Patton Kizzire needed six extra holes to win the Sony Open, the second win in the past four starts for the late-blooming 31-year-old. Jason Sobel runs down a week in Hawaii that included a false missile scare.
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Former Presidents Cup International team member Graham DeLaet will undergo another procedure on his ailing back, keeping the Canadian Olympian away from the PGA TOUR for an undetermined amount of time. DeLaet, 39, announced on Twitter he would be undergoing a Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA) procedure on his lower back. The goal of the procedure is to alleviate the chronic pain he has been dealing with for the past few years. "I am very hopeful that this will give me the day-to-day relief to enjoy more quality time with my family and friends," he said. "I am also hopeful it will enable me to put in the time needed to practice again and get back to the PGA TOUR. "It's definitely been a frustrating few years." The native of Weyburn, Saskatchewan (a town of about 10,000 people about an hour north of the U.S. border) has suffered a myriad of injuries over the last few seasons but was in the midst of returning to the TOUR via a Major Medical Exemption. DeLaet was a bright light for the International Team at the 2013 Presidents Cup - where he went 3-1-1 and delivered some final-hole dramatics alongside Jason Day and against Jordan Spieth - finished 8th in the FedExCup that same year, his career-high. He first earned his PGA TOUR card in 2010. DeLaet played five tournaments in 2019-20, making two cuts. He's since played five tournaments in 2021 but missed four cuts and withdrew from the Vivant Houston Open, citing his back as the culprit. "I've been through this now so many times over the past 10 years and all the warning signs were there for me to shut it down and take care of my body," said DeLaet at the time. DeLaet flashed some brilliance at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship in 2020, shooting a second-round 64 - his lowest TOUR round since a matching 64 at the Travelers Championship in 2017. In that season he notched six top-10 finishes - but has been away from the TOUR for the better part of two years. He withdrew from THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES in late October of 2018 and did not play the whole of 2019. DeLaet failed to get relief from a steam-cell treatment in December 2017 claiming at the time it "has not helped regenerate my L4-L5 disc and in fact has gotten worse since the procedure." The hirsute star ended up having an L4-L5 microdiscectomy surgery in 2018, his second such procedure after an earlier one in 2011. DeLaet was non-committal about a timeline to return to the TOUR. While he's been recovering DeLaet appeared on the Canadian broadcast of the Masters in November as an analyst and has become prolific with his barbecue on social media while placing focus on being an attentive father to his now 5-year-old twins Roscoe and Lyla.
MAMARONECK, N.Y. — Matthew Wolff might be too young to realize he’s supposed to hit fairways to have a chance to win the U.S. Open. Or maybe he’s so good it doesn’t matter. Wolff hit only two fairways Saturday and still matched the lowest score ever at Winged Foot in a major, a 5-under 65 that gave the 21-year-old Californian a two-shot lead over Bryson DeChambeau going into the final round. Whether it was the first cut or the nasty rough, Wolff kept giving those hips one last swivel before blasting away and giving himself birdie chances. He made enough of them to seize control, and then let so many others crumble. Patrick Reed, tied for the lead at the turn, couldn’t find the fairway and paid dearly with a 43 on the back nine. Reed had a three-shot lead after two holes. He walked off the 18th green with a 77 and was eight shots behind. Collin Morikawa won the PGA Championship last month in his first try at age 23. Wolff is playing his first U.S. Open at age 21. Is he next? “I’m probably going to be a little antsy. It’s the U.S. Open, and I have a lead,” Wolff said. “I’m going to try to keep my nerves as calm as they can be. I put myself in a really good spot. I did everything that I could do up until this point, and tomorrow I’m going to go out there, I promise you I’m going to try my best.” He was at 5-under 205. Not since Francis Ouimet in 1913 — also the last time the U.S. Open was played in September — has a player won the U.S. Open in his debut. DeChambeau could easily have gone the same route as Reed, missing left and right, gouging his way out of the grass. But after opening with two bogeys, he kept scrambling away — 15 straight holes with nothing worse than par. He rallied with two late birdies until missing a short par putt on the 18th for a 70. He will be in the final group for the first time in a major, another quiet affair with no spectators on the course. The U.S. Open began with 21 players under par. There were six going into the weekend. Now it’s down to three, with Louis Oosthuizen efficiently putting together a 68 to finish at 1-under 209. Hideki Matsuyama (70), Xander Schauffele (70) and Harris English (72) were at even-par 210. Another shot back was Rory McIlroy, who posted his 68 some three hours before the leaders finished. “It doesn’t take much around here … and all of a sudden you’re right in the thick of things,” McIlroy said. “No matter where I am at the end of the day, I feel like I’ve got a pretty good shot.” It all depends on Wolff, an NCAA champion at Oklahoma State who won on the PGA TOUR in his third event as a pro last summer in the 3M Open in Minnesota. From the first cut of rough on the opening hole, he hit it to right level of the contoured green for a 15-foot birdie. From the right rough on No. 4, he wound up with another 15-foot birdie putt. And then he really poured it on. He drove next to the green on the short par-4 sixth, getting up-and-down from a bunker for birdie. He holed a 12-foot birdie on the par-3 seventh. And when he finally hit his first fairway on No. 8, he missed a 6-foot birdie attempt. His lone bogey came on the 16th when he was in such a bad lie in the rough he couldn’t reach the green. And he finished with a most fortuitous hop. His iron off the tee hopped into the thick rough and back out to the first cut. He ripped 7-iron to 10 feet for one last birdie. “If I don’t hit fairways tomorrow, I know I can play well,” Wolff said with a smile. “Even when I was in the rough, I had a bunch of good numbers and a bunch of good lies.” And he played a lot of good golf, so good that even at his age, he looked to be a daunting figure to catch. “I don’t think there’s any `chasing’ out here,” Schauffele said, adding that if Wolff had another good round Sunday it would be “impossible to catch him.” DeChambeau gave himself hope, among five players within five of the lead on a course where anything goes. Think back to the last U.S. Open at Winged Foot in 2006, when Geoff Ogilvy hit a superb pitch to 6 feet for par that he thought was only good for second place until Phil Mickelson and Colin Montgomerie closed with double bogeys. “I feel like I’m ready to win out here and win a major,” Wolff said. “It is a major. It’s really important and yes, it is really early in my career. But I feel like I have the game to win. Collin won at 23. I’m 21. And I’m not saying that it’s going to happen. But I put myself in a really good spot, and obviously I’m feeling really good with my game.”
Henrik Stenson gave himself another chance to win at Bay Hill, and he made it a little bit tougher on Tiger Woods. Stenson made three big par saves at the turn to keep the round from getting away from him, ran off three straight birdies on his back nine and posted a 3-under 69 that gave him a share of the 36-hole lead Friday with Bryson DeChambeau in the Arnold Palmer Invitational. The chilly weather warmed in the afternoon, just not enough for Woods to do the same.
