With Fowler, it’s too early to have the ‘Is this the week?’ conversation

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JERSEY CITY, N.J. – A fan asked Paulina Gretzky if she would take a selfie with him as he stood alongside the 16th hole on Friday. She stopped and smiled for the camera, then turned and continued toward the green. The man looked at the photo on his friend’s phone. “Dude,â€� he said. “I look SO bad.â€� At least he knows how the International Team feels. They’ve played the Foursomes in the wind, and the U.S. Team won 3.5-1.5. They’ve played the Four-balls in the calm, and the U.S. Team won 4.5-.5, building an eyebrow-raising 8-2 lead going into the weekend at the Presidents Cup at Liberty National. This marks the biggest lead ever through two sessions, and the Americans could theoretically win prior to Sunday singles. Asked what he told his players, International Team Captain Nick Price laughed. “The guys are trying,â€� Price said. “That’s all I can tell you. They’re trying their tails off.â€� How bleak was it was for the Internationals? When Jordan Spieth’s birdie putt lipped out on 18, leaving the favored Spieth and Patrick Reed with only a halve in their match against Adam Hadwin and Hideki Matsuyama, the Fantatics, those yellow-clad Australians who cheer for the perennial underdog in this event, broke into song. Their boys had won half a point. Dominance looked like Justin Thomas holing out from a greenside bunker at the 14th hole, and sounded like the chant of “USA! USA!â€� as he and partner Rickie Fowler beat the Internationals’ previously unbeaten tandem of Branden Grace and Louis Oosthuizen, 3 and 2. It was Dustin Johnson making birdies at 15 and 16 as the bash-brothers Johnson and Brooks Koepka handled Adam Scott and Jhonattan Vegas, also 3 and 2. American rookies Charley Hoffman and Kevin Chappell, fueled by Hoffman’s kick-in eagle at the par-5 second hole, cruised to the most lopsided win of the day, a 6 and 5 victory over the wildly misfiring Charl Schwartzel and Anirban Lahiri. Everything that could go right did go right for the Americans, including a choreographed dance from that old classic “The Three Amigosâ€� that Phil Mickelson and Kevin Kisner had practiced beforehand. When Mickelson rolled in a birdie putt of just over 12 feet at the 18th hole to beat Jason Day and Marc Leishman 1 up, the dance was on. “I thought we biffed it when we were doing it,â€� Mickelson said, “but when I looked back and saw the replay, I think we kind of nailed it actually (laughter). “I get that I can’t dance. I get that I can’t take selfies, but I can putt, and it was nice to roll that last one in.â€� The selfie reference was a nod to Mickelson’s photo with Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama on Thursday, when Lefty accidentally aimed too high and cut off half his face. It’s one of the few things that hasn’t gone right for the Americans. Well, that plus Mickelson’s failure to birdie 18 on Thursday, when he and Kisner could only manage a halve against Day and Leishman. “He brought it up to me again this morning,â€� U.S. Team Captain Steve Stricker said, “so it was eating at him.â€� Meanwhile, seemingly everything that could go wrong for the Internationals has. At the second hole, where Lahiri needed to hole his bunker shot for eagle to tie Hoffman, he left the shot on the lip. With the Americans having taken a 2 up lead, Lahiri raked the ball back and tried the shot again, but that’s a violation of Rule 7-2, which states that players may not hit practice shots in the bunkers as they do on the greens. “He’s obviously trying to prove to all of us that his pick was worth it,â€� Price said, “and it’s put a lot of pressure on him. I think today he showed that; he was very tight out there.â€� Lahiri was disqualified from playing the third hole, leaving Schwartzel by himself; the South African at least halved it with a par. Matsuyama misjudged his second shot at the par-5 ninth hole, which ballooned in the air and dropped into the lake in front of the green, leaving partner Hadwin by himself. Abandonment issues abounded for the Internationals. “You have both got to put balls in the fairway so they can have a shot and have two putts at birdie,â€� Price said, “and a lot of times it was two against one today.â€� His biggest challenge now is convincing his team that it can still win, or, as he told the media, “We’ve only had 10 points out of 30, so there’s a lot of golf left.â€� Stricker’s challenge has been finding players to sit. Matsuyama made it easy on Price, telling the International Team captain he wasn’t playing well and, in so many words, to bench him for the next session. (Price did.) But too many Americans are in the groove. How do you sit Hoffman and Chappell after the performance they had Friday, mixing and matching for an eagle and four birdies? How do you sit Koepka, after his and Johnson’s win? Then again, Spieth and Reed simply have to keep playing, as do Fowler and Thomas, and Kisner and Mickelson. “We’d be the stupidest guys on earth if we split up Spieth and Reed, and J.T. and Rickie,â€� Stricker said. He devised many of these two-man pairings months ago, and when asked how closely this week has followed the blueprints, he said, “It’s been pretty close.â€� Blue. Close. Two words you wouldn’t use to describe the Presidents Cup, so far.

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In the final round of the OHL Classic at Mayakoba, Patton Kizzire holds off nerves and a hard-charging Rickie Fowler with a bogey-free 67 at El Camaleon Golf Club. Welcome to the Monday Finish, where Kizzire, who won twice on the Web.com Tour in 2015, enters the winner’s circle for the first time on the PGA TOUR to earn 500 FedExCup points and entry into the 2018 Sentry Tournament of Champions, THE PLAYERS Championship, the Masters, the PGA Championship and other select invitational events on TOUR. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. Kizzire is a fast starter. Of his three top-10s last season, when he was 99th in the FedExCup, his best was a runner-up at the season-opening Safeway Open. He entered the last round at Silverado with a one-shot lead over Scott Piercy but shot a 2-under 70 to drop one behind winner Brendan Steele. Two years ago, also in his season debut, Kizzire tied for second at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. And now, after missing the cut at the Safeway (a rare hiccup) and a solid Sanderson Farms Championship (T10) and Shriners (T4), he wins in his fourth start of the new season. Don’t count him out at this week’s RSM Classic at Sea Island, either. He lives there. 2. El Camaleon’s first hole was a brute. The 438-yard par-4 played to a 4.321 average, hardest of the final round, and gave players fits in the third round, too. Charles Howell III (T4) and Patrick Rodgers (T14) each double-bogeyed it. Martin Piller (T4) triple-bogeyed it. That was particularly hard on Rodgers and Piller, who were embarking on a 36-hole Sunday. “I just tried to stay patient and say, Okay, you’ve got 35 more holes to make it up,� Piller said. “I didn’t hit the tee shot that bad, but it got up in the wind and went right. It was only like a foot out of bounds. The provisional went down the middle, and then I hit it on and promptly three-putted.� 3. Rickie Fowler is a top-10 machine. Fowler, who was making his season debut and his first start at Mayakoba, shot 65-67-67-67 and might have won but for the fact that he bogeyed the par-5 fifth hole and couldn’t buy a putt in the middle of his round, from holes 7-12. Last season Fowler had 10 top-10 finishes, including a win at The Honda Classic, in 21 starts. Now he’s one-for-one in top-10s for the new season, and his earnings of $766,800 for solo second put him over the $30 million mark in career earnings at age 28. Not a bad consolation prize. 4. Hard work pays off. Martin Piller (65, T4) played just three practice holes on Tuesday, and none Wednesday. He putted. “I hadn’t been putting the way I normally do,� said Piller, who will turn 32 on Tuesday. “So I just camped out on the putting green. I’m an okay ball-striker, but if my putting is good I’ll be in good shape.� His putting at Mayakoba was beyond good. Piller took just 22 putts in the final round Sunday and totaled 97 for the tournament, eight fewer than the next best, Fowler and Russell Knox. “I made a bunch from the fringes this week,� Piller said. 5. Si Woo Kim is going to win this tournament. Kim (65, solo third), who became the youngest winner of THE PLAYERS Championship last season, was 6-under through 13 holes in the final round but blocked his tee shot into the hazard and double-bogeyed the 14th hole. He bounced back with birdies at Nos. 15 and 17 to notch his best result since coming out on top at TPC Sawgrass last May. In 2015, Kim was tied for third at the halfway mark at El Camaleon but fell back with weekend rounds of 72-70 that saw him finish T17.  FIVE INSIGHTS 1. Kizzire was four for four in scrambling in the final round, and 13 of 18 (13th best) for the week. He took just 107 putts over the four rounds, tied for fifth best in the field, and hit 54 of 72 greens in regulation, tied for seventh best. 2. The winner was one of four players who went bogey-free in the final round, the others being Brian Stuard (65, T9), Charles Howell (66, T4) and Ryan Moore (68, T6). 3. Fowler was second in both average driving distance (299.2 yards), which was not a terribly important stat at El Camaleon, and putts per round (26.25), which was.  4. Charles Howell III achieved his T4 finish, going 66-66 in the third and fourth rounds, the old-fashioned way: hitting fairways and greens. He hit 42 of 56 fairways, tied for 12th best (and a crucial stat at tree-lined El Camaleon), and 59 of 72 greens in regulation, tied for second best. 5. It was a great week for Mexico in many ways, especially with the scores. Four of the five Mexicans in the field made the cut, a record in the 11-year history of the OHL. Abraham Ancer, who has dual U.S./Mexico citizenship, went 65-68 to finish T9 and lead the native sons.   TOP THREE VIDEOS Rooftop rob hangout Hanging on the edge Better than birdie for Byrd

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