Tiger Woods ignites heated debate after he calls for shorter-flying ball

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – The chips were roughly from the same spot, right behind the green at Pebble Beach’s seventh hole, one of golf’s most famous par 3s. Ted Potter Jr. was leading his playing partner Dustin Johnson by one stroke. The chip-off turned out to be a pivotal moment in Sunday’s final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Johnson went first, his chip settling 5-1/2 feet past the pin. Potter was next – and his putt found the bottom of the cup, extending his lead to two shots. “I had seen how his landed and how his rolled out, so I knew it was a little firmer and a little faster that we both thought, I guess,â€� Potter said of the two chips. “So I definitely tried to get a little bit higher with some more spin, but it still landed pretty firm. “For it to hit the hole was definitely pleasing there.â€� A hole later, Johnson suffered a bogey at the par-4 after finding the greenside bunker to fall three back. Ultimately, that would be Potter’s margin of victory. The expected rally from Johnson never materialized. “Just didn’t have it,â€� said Johnson, the world’s top-ranked player. “I felt like I hit, even when I hit some really good shots it ended up in some terrible spots. “I felt like I hit a great shot into 8 and ended up making bogey. It was just kind of one of those days. It felt like all day I was in between clubs, so I was either trying to hit one hard or take something off of one and it just never — it just felt like all day just, it just did never really got in a rhythm out there.â€� Johnson had previously won twice at Pebble Beach, but even his final rounds then weren’t not memorable. In fact, one never happened, as his 2009 win was reduced to 54 holes due to bad weather. His win in 2010 came despite shooting 74 in the final round. Of the top 25 players in the final leaderboard, Johnson’s even-par 72 was higher than all but two players. “I shot 2-under here in 36 holes, which is not too good, especially as well as I feel like I’m playing,â€� said Johnson, who shot a 70 at Pebble Beach on Saturday. “But all in all, still a good week. T-2, I guess, is not terrible, but yeah, I would like to have put a little bit more pressure on Ted.â€� NOTEABLES What a wild par for Jason Day at the par-5 18th. Needing an eagle to have any hope, his second shot with driver off the deck landed on the beach below the small cliff left of the green. He had two choices: “I said I’m either going to play right now and man up and play right now or head back another 200 yards and play from there and I didn’t want to do that. So I just went up and I guessed on the line.â€� He climbed down to the ball and hit a third shot that landed in the bunker on the other side – and then got up and down, rolling in a 17-footer. “Holing that putt was nice. I wanted to really kind of finish strong.â€� Phil Mickelson was hoping to make some noise but after a bogey on the par-3 fifth, he was six shots off the lead. He then proceeded to play bogey-free the rest of the way, notching five birdies – including three in his last five holes. Like Day, he was seeking an eagle at 18 but found the bunker and settled for par. “It was nice to make some birdies coming down the stretch,â€� said the four-time champ. “It’s a little disappointing it wasn’t enough, but it’s another great week here at Pebble Beach.â€� A week ago, Chez Reavie lost in a playoff to Gary Woodland at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. This week, he played his way into another runner-up finish thanks to five birdies on his front nine. “I’ve been hitting the ball well for awhile and just haven’t quite been piecing it together,â€� Reavie said. “I think I figured out a way to piece it together.â€� After three straight birdies midway in his front nine, defending champ Jordan Spieth was on the move. But he couldn’t sustain the momentum. He gave back all three shots and didn’t make another birdie until the 18th, settling for a 71 and a tie for 20th. “My putting made tremendous progress this week,â€� he said. “I feel great about it going forward.â€� Kevin Streelman and his amateur partner, Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, won the team portion of the event, leading wire to wire. Streelman finished at 13 under; as a team (with Fitzgerald’s 13 handicap), they finished at 41 under to win by 7 shots. “He struggles off the tee a little bit – that’s where his 13 comes from,â€� Streelman said of his partner. “… But from his amateur tees, he can hit his 3- and 4-iron and he’s great from inside of 150. He’s a great putter. So he just played awesome.â€� Fitzgerald called it one of his top sports achievements “because I’m out of my comfort zone. This is not like my profession. This is a passion of mine. I’m not great by any stretch of the imagination but it was wonderful to be able to participate in it.â€� QUOTEABLES I’m so happy right now to get it done today, especially against the world No. 1, playing with him today. And it was definitely, the win here at Pebble is just unbelievable. It’s beautiful.â€� I know Phil (Mickelson’s) walked down there before and slipped on his bum, so I didn’t want to do that    It was just one of those days where nothing went my way. CALL OF THE DAY SUPERLATIVES Low round –  Scott Stallings, Grayson Murray and Brandon Harkins each shot 6-under 66. Longest drive – Dustin Johnson’s 376-yard tee shot on the 10th hole. He made par on the hole Longest putt – Jordan Spieth had a 54-foot birdie putt on the par-3 fifth hole; it was the middle birdie of a three-birdie stretch.   Hardest holes – Par-5 14th, which played to a stroke average of 5.320. There were just 13 birdies there Sunday against 22 bogeys, six double bogeys and one other. Easiest holes – The par-5 2nd and the par-5 6th were the easiest, each playing to a stroke average of 4.467.

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Tiger Woods is on the course at the Genesis Open, paired with Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas.

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Chez Reavie shot a 5-under 65 on Friday to move to 9-under 131 and share the lead with Charl Schwartzel and Sebastian Munoz after two rounds at the St. Jude Classic. Schwartzel had a 66 while Munoz finished the round with a 67. Stewart Cink — who shared the first-round lead along with Matt Every, Scott Brown and Munoz — was one stroke back after his 68 at the PGA TOUR’s final event before the U.S. Open. Ben Crane, who won this tournament in 2014, was two strokes off the lead after shooting a 65 at the par-70 TPC Southwind course. Reavie, who started two strokes behind the co-leaders, had three birdies on the front nine and an eagle on the par-5 No. 16, landing his second shot fewer than 15 feet from the flagstick and sinking the putt. The 35-year-old from Arizona State earned his only win on tour at the RBC Canadian Open in 2008. “There’s no way that I can change my mindset and go out there and try and make pars — I won’t win the golf tournament if I do that,” Reavie said. “I need to just keep doing the same thing I’m doing — attack the holes that suit my eye and make as many birdies as I can.” Schwartzel, who shot a 65 in the first round, began his round one stroke behind the four first-day leaders along with Matt Jones. He started on the back nine and birdied four of his first eight holes, going back-to-back on Nos. 16 and 17. On the par-5 16th, he sent his second shot into a greenside bunker but recovered by chipping out of the sand to inside of 5 feet of the flagstick. The 32-year-old South African then moved into sole possession of the lead with a birdie on the par-4 second — only to give it back with a bogey on the par-3 eighth. Schwartzel, who finished third at The Masters, is seeking his third career victory on tour — he’s won 12 times internationally — and first since he won the 2016 Valspar Championship near Tampa, Florida. “If these fairways get firm (over the weekend), you’re really going to have to try to keep it in the fairway,” Schwartzel said. “If you’re missing fairways, with the greens, you’re going to miss a lot of greens, you’re going to struggle. So if you want to move forward and win this golf tournament, I think all parts of your game are going to have to be in top form.” Munoz, who made a late charge up the leaderboard in the first round, kept himself there with his second strong round, shooting four birdies to offset his first bogey of the tournament, which came on the par-4 18th. He arrived in Memphis having never shot better than 67 in any round on tour, only to match or better that in each of his first two rounds here. Among those who missed the cut at 1 over: Jason Bohn, Boo Weekley and Jim Furyk were in the cluster of players at 2 over, and Rickie Fowler was at 4 over.

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