in the fourth match. Berger wound up winning his match, and the celebration was on. The last point came from Phil Mickelson, a 47-year-old on an American team that featured six players in their 20s. Mickelson has played in every Presidents Cup since it began in 1994. This was his 23rd straight team in the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup. And in his 100th career match, he beat Adam Hadwin, 2 and 1. The final score was 19-11. The Americans fell short of their goal to become the first Presidents Cup team to win all five sessions. The Internationals won six matches and halved two others. One of those victories belonged to Jhonattan Vegas, who waved his Venezuela flag after beating Jordan Spieth, keeping Spieth winless in singles in his five team competitions as a pro. President Donald Trump arrived at Liberty National about 45 minutes before the Americans secured the gold trophy that he was to present to them. Trump, the honorary chairman of the matches, is the first sitting president to attend on the final day and present the trophy. “This is a juggernaut of a U.S. Team,” said Nick Price, in his third and final stint of the International captain, all of them losses. “They’re an overpowering team that played some phenomenal golf. It was tough to watch, especially being on the receiving end.” The Americans had an 11-point lead going into Sunday. All that remained was the margin of victory, and to see if they could become the first team to win all five sessions in the Presidents Cup. That was the motivation from U.S. Captain Steve Stricker, and the players responded with some of their best golf. So thorough was this beating that Chappell and Charley Hoffman could have clinched the cup Saturday evening if they had won their fourballs match. Stricker sent them out at the top of his lineup to give them a chance to finish the job. Chappell nearly did. Hoffman was beaten by Jason Day, who had gone nine straight matches without winning until a 2-and-1 victory. Instead, the clinching match fell to Berger, who had told Sky Sports in an interview Saturday, “Our goal from the minute we got here was to crush them as bad as we can. I hope that we close them out today and we go out there tomorrow and beat them even worse.” Berger won his match on the 17th green with the Americans who had finished gathered around and ready to start their party. Hoffman ran over and sprayed Berger with champagne, and Berger took a swig from the bottle before handing it over to Stricker for a quick guzzle. “They came in here riding a ton of momentum and a ton of confidence,” Stricker said. “It was about getting out of their way.” The Americans have a 10-1-1 record in the Presidents Cup. The only loss was at Royal Melbourne in 1998, which ended just 12 days before Christmas. The matches return to Australia in two years for another pre-Christmas test for the Americans. “It was a bit of a slaughtering this week,” said Adam Scott, who won his first point of the week by beating U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka.
