Tiger, Peyton hang on to win The Match

After morning showers at Carnoustie players took advantage of soft greens to set themselves up for the weekend. Zach Johnson and Kevin Kisner currently share the lead at 6 under. Tiger Woods carded his second-straight round of even-par 71, while Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Matt Kuchar are lurking on the leaderboard. Check out some of the top shots from Friday at The Open Championship.

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AUGUSTA, Ga. – Five things you may have missed amid the history-making excitement of Tiger Woods’ fifth Masters Tournament, 15th major, and 81st PGA TOUR victory. 1. The Masters juju was in full effect. When Woods won his historic first Masters title, in 1997, he played alongside Costantino Rocca in the final round. Rocca was arguably golf’s most prominent Italian touring professional until—Francesco Molinari, with whom Woods played in winning his fifth Masters on Sunday. While that was probably just a coincidence, nowhere is the Masters juju in greater effect than at the 12th hole, and once again there were strange, spooky happenings there. How could not one but four players in the last two threesomes find Rae’s Creek at the shortest par 3 on the course? Answer: the famous swirling winds at pretty-but-deadly Golden Bell.  “I played exactly how I wanted to play,â€� said Brooks Koepka, one of those who found the creek and double-bogeyed the hole on the way to a final-round 70 to finish 12 under, a shot back and in a three-way tie for second. “Didn’t really miss too many shots. Even the one on 12, I hit it exactly where I wanted to and the wind can kind of make you look stupid on that hole.â€� After ranking no harder than the 10th most difficult hole the first three days, the 12th was the hardest hole Sunday, with nine double bogeys and a 3.385 stroke average. 2. Woods hit the big shots in the clutch, but he got away with some. We can debate about whether or not this was the greatest comeback in sports history, but not whether, as usual, the win required a little luck. Because while Woods managed his game better than anyone and hit several terrific shots, he admitted he got away with some clunkers. “The tee shot at 11 was awful,â€� he said. He was talking about Sunday, but could have just as easily been talking about Saturday. Both times, though, he was far enough right to get lucky and be afforded a clear shot at the green—albeit a frighteningly narrow gap in the trees in the final round. (You couldn’t have drawn it any better with the ShotTracer.) Also, Woods got away with a left miss off the tee at the par-5 13th hole Saturday, his ball kicking out of the trees and into a playable spot in the grass. Golf is about not just great shots but also managing your misses, and with a little luck, Woods did that. Like many others, he never really figured out how to play the newly-lengthened, par-4 fifth hole, making bogey each day, but cited his 22 Masters starts as helping him get across the finish line. “It helps to be experienced,â€� he said, speaking of the devilish 12th hole, where everything changed. “That’s all I was concentrating on. Don’t be fooled. The other guys ended up short.â€� 3. It was age before beauty, but the kids are alright. Woods joked about the stress of trying to win causing his hair loss, but the reality is he was hardly the first person with male pattern baldness to slip on the green jacket. He was the second oldest Masters champion after Jack Nicklaus (46 in ’86) and the seventh player in his 40s to win. The others: Ben Crenshaw (43 in ’95), Gary Player (42 in ’78), Sam Snead (41 in ’54), Mark O’Meara (41 in ’98), and Ben Hogan (40 in ’53). What’s more, Woods broke the record of years between Masters victories (14, ’05-2019), previously held by Player (’61-’74). Bernhard Langer, 61, made the cut. Still, the kids and newcomers acquitted themselves well. Four amateurs made the cut, led by Oklahoma State’s Victor Hovland, who shot 72-71-71-71 to finish T32 and win low amateur. Meanwhile, newcomer Justin Harding of South Africa, a relatively unknown Presidents Cup hopeful, birdied the last hole to tie for 12th, which means he gets to come back next year. And while Xander Schauffele (68, T2) didn’t succeed in becoming the fifth straight first-time major winner at Augusta (Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia, Danny Willett, Jordan Spieth), he led the field with 25 birdies and looks like a big-game hunter. Of course, we already knew that about Koepka, who has three victories and a T2 in his last eight majors. He also has made 19 consecutive cuts in the majors after missing his first two, at the 2012 U.S. Open and 2013 Open Championship. This marked his second T2 of this season (The Honda Classic), which he began by winning THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES.    4. Bryson’s ace was nearly a bookend, and he called it. In the course of shooting an opening-round 66, Bryson DeChambeau (70, T29) came within inches of making a hole-in-one on 16. He spoke afterward of never having made an ace. His disappointment lasted all of three days, though, because DeChambeau made one of two aces at 16 on Sunday, the other authored by Justin Thomas. “I knew back three years ago,â€� DeChambeau said after the final round, which he began with double-bogeys on 10 and 11. “I said to my caddie and to everyone in my camp, it was like, ‘I’m going to make a hole-in-one here one day, and sure enough it was my first one three years later.â€� 5. McIlroy and Spieth saw silver linings at T21 Jordan Spieth shot a front-nine 40 and an opening-round 75, but rallied with scores of 68-69-71. Not particularly memorable for a guy who won the tournament in 2015 and was in the mix to do the same in ’16 (T2) and ’18 (solo third), but Spieth is trying to crawl out of a long slump. “Positives,â€� he said, when asked what he took from the week. “I’m proud of kind of the progress I made, sticking to kind of the process,â€� he continued. “And I felt like I got to a position today that’s felt better than it’s been, tee to green, and even on the greens, in quite a while. So I’m just going to stick with it and hopefully get off to a little better start (at the RBC Heritage) next week, keep the consistency and have a chance to win.â€� Meanwhile, McIlroy, who won THE PLAYERS Championship last month and was going for the career Grand Slam at Augusta National, said he wasn’t far off but faulted his play on the par 4s. “And that’s just putting myself out of position off the tee,â€� he said after going 7 over on the par-4 holes for the week. “And then once you get yourself out of position it’s very hard to put yourself back in position. You miss greens, trying to get it up and down, you put pressure on yourself.  “So my driving accuracy wasn’t quite as good this week as it has been the last few weeks,â€� he added. “And that was probably the main reason why I didn’t contend this week.â€�

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Editor’s note: Stewart Cink is this year’s recipient of the Payne Stewart Award presented by the Southern Company. The annual award goes to a PGA TOUR golfer who excels in charity, character and sportsmanship – values displayed by the late Payne Stewart. Cink will be honored the week of the TOUR Championship.  It was nearly 30 years ago when Stewart and Lisa Cink met when they were in high school in Florence, Alabama. They had a class together, and he sat in the desk behind her. At the time, Stewart was dating one of the girls on Lisa’s softball team. In fact, he dated several of her friends. “I would try to set him up,â€� Lisa says. “I liked him. I thought he was fun and nice and all that. And it was all great until he dated one of my best friends our senior year.  “All of a sudden, I’m like, umm, I’m not sure how I feel about that.â€� But, Lisa adds, “It worked out the way it should have.â€� There were flirtations, to be sure, some dates and even the occasional kiss. But Lisa had a boyfriend and Stewart was usually attached, too. So, the friendship deepened even if romance was on the back burner. “We would study together and hang out,â€� Lisa recalls. “It was just easy because we were friends. There was no pressure.â€� Things evolved, though, when Lisa enrolled at Auburn and Stewart went to play golf at Georgia Tech. The two-hour drive between the two universities was hardly prohibitive, and by their sophomore year, the two had become serious. Lisa was attracted to Stewart’s sense of humor, calling him “sneaking funny. He comes off kind of shy and quiet, but he is hilarious.â€� She says he’s one of the smartest and most humble people she knows, too. “It doesn’t matter what stage of life he is or what stage of golf he is in, if he’s just won a major or missed the cut or lost his card or whatever, he’s the same,â€� Lisa explains. “He treats other people the same. I really like that.â€� And Lisa remembers exactly when she knew Stewart was the one. “I dated a guy at Auburn that on paper was like should have been perfect, like he was smart, really good‑looking and we got along well,â€� Lisa says. “He was fun. He liked me. I went home and told my mom, like, I found this guy who is amazing.  “But I remember being on a date with him and thinking, wow, I wish Stewart was here. That is kind of my epiphany. That was my moment.â€� During their sophomore year, the couple learned they were expecting a child. They decided to get married that summer, and Stewart took Lisa to one of their favorite spots near the river to propose. He was afraid he would drop the ring into the water, though, so he lost his nerve. “We ended going back to my parents’ house and he did it there,â€� she says. “A little less romantic but I guess a lot safer.â€� Safe, maybe, but this marriage was a sure thing. Their next anniversary will be the Cinks’ 25th. Not that life has always been easy. Finishing their degrees at Georgia Tech – Lisa had transferred from Auburn — while caring for Connor was a challenge but also the “biggest blessing that could have happened to us,â€� Lisa says. Friends stepped in to help, offering hand-me-down strollers and baby clothes, but the couple had a lot to figure out on their own. “Neither of us had any experience with babies,â€� she explains. “There were many, many, many nights where we were up all night with the baby and had a test the next day. I’m in tears and stressed.  “But through it all, I knew that this wasn’t something that happened to us.  It was something that came about because of our choices and that made a huge difference.  I felt like it was my responsibility and I needed to figure it out.  “But it also helped knowing there was a light at the end of the tunnel.  We were going to graduate.  This would not have kept us from graduating. That was something that was nonnegotiable.â€� Several years later, the Cinks had a second son, Reagan. Connor graduated from Clemson and is now working in Charlotte, while Reagan is a junior at his parents’ alma mater. Stewart and Lisa are empty-nesters now and she’s a regular in the 2009 Open champion’s gallery. “I miss my kids terribly and I’m lost without having that mom role day to day,â€� Lisa says. “But getting to travel and actually be with him, we’ve never been able to do that full time. It’s a lot of fun. It’s an adventure kind of getting to know things out here again.â€� Getting to travel the country with her husband became even more of a blessing last year when Lisa was diagnosed with breast cancer. She says Stewart has been her safety net, her strength and her shoulder to cry on. The six-time TOUR winner has been actively involved in her battle from day one, doing research on her treatment and giving her the results “in a calm, kind of small dose kind of way to help me get my mind around what it is that I’m facing.  “But he’s also made a great balance, because he hasn’t let me completely focus on my diagnosis or treatment or whatever because of his chance to play out here,â€� Lisa says. “It’s been an amazing diversion. I’m not having to sit around and think about what ifs and what ares and that sort of thing.  Just him doing what he’s doing has also been great and normalizing things for me. “He is an emotional person but not a dramatic person. So, having the kind of stability has kept me very in the moment, very grateful and very focused on what’s ahead instead of what’s behind.â€� And of course, no one knows a TOUR player better than his wife. So now that you know a little more about this special courple, Lisa gives us 18 things you might not know about this year’s Payne Stewart Award winner. 1. He’s obsessed with all things BBQ and has a competition team with his swing coach Mike Lipnick and lifelong friend Chad Parker, who is the general manager at East Lake Golf Club. The team name? Que School 2. He has a tattoo. 3. He loves chick flicks and musicals. (His favorite Broadway show is Les Miserables and he has the soundtrack on his Spotify.) 4. He loves hiking, especially in Glacier National Park, Montana. 5. He geeks out for snow skiing. He makes an annual tradition of squeezing a day on the mountain in between the Sony Open in Hawaii and Career Builder Challenge in California. (The overnight flight from Honolulu-to-Salt Lake City lands at 7:10 a.m. and he’s on the chairlift by 9:30!) 6. He is pretty skilled at wake boarding and wake surfing. He has been known to clear the wake on his wakeboard 7. I surprised him with a Porsche for his 30th birthday, which he kept for the three-year lease. Since then he’s driven a pickup. 8. If this golf thing doesn’t work out, he will become a meteorologist. 9. He serves on the board of the Pregnancy Resource Center of Gwinnett. 10. He keeps the Claret Jug front and center by the kitchen instead of hidden away in the golf room or trophy case (Yes, we have a golf room complete with a putting green in our basement.) 11. He knows the lyrics to pretty much every song from The Sound of Music. 12. His favorite beer is Guinness and he swears it totally tastes better in Ireland. 13. He hates massages, pedicures and all things spa.  14. He just went through a four-year bluegrass/folk phase, which landed us at concerts such as Old Crow Medicine Show and Avett Brothers. 15. He wears a bite guard at night to keep from snoring, which has completely saved our marriage. 16. He was an avid skateboarder back in the day, hitting the half pipe on his Christian Hosoi board. 17. He is a dark chocolate addict, and is never found without 3 or 4 bars on him with varying flavors and nuts — but never below 60 percent cacao.  18. He goes on an annual “BBQ Tour” with fellow BBQ aficionado Davis Love III during the FedEx St. Jude Classic in Memphis, where they have visited up to four BBQ joints in a single night.

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