PGA TOUR stars line up for shot at Race to Dubai title

The International Team hasn’t slowed down Saturday at the Presidents Cup. They’re continuing to roll at Royal Melbourne in the first of the day’s two sessions. Here’s a closer look at how it happened: PRESIDENTS CUP: Scoring | Quiz: Which team should you support? DAY 3 FOUR-BALLS MATCH 1: U.S. WINS 3&2 Rickie Fowler/Justin Thomas (U.S.) def. Marc Leishman/Haotong Li (International) Holes won: U.S. 5, International 2 Holes led: U.S. 13, International 0 Recap: The U.S. Team never trailed, taking the lead for good with Rickie Fowler’s par at the fifth hole. The U.S. went 2-up with Thomas’ birdie at the par-4 eighth hole. It never got any closer. For the second straight match, Thomas ended it with a birdie putt, holing a 13-footer for birdie on 16. Thomas is 3-0 this week and now 6-1-1 in his Presidents Cup career. Fowler and Thomas are 3-0-1 as a Presidents Cup team. MATCH 2: INTERNATIONAL WINS 3&2 Abraham Ancer/Sungjae Im (International) def. Patrick Cantlay/Xander Schauffele (U.S.) Holes won: International 4, U.S. 1 Holes led: International 9, U.S. 0 Recap: The first seven holes of this match were halved. The International Team took the lead with pars at the eighth hole. It led the rest of the way. Im holed a 15-foot birdie putt to win the 10th hole and Ancer closed things out with three consecutive birdies on Nos. 14-16. These two International rookies are undefeated this week. Ancer is 3-0, while Im is 2-0-1. MATCH 3: INTERNATIONAL WINS, 5&3 Hideki Matsuyama/C.T. Pan (International) def. Patrick Reed/Webb Simpson (U.S.) Holes won: International 7, U.S. 2 Holes led: International 15, U.S. 0 Recap: The International Team never trailed, taking the lead with Pan’s 13-foot birdie on the first hole. He added an eagle at the drivable par-4 sixth and a birdie at the seventh hole to give his team a 3-up lead. He wasn’t done. His approach on the par-4 12th hit the stick and stopped inches from the hole for another birdie. Matsuyama holed a 17-footer for birdie on the next hole to give his team a 4-up lead. Pan closed it out with a birdie on 15. Reed and Simpson dropped to 0-3 this week. MATCH 4 Adam Scott/Byeong Hun An (International) vs. Matt Kuchar/Tony Finau (U.S.)

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Jim King, a PGA TOUR and PGA TOUR Champions player, died of causes incident to COVID-19 on August 10 in Jupiter, Florida. King was 86. King, born September 7, 1937 in Chicago, attended college at Western Illinois, where he played both golf and was a linebacker on the football team. After finishing third at the Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Golf Championship, he qualified for the 1957 NCAA Championship. Two years later, he was the IAAC medalist. On the football field, the 1959 Leathernecks, under the direction of future NFL head coach Lou Saban, went undefeated (9-0), outscoring their opponents 303-104. Other future NFL head coaches on the coaching staff were Red Miller and Joe Collier. For his collegiate athletic success, WIU inducted King into its Hall of Fame in 1987. While football was not in King’s future after graduation, golf was. After turning pro, he made periodic PGA TOUR starts, playing in 27 tournaments between 1960 and 1963. He made his TOUR debut at the 1960 Yorba Linda Open in California, tying for 60th. His best finish that season was a tie for 43rd in late-November, at the Mobile Sertoma Open in Alabama. King joined the U.S. Army at the conclusion of the 1963 season, and he served in the military for three years, as a paratrooper. He returned to the TOUR for one tournament in 1967—the Western Open—followed by his most prolific year of play in 1968, when he played in 13 tournaments, making a career-high 10 cuts. That season, King enjoyed his first top-10 when he tied for eighth at the Magnolia Classic played opposite the Masters tournament in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He had two additional top-10s, both coming in 1972—a tie for sixth at the Shreveport Classic and a tie for 10th at the Buick Open. King would play off and on for the next 15 years while serving as a PGA professional at various Florida golf courses. His final made cut came at the 1983 PGA Championship at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California. He finished 87th. King also courted controversy during his career, the PGA TOUR suspending him from the USI Classic in Sutton, Massachusetts. During the second round at Pleasant Valley Country Club, King allegedly grabbed rules official Pete Sesso by the throat after Sesso had warned King of slow play and began timing him. Tournament Director Jack Tuthill, a PGA TOUR employee, disqualified King after the incident that took place near the 16th green, and Tuthill suspended King from playing “until further notice.” King didn’t play in four tournaments following the USI Classic and returned to action in late-September, at the B.C. Open, where he tied for 35th. When King wasn’t playing in PGA TOUR tournaments, he was active in state opens and competing on the TOUR’s satellite Tour. King was a two-time winner of the Florida Open, in 1971 when he was the head pro at President Country Club in Boynton Beach, and again in 1976 after he had accepted the teaching-professional position at Pompano Beach’s Palm-Aire Country Club. King turned 50 in 1984 and played 12 PGA TOUR Champions tournaments in 1984 and 1985. His first event was the 1984 Digital Middlesex Classic that resulted in a tie for 13th at Nashawtuc Country Club in Massachusetts. He added a tie for 14th at the Suntree Classic and a tie-for-13th finish at the Senior PGA Championship. He joined PGA TOUR Champions full time in 1986, posting one of two third-place finishes he would enjoy on the senior circuit. King shared third place with Charles Owens at PGA National Golf Club in Palm Beach, Florida, earning $15,250. He would earn his largest paycheck a year later when he finished solo third at the Greater Grand Rapids Open in Michigan, an effort worth $17,800. King finished 22nd on the money list that year, his best performance. He ended his career with 130 total appearances, his final tournament the 2001 U.S. Senior Open. King is survived by his daughter, Maria Ribeiro (Artur) and two grandchildren. Funeral services will be August 22 at the Aycock-Riverside Funeral Home in Jupiter.

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BLAINE, Minn. – You’d be hard pressed to find two more popular players at TPC Twin Cities this week than native sons Tom Lehman and Tim Herron. And the two veterans didn’t disappoint in the first round of the 3M Open with the 60-year-old Lehman firing a 4-under 67 and Herron making the second hole-in-one of his PGA TOUR career. “Minnesotans, they’re homers,â€� Lehman said with a smile when someone mentioned the warm reception he got at every hole on Thursday. “They like the Joe Mauers of the world and the Kent Hrbecks of the world. “They love the homegrown people.â€� Those former Minnesota Twins, who were born in St. Paul and Minneapolis, respectively, have nothing on Lehman and the man whose nickname is Lumpy. The two TOUR vets were playing in successive groups and shared a hearty handshake when each took their turn in front of the local media. “I told him Lumpy’s Lager for the house,â€� Lehman said, referring to his long-time friend’s brew. “A lot of people out here for him to take care of.â€� Herron’s ace came courtesy of a cut 5-iron that went the distance on the 208-yard, par-3 eighth hole. He saw the ball hit and bounce, but he didn’t see it go into the hole. Not that he needed to, though. “The crowd reaction was good, so I knew it went in,â€� the 49-year-old Herron said. “So, I did a hail storm around the tee and stuff. I had some family there. … I’ll probably remember this more than any of them because I’ve never won a car or anything.â€� Lehman, who has his 16-year-old son Sean on the bag this week, has been a full-time member of PGA TOUR Champions for the last decade and picked up his 12th win earlier this year at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai. But Lehman couldn’t pass up the chance to play before the home crown again in the 3M Open – particularly after being tasked to toughen up the course in the year since the 50-and-over set played its last tournament there. His bogey-free round was particularly satisfying. “There’s a lot to be said for being comfortable with a golf course,â€� Lehman said. “Even though we’ve made some changes to it, the greens are the same and I know the greens extremely well. “Just it’s very long. There’s some shots that I had to swing from the heels just to get it to the fairway; on No. 11, for example, and on the last hole, No. 9, 240 with a 3‑iron. I hit it as hard as I possibly could to try to get it to the green.  So, it makes it tough for me, so I’m very pleased with 4 under. “I don’t necessarily feel like I can do that every day out here, but I think when I play well, I can.â€� Lehman found every fairway on Thursday and hit 15 of the 18 greens that he called “welcomingâ€� in regulation. “So if you drive in the fairway and your irons are reasonable, you’re going to have a lot of chances at birdie,â€� he said. Lehman started on the back nine and turned in 33, then added a fourth birdie at No. 1 where he drained a 35-footer. He expects to see some excitement down the stretch on Sunday because the back nine is the more scoreable of the two. “There are a couple long holes, but there’s some real opportunities on the back nine,â€� Lehman said. “I think that come Sunday, I think you end up seeing a lot of fireworks with guys making eagles on the par 5s, and you can now make a double on the 18th hole.  It used to be you almost couldn’t make a bogey on 18, it played so short. “So, I kind of like the way the course is playing. You’ve got to really suck it up and go on the front nine and then the back nine gives you some chances.â€� Lehman is also pleased at the reviews the re-engineered TPC Twin Cities is getting. He’s proud of the reception the TOUR players are getting, too. “They seem to really enjoy the golf course, thinking it’s a very fair test but not a pushover,â€� he said. “So, I think if they all walk away from Minneapolis saying they had a great time and had a great experience and loved it and can’t wait to come back, I think we’ve done a lot of things right.â€�

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