Live leaderboard: Final Four in WGC-Match Play

Spieth enters the weekend at the Waste Management Phoenix Open with a shot at his first win in four years. But he has been here before. Is now the time?

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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Bubba Watson and his wife, Angie, adopted a son, Caleb, just prior to Watson winning the 2012 Masters. They adopted a daughter, Dakota, in December of 2014, the year Watson won his second Masters. Life and golf always coexisted peacefully. Until last year. “Last year was a challenging year for me and my family,â€� said Watson, who shot a bogey-free 69 to get to 6 under and within three of the early second-round leader, Daniel Berger (65) halfway through the Waste Management Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale. “Me, physically, I went down to 165 pounds, which, I was up to 210 at one time during my career. I guess I fluctuate a lot. “So I wasn’t very healthy, as I needed to be last year,â€� he added. “So trying to get back healthy. My son’s in kindergarten, my wife had knee surgery, so there’s a lot of things we’re battling. But struggling on the golf course is not very bad.â€� A nine-time PGA TOUR winner, Watson, 39, comes into this week at 193rd in the FedExCup and 108th in the Official World Golf Ranking. (He hit a high of second in the world for four weeks in early 2015.) He prefers not to specify the nature of his illness, but whatever it was, he failed to seriously contend in any tournament, missed the cut by a mile at the Masters (74-78), and finished a career-worst 75th in the FedExCup. Today, Watson is back up to around 180 pounds, which, he says, “is about what I was when I won the two Masters.â€� After a brief bit of tinkering with his equipment, he has gone back to the ball he used in his prime. And, lo and behold, he’s playing well again. He made two birdies and no bogeys Friday, a continuation of the steady tee-to-green play he enjoyed at the recent CareerBuilder Challenge (MC), but in this case with a few made putts sprinkled in. “I missed the cut (at CareerBuilder) but I was tied for first in greens in regulation,â€� Watson said. “So my ball-striking is right where I want it to be. And my putting, I feel good over the putts, they’re just not going in. Right now, the ball’s just laughing at me.â€� Strictly speaking, Watson’s most recent victory was the 2016 Northern Trust Open, his second win at Riviera. Since then, well, uh, he opened a candy store, Bubba’s Sweet Shop, in July of 2016. Sometimes his mom, Molly, works behind the counter. So that was cool. But he’s still looking for that elusive 10th win on TOUR, which is now within reach in the desert. “You got to pick and choose your battles,â€� Watson said. “Last year I wasn’t very good at golf, but I guess I was good as a dad and a husband. I would rather be that than a good golfer.â€� OBSERVATIONS STALLINGS TRIES TIGER PUTTER: Scott Stallings (65, 8-under) missed the cut at last week’s Farmers Insurance Open, where he was a past champion. And it was a trend. The 32-year-old New England native, who spends his winters in Scottsdale, has slipped to 163rd in the FedExCup and 305th in the world. But with time on his hands, he began watching the Farmers telecast. When the cameras zeroed in on Tiger Woods’ putter, Stallings had an epiphany: He owned a Scotty Cameron just like the one Woods made famous. “It was sitting in my closet,â€� he said. “I pulled it out and went out and hit some putts with it on Sunday. It’s a Scotty Cameron that I’ve had forever, and I had never pulled the trigger in a tournament. I finally pulled it out and here we are.â€� Stallings took just 26 putts and shot 69 in the first round, and 31 putts after hitting all 18 greens in regulation Friday. He was one off the lead after the morning wave. THOMAS SHAKES OFF BAD HALF HOUR: Reigning FedExCup champion Justin Thomas was at 6 under and in contention after getting up and down eight times in eight chances and shooting his second straight 68. The secret to his second round? Not getting bogged down by the way he had ended his first. Thomas was cruising when he made a double-bogey 5 at the rowdy 16th hole, then pitched his second shot into the water and made bogey at the par-4 17th. In a half hour he had dropped three shots. “I just went to dinner (at Maggiano’s Italian restaurant) with my parents,â€� Thomas said after going bogey-free Friday. “I was going to get room service, but I knew I was going to be all miserable and sulky all by myself. I was like: I just need to get out. So I went to eat with them and had a good dinner and went back and got some sleep.â€� BERGER FRESH AFTER BREAK: Daniel Berger took the last two weeks off, so it was easy to forget that he was one of the hotter players on TOUR coming into the Waste Management, where he shot a second-round 65 to get to 10 under and lead the morning wave of players. Berger finished T11 at the Sentry Tournament of Champions and a T14 at the Sony Open in Hawaii. It was a good start to 2018, but still, it felt somehow lacking after his breakout season last year, when he successfully defended his title at the FedEx St. Jude Classic, lost a thrilling playoff to Jordan Spieth at the Travelers Championship, and made his first Presidents Cup team. “It hasn’t been quite what I really wanted it to be,â€� Berger said of his start to this season. “I think the expectations from the last couple years were pretty high, so just trying to maintain a lower expectation and just have fun and play well, and that’s kind of what’s happened this week.â€� NOTABLES Jordan Spieth shot a second-round 70 and at even par was projected to miss the cut. Patrick Reed shot a 5-under 66 and was at 5 under for the tournament. QUOTABLES I was probably playing golf swing versus playing golf a little bit.When we were making the turn, one of the nurses came up and said, ‘We’re happy we haven’t seen you this year.’

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LAKE FOREST, IL. – Anirban Lahiri spent 10 days at a silent meditation retreat in western Massachusetts earlier this summer, but not even quiet persistence can fully explain how he’s hung on the last 10 days, barely squeaking into the fields at two of golf’s most elite events. First, Lahiri got by without his best at the Dell Technologies Championship at TPC Boston on Labor Day, finishing T56 but watching the breaks go his way as Branden Grace and Russell Knox struggled coming in. That left Lahiri at 70th in the FedExCup, making him the last man into this week’s BMW Championship. Barely 24 hours later, Lahiri, 16th on the International Presidents Cup team points table, found out he had received one of captain Nick Price’s two wildcard picks—the most surprising of the four by Price and U.S. Captain Steve Stricker. The Internationals will play the United States at Liberty National, Sept. 28-Oct. 1. “It’s been a good time for me,� Lahiri said from the BMW at Conway Farms. “Last man in here, arguably the last man into the Presidents Cup, if you want to put it that way.� The cookies, as Lahiri likes to say, are crumbling his way. It has taken something special to get here for everyone in this week’s field at Conway Farms, but maybe for Lahiri most of all. His father, an Army officer, introduced him to the game when he was 8, and he was hard-pressed to find many golfing role models in India. Jeev Milkha Singh played a little on TOUR, as did 2010 Wyndham Championship winner Arjun Atwal. Lahiri, 30, proved an equal if not superior talent. He won 18 times worldwide but is still searching for his first victory on the PGA TOUR. He’s also still searching for his A game, and is admittedly fortunate to be doing so here among the elites at the BMW. After saying all season that he wanted a chance to atone for his 0-3-0 record at the 2015 Presidents Cup, he’ll get that. “I’ve obviously got Nick’s cell phone number, but he must have called me from his home phone, so I wasn’t expecting it—the call just showed up as Hobe Sound,� Lahiri said. “I didn’t do the math. I know he lives in Hobe Sound. ‘Hey, it’s Nick.’ ‘Oh!’ “Obviously, Nick and I are friends now, since the last Presidents Cup. We talked about the hurricane, talked about what’s happening, my game, how are you feeling, and then he said, ‘Oh, by the way, we had a long conference call.’ I was almost expecting him to say, ‘I’m really sorry,’ but he said, ‘We want you on the team.’ This was probably five minutes into the call. I was looking at my wife and gave her the thumbs-up. She didn’t know who I was talking to.� As if narrowly getting into the BMW Championship and the Presidents Cup didn’t leave his nerves sufficiently frayed, Lahiri and his wife, Ipsa Jamwal, evacuated from their U.S. base in West Palm Beach to New York in advance of Hurricane Irma last week. Once they arrived in the safety of New York, Lahiri and Presidents Cup teammate (and fellow evacuee) Emiliano Grillo of Argentina caught the U.S. Open semifinal between Rafael Nadal and Juan Martin del Potro, then played Liberty National for the first time on Sunday. It was part and parcel of Lahiri’s commitment to making this Presidents Cup experience different from the last one. “Obviously, it left a bitter taste in my mouth, but not just me, the whole team,� Lahiri said of Korea, where the U.S. won 15.5-14.5. “There is such a huge difference between being a rookie and coming back. I was sort of like a deer in the headlights because I had not played on this TOUR, I was not used to being on the big stage.� Two years later, Lahiri has a home here, and plays the TOUR fulltime. He and his wife have rented in West Palm since April of last year, but they’ve bought a home in PGA National and have been renovating it for the last nine months. “Like a baby,� Lahiri said. The home, which they are scheduled to move into late next week, was mostly spared by Irma, leaving Lahiri to focus on other things, like his golf. First on the agenda will be to get to East Lake and the TOUR Championship, which will probably require a win or close to it. There’s a certain freedom in that, though. The last time Lahiri felt the need to go for broke, at the 2015 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, where his TOUR card hung in the balance, he tied for fifth. (He would eventually get his card through the Web.com Tour Finals.) Then he’s got the Presidents Cup to look forward to, in front of the legendary New York fans. Lahiri has watched with great interest as players like Ian Poulter, Patrick Reed and Phil Mickelson have upped their games for team golf. “I definitely believe I can do that,� he said. Two years ago, Lahiri was the first from India to play in the Presidents Cup. It was a nice distinction, and while he’s still the only one to play in the event, and is proud of it, he says it’s now time to up the ante. “The time has come where it’s not just about representing,� Lahiri said. “You’ve got to show up and make those points for your team, make a difference, be a part of a winning cause. I’ve been saying this to the media back home. “Just playing the Olympics is not enough. Just playing the World Cup is not enough. Just playing in the Presidents Cup is not enough. Just playing in the majors is not enough. You’ve got to show up and contend and play well and win one of those things. Otherwise, you’re not going to have the next generation want to play the sport. You need to do something special.� That’s true, but there’s also something to be said for sheer survival, and just getting this far has been at least half the battle. As for the other half, who knows? If his next 10 days are as charmed as his last 10, Anirban Lahiri could be ready to make some serious noise.

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