Matsuyama ties course record with 71 at Players

HOUSTON — Tony Finau wants to end his big year in a big way, and he took a step Thursday by biding his time and delivering late birdies for a 5-under 65 that gave him a share of the lead in the Cadence Bank Houston Open. Finau used a 60-foot birdie putt on the par-3 second hole, his 11th of the round, to start a stretch of four birdies in five holes. He was tied for the lead with bogey-free Aaron Wise and Alex Noren of Sweden, who could use a big week in Houston to nail down a spot in the top 50 in the world as he tries to get a Masters invitation. Tyson Alexander also was at 5-under and drove into the left rough when the first round was suspended because of darkness. Alexander chose not to finish his round and will finish the 18th on Friday morning before starting his second round. The large group at 66 included Sanderson Farms winner Mackenzie Hughes of Canada and Keith Mitchell, who was poised to take the lead until his second shot into the par-5 16th went into the water and led to bogey. Finau won consecutive starts this summer in Minnesota and Detroit for his first season of multiple wins. He missed the cut last week in Mayakoba and wasn’t faring too well at Memorial Park, except that he knew the course was demanding from tee-to-green. “I knew the golf course — it’s a tough golf course to play,” Finau said. “You have to drive it in the fairway and your work’s not done. It’s hard to hit the greens. You know if you miss the green, it’s hard to get up-and-down, so I was just patient with myself. “I made a couple bombs, I think that kind of opened it up.” The biggest one was on No. 2, and with a breeze at his back, he had no trouble adding another birdie on the par-5 third. He hit a wedge to 4 feet on No. 5 and then holed a birdie putt from 12 feet on the next hole. Finau also finished with a bang, rolling in a 35-foot putt on the par-3 ninth. His big summer has Finau at No. 15 in the world ranking, courtesy of his big run through late July and early August. The TOUR has two tournaments left this year before resuming the season at Kapalua the first week of January. “The season that I’ve had this past season was very nice, but I want to go out in a good way and I want to finish the year strong,” Finau said. “And I think that’s what I’m looking for this week.” The top 50 in the world at the end of the year typically get Masters invitations, and Noren put himself into the mix with a runner-up finish in the Dunhill Links in Scotland. He came into the Houston Open at No. 50 and knew he had his work cut out for him. Noren tied for 42nd last week at Mayakoba on a tight course cut through the mangroves that requires more precision than power and a superb wedge game. Memorial Park has a lot more beef, and Noren wasn’t sure what to expect out of his game. “Last week was like medium to short course, a lot of wedges that you have to get close. Here is longer, you’ve got to hit fairways and you’ve got to hit greens,” Noren said. “So I was a little bit nervous coming into today. Didn’t feel great in practice, but found something and got the irons a lot better. Overall, I would have taken 65.” Wise ran off four straight birdies on the front nine and played bogey-free. His only win on the PGA TOUR so far was the AT&T Byron Nelson in the Dallas area. Is another title in Texas in the cards? “It would be good,” Wise said. “I don’t want to win them all in one state, but I’ll take two in Texas.” Memorial Park had plenty of bite. Masters champion Scottie Scheffler was 4 over through 10 holes in the morning when he salvaged a solid round with four birdies coming in for a 70. Scheffler can regain the No. 1 world ranking with a win. Sam Burns wasn’t so fortunate. He had eight bogeys and seven pars until making his first birdie on the par-5 16th and finishing with a 77.

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PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – Bubba Watson had just joined Ben Hogan and Arnold Palmer as a three-time winner of the Genesis Open, but he wasn’t entertaining talk of comparisons. “I’m the first and I’m the only Bubba Watson,â€� he said. He sure is. Watson is perhaps arguably the most unlikely player in the history of the game of golf to reach 10 PGA TOUR wins – which he did with his two-shot triumph at Riviera Country Club on Sunday. The self-taught, freewheeling, idiosyncratic left-handed Floridian rips at the ball like it assaulted his mother and needs to be punished. He can curve it every which way in the air and spin it six ways from sideways on the greens. Nothing about what he does is conventional. And that includes off the course. Watson rarely looks you in the eye and suffers from anxiety at times in crowded places. He’s a self-confessed “head caseâ€�. His attention span is about as long as his driver shaft, yet he manages to concentrate long enough to produce stellar shots. And while his fellow competitors hit the range or a post-round ice bath this week, Watson visited Hollywood talk shows and played in the celebrity game at the NBA All-Star Weekend. He’s different. Clearly. But it wasn’t any of the above that had Watson stranded on nine TOUR wins for two years – instead it was an illness that he still refuses to disclose. “My sickness is minor compared to others. My dad passed away from cancer. I have nowhere near cancer. It’s nothing,â€� he says. But whatever it was – it stripped weight from Watson and dropped him to around 160 pounds from his highs of around 210 and ideal weight of around 185. It made him weak and tired. And he was unable to produce the swashbuckling golf he is used to. Consequently, season 2016-17 was his worst on record, finishing 75th in the FedExCup and having his world ranking slide outside the top 100. “My ball speed, my swing, everything changed,â€� he said. “It was the lowest point I’ve ever been at in the game of golf. The last year-and-a-half, almost two years, give or take, it’s been a struggle because I want to be at the top. “I was top‑10 in the world for a few years there… so not being there… you feel like, is this it, is this my old man moment where I can’t play golf again?â€� He was feeling so sorry for himself that he even contemplated retirement. “I was close,â€� he said to that prospect. “My wife was not close. My wife told me ‑‑ my wife basically told me to quit whining and play golf. She’s a lot tougher than I am.â€� It’s why tears came out on the 72nd hole when he clinched the win. Watson has always been emotional in these moments – but this time it was about the climb back. It was about hitting double digit wins – a number he never thought possible. “Nobody thought that Bubba Watson from Bagdad, Florida, would ever get to 10 wins, let’s be honest. Without lessons, head case, hooking the ball, slicing the ball, can’t putt,â€� he said. “This day and age, to get 10 wins on the PGA TOUR, the greatest tour in the world… I am thrilled. “I never thought I could get there. So you try to set something that you never think you can get to and if I got to it, that’s my Hall of Fame. If you all vote me in or don’t vote me in, I could care less. That doesn’t matter to me, I got my 10 wins.â€� Now that his weight has returned, and so has his ability to play “Bubba Golfâ€�, he can set his sights on even more. Perhaps he can join Lloyd Mangrum and MacDonald Smith as four-time winners at the Genesis Open in 2019… or perhaps 2020 if he keeps his two-year-cycle going. “We don’t know if I’m ever going to win again, if I’m going to win 100 times, we just don’t know. I cherish this one because it’s my latest,â€� he said. But remember – don’t compare him to the greats. “I’m never going to compete with any of those guys with any titles, any records, anything,â€� he says. “I just enjoy playing the game of golf and I love putting trophies in my trophy case.â€� Odds are he will need more space in that case.

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Daniel Berger is giving some prime real estate on his bag to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for the remainder of the 2021 PGA TOUR season. A two-time winner of the hospital’s eponymous tournament, Berger will start carrying the bag in Memphis this weekend at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. He has also pledged $1,000 to St. Jude for every birdie he scores this week and will donate his bag for auction at the end of the season at www.birdiesforstjude.com. Berger’s relationship with St. Jude dates back to his 2016 win at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. Over the years, he has made a number of visits to the hospital and gotten to know staff and connect with patients and families. Berger also gifted St. Jude the charitable allotment he earned as a member of the victorious 2017 Presidents Cup team.

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