Rickie Fowler birdies last 3 holes to take Phoenix Open lead

BLAINE, Minn. – Mardy Fish has an affinity for history. The accomplished tennis pro understands no professional athlete has competed in both an ATP event and a PGA TOUR event. Fish, winner of six ATP singles and eight doubles titles, is set to change that. The 40-year-old Minnesota native will compete in this week’s 3M Open on a sponsor exemption, making not only his TOUR debut, but marking the Association of Tennis Professionals’ debut on this stage. Professional golf has long drawn similarities to tennis for its meritocratic landscape, the concept of earning one’s success on a week-to-week basis. “It’s just like tennis,” Tiger Woods said of golf at last year’s Hero World Challenge. “You have to go out there and earn it.” Fish embraces the chance to earn success at TPC Twin Cities, as he follows the likes of high-level professional athletes like Stephen Curry and Tony Romo who have competed on the Korn Ferry Tour in recent years. Neither has been able to make a cut, although Curry sent shockwaves through the sporting world with an opening-round 71 at the 2018 Ellie Mae Classic at TPC Stonebrae. Fish has proven he can succeed in a competitive golf setting – he won the 2020 American Century Championship, a celebrity golf tournament that is nationally televised. He knows that a PGA TOUR event is a new stage, though, with new challenges. He looks forward to that challenge. “Steph (Curry) and I are real close, and so he was texting me out here,” Fish said on Tuesday. “He just said, look, do what you do, do you. He’s a really good golfer. We just sort of root for each other in these scenarios as well. “I certainly don’t expect to compete to win the tournament necessarily, but making the cut is something that I’m eyeing big-time. I’ve worked really hard during the last couple of months to get myself into this type of golf shape, long irons into par-4s and long holes and stuff like that. I’ve played golf my whole life, ever since I could stand, and so you’re just hitting a little white ball around. “Like how do you enjoy it and not play well, or how do you enjoy it and play great? It’s difficult to kind of compartmentalize like that. I hope I do. I know I do leading up to it, for sure, but once the tournament starts, you’ll kind of jump back into that mode and think that you’re as good as these guys out here, and I’m sure that’s what I’ll do.” Fish has deep roots in Minnesota – he spent the first five years of his life in the Minneapolis area, and his dad is an alum of the nearby University of Minnesota. He’s a Minnesota sports fan – Vikings, Twins and Timberwolves. He threw the ceremonial first pitch at a Twins game last month, describing it as a bucket-list activity. He has cultivated friendships with Vikings players like Kyle Rudolph and Adam Thielen. “They’re all Minnesota nice,” laughed Fish. Fish played competitive tennis, golf and baseball throughout his childhood. He stopped playing golf tournaments at age 14 as he turned his attention to tennis, but he never lost the bug. He enjoyed a Tuesday practice round at TPC Twin Cities with Rickie Fowler and Camilo Villegas, soaking in how the multi-time TOUR winners approach their preparations for a tournament. He played Wednesday’s pro-am alongside country singer-songwriter Jake Owen, who has also competed at the Korn Ferry Tour level. The stage now clears for Fish. He tees off at 9:02 a.m. CT Thursday, alongside Chase Seiffert and Seth Reeves. Two rounds are guaranteed, with the objective of earning a tee time on the weekend. “Excitement,” Fish said. “Humbleness. It’s special. It really is.”

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JACKSON, Miss. - The most indelible image of Sergio Garcia playing with his eyes closed was when he hit his famous shot off a tree root at the 1999 PGA Championship at Medinah. Until Friday, that is. That's when the TV cameras caught Garcia putting with his eyes closed as he shot his second straight 68 to work his way into contention at 8 under par at the Sanderson Farms Championship. He took 30 putts and is in the middle of the pack in Strokes Gained: Putting, and insisted afterward that the unusual looking technique is in fact old hat. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Daffue keeps dream in sight "Would you believe me if I told you I’ve been doing it for about three years?" Garcia said. Well, no. But, he added, he hasn't done it consistently. Garcia, 40, said he even putted with his eyes closed in winning the 2017 Masters Tournament, the last of his 10 PGA TOUR titles. "I’ve gone on and off," he said, "but like Augusta, I won it playing with my eyes closed every single putt and some of the other wins, too. I feel like it gives me a little more freedom to feel the stroke instead of kind of - sometimes we get too focused on trying to make it perfect and kind of following with the eyes and everything. This way I feel like I just feel it and I just let my natural ability kind of take over instead of telling myself what to do." Garcia's natural ability has been mostly missing in action. He is coming off a season in which he recorded just one top-25 finish, a T5 at the RBC Heritage, in 12 mostly forgettable starts. It was a jarring line for a player who had never recorded fewer than four top-25s in 21 previous TOUR seasons. When he missed the Playoffs, it was for just the second time in the FedExCup era. He's found something, though, on the speedy greens at the Country Club of Jackson. Garcia made five birdies against just one bogey on Friday and was two back after the morning wave. "You’ve got to go with it and trust it, believe it," he said, "and you might have a week here and there where you don’t putt as well, but I think that I’m at the point where I need to. "I talked to my wife, to Angela, and we talked about it," Garcia continued, "and I have to stick to something and go with it no matter what. I’m in a stage of my career where I can’t be jumping back and forth too much because then I get no rhythm whatsoever."

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Feng extends Women’s Open lead to 2 after 70

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