American Gary Woodland cruised to an easy win on Sunday at the Reno-Tahoe Open, the PGA Tour’s only event using a modified Stableford scoring system.
Woodland, who shot a final round of three-under 69, started the day with a seven-point lead and finished nine clear of his nearest rivals, Jonathan Byrd and Andres Romero of Argentina.
Woodland compiled a total of 44 points for the tournament, where points were awarded for birdies and eagles and deducted for bogeys or worse.
Photo: AFP
The victory was Woodland’s second in a PGA Tour event and sealed a place in this week’s PGA Championship. He also won the Transitions Championship two years ago in his rookie season.
“It felt like it was meant to be this week,” Woodland said. “I tried to stay calm and really focus on what I was doing.”
With a big overnight lead, he was never seriously challenged on the final day, even though he managed only one birdie in his first 13 holes.
He made his only bogey of the tournament on the par-4 17th, but picked up three birdies in the last five holes, including a 58-foot chip on 367-yard, par-4 14th that dropped into the cup.
“I was just trying to get it on the green, let alone go in. It was one of the best shots I’ve ever hit,” he said.
Byrd charged up the leaderboard to finish tied for second on 35 points with a brilliant closing round of 64 that featured seven birdies and an eagle.
“My whole mindset was just to be a little more aggressive and give ourselves chances and just free it up, and I was able to do that today getting off to a hot start,” Byrd said. “[I] just felt like I was off to the races.”
Romero (69) was unable to make up any ground on Woodland, but leapfrogged Brendan Steele (72), who had been second overnight but bogeyed two of his last three holes on Sunday.
He finished fourth on 33 points, one clear of Dickie Pride and their fellow American David Mathies.
Taiwan’s top male badminton player, Chou Tien-chen, on Saturday bowed out in the men’s singles semi-finals at the Thailand Open after losing in straight games to Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn. The world No. 6 Chou, seeded fourth at the Super 500 tournament, lost to the world No. 2 Thai 21-7, 21-19 in 53 minutes. The victory improved Vitidsarn’s head-to-head record against Chou to 3-5. Chou, 36, trailed throughout the opening game after the score was tied 2-2. His relatively passive approach allowed the 25-year-old Thai to capitalize on Chou’s defensive clears with powerful smashes while committing few unforced errors. The Taiwanese
FRUSTRATION: Gauff smacked herself on the head with her racket before storming down the tunnel, emerging afterward to have a heated discussion with her coach Elina Svitolina on Saturday won the Italian Open after beating Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 6-2 to claim her third Rome title, while Jannik Sinner set a date with Casper Ruud in the men’s final. Ukraine’s Svitolina had not claimed a WTA 1000 title since her last victory at the Foro Italico eight years ago, but prevailed over the ever-erratic Gauff to claim her 20th tournament triumph. Saturday’s win over Gauff was her third in a row against a player in the top four of the world rankings — including Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina — ahead of the French
West Ham United’s 3-1 defeat at Newcastle United on Sunday left Tottenham Hotspur realistically only needing one more point to win the battle for English Premier League survival, while Bruno Fernandes made history in Manchester United’s 3-2 win over Nottingham Forest. Spurs can avoid dropping out of the English top flight for the first time in nearly 50 years with victory at Chelsea today, but a draw would also likely suffice thanks to their much superior goal-difference over West Ham. “Overall bad performance. Too many things [went wrong], I think we gifted them the goals,” West Ham head caoch Nuno Espirito Santo
MLB is experiencing an epidemic of guys being dudes. At ballparks all across the US, groups consisting of mostly young men are joining in on the “Tarps Off” trend that is loud, goofy, infectious and new to the baseball world. Joining in on the fun is simple: Go to the section where the party is happening, take off your shirt and start twirling it above your head. Soccer-like chants or singing usually follow — injecting a jolt of energy for a sport that is occasionally chided for its lack of energy inside the stadium. After getting its start in St Louis, Missouri, on
RSS