J.B. Holmes rallied from the brink of defeat to win the FBR Open for the second time in three years, beating Phil Mickelson on the first hole of a playoff on Sunday.
Holmes birdied the 18th twice in a matter of minutes, first with a 13-foot putt to force the playoff, then with an eight-footer after a 359-yard drive.
Holmes, whose victory as a rookie at the FBR in 2006 is his only other US golf tour victory, had wasted a four-stroke lead and was one shot behind going in to the 18th. The far more seasoned Mickelson seemed destined for his third win in the tournament and the 33rd of his career.
PHOTO: AFP
But the 25-year-old Holmes smashed a 350-yard drive that landed near a fence far left of the fairway. He was permitted a drop, then hit his second shot out of the rough 13 feet from the pin to set up the putt that put him at 14-under 270 and forced the playoff with Mickelson.
Holmes' playoff tee shot went straight and deep down the fairway. His second shot came to rest just 8 feet from victory.
Mickelson, who birdied three of the final six holes of regulation, just missed a 28-foot birdie putt before Holmes made the winner. The victory was worth US$1.08 million.
It was the first playoff in the event since Mickelson beat Justin Leonard in a playoff in 1996.
With the National Football League title game being staged only 50km away in Glendale on Sunday, attendance dropped to 71,805 on a chilly, overcast day. That's nearly 100,000 fewer than the record 170,802 who came on Saturday for the biggest party day of the boisterous event.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later