Presidents Cup: Day 2 match recaps

PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico — Patton Kizzire won his first PGA TOUR title on Sunday by beating Rickie Fowler in a 36-hole marathon in the rain-plagued OHL Classic at Mayakoba. Kizzire closed with rounds of 66-67 for a one-shot victory over Fowler, who fell four shots behind at El Camaleon Golf Club until staging a late rally that again fell short. Fowler had rounds of 67-67 on the final day. Kizzire won in his 62nd career start on the PGA TOUR, and it required some steady nerves on the back nine when it could have gotten away from him. Leading by four shots with seven holes to play, Kizzire saved par with an 8-foot putt on No. 12, a 10-foot putt on the par-5 13th and an 8-foot putt on the 14th. He had a three-shot lead with three holes to play when Fowler made a 15-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole and rolled in a 12-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole to close within one shot. But from the 18th fairway, Fowler sent his approach some 35 feet left of the flag and left the birdie attempt short. Kizzire had to stand close to his approach shot to keep his feet out the sand, and he hit 8-iron to 25 feet. After Fowler left his birdie attempt well short, Kizzire rapped his putt to within a few inches and tapped in for the winning par. “I was glad to get it done,” Kizzire said. “Rickie made me work hard.” Kizzire finished at 19-under 265 and earned his first trip to the Masters in April. The 31-year-old Kizzire also gets a two-year exemption on the PGA TOUR and a spot in the field at the Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua to start next year, and the PGA Championship, along with other select events on tour. Si Woo Kim tried to get into the mix until a double bogey in the middle of his back nine. He still closed with a 65 to finish third, his best finish since he won THE PLAYERS Championship in May. Charles Howell III (66) and Martin Piller (65) finished five shots behind. John Oda of UNLV, playing his first PGA Tour event as a pro, closed with a 70 to finish eighth. That gets him into the RSM Classic next week at Sea Island. Patrick Rodgers began Sunday in a three-way tie for the lead with Kizzire and Fowler, but he started and ended the third round Sunday morning with a double bogey for a 72 that took him out of contention, and he shot 70 in the afternoon to finish nine shots behind. Kizzire won the tournament with key putts on the back nine, but the tournament turned in his favor at the end of the third round. Fowler had a one-shot lead when he made bogey on the 17th hole and Kizzire made birdie. That two-shot swing gave Kizzire a one-shot lead, and he quickly expanded it in the fourth round. Kizzire saved par with a 10-foot putt on No. 1 as Fowler made bogey, and then Kizzire birdied the second hole and is lead was already at three shots. Fowler never got any closer until the final few holes, and by then it was too late. “We gave it a run, kept Patton honest, but he earned it out there today,” Fowler said. Fowler, the only player in the top 10 in the world who played anywhere in the world this week, was playing for the first time since the Presidents Cup five weeks ago. With his runner-up finish — the 12th time in his PGA TOUR career he has finished second — Fowler goes to No. 7 in the world ahead of Rory McIlroy.

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Jack Nicklaus is set to oversee a renovation next summer of Muirfield Village, home of the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide. All 18 greens will be re-done and length will be added to parts of the course. The scope of work could be increased as the 79-year-old World Golf Hall of Famer creates his final game plan. It is the first significant change at Muirfield Village since 2011 when the par-3 16th was re-designed ahead of the 2013 Presidents Cup. Related: Creating a Masterpiece: How Jack Nicklaus brought Muirfield Village to life Next year’s renovation will commence after the 2020 Memorial Tournament, which takes place the week of June 1-7. “Jack is going to touch up the golf course. He is going to redo all the greens starting July of 2020 and we will be ready to go for the 2021 Memorial Tournament,� said Nicholas LaRocca, the general manager who has been at Muirfield Village since 1997. “This fall we are adding three new back tees on the par-3 eighth, the par-5 11th and the par-5 15th which will add distance to the course ahead of the 2020 event. Jack might also do some light tweaks in other areas of the golf course, but he has not put pencil to paper on any of that yet … He will do so this fall.� LaRocca said there is still plenty of planning and decision-making to be done but expected the work to be completed quickly in 2020 before the Ohio winter hits full gear. “Right now we are developing a plan for all 18 greens that will be rebuilt. We are trying to work out what we will put on the bottom, if we are going to put any new systems underground and we haven’t determined which turf we will select to seed,� he added. “We will seed pretty quick July 2020 to be done by Aug. 15, the proper time to get things done in this region to have proper grow in.� Nicklaus opened his signature course in 1974 and has been hosting the Memorial Tournament since 1976 as one of the premier stops on the PGA TOUR. In 2014, the tournament was elevated in status (as was the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard), with the winner receiving a three-year exemption. The list of winners is an esteemed one where along with Nicklaus (twice) the likes of Tom Watson (twice), Hale Irwin (twice), Greg Norman (twice) and Tiger Woods (five times) are amongst those to have hoisted the Muirfield crystal. LaRocca says the membership is excited by the news, particularly as it could be the last set of changes Nicklaus himself will be extensively involved in on the property. The 18-time major winner will turn 80 in January. “The members here are awesome, they embrace this,� LaRocca said. “They love that Jack is here and doing it and they are all excited about the changes. It’s all very exciting for us. “Muirfield Village is like the Mona Lisa. It’s a masterpiece. It’s Jack masterpiece in the game of golf. How can you possibly improve on a masterpiece? And yet Jack and Barbara Nicklaus continually find ways of doing that. Every year there is something new, not because anything was wrong; just to make it better. Their commitment to excellence is amazing.� Earlier this year, Nicklaus talked about his philosophy on design at Muirfield Village. “Through the years I have made a lot of changes, some for the sake of the members, some to improve the spectator experience, and some simply to make the golf course a better and stronger test. Like any designer, I want the course to show well, and be able to hold up against the game’s best players, so I have tried to find ways to preserve shot values,� Nicklaus said. “I think all golf courses are in continual evolution. I do,� he added. “Muirfield Village has been that way. You see something that can make it better and you go do it. But Muirfield Village is intrinsically the same golf course. You could go through the golf course and compare what it was when it opened and where it is today and you’d think the difference was night and day. But done over time you don’t notice it.�

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