Phil Mickelson totally upstaged playing partner Tiger Woods while charging past overnight leader Charlie Wi to win the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in spectacular fashion by two shots on Sunday.
Six strokes behind South Korean Wi going into the final round at Pebble Beach Golf Links, Mickelson fired a flawless eight-under par-64 to clinch his 40th victory on the PGA Tour.
The US left-hander took control of the tournament with a stunning outward nine of five-under 31 and holed two monster par putts after the turn on the way to a 17-under total of 269.
“It feels awesome,” a beaming Mickelson told the Golf Channel. “Hopefully it’s just one of a few this year because I am starting to feel pretty good.”
While Mickelson won the pro-am celebrity event for a fourth time, Woods had to settle for joint 15th place after closing with a five-bogey 75 in his bid for a first PGA Tour win in more than two years.
Wi, hunting a maiden title on the US circuit, dropped four shots in the first six holes, but recovered well, a birdie-birdie-birdie finish giving him a 72 and outright second place at 15 under.
Woods had been poised for a last-day charge after shooting a 67 on Saturday, but missed several putts from inside six feet to tumble out of contention at the same venue where he won the 2000 US Open by a record 15 shots.
“I didn’t hit it as bad as the score indicated, but I putted awful,” the former world No. 1 said. “As good as I felt on the greens yesterday was as bad as I felt bad today.”
“I just could not see my lines, I couldn’t get comfortable, I couldn’t get the blade to swing. Anything that I tried to do wasn’t working and consequently I made a ton of mistakes on the greens,” he said.
Mickelson, who had previously won the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in 1998, 2005 and 2007, took full advantage of a poor front nine by the pacesetting Wi.
Three strokes ahead of the chasing pack overnight, the South Korean made the worst possible start with a four-putt double-bogey on the opening hole.
He also stumbled with a bogey at the tricky par-three fifth after missing the green to the left off the tee, to drop back into a tie for the lead at 12 under.
Mickelson had charged to the top with birdies at the second, fourth and fifth, where he struck a superb mid-iron to just one foot.
He then rammed in a 21-footer to eagle the par-five sixth and vault two strokes clear with Woods, Kevin Streelman and Kevin Na tied for second place.
Out in 31, Mickelson did well to save par at the short 12th, where he rolled in a 30-footer and Woods holed out from a greenside bunker for birdie.
With huge galleries following the two biggest names in US golf, Mickelson conjured an exquisite bouncing approach to just two feet at the par-four 13th, knocking in the birdie putt to regain a two-shot cushion.
‘DEVASTATED’: Argentina’s win was a reversal of their 28-24 defeat last week, with Australian forward Fraser McReight adding that ‘we did the same thing last week’ Argentina flyhalf Santiago Carreras punished an undisciplined Australia with 23 points off the tee as the Pumas held on grimly for a 28-26 win in Sydney yesterday to breathe new life into their Rugby Championship campaign. A try-fest beckoned in afternoon sunshine at Sydney Football Stadium, but Argentina needed only one through captain Julian Montoya, with Carreras doing the damage with seven penalties and a conversion in front of a sell-out crowd. A week after letting a 14-point lead slip in a 28-24 defeat to Australia in Townsville, Argentina saw most of a 21-point advantage erased in the final quarter as the
ELEVEN STRIKEOUTS: Blake Snell allowed two singles and two walks against the Rockies as he ended a personal three-game skid with his first win since Aug. 16 Blake Snell on Wednesday struck out a season-high 11 in six innings, while Mookie Betts hit a grand slam in the eighth as the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Colorado Rockies 9-0 for their fourth straight win. Helped by their third series sweep of the Rockies this MLB season, the Dodgers increased their National League West lead to three games over the San Diego Padres, who lost 2-1 at home to the Cincinnati Reds. Betts went four for five with five RBIs, capped by his seventh career slam on a 3-0 pitch from reliever Anthony Molina to make it 8-0. Andy Pages and
Captain Vijay Kumar led the way yesterday as the Hsinchu Titans claimed the Taiwan Premier League title at the Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山), beating PCCT by 27 runs. The weather was a topic again, but not the rain that played a role in previous matches in the often-delayed tournament. Kumar, who made 80 not out from 63 deliveries, and teammate Vishwajit Kumar (58 from 43) rescued the Titans from a precarious state at the end of the power play in the T20 match. The visitors were put in to bat and struggled to 26-3 as PCCT
China’s state-run People’s Daily newspaper on Monday published an essay about Chinese basketball it said was written by LeBron James, but a representative for the NBA star said on Thursday that the article was based on a series of interviews. The paper, better known as the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, had said James authored the essay, “Basketball is a Bridge that Connects Us,” a tribute to Chinese players and fans of the sport written in the first person. “LeBron James Pens an Article in the People’s Daily,” read a post published on the newspaper’s official WeChat account. On Thursday, a representative
RSS