Phil Mickelson has regained his form just in time to try and defend his Masters title, outduelling fellow American Scott Verplank down the stretch on Sunday to capture the Houston Open.
The 40-year-old Mickelson fired a seven-under 65 to win by three strokes and post his first title since winning the Masters last year.
“I am very pleased I played well,” said Mickelson, who finished at 20-under 268. “It feels really good for me to have played well and gained some momentum heading into next week. I needed to have a week where I kind of put it together.”
Photo: AFP
It was also his first win since announcing at last year’s PGA Championship that he suffers from psoriatic arthritis, which he controls with medication.
Verplank carded a 68 for 271, where he was joined by second-round leader Chris Kirk, who shot a fourth-round 67 at the US$5.9 million tournament.
Mickelson, who earned his 39th career title, is hoping history will repeat itself as he is the last player to win the week before achieving a Masters’ title.
Photo: AFP
In 2006, Mickelson won the BellSouth Classic and then went on to take the green jacket.
The following year a schedule shift saw the Houston Open become the last Masters tune-up event.
Asked if Sunday’s win made him the favorite for next week’s Masters, Mickelson said, “I don’t think that is for me to say. I am just trying to get my game ready. Next week at Augusta, that golf course can be very penalizing.”
The victory also vaults Mickelson into third spot on the world ranking list, putting him four spots ahead of Tiger Woods, who fell to No. 7.
It marks the first time Mickelson has been in front of Woods in the rankings since the week before Woods won the Masters in 1997.
Mickelson opened his final round with a birdie on the par-four first hole, but really got things going with five consecutive birdies beginning on the par-three ninth.
The turning point for Mickelson came on the par-three 16th where he placed his tee shot within five feet of the flag.
Verplank dropped to three back on 16 after two putting for bogey. His tee shot found the greenside bunker.
Mickelson solidified his reputation as one of the best closers on the tour. He has now won 21 of the last 30 events where he has either held or shared the lead heading into the final round.
Verplank, 46, was seeking to become the oldest winner on the PGA Tour since October, when 47-year-old Rocco Mediate captured the Frys Open.
At one point early in Sunday’s round, Verplank had a two-stroke lead. However, it soon disappeared as Mickelson stepped up his game.
HASSAN II TROPHY
AFP, AGADIR, MOROCCO
England’s David Horsey won the Hassan II Trophy on Sunday, beating Rhys Davies and Jaco Van Zyl in a nail-biting three-man playoff that went to two holes.
All three players parred the first extra hole, but Horsey held his nerve to nail a birdie at the second to seal a second European Tour title.
With one hole to play, Horsey was one ahead of Welsh defending champion Davies and two clear of Van Zyl, but took five from the middle of the fairway and six in total.
His double bogey left Davies a four footer for the win, but inexplicably one of the tour’s finest putters ran it two feet past.
Having gone into the bunker when they replayed the 18th, Horsey had to make a fine eight foot clutch putt to stay in it after Davies missed a third putt to win — this time from 20 feet.
Horsey pushed his approach right again on his third trip down the last, but rather than find the bunker, he caught the bank on the edge of the green and rolled to three feet — and this time he made no mistake.
South African Van Zyl went into the playoff after carding a last-round four-under 68.
Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn earlier signed for a course-record 62 to finish six under for the week.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier