Off the course, Hubbard hits the slopes

OLD WESTBURY, N.Y. – Eighteen hours earlier and 2,500 miles away, a boxing match took place that you might have heard about. Perhaps even shelled out $100 to watch. As it turns out, the most entertaining showdown this weekend took place Sunday afternoon at THE NORTHERN TRUST between two of golf’s biggest heavyweights. Dustin Johnson eventually delivered the knockout blow – in actuality, it was a ridiculous 341-yard tee shot that helped set up his decisive birdie – to subdue 54-hole leader Jordan Spieth in a sudden-death playoff and win the opening leg of the FedExCup Playoffs. It was fun for the fans at Glen Oaks, hosting its first-ever PGA TOUR event. It was certainly fun for the two combatants. “A fun show to be a part of,� said Spieth, who let a five-shot lead after five holes Sunday slip through his hands. “I was hoping it wasn’t going to be that much fun.� “We were having fun,� added Johnson, the new FedExCup leader. “Obviously I had a little bit more fun at the end of the day after I won the playoff.� Spieth had entered the final round leading Johnson by three shots, the two separating themselves from the field. While others – namely Jon Rahm and Jhonattan Vegas – tried to get into the mix, Sunday eventually turned into a duel between the world’s 1st- and 3rd-ranked players in the final pairing. After Spieth extended the lead with two birdies, a runaway victory was looming. But he gave Johnson an opening with a double bogey at the sixth. A 7-foot birdie putt for DJ and a missed 5-footer for par by Spieth knocked the lead down to a shot. “We’ve got ourselves a golf tournament,� a fan cried out. Indeed. When Johnson rolled in a 10-foot birdie putt at the 10th, the two were tied with eight holes left. The fans ate it up. They both birdied the par-5 13th, Johnson missing his eagle putt from 13 feet. Spieth grabbed the lead at the par-4 14th when he knocked his approach to 8 feet. Johnson answered on the next hole from 17-1/2 feet. Tied again. As the two players walked up the 16th fairway, another fan blurted out, “What a show! Boy, what a show!� It got even better at the par-3 17th. DJ found the right-side bunker with his tee shot. Spieth needed simply to find the green for the advantage, but he left the face of his 6-iron open when he tried to mash it. He landed next to Johnson. Spieth’s shot rolled 19 feet past the pin; Johnson blasted out to 4 feet. Just when it looked like DJ would take the lead, Spieth curled in his par putt from the left side. Now it was down to the dogleg-left 467-yard 18th in regulation. Spieth’s drive found the fairway; Johnson, meanwhile, feeling the wind in his face, opted to avoid the 300-yard carry over the water and a guarding bunker. As soon as he hit his tee shot and watched it landed in the thick rough up the hill to the right, he asked himself a question. “What am I doing?� he said, adding, “I hit myself in the worst possible spot that I could in. Even if I aim left and cut it and it goes in the bunker, a much better position than I am in the right rough with 210 yards to the hole. I mean, I’ve got no chance.� After looking at his lie, he decided to lay up. Spieth was surprised. “I would have tried to go for it, but I didn’t see his lie,� Spieth said. Noted Johnson: “I just couldn’t get to the green with the lie I had.� Once they reached the green, Spieth had 76 feet to cover with two putts for par, while Johnson faced a 17-1/2 foot par putt. To no one’s surprise, Spieth rolled his long putt to 2 feet. That essentially forced DJ to make in order to stay alive. It’s not a situation he’s used to. Johnson’s wins have usually been decided by easy two-putts or simple makes. “This was the first one I’ve really had to work at,� he said. He made the stroke. Spieth peered in. From 3 feet out, he thought it was high. Then he looked at DJ. “His body language was hanging in,� Spieth said. “I’m like, ‘Does that really still have a chance?’� Even as the ball was 1 foot away, DJ was skeptical too. “I thought it was going to miss, for sure,� he said. “… It was just not wanting to turn.� But it did, curling in. At that point, it really did seem like a boxing match, as Johnson threw a punch into the air. “That was a weak first pump,� he said. “I was just so happy. I thought it was going to miss and then it went in and – yeah, it was weak, though, I have to say.� Now back to 18 for the playoff. Once they reached the tee, the wind had turned in their favor. Spieth teed off first and found the fairway again. Silently, he hoped Johnson hadn’t noticed the wind shift and would take the same line he did in regulation. “I was hoping that he would line up down the middle,� Spieth said, “He almost can’t hold the fairway lining up down the middle. But when he lined up over there and hit the drive …� Well, it went 341 yards – the longest of any drive at 18 all week. Fans lining the curve of the dog-leg gawked at the length. One volunteer, an older gentleman, said, “I don’t ever think I’ve seen a ball hit that far in my life. That’s insane. The guy’s a freak.� In retrospect, Spieth kicked himself for not taking a similar line. “I didn’t take the chance over the water like I should have,� he said. Thanks to the different angle, Johnson was just 95 yards to the pin. Meanwhile, Spieth’s drive – which he also cranked to 315 yards on the conservative line – left him 174 yards from the pin. And that was it. Spieth’s approach left him on the far edge 25 feet from the pin, a difficult putt. Johnson knocked his 60-degree wedge to inside 4 feet. He was back in the winner’s circle for the first time since his three consecutive wins before the Masters. “I needed it more,� Johnson said. “He just won the British, right? He’s been playing really well. … I definitely needed it.� Spieth was disappointed but not distraught. Johnson had shot a bogey-free 66, rarely in serious danger of making a bogey until the 18th in regulation. “I didn’t lose the tournament,� Spieth said. “He won.� And so did the fans. Unlike Mayweather-McGregor in Las Vegas, the rooting interest was not one-sided at Glen Oaks. The crowd seemed to favor whoever was trailing. They called Spieth “Jordy� and Johnson “Dusty.� A month from now, they’ll get to see both in action again. Spieth and DJ will represent Team USA at The Presidents Cup at Liberty National. “I love playing in New York,� Johnson said. “The fans like me, and so I hope they continue to like me – because if they don’t, that’s not any fun for sure because they can be mean. But … they seem to like me for some reason and I love it.�

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PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico  — Rickie Fowler woke up at 5 a.m. Saturday and played three holes in the OHL Classic at Mayakoba. It was enough to get him a three-way share of the 36-hole lead going into a marathon finish in Mexico. Fowler and Patrick Rodgers had to wait out a five-hour rain delay just to resume their second round Saturday. Fowler saved par from a bunker on the 18th hole for a 4-under 67. Rodgers finally make his first bogey of the tournament on his 17th hole had to settle for a 65. They shared the lead at 10-under 132 along with Patton Kizzire, who hasn’t hit a shot since his 70 on Friday. The last three groups didn’t have enough light at El Camaleon Golf Club to even start the third round, leaving them a 36-hole finish on Sunday. But that’s only if the weather at this rain-plagued event allows. More thunderstorms, with heavy downpours, were in the forecast for the next two days. “We deal with weather every once in a while on the PGA TOUR, around the world, really,” said Fowler, at No. 10 the highest-ranked player at Mayakoba. “You kind of just learn to play when you get to play, relax when you get to relax. Rest when you can, tee it up when you can.” Fowler had three tough finishing holes Saturday morning, and they were even more challenging after another storm moved through. There was mud on the golf balls, and it didn’t help when Fowler twice wound up in bunkers. Both shots came out a little hot, but we managed to escape with pars. Rodgers finally dropped a shot when he missed the green on the par-3 eighth and failed to get up-and-down. But he saved par from right of the ninth green to at least keep in a share of the lead going into the final day. With the forecast, there was no guarantee of getting in 72 holes. Players will be allowed to lift, clean and place their golf balls through the green for Sunday. John Oda, playing the PGA TOUR for the first time as a pro, shot a 65 and was one shot behind along with 31-year-old rookie Brandon Harkins and Brian Gay, neither of whom hit a shot Saturday because they were already done with their second rounds. Charles Howell III already was 4 under through six holes of the third round when darkness halted play. Howell was at 8-under par. Seventy-nine players made the cut at 1-under 141, but there will not be a 54-hole cut because the groups will stay the same over the final two rounds. Patrick Reed bogeyed three of his last four holes to miss the cut by one. Fowler hasn’t played since Oct. 1 at the Presidents Cup except for a few casual rounds. He is playing at the OHL Classic at Mayakoba for the first time. So far, he has no regrets, and not much rust. “I’m very happy, coming from basically five weeks of very little golf played,” Fowler said. “There were only two rounds last week when I was playing at home that were consecutive. All the other ones were spread out. It was never far off, so I was looking forward to getting down here. Hard not to enjoy yourself when you’re at a place like this where you can go hang at the beach and really throw your feet up and relax.” Rodgers is trying not to press. He won the Jack Nicklaus Award as the nation’s top college golfer when he was at Stanford, and it has been frustrating to see friends from his high school class of 2011 already have PGA TOUR titles — in the case of Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, plenty of them. Rodgers and Thomas once were roommates in south Florida when they turned pro. “To be honest, at times it’s been really hard because I feel like I have the game that everyone else has and I feel like I work as hard as everyone else does, but everyone has a different process and I have to be patient with that,” Rodgers said. “But I’ve always felt that I have the game to win a lot out here and I’m looking forward to a good chance this weekend.”

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RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico - Rafael Campos missed a 1-foot putt for par at the final hole Saturday at the Puerto Rico Open - there is no typo there - but he wasn't about to let it ruin what had been a magnificent day. Sunday for him could be even bigger. Campos, 32, is a native son of Puerto Rico and the only current PGA TOUR professional from the island. He grew up in Guaynaba, only a 40-minute drive from Grand Reserve Country Club. This is the 13th edition of the tournament, and only a torn back muscle in 2020 kept Campos from competing in all of them. Twice he has finished in the top 10 here (2016 and 2017), performances that filled his country with pride. This week could be next-level stuff. Saturday, Campos shot a 5-under 67, the lone blemish of his day being the short miss for par at the par-5 18th. "I got over it and just kind of blanked out," Campos said, "which is frustrating, because I wanted to be bogey-free today." He is at 14-under 202, sharing the 54-hole lead with Grayson Murray, who birdied half the holes that he played on Saturday and posted 65, the day's low round. South Africa's Branden Grace (68) and Australia's Cameron Percy (67), who loves the wind, will start Sunday one stroke behind the leaders. Andrew Putnam (67), Nelson Ledesma (68) and 36-hole leader Brandon Wu (71) are two shots back. Murray, 27, has won before, capturing an opposite-field event in 2017 (Barbasol Championship), and said he certainly could utilize the two-year TOUR exemption that comes with winning. Percy, who birdied four consecutive holes on the front nine, is 46 and never has won on the PGA TOUR. He was part of a three-man playoff in Las Vegas in 2010 that Jonathan Byrd settled with an ace. (Ouch!) Percy thought he might be back with a shot soon after, but he hasn't contended nearly as frequently as he would like. He splits his time between the PGA TOUR and Korn Ferry Tour. Campos made it clear he didn't want to think ahead to Sunday, making sure not to get ahead of himself. But winning his first PGA TOUR title on his own island? That would be a life-changer. Max Homa had a neighborhood near Los Angeles rooting for him to win The Genesis Invitational at Riviera last weekend; Campos has an entire island standing behind him. Though this week's galleries are lighter due to Covid-19 restrictions, a few dozen VIPs walked along with Campos on Saturday, a gallery that included his mother, his wife and plenty of friends. Campos was asked how long the party might last if he is the man holding the trophy late Sunday. The Puerto Rico Open never has had a Latino winner, let alone a native son as its champion. "Some years," Campos said candidly. "I know they've been waiting for this for 13 years. Obviously it's a dream of mine to hold this trophy, especially here in my home, where I live. For me, hopefully it's a one-day celebration and I get back to work. But I know they'll be ecstatic, and hopefully tomorrow I at least give myself a chance on those last few holes." Three brief showers drenched the field with whipping rains in the afternoon, leading to a stop-and-start cadence. Campos gave fishing tips to a beach angler behind 12 during one delay. Murray was first to post 14-under-par. He was 7 under through 14 holes, bogeyed the par-4 17th, but finished strongly with a nice up-and-down from in front of the green at the par-5 closing hole. Murray was so wiped out after a stretch of seven weeks on the road that last week at home in North Carolina he said he touched a golf club for only 30 minutes - enough to have a lesson with his longtime teacher, Ted Kiegiel, pro at Carolina Country Club. (Instructor Scott Hamilton also works with Murray.) Murray and Kiegiel have worked together since Murray was 9 years old. Sunday, Murray will call upon everything he has ever learned. "I need to stay confident," Murray said. "It's been a long time since I've been in a situation like this, but I'm not afraid of the moment. At the end of the day, you've still got to play good golf, no matter who is chasing you, or who I'm chasing. "Sunday pressure is always a little different. There's some good players at the top, and it'll be a good fight out there." Campos had some wild moments on his back nine. He made two early birdies, had an incredible up-and-down to save par at the par-4 14th, almost drove the ball out of bounds at 15 and stiffed an approach at 17 to be the first to 15-under. At the 17th, he faced a tricky downwind shot from 106 yards, flighted it down and watched the ball skip in tight. ("I really felt I was due for a good swing," he said.) Campos has Erick Morales, a good friend whom he considers an older brother, on his bag this week, and said he will lean on Morales to keep him focused in the final round. There is much at stake. Even if, by dinner time on Saturday, Campos didn't want to think about it. Sunday could prove to be the day of his lifetime.

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