Rookie Park leads in bid for historic LPGA win

The European Tour’s season finale tees off this week in Dubai, but it’s a pair of Americans who have the best chance to win the tour’s top prize. The Race to Dubai – which concludes with this week’s DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates – is led by Collin Morikawa, with Billy Horschel in the No. 2 spot. As the number of Americans competing in the Race to Dubai continues to increase, this could become a more common sight. Next year marks the beginning of a new era in the PGA TOUR and European Tour, which will be known as the DP World Tour in 2022. As part of their strategic alliance, there will be three events next year that are part of both tours’ season-long points race, the FedExCup and Race to Dubai. Morikawa earned the pole position in this year’s Race to Dubai with his wins at the World Golf Championships-Workday Championship at The Concession and The Open. Morikawa is trying to add the Race to Dubai to the two prizes he’s already taken from Europe this year, the claret jug and the Ryder Cup. Morikawa’s win in The Open was his second major triumph, and he followed it by securing the clinching point at Whistling Straits. Horschel finished second to Morikawa at Concession, then won his own World Golf Championship and, like Morikawa, a prestigious event in England. He claimed the Dell Technologies Match Play Championship in March and then became the first American since Arnold Palmer to win the European Tour’s flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship. “It’s great to be where I am in the standings,” Horschel said at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba. “At the start of the year the FedExCup is No. 1, but I’m a member of the European Tour so you never know how things might pan out – because you have to play well at certain events to make it work, and I really did a good job of that for the first time in my career. “The goal is to become the first American to win the Race to Dubai.” To do that, he’ll have to go through Morikawa, who makes his return to Dubai after making his European Tour debut at the event in 2020. Morikawa finished T10 at last year’s DP World Tour Championship. “Winning The Race to Dubai would mean a lot because I want my game to travel,” Morikawa said in 2020. “I want to be a world player. I want to be able to bring my game anywhere, adapt to the different places I come to, and this is just the first step in doing that.” A little further down The Race to Dubai is another star American making his Dubai debut this week – Will Zalatoris. Zalatoris, the PGA TOUR’s Rookie of the Year, is 11th in the Race to Dubai. A runner-up finish at the Masters, and top-10s at the PGA Championship and World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational helped him attain his high standing. Zalatoris is based in Dallas, Texas (about 8,000 miles from Dubai) but has seen the blueprint laid down by golfers like Morikawa and said it’s likely more guys will be going back and forth between the European Tour and PGA TOUR. “In the future I’ll be planning on going (to Europe) a decent amount,” said Zalatoris. There will be plenty of guys with deep TOUR ties teeing it up in Dubai, as well, including WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational winner Abraham Ancer, Tyrrell Hatton, Shane Lowry, Ian Poulter, Garrick Higgo and two-time FedExCup Champion Rory McIlroy. Hatton, Poulter, Lowry, Patrick Reed and Christiaan Bezuidenhout are playing in Dubai after competing last week at the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open. Viktor Hovland, who earned his third PGA TOUR title two weeks ago in Mexico, will not be playing Dubai, nor will U.S. Open champion Jon Rahm. Both European Ryder Cuppers cited the need for rest after a long year. But in order for those other international stars to win the European Tour’s top prize, they’ll have to overtake a pair of Americans. Something that will likely become more commonplace moving forward. “It’s trending in that direction,” said Zalatoris.

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CROMWELL, Conn. (AP) — Dustin Johnson won the Travelers Championship on Sunday to end a long drought and extend his career-long season victory streak to 13. Johnson closed with a 3-under 67 for a one-stroke victory over Kevin Streelman at TPC River Highlands. Johnson last won in March 2019. “I’m definitely proud of myself for continuing the streak and I want to keep it going,” Johnson said. “It was a long time between wins, though, and, so, hopefully it won’t be that long for the next one.” Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus each won in 17 consecutive years. Johnson did not in 2014, but is given credit for winning in the 2013-14 season from his victory in the fall of 2013 in Shanghai. The TOUR changed to a wraparound season in 2013. On Sunday, he finished at 19-under 261 for his 21st PGA TOUR title. Streelman also shot 67. Streelman, who made seven straight birdies to win at TPC River Highlands in 2014, had a 37-foot birdie try on 18 that ended up just short and right. He was two strokes behind Johnson on the 17th fairway when the weather horn blew for an hour-long storm delay. Johnson came out of the delay and hit his tee shot on 16 into a greenside bunker. His second shot went well past the hole and made bogey to cut his lead to a stroke. “I’ve had a few missed cuts, so to come back and finish a solo second is nice, but to be that close and perform and be right there, I’m just a little disappointed right now,” Streelman said. Johnson was at 19 under when his tee shot on the par-4 15th went left and came inches from going into the signature lake that surrounds the finishing holes. His first pitch didn’t make it to the green, and he hit the second to 4 feet to save par. “It was lucky, but a still had to made a good up-and-down to make par,” he said. Mackenzie Hughes, who shot a first-round 60, had a 67 to tie for third with 23-year-old Will Gordon at 17 under. Hughes made 48-foot birdie putt on 17, which he started well left of the hole and watched as turned right to the flag. He finished the round with a much straighter 43-foot birdie putt on 18. Gordon, who has no status on either the PGA TOUR or the Korn Ferry Tour, had seven birdies in a 64. His third-place finish was just enough to earn him a special temporary card and unlimited exemptions for the rest of the season. His lone bogey came on 17, and briefly dropped him to fourth place. “I knew the higher the better, so I was watching the leaderboard coming in,” he said. Johnson started the day two strokes behind Brendon Todd, and took the lead after three straight birdies put him at 20 under after 10 holes. Todd shot a 75 to tie for 11th at 13 under. He made a 7 on the par-4 12th. Bryson DeChambeau shot a 68 to tie for sixth at 15 under. Top-ranked Rory McIlroy tied for 11th at 13 under after a 67. “There’s been some really good stuff in there, but then just some really stupid mistakes,” he said. Phil Mickelson, playing his first tournament since turning 50, followed up his opening rounds of 64 and 63 with two 71s to finish at 11 under. “I’m looking at this week as progress,” he said. “Certainly the goal is to win golf tournaments, but keep in mind I’ve missed a bunch of cuts. I haven’t played to the level I’ve wanted to, and this week I came in and had a lot of great finds. I hit a lot of good shots, hit a lot of good tee shots. My misses were much better.”

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