The US’ D.A. Points held his nerve through a late weather delay to claim a one-shot victory at the Shell Houston Open on Sunday in Humble, Texas, and earn a ticket to the Masters.
Clinging to a one-shot advantage over clubhouse leader Henrik Stenson with four holes to play, Points had his momentum interrupted when a storm swept across the Redstone Golf Club and forced the evacuation of the course.
When play resumed after nearly three hours, Points picked up where he left off by carding four consecutive pars to return a bogey-free six-under 66 for a winning total of 16-under 272, one shot clear of Swede Stenson (66) and compatriot Billy Horschel (66).
Photo: AFP
Dustin Johnson (65) and Ben Crane (68) finished two shots back on 14-under 274.
It was the second career PGA Tour win for Points, who failed to make the cut in seven of nine starts this season and whose best previous finish was a tie for 63rd.
“I’ve been having a really tough year,” Points said. “To have a putt to win, you want that starting out every week. I would have liked for it to have been closer.”
After a bogey at the 13th, Stenson’s shot at the title appeared to disappear, but the Swede produced a sizzling finish with four birdies over his final five holes, including the 17th and 18th to keep the pressure on Points.
However, Points did not crack, rolling in a nerve-jangling 13-foot par putt at the last with a putter he borrowed from his mother to clinch the victory.
Phil Mickelson, the 2011 Houston winner, started five back of the leaders and looked like he might take a run at the title after opening with four consecutive birdies.
However, the three-time Masters champion’s charge quickly ran out of steam and eight straight pars followed by two birdies and a double-bogey left him on four-under 68, six shots behind Points.
Former world No. 1 Rory McIlroy was not a factor either, finishing 12 shots off the pace, but the Northern Irishman did wrap up his week in style by dropping birdies on his closing two holes for a two-under 70.
TROPHEE HASSAN II
AFP, HOUSTON, Texas
and AGADIR, Morocco
Henrik Stenson’s share of second place at the Houston Open was enough to secure his eighth straight Masters berth on Sunday, but a European tour title left Marcel Siem missing out on the upcoming Masters in Augusta, Georgia.
Germany’s Siem captured the European Tour’s Hassan II Trophy in Morocco on Sunday and had moved to 49th in the projected world rankings list after his third Race to a Dubai victory — just inside the top-50 needed to claim a spot in the first major championship of the year.
However, Siem’s dream of playing at the Augusta National was undone thanks to the results in Texas.
A six-under-par 66 for Stenson left him tied for second behind Houston Open winner Points, but that was enough to assure the Swede jumped from 53rd in the world rankings to inside the top 50.
American Russell Hendley, who only needed a top-53 showing in Houston to reach 50th in the world, shared 45th after a final-round 68, meaning that he moved to 50th and bumped Siem to 51st.
Siem, the defending French Open champion, started the day four clear, but bogeyed the first and was caught when Finland’s Mikko Ilonen, who had suffered food poisoning overnight, had a hat-trick of gains from the second.
Siem responded with birdies at the fifth and seventh, but Ilonen matched it to remain within touching distance.
The German then birdied the 11th from 10 feet, as Ilonen found sand from the tee at the 12th.
Siem birdied 15 before going on to card a final round two-under-par 70 and 17-under for the tournament.
Ilonen had two closing birdies and shared second place with 2011 winner David Horsey of England.
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