Thomas caps ’emotional’ PNC win with dad

NAPA, Calif. — Justin Lower weathered the wind and birdied the 18th hole Saturday to take a one-shot lead into the final round of the season-opening Fortinet Championship. Lower shot a 3-under 69 to get to 13 under at Silverado Resort & Spa, with his fifth birdie of the round giving him his first career 54-hole lead in his 29th start on the PGA TOUR. He’s looking for his first TOUR victory. Defending champion Max Homa and Danny Willett were a shot back after even-par 72s. Byeong Hun An had a 71 to get to 11 under. While several players who went out early in the day posted low scores in good playing conditions, the course got much harder late in the day when the wind picked up to wreak havoc on the players. Willett took several minutes on the eighth green clearing off blowing leaves just before making a birdie putt that put him briefly in the lead at 13 under. Workers with leaf blowers came out on the next hole to keep the green clean but Willett made a double-bogey 7 after his approach shot flew past the green. There were few birdie chances available with players happy with pars late in the day. That led to a very condensed leaderboard with eight players within three shots of the lead headed into Sunday. An moved into a one-shot lead when he hit a solid tee shot on the par-3 15th came and then made a birdie from about 6 feet to get to 13 under. But he gave it back and more with a double bogey in the par-5 16th when his second shot got caught near the root of a tree. That opened the door for Lower, who put his second shot on the par-5 18th just off the green and then made the short birdie putt. It’s been quite a few weeks for Lower, who appeared to lose his TOUR card after three-putting the final hole of the Wyndham Championship for a bogey when he only needed a par to remain in he top 125. Lower found his way back into the top 125 and is taking advantage of it in the first tournament of the new season. Conditions aren’t expected to be much better in the final round, which has already been altered by an ominous forecast with rain and wind. The leaders will tee off several hours earlier than scheduled with the final round featuring threesomes off split tees. Davis Thompson and Harrison Endycott shot the low rounds of the day with 65s that left Harrison in a four-way tie for fifth place with Paul Haley II, Matt Kuchar and Adam Svensson. Endycott was a stroke behind in a four-way tie for ninth. Endycott the first player out on the course and played as a single in his first career tournament make the cut with a birdie on the the final hole of the second round. He overcame a broken driver early in that round and was happy to have all of his clubs available Saturday. “Definitely helps when you’ve got a driver in the bag after yesterday’s shenanigans with the cracked driver face,” he said. “This golf course is tough hitting 3-wood everywhere. So it was nice to get freed up, played some good golf today.” Haley, who had gone 3,315 days between appearances on the TOUR from the 2013 Wyndham Championship and the start of this tournament, was tied with Thompson in the group at 10 under after a 66.

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SAN FRANCISCO – The debriefs will be long and lonesome. Eight different players who held the lead at some point on Sunday at TPC Harding Park did not leave with the Wanamaker trophy. Eight. And one of them was not Brooks Koepka. RELATED: Final leaderboard | The clubs Morikawa used to win The ninth was Collin Morikawa who stepped up down the stretch to pull away from a bunched pack, breaking their hearts in the process. Koepka started the final round two off the overnight lead and was expected to be the most likely to reel in Dustin Johnson who sat atop through 54 holes. Neither of them finished on top. Koepka’s quest for a third straight PGA Championship was over almost before it began. A bogey on the second hole, and three more to close the front nine, meant Peter Thomson remains the last player to win the same major three years running after he claimed the Open Championship from 1954-56. On Saturday night Koepka had said his experience would pull him through but his swing got loose and putter went cold. “It’s my first bad round in a while in a major… wasn’t meant to be. Three in a row, you’re not really supposed to do two in a row looking at history, but that’s all right. Got two more the rest of the season and we’ll figure it out from there,” Koepka said after dropping to a tie for 29th with a 4-over 74. “To make the turn at 4-over was disappointing, to say the least. You knew you had to be under par, at least one, to have a good chance on the back side. Every time I hit it in the rough today I got probably the worst lie I’ve had all week. The green speeds this weekend I never really got down… and just never quite got putts to the hole to make anything.” After being on the outside of the FedExCup Playoff zone for most of the season until a runner up finish last week Koepka did do enough to secure the post-season. He will head to the regular season-ending Wyndham Championship in 92nd spot on the FedExCup looking to push further up the list. Johnson was obviously one of the eight to hold the lead and not win. He quickly jumped to double digits under par with an opening birdie Sunday and after going bogey/birdie on the third and fourth holes stayed at 10 under and in a share for an age. But when it was time to surge on the back nine the 21-time PGA TOUR winner could not match what he’d done in the opening three rounds. Johnson was 9 under on those holes prior, four better than any other challenger. On Sunday it took a final hole birdie, with the result already sealed, to close in 1-under 34 and pull into a tie for second. He shared that spot with veteran Englishman Paul Casey who was riding the feel good vibes of perhaps claiming his first major in his 64th attempt. Casey birdied the fourth and fifth holes to make his first move and joined the leaders at the par-5 10th. When he bogeyed the 13th hole he could have slunk out of contention but instead hitched up his pants and birdied the next hole to return to the lead. When Morikawa took it from him soon after Casey responded by making birdie on 16 to join him again. But as he stood on the 17th tee he saw Morikawa drive the 16th green behind him to set up what would be the critical eagle. With the knowledge he needed to step up Casey hit a great shot to 16-feet on the penultimate hole but his putt slid past. Another decent approach to 22-feet on the last hole was another that he just couldn’t get to drop. In the end he needed both. “I played phenomenal golf and there’s nothing I would change. I’m very, very happy with how I played. Great attitude. Stayed very calm and stayed in the present. Wasn’t enough. The glorious shots Collin hit like on 16 to make eagle, you have to tip your cap,” Casey said. “I’m very, very happy with everything. Kind of got my mojo back now. I had 12 (under) in the back of my mind kind of all day and that wouldn’t have been enough, either. I do think I’m in a sweet spot. It’s taken me 43 years to get there, but yeah, pretty chilled out, know what I’m capable of, and enjoying my golf.” The five players who would ultimately share fourth place – Jason Day (66), Matthew Wolff (65), Bryson DeChambeau (66), Tony Finau (66) and Scottie Scheffler (68) also had a piece of top spot throughout the round. PGA TOUR rookie Scheffler got there first when playing partner Johnson made an early bogey after he had opened his round with a birdie. A string of eight pars after his opening salvo meant he didn’t get back toa share until a birdie on the 10th hole. His efforts were thwarted with a bogey on the 13th hole as Morikawa started his run ahead. “Definitely a step in the right direction. I would have liked to have played a little bit better today but the putts just weren’t falling,” Scheffler said. “But it was definitely a solid week out here. So good steppingstone going forward. I feel like my game is starting to turn around, going the right direction. Looking forward to the Playoffs.” DeChambeau got to the top after making four birdies in his first seven holes. But as quickly as he was in the mix, he fell back out with back-to-back bogeys on eight and nine and an inability to take advantage of his prodigious length on the par-5 10th hole. He tried to muster a late run with birdies on 14 and 16 but it wasn’t enough. “There was a few moments where I kind of got a spur of momentum, and look, I played great golf this whole week, and finally was able to finish in the top ten, top five in a major, and that’s an awesome accolade, and next step is to win. I feel like my game is good enough,” DeChambeau said. “This week, a couple drives, a couple putts, a couple iron shots; that’s golf, right. And so I’m just proud of the way I handled myself, and that I was able to still keep executing when times got tough and kept my head up high.” Wolff didn’t appear to be a factor after bogey on the fifth had him languishing at four under. But a birdie, birdie, birdie, eagle run around the turn gave him a sniff. A bogey at 14 hurt but birdies at 16 and then again at 18 posted 10 under. At the time it was the co-lead, and lead in the clubhouse. “I’ve hit it unbelievable this entire week. I think even with making some putts coming down the stretch, I probably lost strokes throughout the week putting, and I hit it, I mean, tremendous, probably the best ball-striking week of my life,” Wolff said. Day started three back and opened with birdie but then went quiet with eight straight pars. Birdies on nine and 10 crept him closer before the 2015 PGA Championship winner birdied the 14th to join the top spot. As he went the closing four holes all averaged under par on Sunday but Day couldn’t muster another birdie despite a few decent looks. It was his fourth top 10 in as many starts on the PGA TOUR and the 15th major top 10, and 10th major top 5, of his career. “Overall, I played solid golf from tee-to-green. Gave myself the opportunities. Although I played great, there’s still a lot more to improve on,” Day said. “I’ve been moving in the right direction over the last four tournaments. Things are slowly coming together, it’s like a puzzle, really. Everything is starting to connect and click.” Finau opened birdie birdie and then crept closer with another at the 10th. A bogey at 12 may have kicked him out of it however back-to-back birdies on 13 and 14 gave him his place with the leaders. In the end he had to settle for a sixth top 10 finish in the last nine majors played. “I was playing to win. There’s no question about it. I got a lot of top finishes in major championships just in the last few years. It’s great to put yourself in that position, but when I teed it up this morning, or this afternoon, I wanted to win the golf tournament and not have a close finish,” Finau said. “It’s great to have played this well. But hopefully I keep knocking and my day comes soon.” Lastly Cameron Champ, like Morikawa a California kid with ties to the Bay area, gave his fans hope with birdies on the fourth and sixth holes to get to 10 under. But his killer blow would come on the ninth hole when a wild drive set up a double bogey. “All in all it was a solid day. I fought, even when I wasn’t hitting it well. Things just really weren’t going my way,” Champ said. “I’m taking a lot of positives from this week.” There was a small silver lining for Wolff and Champ who secured invitations to the U.S. Open at Winged Foot next month by virtue of being the highest two finishers not already exempt inside the top 10. The good news for all of them … the FedExCup Playoffs starts in less than two weeks and the U.S. Open is just a little over a month away. This was just the first of seven majors, plus a PLAYERS Championship, slated over the next 11 months. So more chances are coming.

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JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Led by former champion Dustin Johnson it was all systems go for a number of the regular season’s best players in the opening round at THE  NORTHERN TRUST. The marquee group of 20-time PGA TOUR winner Johnson, former PLAYERS and U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson and Spanish star Jon Rahm – playing together based on their FedExCup position – scorched Liberty National. With the TOUR Championship already secured the trio might have been wary of a little complacency slipping into their game but they needn’t have worried. Johnson – who finished seventh in the regular season – posted an impressive 8-under 63 to sit just one shot behind Troy Merritt’s early lead. Rahm, 10th in the regular season, opened with a 64 while Simpson (ninth) kickstarted his Playoff run with a round of 65. RELATED: What you need to know for FedExCup Playoffs | Woods starts slow | Merritt moves off bubble “Everything looked easy and we fed off each other. One of us was always close and we were trying to get it closer than the next person and making putts,â€� Rahm said of his group dynamic. “There was a good vibe in the group going on. It’s a little bit easier because the greens are so soft. Dustin finished with almost five in a row … We definitely fed off each other.â€� Johnson was the champion of THE NORTHERN TRUST in 2011 and 2017 on different courses. He wasn’t content with his start, heading straight to the range afterwards. Since having won the World Golf Championships – Mexico Championship in February and finishing runner-up at the Masters in April and the PGA Championship in May, Johnson’s results have trailed off. A pair of T-20s are his best in his last five starts. “I’ve been working pretty hard on my game the last month or so. Finally felt like it’s coming around. Obviously today was a really good score, but just want to make sure I keep it that way,â€� Johnson said of his decision to hit the practice range. “Any time you shoot 8 under, no matter what golf course, you know you did everything well. Today I drove it well and hit a lot of really good iron shots. Rolled the putter nicely. “Every Playoff event is big, and you really want to get off to a good start in any of them.â€� While not playing with the others Rory McIlroy – who is second in the FedExCup – also started hot with a 65 of his own. The quartet are looking to put pressure on FedExCup leader Brooks Koepka who opened with a relatively pedestrian 1-under 70. McIlroy had to watch Koepka go past him in the final round of the recent World Golf Championships – FedEx St. Jude Invitational but this time it was the American getting lapped by his playing partner. “You’ve got to expect the guys like DJ or Rahm or any of the guys that are in the top 10 of the standings are going to come and play well,â€� McIlroy said. “I’m pleased with the start. Bogeyed the first hole, which was the 10th, but played really well after that. Played 7 under from there on in with no bogeys. “I saw some better iron shots than I did in Memphis. I drove it just as good. I putted nicely. It’s so soft out there, you need to shoot low scores this week to have a chance … so just going to try to have to keep the foot down. “It’s definitely a golf course that you’re going to have to keep being aggressive on this week.â€� The player at the top of the standings following next week’s BMW Championship will start the TOUR Championship at 10 under. That player will have between a two and 10 shot lead over the field that is staggered based on FedExCup position. Any of the current top 10 is likely to project to top spot with a victory in New Jersey.

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