Paul Casey holds on to repeat at Valspar Championship

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida and TOKYO – PGA TOUR and ZOZO Inc. officials today announced that the 2021 ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP will be played as scheduled, October 21-24, at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club in Chiba, Japan. In 2019, the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP was launched as Japan’s first official PGA TOUR event, with Tiger Woods securing a three-shot victory over Hideki Matsuyama en route to tying the all-time record of 82 TOUR victories held by Sam Snead. The 2020 event was played at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California, after being relocated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Patrick Cantlay secured a one-shot win over Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas for the first of four victories during a breakout 2020-21 PGA TOUR season in which he won the FedExCup. “After moving the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP to the U.S. last year, we are excited to return to Japan this October. This decision is timely as it coincides perfectly with the game’s continued growth and increased participation in Japan following Hideki Matsuyama’s historic triumph at the Masters Tournament in April,” said PGA TOUR Executive Vice President, International, Ty Votaw. “We sincerely thank ZOZO for its terrific partnership with the PGA TOUR and for its strong commitment and dedication to stage the event again in Japan. The TOUR would also like to acknowledge the Japanese government for its guidance in enabling the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP to be held in Japan.” Tournament officials will continue to work closely with the Japanese government to come up with a health, safety and prevention plan which will allow golfers to travel into Japan and compete in the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP. All aspects of the tournament, including a decision on whether spectators will be allowed on site, will be made in due course following close consultation with the Japanese government, local prefectural and city governments. “We are honored to announce that we will be welcoming the PGA TOUR stars back to Japan and we are confident our tournament will showcase world-class golf once again. We would like to express our gratitude to Chiba Prefecture, Inzai City, and all other related parties for their cooperation. We believe that our mission is to deliver excitement and hope to the athletes and fans by providing safe and secure tournament management so that they can truly enjoy themselves. As the title sponsor of the long-established and prestigious PGA TOUR’s ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP, we will continue to spread the power of the sport of golf, which is loved beyond generations, genders and nationalities, as well as working towards realizing our corporate philosophy, “Inspire the world. Deliver joy every day,” said ZOZO Inc. President/CEO, Kotaro Sawada. This year’s ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP, which will offer a US$9.95 million purse, will be comprised of 78 players including the leading players from the 2020-2021 FedExCup, players designated by the Japan Golf Tour Organization, the top finishers of the Bridgestone Open and sponsor exemptions. The tournament will be broadcast to 216 countries and regions around the world. In Japan, TV Asahi will broadcast the event live on their terrestrial, BS and CS channels throughout the four-day tournament, while GOLFTV powered by PGA TOUR will provide coverage on its digital platform. As in previous years, part of the tournament’s proceeds will be donated to charitable causes. As a full FedExCup tournament, the winner of the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP will earn 500 FedExCup points and will be fully exempt through the PGA TOUR’s 2023-24 Season. The event will be co-sanctioned once again with the Japan Golf Tour Organization. For more information on the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP, please visit ZOZOCHAMPIONSHIP.com.

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ATLANTA — Patrick Cantlay finished with a 25-foot birdie putt that gave him a two-shot lead over Jon Rahm in the TOUR Championship on Saturday and set the stage for a sprint to the FedExCup title. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Brooks Koepka WDs from TOUR Championship It might not be a two-man race at East Lake, anymore. Cantlay’s final birdie allowed him to finish strong after a wobbly four-hole stretch that had winnowed his four-shot lead down to one. He wound up with a 3-under 67 and was at 20-under par, leaving him one round away from the FedExCup. Rahm finished with five straight pars for a 68 and was still very much alive. He went from a four-shot deficit after the 10th hole to a one-shot deficit just five holes later. It’s not easy to go low at East Lake, but it’s easy to lose ground. Cantlay did that with a pair of mistakes over the final hour. “Hopefully tomorrow, I can bring my A-game and give this guy in front of me a little bit of a run,” Rahm said. Not to be overlooked was Justin Thomas, though he was agitated with his finish. Thomas, who began the TOUR Championship six shots behind because of his position in the FedExCup coming into the finale, was poised for the low round of the week to to get a little closer. But he pulled his tee shot on the par-5 18th, went rough-to-rough to 35 feet, and then three-putted for bogey by missing a 5-foot putt. He was five behind. No one else was closer than seven shots of Cantlay, who began the week at 10-under par after his BMW Championship victory made him the No. 1 seed. Cantlay had reason to think Sunday might have involved a little less stress. He and Rahm had matching birdies from the greenside bunker on the par-5 sixth, and then the cool-headed Californian began to pull away. Cantlay made a 12-foot birdie on No. 7. Rahm found a bunker off the tee at No. 8 and made bogey. Cantlay holed a 30-foot birdie across the green at the par-3 ninth, and then drilled his approach to 10 feet for another birdie on No. 10. Just like that, he was four shots clear and not making any mistakes that would suggest he was going anywhere but forward. But he missed the 11th green for bogey, and then it became a real struggle down the stretch. Cantlay found trouble left of the fairway on No. 14 and had to scramble for bogey. He badly missed the 16th green with a wedge in his hand on No. 16 and again scrambled for bogey. In between, he missed birdie chances of 10 feet and 8 feet, the length he had been making all day amid calls of “Patty Ice.” And then on the 18th, Cantlay faced a tough bunker shot over another greenside bunker to a tight pin. He played smartly, as he’s done all week, and left himself 25 feet for a birdie putt that put a happy finish on his round. Thomas was the only one of the dreamers to have real thoughts of winning, along with perhaps Kevin Na (66), who was seven shots behind. Rory McIlroy took himself out of the picture with a 74. Jordan Spieth, who thrives at East Lake, wasted a good start with too many bogeys and then nothing but pars over the final eight holes for a 70. Harris English didn’t make birdie until the 17th hole and shot 75. It looks like match play between Cantlay and Rahm, depending on how Thomas starts and whether he can stay close enough. So much more is at stake than the $15 million prize for winning. Still to be determined after the season ends Sunday is PGA TOUR player of the year. Rahm would seem to be a leading contender with his U.S. Open title and top finishes in the majors, along with Open champion Collin Morikawa. A win for Cantlay would be his fourth of the season — no one else has more than two — and it would include the FedExCup.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Webb Simpson has completed his career resurrection in style by dominating THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass. Simpson – a former U.S. Open champion who has spent three years reinventing himself after the anchor putting ban – claimed his fifth PGA TOUR win by four shots after a 1-over 73 final round. “It’s been a long time. We did it,â€� Simpson said as he embraced his wife Dowd on the final green. It left him 18 under for the tournament to be four shots clear of Charl Schwartzel (67), Jimmy Walker (67) and PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year Xander Schauffele (67) who tied for second place at 14 under. Such was Simpson’s dominance that he was able to hook his approach on the 72nd hole into the water, make a double bogey, and still finish well clear. Jason Day – winner of last week’s Wells Fargo Championship – continued his good form to card a final round 68 to be tied fifth with Jason Dufner (68) at 13-under. It is Simpson’s first win since taking out the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas in October 2013. The win is projecting the 32-year-old to eighth place in the FedExCup and inside the top 25 players of the world rankings. Simpson also becomes the ninth player to have won THE PLAYERS and a U.S. Open with the victory making him World Golf Hall of Fame eligible in the future. Along the way he equaled the course record with his second round 63, and also the 36 and 54-hole PLAYERS scoring records at 15-under 129 and 19-under 197 respectively. Despite making the cut on the number Tiger Woods moved as close as four shots behind during Sunday’s round and into a tie for second. But a costly double bogey on the island par-3 17th hole dropped him back down the leaderboard and his 3-under 69 left him tied for 11th. “I played so well this weekend unfortunately just didn’t cash it in,â€� Woods said. Earlier Brooks Koepka had equaled the course record with a 9-under 63, a round that included an albatross with a 6-iron from 208-yards on the par-5 16th hole. FedExCup leader Justin Thomas is projected to move to world No. 1 after closing with a 6-under 66 to finish in a tie for 11th. He takes over from Dustin Johnson who had held the position from February 2017 for a total of 64 weeks – but struggled to a Sunday 72 to finish tied 17th.

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