McIlroy hangs on to win HSBC Champions

THOMASTOWN, Ireland (AP) — Adrian Meronk became Poland’s first winner on the DP World Tour Sunday with a superb closing stretch at Mount Juliet for a 6-under 66 and a three-shot victory in the Horizon Irish Open. Meronk was one shot behind Ryan Fox of New Zealand with four holes remaining when he went birdie-birdie-eagle to give himself room for error on the tough closing hole. He made par and walked off the 18th green soaked in a champagne celebration. “It’s such a relief,” Meronk said. “After coming quite close a couple of times, to finally open the door it’s just a dream come true.” Fox closed with a 64, and he feared a bogey on the final hole might cost him in the end. Meronk played so well over the closing stretch that it didn’t matter. Meronk, who finished at 20-under 268, Fox and Thriston Lawrence (67) already were exempt for the British Open. The three spots available from the Irish Open went to American John Catlin, David Law of Scotland and Fabrizio Zanotti of Paraguay. They all finished on 273. Meronk, who played college golf at East Tennessee State, will be the first Polish player in the Open Championship at St. Andrews in two weeks. That’s a label he knows well. He already was the first Pole in the U.S. Open last year at Torrey Pines, and the first to even earn a DP World Tour card. And now he’s the first winner, the best title of all. He had finished two shots behind in Qatar and Catalunya this year, and a month ago missed the Dutch Open playoff by one shot. Meronk made sure there was no tight finish in Ireland. His big run started with a 25-foot birdie putt that broke sharply to the left on the 15th hole to tie Fox for the lead. From the left rough on the 16th, he hit gap wedge to 18 feet for birdie to take the lead. The clincher came at the par-5 17th when his second shot was just short of the green, leaving an uphill putt from 25 feet that made for eagle and a three-shot advantage. He finished strong with a 7-iron to the middle of the green and two putts for par. He was sprayed with a bottle of champagne and then took a drink before raising it to the gallery. “When I hit the green on 18 is the moment I realized, ‘That’s it.’ I’m just super happy,” he said.

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Experience will always count on the PGA TOUR. While there is no doubt golf on TOUR is certainly getting younger, Jimmy Walker and Charley Hoffman were the latest veterans to remind us that "old man golf" can never be discounted and can still in fact thrive in a youth dominated movement. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Lahiri headed in right direction For every Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa, Matthew Wolff, Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Thomas and Xander Schauffele there is still a Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Stewart Cink or, as it turned out in Thursday's opening round of the Sanderson Farms Championship, a Walker or Hoffman. The duo were the standouts of the morning wave at the Country Club of Jackson with 43-year-old Hoffman and 41-year-old Walker putting up 8-under 64s. The 20-somethings might be stacked with talent but the 40-somethings have experience, tenacity and mental toughness. DeChambeau may have claimed the recent U.S. Open at 27 and PGA champion Morikawa is just 23 but between those two wins came a season-opening stunner from 47-year-old Cink. In claiming the Safeway Open last month, Cink took down young guns like Sam Burns and Harry Higgs in the process. It was just the type of result the veterans draw strength from. Cink hadn't won since 2009 but used all his guile to plot his way to victory. Now Hoffman and Walker hope to do the same in Mississippi. Walker hasn't had a top 10 finish on TOUR since May of 2018. The six-time winner has battled over the last few seasons since contracting Lyme disease that same year. He has finished 158th (2019) and 179th (2020) in the FedExCup. His last seven events produced six missed cuts and a T62 and as it turns out he wasn't overly hopeful things would be different this week. Being a 40-something does bring some challenges - in this case a penchant for injury. "I’ve had some tendonitis in my elbow, shoulder has been hurting, so it’s been tough," Walker said post round. "My elbow was really hurting. I’ve never had anything like that ever before, and it was pretty painful. "So I didn’t know really what to expect. I showed up on Tuesday and hit some balls and hit some balls yesterday and was just trying to take it easy. So I’m thrilled, ecstatic, excited. It was fun (today)." Walker said he could barely grab a club out of his bag with his right hand after the U.S. Open but some rest and rehab - and the smarts to have his physiotherapist with him in Jackson seemed to be paying off. Coincidentally the last time Walker shot 64 or better was the 2018 AT&T Byron Nelson first round, his last top 10 (T6). Four-time TOUR winner Hoffman has fared better than Walker in recent times but still can only boast four top 10s out of the last three seasons. In response to those younger than him making waves, Hoffman has endeavored to add some distance to his game by working with Greg Rose at the Titleist Performance Institute. But he's not becoming a gym rat and bulking up like Bryson. Instead he says the wisdom of age can just make someone of his ilk use his power reserves at critical times. The key is lengthening his swing at the right moments. "It’s just the game is changing. I’ve never struggled with yardage until the last couple years. That was never something I really explored before, so I started exploring how to do it. Greg trained a bunch of long drive guys, and it’s something that I’ve trained to do, be a little more efficient, swing longer," Hoffman explained. "The reality is in this day and age it’s more important to be long than straight, so that’s something I’m trying to do. I wouldn’t say I’ve trained to hit it longer. I’m learning to be more efficient and hit it longer. As a younger guy I didn’t have to worry about hitting it further because I just hit it far, and as an older guy I’ve got to pay attention when I’m swinging it hard. "My speed, I can get it up there pretty high. I don’t hit it on every shot. If there’s a par-5 where I need to get home in two I’m going to swing hard and hopefully hit the fairway. The other holes, like 18 here, I’m going to try to put it in the fairway and probably not swing quite as hard." Spoken like a true veteran.

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PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico — Matthew Wolff was on the verge of building a big lead Friday at Mayakoba until a pair of late bogeys forced him to settle for a 3-under 68 and a two-shot lead over fast-closing Scottie Scheffler in the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba. RELATED: Leaderboard | Aaron Wise finds ‘fresh start’ with long putter Wolff had no trouble making birdies on the day after he opened with a 10-birdie round of 61. He birdied all the par 5s at El Camaleon for the second straight day, the last one with a nifty pitch to 6 feet at No. 13 that took him to 15 under. But he found a greenside bunker on the tough par-4 16th, which played into a light wind, and failed to get up-and-down with a 35-yard sand shot. His 3-wood off the tee at the 18th went left into a bunker, and he missed a 12-foot par putt on his final hole. That dropped him to 13-under 129, still in the lead and looking to be in command of his game. The 16th and 18th are two of the three toughest holes on the course. “It was a hard finish, but I was really happy with how I played today,” Wolff said. “Felt like it was pretty difficult this afternoon, honestly. … Following a round like I had yesterday, it’s not always easy to come out and keep on making birdies and glad I proved to myself that I could do it. I put myself in a really good spot, so I’m excited for the week.” Scheffler, who has performed well in majors and in the Ryder Cup but hasn’t won on the PGA TOUR, was closer to the cut line than the lead until he ran off five straight birdies, the last one a 35-foot putt on the par-3 eighth. He finished with a par for a 64 and wound up within two shots of the lead. “I feel like I’m doing a good job of getting the ball in position and giving myself a lot of looks,” Scheffler said. “I feel like I burned a lot of edges the first couple days. Once those putts start falling a bit more, I think I’ll start scoring a bit better.” Carlos Ortiz of Mexico and defending champion Viktor Hovland of Norway each had 65 and were three shots behind. Hovland overcame a bizarre break on No. 1 after he made the turn when his approach took a wild bounce and went out-of-bounds, leading to double bogey. “I pushed it a little bit and literally landed four steps right of the pin, hits a sprinkler head and goes in the trees over the green,” Hovland said. “That’s a bad break, but it’s not like I sliced it OB or something like that. I knew I was playing good golf, so I just had to reset.” That he did, making five birdies the rest of the way. It doesn’t take much to get out of position, and the leading players all spoke of the importance of keeping the ball in play. Brooks Koepka was doing the same until the worst moment. He rallied to get inside the cut line only to pull his drive into the mangroves left of the 16th. He took a penalty drop and his next shot stayed just short of more trouble. He made triple bogey, had another 71 and missed the cut. Koepka hasn’t finished in the top 20 since July. Rickie Fowler got his mistakes out of the way early. He played the par 5s on the front nine with a bogey and a double bogey, and then failed to birdie the par-5 13th. He was just outside the cut until a birdie on the 17th for a 72 to make it on the number. The cut was at 4-under 138. Ten players were in a tie for fifth at 9-under 135, a group that included Justin Thomas. The surprise in that group might be Bill Haas, who is using a one-time exemption for career money to keep a full TOUR card this year. Haas, who won the FedExCup in 2011 and played on two Presidents Cup teams, has gone more than six years without a win and is No. 744 in the world. He opened with a 65 and had another bogey-free round of 67 to stay in the mix. “I’ve been grinding for seems like three years now on trying to figure out what’s going to be consistent and what’s going to help me get over that hump,” Haas said. “Right now I have a swing thought that seems to be working OK. And I want one to last for more than two days. I’d love for it to continue this way and hopefully have a nice few months.”

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