PGA TOUR and ZOZO Inc. announce 2021 ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP will be contested in Japan

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CARNOUSTIE, Scotland – Chaos on the leaderboard. Final group is struggling. Tiger’s in contention. No, wait, Tiger’s leading! No, wait, now he’s not. Then a six-way tie for first … and how the heck did Rory get in the mix? Thought we wrote him off two hours ago. Sunday was a delicious mess, a day in which a dozen or so guys seemed to sneak peeks at the Claret Jug. It was fun, entertaining, a roller-coaster ride of epic Open Championship proportions, as the real Carnoustie – the nasty one, thanks to stiffer winds and tougher pin placements — finally showed up. In the end, though, it belonged to the calmest guy in the room. En route to becoming the first Italian to win The Open, Francesco Molinari went about his business this weekend like a meticulous craftsman patiently working on a Stradivarius. He put his head down, never drew attention to himself, and never made a mistake. He played beautiful bogey-free golf for 36 holes on a course that, frankly, he’s avoided in recent years. Carnoustie is one of three venues for the European Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship; Molinari has only played the event once since 2012 and has never finished inside the top 35. “I got beaten up around here a few times already in the past,â€� he said. “I didn’t particularly enjoy that feeling.â€� That’s why he didn’t fancy his chances this week, even though the 35-year-old from Turin was on the hottest streak of his career and the hottest golfer on the planet. Two wins on two continents in his last five starts, including the Quicken Loans National earlier this month on the PGA TOUR. He also threw in a couple of runner-up finishes, including a T-2 in his last start at the John Deere Classic. So how did we overlook this guy? The big reason on Sunday was obvious – his playing partner. Tiger Woods was the host at the Quicken Loans and the one who handed the tournament trophy to Molinari. Now they were in the same twosome battling for golf’s most historic trophy. With Tiger close to turning back the clock – not exactly to year-of-2000 standards, but closer to 2008, the year of his 14th and last major victory – Molinari was relegated to sideshow status. “Clearly in my group, the attention wasn’t really on me, let me put it that way,â€� Molinari said. “If someone was expecting a charge, probably they weren’t expecting it from me, but it’s been the same the whole of my career.â€� Look at the names on that Claret Jug. What can you say? It’s the best golfers in history, and to be on there, it’s incredible. From someone like me coming from Italy – not really a major golfing country – it’s been an incredible journey. Indeed, Molinari had no problem working in the shadows. He grew up as the younger brother to Edoardo Molinari, who in 2005 became the first continental European to win the U.S. Amateur. Francesco had already turned pro, making his debut on the European Tour with muted performances. Edoardo eventually turned pro himself, and along with Francesco, began making their presence known — particularly as teammates at the 2009 World Cup and 2010 Ryder Cup. Since then, Edoardo’s career has stalled due to two hand surgeries. On Sunday, he texted his brother to wish him good luck. “I would love for him to get back to where he was a few years ago,â€� Francesco said. “Golf is a tough beast.â€� But now Francesco is the beast. Jordan Spieth has seen it up close. “He’s been working his butt off,â€� Spieth said. “I see him in the gym all the time, going through his routine, grinding on the range, doing his own stuff. It truly is hard work that paid off for Francesco. I’m certainly happy for him. I’ve watched this through the PGA TOUR this year, day in and day out, seeing him work as hard as anyone else.â€� Spieth, of course, was hoping for his own payoff Sunday after entering the final round as a co-leader with Kevin Kisner and Xander Schauffele. But the defending champ, who displayed a magic touch down the stretch last year at Royal Birkdale and who on Saturday morning got a haircut at a local shop called Magic Barbers, could conjure up very little on Sunday. A bogey-double bogey stretch midway through his front nine gave the opening his chasers needed. Schauffele and Kisner also had struggles, particularly out of Carnoustie’s bunkers; in fact, Schauffele, last year’s PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year, was forced to hit three one-legged bunker shots Sunday due to some awkward lies. As a result, Molinari – who started the day three shots off the lead – moved up the leaderboard simply by working his way out of trouble and stringing together par after par after par. Woods had moved ahead of him, and for a 23-minute span, even had the solo lead. Asked if leading a major felt familiar after so many years out of the mix, Tiger simply said, “Oh, yeah.â€� Meanwhile, the cool Molinari just maintained his par train, letting others self-destruct. Woods lost the lead with a double bogey at the 11th, moving Molinari into a share of the lead with Spieth, Kisner and Kevin Chappell. McIlroy soon joined them after a 59-foot eagle putt at the par-5 14th, as did Schauffele with a birdie at the 10th. Finally, Molinari took the lead with his first birdie – or non-par – of the day at the 14th. Schauffele joined him 30 minutes later, and that’s when the crowd finally started to thin out. The possibility of a playoff loomed, but then Molinari delivered the decisive blow – a 60-degree wedge from 112 yards at the 18th hole. The ball finished 5 feet from the pin, just inside Woods’ well-struck approach. He and Woods then walked up the fairway toward the large grandstands and the Carnoustie hotel in the distance. Woods crossed the Barry Burn on the left side, while Molinari crossed it on the right. Woods missed his putt, Molinari made his and was now the leader at 8 under. “He chipped it beautifully,â€� Woods said about his playing partner. “I know he made a couple of putts here and there for par but to get it to where it was basically kick-in from some of the spots he put himself, that was impressive. Great touch.â€� The waiting game then began for Molinari. After signing his card, he retreated to a couch to watch the coverage and see if Schauffele could catch him. It was a helpless feeling, and sitting there only made it worse, even though Schauffele dropped two strokes back with a bogey at 17. He buried his head; for the first time today, he did not appear calm. “That’s why I went to the putting green because I probably would’ve felt sick watching on TV,â€� he said. “Big credit to my wife, who watches me all the time. I don’t know how she does it. I couldn’t do it.â€� Having hit a few putts, he suddenly stopped. Finally, it was official. Schauffele had not holed out at 18. It was 6:52 p.m. local time; more important, it was 7:52 p.m. back in Turin. The chaos had finally ended. A new chapter has begun. Italy has its first major golf champion. “Look at the names on that Claret Jug,â€� Molinari said, staring at the shiny object within arm’s length. “What can you say? It’s the best golfers in history, and to be on there, it’s incredible. From someone like me coming from Italy – not really a major golfing country – it’s been an incredible journey.â€� Given his form, don’t expect it to end anytime soon.

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LA QUINTA, Calif. - Every time Si Woo Kim looked up at the leaderboards on the back nine Sunday at The American Express, he seemed to see another Patrick Cantlay birdie being posted. But not even a career-best 11 birdies and 11-under 61 from Cantlay could keep Kim from his third career PGA TOUR victory and first since THE PLAYERS Championship in 2017. He closed with an 8-under 64 which tied for the second best round of the day and was his third bogey-free round of the week. "I had many chances since PLAYERS. I had many chances to win, but I couldn’t make it, but finally I made it," Kim said. "So I tried to keep composure and I made it. I’m so happy with that." Despite being just 25 years old, Kim, who earned his PGA TOUR card at the age of 17, felt the weight of that nearly four-year wait since his last victory. That pressure made sleeping on the 54-hole co-lead Saturday night a difficult proposition. "So every year I had a chance to win, but I couldn’t make it, so I had a lot of thoughts in my mind last night," Kim said. "I tried to sleep but I couldn’t sleep, so I even took melatonin last night, but still I didn’t sleep very well." Cantlay certainly didn't make it any more comfortable on him on the course either, posting arguably what might be the best final round of the 2021 season to date. After grabbing the lead with a front-nine 30, Cantlay poured in five more on the back nine including a 38-foot drifter at the last to post 22-under nearly an hour before Kim was set to finish. Trailing by one with three holes to play as Cantlay warmed up on the range for a potential playoff, Kim hit a 3-wood into the par-5 16th that defied all aspects of physics to kick straight on to the green for a two-putt birdie instead of towards whatever could await in the brutal 19-foot bunker protecting the left. Entering the island green of the par-3 17th, better known as Alcatraz, Kim hoped to escape with a par but instead escaped with a birdie and a lead he'd never relinquish, rolling in a 19-foot breaker that seemed to only have one roll left in before it dumped in the front and sent Kim into a fist-pumping frenzy. "I wanted, at least I want to go to make the playoff, so I tried to focus on speed and then actually Max Homa’s putt helped me a lot, so I knew how it goes," Kim said. "So I just focused on speed and I hit it very confidently." Ironically, Kim's latest victory once again comes on a Pete Dye-designed golf course, but that wasn't the only similarity between Sunday in La Quinta and his PLAYERS win almost four years ago. At TPC Sawgrass, Kim's signature moment came when he ripped driver-off-the-deck from the right rough on the par-4 14th on to the green en route to victory. He went back to the well on Sunday, pulling driver from the middle of the fairway on the par-5 11th with 290 to the hole and water staring at him just left of the green. "Yeah, I hit driver today on No. 11. There was water on left side, and I thought I had enough distance for my driver," Kim said. "So I tried to keep it safe, so that’s why I didn’t hit the 3-wood and then I tried to use the mound on the right side, so that’s why I hit the driver-off-the-deck there." His fearlessness worked once again as Kim got up-and-down for birdie, a hole that proved pivotal in separating him from 54-hole co-leader Tony Finau who made bogey and dropped out of contention. Finau, who entered the 11th just one back of Kim, will have to endure the sting of another victory escaping his grasps. After pouring in back-to-back birdies to start the final round and testy par putts at No. 3 and No. 6., this final round seemed like it may be different for Finau. But the putter that Finau said had to support him if he was going to win Sunday ultimately let him down with a missed 4-foot birdie at No. 7 and a missed 3-foot par at the 11th after hooking his approach into the par-5 into the water. Finau went on to finsh solo-fourth, his 19th top five since his last win at the 2016 Puerto Rico Open. "Yeah, that’s probably where I’m looking back on the back nine where I had some momentum and hit a good tee shot on 11. I had a take a little bit off my 3-iron so I decided to just hit a really low draw and just barely pulled it, just enough for it to go in the water," Finau said. "All hope wasn’t lost, of course, I should have been able to get that up-and-down. I was almost too confident in that short putt, I hit it too hard. Still thought I made it and it just power lipped out. "So that was a tough pill to swallow at the time because I just never thought I was going to walk away with 6 there and there we were on the 12th tee, having bogeyed the hole before, so. But, you know, as I know in this game, golf goes on, life goes on, after that hole I got to keep playing and keep pushing, trying to make birdies coming in. Si Woo did a great job this week and he’s a well-deserved champion."

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