Zhang makes final at Augusta Women’s Amateur

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Since he won the Barracuda Championship in a playoff on Sunday, Chris Stroud has received 1,400 text messages, 55 voicemails and another 100 or so emails. And he has replied to every single one. “I’m a big believer in that,â€� Stroud said. “I told a few guys after golf is gone and done for me, all you have left is people and the relationships you have. I care more about people than I do about my golf. I was raised that way. I’m grateful. I’m grateful to have a chance to play on the TOUR and stay healthy.â€� The victory, which was the first of Stroud’s career, enabled him to jump 68 spots on the FedExCup list to 76th to secure his playing privileges for two more years. He’s also headed to Maui in January to play in the SBS Tournament of Champions for the first time. The win also prompted another change in travel plans – landing him in the PGA Championship. And he made the most of the opportunity, shooting a 68 that left him one stroke off the lead held jointly by Thorbjorn Olesen and Kevin Kisner. “Today was one of the easiest rounds,â€� Stroud said. “Obviously I’m playing well. I’m swinging it nicely and putting it well. That has a lot to do with it. It’s a deep confidence that I have.â€� Stroud says his caddie was instrumental in Sunday’s victory and played a big role in Thursday’s round, which was the only bogey-free one of the day. Whenever Stroud starts talking about golf these days, his caddie switches the subject. “We talk about science,â€� Stroud said. “We talk about spirituality, baseball, football, Texans, Houston Astros. Anything to keep my mind off golf. As soon as I hit it, I’m talking about something else. If I say something he goes, hey, hey, hey, we don’t care about golf. “It’s just an experiment we tried last week and it absolutely worked.â€� Stroud, who had been on the road for five weeks, had actually planned to go home to Houston this week to see his wife and their two daughters. Next week he was headed to Greensboro to play in the Wyndham Championship. Instead, he and his caddie drove 2 hours from Reno, Nevada, to Sacramento on Sunday night and bought two first-class tickets to Charlotte. He got in late Monday night and slept until about 11 a.m. “I couldn’t tell what time it was,â€� he said. “Open the curtains and it’s bright. I went to bed at like 2.â€� As nice as the texts and emails and phone messages were, Stroud’s parents flew to North Carolina on Wednesday to surprise him. “We had our celebration dinner last night, just us three,â€� the Texan said. “It was a dream. When I was 9 years old, I knew I wanted to be on the PGA TOUR. I got into college, I was 17, 18 years old. I knew I had a chance to be really good and get on the TOUR. “When I got out here, obviously my dream was to win and be as good as I can. It’s at least a 20-year dream come true.â€� At the same time, Stroud admits that he had gotten to the point where he could accept that he’d had a solid career – regardless of what happened. Of course, he wanted to win but he finally realized that he was getting in his own way. “About six months ago I said you know what, I’ve had 10 years of good runs out here,â€� Stroud said. “I’ve played well. I don’t care if I win anymore. I want to win but I can’t let that be on my shoulders all the time. I’m not going to worry about it. “I’m going to play the best I can and let’s just ride this out. I don’t know if I’m good enough. I don’t know if I’m good enough to win or keep my card. And since I surrendered to that, it’s like all of a sudden things got — the weight is off my shoulders. “All these people have told me this for years. To actually do that, I had to get to the bottom to figure that out. I literally just said you know what I’m done. I’m just going to do the best I can and have as much fun as I can. “All of a sudden it falls in my lap.â€�

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PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Tom Lewis and Harris English made the most of their sponsor exemptions on Thursday at The Honda Classic. Related: Leaderboard | Koepka starts Honda with 74 Lewis and English each shot 4-under 66 at PGA National, sharing the lead after the opening round. Lee Westwood — also in the field thanks to a sponsor exemption — was a shot back with Zach Johnson, J.T. Poston, Brian Stuard and Cameron Tringale. “I didn’t hit it my best, but I knew it was going to be one of those rounds you’re going to have to grind it out,â€� said English, a two-time winner on the PGA TOUR in 2013, but winless since. “It’s windy out there, you’re going to have a lot of cross-winds, and it played really tough. My short game was on point, and I made some really good putts.â€� Sometimes, no putt was required: English holed out from about 25 yards on the par-4 11th, catching a great lie after a drop because his second shot came to rest on a sprinkler head. “That was as good as I can do,â€� English said. It was a rare easy-looking shot at PGA National. The average score was just a smidge below 2 over, on a day where wind gusts often topped 20 mph. “It’s just live and survive, basically,â€� said Matthew NeSmith, who had a hole-in-one on the par-3 fifth. Westwood hit 11 of 14 fairways and was thoroughly pleased with how the day went. “Everybody should play like that,” Westwood said. “Everybody who’s out here is in a privileged position with nothing to lose. We should all be having fun. But at the age of nearly 47 it seems even easier. I don’t play anywhere I don’t want to play. I just play great tournaments and the ones I want to play in, and I set my own schedule, and it’s just great fun.” Lewis made his splashy entrance into golf headlines in 2011, when the then-amateur Englishman was a surprise co-leader after the opening round of The Open Championship. He played that opening round with Tom Watson, the five-time Open winner who happens to be Lewis’ namesake and his father’s favorite player.  Not much has gone right since. “I struggled for a while, and then I think really things got so low that you couldn’t get any lower,â€� Lewis said. “So it was like, ‘Well, only good things can happen now.’â€� Good things happened in bunches Thursday, when Lewis had a bogey-free round. “It can just happen,â€� Lewis said, a few minutes before he sat in relative anonymity inside the resort’s hotel lobby and had lunch while fans walked by mostly oblivious to the fact that they were passing a co-leader. “Just one shot, one putt at the right time or good break and then all of a sudden it can snowball. I need to take a lot of belief from today.â€� Plenty of others weren’t as chipper as Lewis and English were when their days at PGA National were over. Brooks Koepka, in his hometown tournament, made a triple bogey and a double bogey in a four-hole span on the front side on his way to a 74. “Didn’t feel like I played that bad,” Koepka said. Defending champion Keith Mitchell finished birdie-birdie and still shot 75. Rickie Fowler, who won The Honda Classic in 2017 and tied for second with Koepka last year, made one birdie all day and shot 76. “It’s a fine line,â€� Fowler said. “Just got it going in the wrong direction.â€� That happens at PGA National. Only 22 of the 144 players broke par.

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