This day in sports history: Spieth wins first major

Collin Morikawa’s superb play over the opening two days of The 149th Open Championship has come after the American made some equipment adjustments heading into this week. The 24-year-old, who shot 67-64 in the opening two rounds at Royal St. George’s, swapped out three key irons before Thursday’s opening round. Morikawa switched from his TaylorMade P730 irons to the brand’s P7MC model in his 7-iron through 9-iron, a decision made after finding the P7MCs aided his turf interaction and provided a more centered ball strike, as well as a touch more forgiveness. “I changed my irons, my 9- through 7-iron that I normally have blades in. I changed to the MCs strictly because I couldn’t find the center of the face,” said Morikawa following his second round. “Those are three crucial clubs that are some of my favorite clubs. My 8-iron is my favorite club in the bag, and when I wasn’t able to hit it (well) last week well, I knew I had to try something different.” Last week’s Scottish Open was Morikawa’s first experience on the links. He finished T71. The Californian also added a new TaylorMade MG2 Hi-Toe (60 degree) wedge while also making a weight adjustment to his TP Juno putter. As is often the case on the slower greens across the pond, Morikawa was finding it difficult to get the ball to the hole at last week’s Scottish Open. To help his speed on the slow greens at Royal St. George’s, Morikawa decided to remove the two 2.5-gram weights and replace them with two 7.5-gram weights, providing him with 10 grams more weight in his putter. As well as the weight adjustment to his putter, Morikawa has even altered his stroke on certain putts this week. A proponent of the saw grip, Morikawa was struggling with his speed on lengthier putts on the links greens last week, so he is now putting with a conventional style on longer putts while using his saw grip for the shorter efforts. “It’s a feel thing, but it’s more I couldn’t get the tempo on the saw grip. I think the saw grip is amazing for me. But from outside 25, 30 feet, I just couldn’t get that hit. I couldn’t get that tempo that you see like a Brandt Snedeker puts on his putts,” said Morikawa. “That is something you need out here because the greens are slower than what we’re used to playing. “Just switching to conventional, I didn’t have to change anything mentally. I just kind of went at it like I normally felt, and kind of matched the speeds.” It’s a strategy that has worked wonders for Morikawa this week, who has looked dialled in on the greens as he goes in search of his second major victory.

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AUSTIN, Texas — Billy Horschel had just enough left in the tank to win the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play on Sunday with help from Scottie Scheffler in a tough end to the longest week in golf. RELATED: Bracket, Scoring | Winner’s Bag: Billy Horschel, WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Horschel made only one birdie in the championship match, chipping in from 40 feet on the fifth hole, and left the mistakes to the 24-year-old Scheffler in winning 2 and 1. Horschel, who had never reached the weekend in four previous appearances at this World Golf Championships event, won six out of the seven matches over 122 holes he played at Austin Country Club. He won for the sixth time on the PGA TOUR, and his fifth individual title. “It was one of those days where I didn’t play very good,” Horschel said, still able to smile because of the outcome. “I was just grinding it out.” It ended a great run for Scheffler, a Texas graduate who had to beat three former Match Play champions and two players from the top 10 in the world to reach the championship match. He had the support of the Austin crowd that occasionally shouted out, “Hook ’em.” He pulled a tee shot on the par-5 sixth that required him to take a penalty drop away from the boundary fence. He pulled his approach on the par-5 12th into the water. He hooked another drive off the two-story hospitality tent left of the 15th fairway. Through it all, he managed to stay in the match. Scheffler made par and halved the hole after the penalty drop on No. 5. Even after hitting into the water on the 12th, he had a 10-foot par putt to win the hole after Horschel hit a wedge into the bunker. Scheffler missed to stay 2 down. Horschel hit another wedge into a back bunker on par-5 16th. This time, Horschel got up-and-down to save par and halve the hole, and he won the match when Scheffler missed a 10-foot birdie putt on the 17th. Matt Kuchar won the consolation match over Victor Perez of France. Kuchar, trying to tie Tiger Woods’ record with a fourth appearance in the championship match, didn’t make a putt longer than 3 feet, 6 inches in his semifinal loss to Scheffler. Perez wasn’t much better. He lost three holes on the back nine to Horschel by making bogey or worse. The wind had a lot to do with that, with gusts raging through the trees in the morning and still causing problems in the afternoon. The championship match didn’t feature a birdie after Horschel’s chip-in on the fifth hole. Scheffler, who made 15 birdies in 31 holes to beat Ian Poulter and Jon Rahm on Saturday, had only four birdies in his two matches Sunday.

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How it works: Each week, our experts from PGATOUR.COM will make their selections in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf. Each lineup consists of four starters and two bench players that can be rotated after each round. Adding to the challenge is that every golfer can be used only three times per each of four Segments. The first fantasy golf game to utilize live ShotLink data, PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf allows you to see scores update live during competition. Aside from the experts below, Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton breaks down the field at this year’s WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in this week’s edition of the Power Rankings. For more fantasy, check out Rookie Watch, Qualifiers and Reshuffle. Fans can also sign up for the Bracket Challenge here or print out a bracket here. THINK YOU’RE BETTER THAN OUR EXPERTS? The PGA TOUR Experts league is once again open to the public. You can play our free fantasy game and see how you measure up against our experts below. Joining the league is simple. Just click here to sign up or log in. Once you create your team, click the “Leagues” tab and search for “PGA TOUR Experts.” After that? Pick your players and start talking smack. Want to represent the fans against our experts? SEASON SEGMENT

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