Rickie Fowler, Patton Kizzire commit to Mayakoba Golf Classic

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LAS VEGAS - They say luck's a fortune in Las Vegas but skill can certainly get you further. Martin Laird showcased a brilliant combination of both as he claimed his second Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, outlasting Matthew Wolff and Austin Cook in a playoff at TPC Summerlin. RELATED: Full leaderboard | What’s in Laird’s bag? Playing on a sponsor's exemption as he returns from knee surgery, the Scotsman earned his fourth PGA TOUR win by getting the ultimate redemption on a hole that perhaps owed him some luck. It was his first title in over seven years. Chasing back-to-back wins after winning in 2009 (ironically in a three-man playoff), Laird joined Cameron Percy and Jonathan Byrd in extra holes in 2010. When they reached the par-3 17th he had to just stand in disbelief when Byrd made a hole-in-one to win the tournament. A decade later he would face the hole in sudden death against two others again. This time there was no ace but Laird did send a 22-foot, 11-inch birdie putt home after the other two players had missed their own chances to claim the win. "When I sit back and think about it, this win might go right to the top just because it’s been a while," Laird said. "I had a bunch of life changes since my last win. Now I’ve got a couple kids who kept asking me when I was going to win the trophy. It’s going to be nice to take a trophy home for them this time." "I’m unbelievably excited to have pulled that off today... you have some doubts at times whether you’re going to get another one. I just played so well all week this week tee to green; was probably the best I ever played. Just felt in control really all week. To see that putt go in on that hole, it was pretty special." His winning putt wasn't the only drama he faced on the infamous hole on Sunday. He came to it in regulation with a one shot lead but flailed his tee shot on the breeze and it went miles right onto a hill normally reserved for spectators. It left a tricky pitch from a downslope, over a cart path, through trees with water behind the green. The 37-year-old pulled off a magnificent shot to find the putting surface and then buried a 17-foot, 11-inch par putt. It was the longest putt he made all day Sunday (in regulation) and provided a buffer he needed when he was unable to get up and down on the 72nd hole for the win and was sent to extras. "That hole owed me one," Laird admitted. "To make that putt on 17 honestly was huge in regulation, and then to roll that putt in there to close it out, I mean, obviously it’s pretty special." Unbelievably it might not have been his best shot of the day. Earlier Laird was looking to push his early advantage on the par-5 9th hole, going for the green in two. His ball sailed on a great line only to come up fractions short, cannoning into the upper lip of a bunker where it stayed, seemingly buried and dead. But with an awkward stance and the putrid lie to deal with Laird would not only extricate the ball exceptionally, he would hole out the shot for an eagle. It was the third straight day he'd eagled the hole. "That second shot... if it flies another foot it’s an unbelievable 3-wood. It was a really bad break but it was almost lying so badly that I said to my buddy, this is lying so badly if I hit this as hard as I want it’s not going to go very far," Laird explained. "Obviously I wasn’t planning on holing it... but I was hopeful of getting inside maybe ten feet if it came out pretty good. I hit it hard as I could. The sand exploded and I couldn’t see anything, and I managed to open my eyes up as the ball landed and it started tracking. I enjoyed being down to the level of the bunker and watching that one go in. I’m not going to lie." Laird joins Jim Furyk and Kevin Na as multiple time winners of the event and won't need sponsor invites for a while having secured full status and a further two seasons after this one. He moved to fourth in the FedExCup with the win. Wolff has now finished runner up in his last two starts, falling to Bryson DeChambeau at the U.S. Open before this week. "Game is at an all-time high. I have a lot of the confidence carrying into the next two weeks and then the Masters, so looking forward to what’s next," the 21-year-old young star said. "My game has progressed amazingly and at pace that if you would’ve told me I would’ve been pretty amazed by it. I’m just looking to maybe get a win soon... I’m feeling like I can go out there and win any week now. Maybe a win is due sometime soon. But if I just keep on doing this, I’m sure it’ll come."

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It was a nail-biter, it pinned all the senses, and it was a lifetime experience for the local fans. How do you follow that?! Oh, and Super Bowl LVI was contested on Sunday, too. In case you missed it, the Los Angeles Rams prevailed in front of a home crowd. A day before, residents of the Valley of Sun will remember where they were when recalling Sam Ryder’s hole-in-one in the third round of the WM Phoenix Open, and it’ll forever be the site of Scottie Scheffler’s breakthrough victory on the PGA TOUR. Exhilaration for all. Both have made the trip west to The Genesis Invitational between L.A. and the coastline. Naturally, a star-studded field is poised to attempt to tame The Riviera Country Club. More on the event, the course and the perks beneath the ranking of projected contenders. Tuesday’s Draws and Fades will include reviews of 2020 champion Adam Scott, WM Phoenix Open winner Scottie Scheffler, Brooks Koepka, Jordan Spieth, Sam Burns and Sahith Theegala among the notables. Tiger Woods hosts The Genesis Invitational. The timing is fitting given that the Cincinnati Bengals lost the Super Bowl. No, Tiger isn’t Bengal Tiger, he’s just Tiger, but he hasn’t prevailed on the biggest stage in L.A., either. As the focus of sports nationwide soon will be pivoting to March Madness, the label of a mid-major will be populating our consciousness. In that vein, you could say that this week’s PGA TOUR stop is a mini-major. The field is just 120 deep, and the winner is rewarded with 550 FedExCup points (for the second straight year) and a three-year membership exemption (for the third consecutive edition). Of course, there’s also the not-so-insignificant component of a $12-million purse of which $2.16 million is reserved for the champion. Super, indeed. It’s no wonder that all inside the top 11 in the Official World Golf Ranking are committed. Scheffler rose to ninth with his win. His victim in the playoff at TPC Scottsdale, Patrick Cantlay, climbed a spot to third. The Riviera Country Club is everything this field remembers and wants, so it’s the ideal backdrop. With no impactful changes yet again, the par 71 tips at 7,322 yards. It has since 2016. Kikuyagrass blankets all areas except the putting surfaces, and it’s not overseeded. The only layer of rough is just an inch-and-a-half tall, but it still doesn’t prevent the 7,500-square foot greens from defending par. Targets are larger on average primarily due to the subtle (and, in places, not-so-subtle) undulations. The Poa annua greens also are dialed into 12½ feet on the Stimpmeter. With exceptional weather expected all week, Riviera will present its best self. Save the potential for a morning marine layer a mile or so inland, there will be zero complications from the elements. Daytime highs might touch 70 degrees for the finale of the West Coast Swing before a slight cooling for its final round. During the 2020-21 super season that included 51 courses, Riviera ranked inside the five-toughest in percentage of fairways hit (47.24), greens in regulation (54.17), proximity to the hole (42’7”), conversation percentage inside 10 feet (86.14) and average distance of putts holed (68’9”). Max Homa defends the title this week. Before he outlasted Tony Finau in a playoff for which the duo qualified at 12-under 272, Homa concluded regulation slotted inside the top five in fairways hit, GIR, Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee, SG: Tee-to-Green and putts per GIR. However, he paid off those prerequisites by co-leading the field in par-5 scoring. Riviera’s trio of par 5s is its weakness. Given the attention devoted to the par-4 10th hole, it might feel like it’s a beast. Quite the opposite, in fact, and that’s what makes it beautiful. The (in)famous 315-yarder was the easiest par 4 at Riviera in each of the last three years. It was inside the easiest 15 percent of 540 pars 4s in the super season. Go back to the previous full season of 2018-19 (pre-pandemic) and you’ll find it inside the easiest five percent. And no, it’s not a place to go eagle-watching. Exactly one eagle was converted in three of the last four editions. (There were four in 2020.) Last year’s field averaged 3.885 on the 10th, which means that anyone who played it in 1-under for four rounds at 3.75 picked up a fraction of a stroke. Homa did exactly that, with two birdies, one par and one bogey. The tournament can’t be won at No. 10, but it sure can make the difference. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous perspectives. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Draws and Fades SUNDAY: Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Rookie Ranking * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.

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