Stoneman Douglas alum Nicholas Thompson provides support following tragedy

A victorious Justin Rose started Sunday at the World Golf Championships – HSBC Champions playing for second place. While he hadn’t given up at Sheshan International he was realistic… he trailed the world No. 1 golfer Dustin Johnson by eight shots and Johnson had a six-shot buffer on his nearest rival. Rose had been here before – chasing down a supremely talented and in form golfer – and always set himself mini challenges. This time he pitted himself in a fictional match play battle on the back nine when he made the turn still six back of the lead. “I played a game with myself where I said, okay, I’m 4-down to the golf course: Can I win my match. Or I was thinking: Can I tie my match. 13-under par was by goal, and I exceeded that in the end,â€� Rose said. Exceeded he did. Rose – who had three bogeys in his last four holes during a front-nine even-par 36 – found five birdies between 11 and 17 to shoot 5-under 31 and finish at 14 under for the tournament. Recently he was seven behind Marc Leishman with a round to go at the BMW Championship but just two behind second place. In January last year he was eight behind leader Justin Thomas at the Sony Open, but just one back of second. On both occasions, he played his mini games and targeted second place and succeeded. He knew to win he would need help from the leader so why not just focus on what he could control just in case it eventuated. Thomas and Leishman closed but this time Johnson spectacularly collapsed. And as such Rose was ready. Johnson, who had steadied after back-to-back bogeys to open his round in blustery and tough windy conditions, dropped shots on the 12th, 15th and 16th and the breakdown was complete after a 5-over 77. An incredible 10 shots worse than Rose. “It was the perfect type of weather conditions to make a comeback,â€� Rose said. “This is the type of day when you are playing with a lead, every hole seems difficult. Obviously, someone is still capable of playing a special round of golf. And my back nine was just amazing today.â€� And so Johnson, who was poised to hold three of the four WGC trophies at one time, instead gave up the biggest 54-hole lead in WGC history. The last time the best player in the world gave up a lead like that was the 1996 Masters where Greg Norman collapsed from six ahead to give nick Faldo a third green jacket. The eight-shot deficit was the equal third biggest comeback in PGA TOUR history behind only Paul Lawrie (10 shots 1999 Open Championship) and Stewart Cink (nine shots 2004 RBC Heritage). “It’s the kind of day you certainly don’t expect,â€� Rose said. “It’s the kind of day you hope for, dream for, but a lot of things need to go your way in order for a day like today to happen… especially going against a player like DJ.â€� The win is Rose’s eighth triumph on the PGA TOUR and second WGC title. Having tasted five runner-up finishes since his last TOUR win in 2015 at the Zurich Classic it was a sweet one. The 550 FedExCup points rocket him to third on the points list early in the season – last year’s HSBC Champions winner Hideki Matsuyama rode the win all the way to the top seed entering the Playoffs. Of course Rose broke up his win “droughtâ€� with an Olympic Gold medal in 2016 so he has won somewhere in the world in each calendar year since 2010. “Whenever you beat the top players in the world, that gives a tournament victory so much more meaning, and obviously with a leaderboard like we had today with Dustin, Brooks (Koepka), (Henrik) Stenson, I take a lot of pride in winning this tournament,â€� he said. “And winning in China, to travel, to take your game internationally I think is something that’s very important to do.â€� Winning is always important – but so it seems is playing for second.

Click here to read the full article…

DETROIT — Nate Lashley completed an unlikely wire-to-wire victory in the Rocket Mortgage Classic on Sunday for his first PGA TOUR title. Lashley closed with a 2-under 70 to finish at 25-under 263 and win by six shots, the margin he took into the day after opening with rounds of 63, 67 and 63. The 36-year-old Lashley’s parents and girlfriend were killed in a plane crash 15 years ago. He dabbled in real estate after graduating from the University of Arizona, quit playing professional golf several years ago and resumed playing in PGA TOUR circuits. “Without my parents, I wouldn’t have started playing golf when I was little,” said Lashley, who began playing when he was 8. “They did everything to help me have a career.” Monday qualifier Doc Redman shot a 67 to finish second. Rory Sabbatini (68) and Wes Roach (68) were another stroke back. Lashley slipped into PGA TOUR’s first event in Detroit as an alternate Wednesday. The Nebraskan took full advantage, shooting a career-low 63 in the first round to take a lead he refused to lose at Detroit Golf Club. Lashley stayed atop the leaderboard with a 67 on Friday and gave himself a cushion with another 9-under 63 Saturday. On the brink of breaking through during his second PGA TOUR season, his sister, girlfriend, buddies and family friends flew to Detroit to join him. Brooke Lashley, who lives near her brother in Arizona, was in awe of as fans followed and cheered for her little brother as they stood along the ropes from tee to green. “I’m sure a lot of these people didn’t know him a couple days ago,” she said, standing near the No. 8 green. “He’s doing all he can to focus, but this is so incredible. It’s foreign to him because he’s never had this much attention. He’s never played in front of a gallery like this with TV cameras all over the place.” In 2014, parents Rod and Char Lashley and girlfriend Leslie Hofmeister, all of Scottsbluff, Nebraska, were missing for three days before their bodies and the wreckage were found near the 13,780-foot Gannett Peak in Wyoming after watching him play in a tournament for the University of Arizona. “It rocked our community,” recalled Helen Reinhardt, a family friend from Nebraska. Reinhardt and her husband, Jim, boarded a charter plane in Nebraska that stopped in Minnesota to pick up Lashley’s girlfriend and arrived in the Motor City on Sunday. “It’s great to be here to watch his dream come true after watching him play in the Dakotas Tour and work his way up to here,” said Jeff Peck, one of about a dozen of Lashley’s friends at Detroit Golf Club. Lashley made a living as a real estate agent after graduating from Arizona and his playing career started, stopped and resumed again. He won the Waterloo Open, a professional tournament, in Iowa in 2011 and quit competitive golf the next year. When Lashley was flipping houses, he thought his playing career was over. Lashley gave the game another shot, playing on the PGA TOUR Latinoamerica circuit in 2015 and moved up to what is now called the Korn Ferry Tour two years later. He made his PGA TOUR debut last season in his mid-30s, but he had to end his year after 17 events because of a knee injury. He tied for eighth in February in the Puerto Rico Open — played opposite the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship — for his only top-10 finish previously on TOUR. He started the tournament No. 132 in the FedExCup standings. Lashley would’ve had to collapse and one of the contenders would’ve had to have a sensational performance to put the final result in doubt. Neither happened. Lashley played it safe, putting together a conservative round that kept his comfortable lead. He made a slow-rolling, downhill putt from 15 feet to birdie the first hole. At No. 3, he started confidently walking toward the cup before his 10-foot birdie putt went in to put him at 25 under. “The birdies on 1 and 3 really calmed me down,” Lashley said. Lashley had two bogeys on the front nine — one more than he had the previous three rounds — and coasted to victory on the back with two birdies and no bogeys. Family and friends stood near the edge of the green as he closed out the round. Lashley’s girlfriend and sister, choking back tears, went onto the green to give him a hug. “I’m just real emotional,” he said later. “I’m just thankful I got in the tournament.”

Click here to read the full article…

The opening round had Phil drama, club tosses and turkeys. What’s ahead during the second round of the U.S. Open? We’ve got it covered.

Click here to read the full article…