Landry regroups to win The American Express
He loses six-stroke lead on back nine, but does enough to walk away with win
LA QUINTA, Calif. — Andrew Landry was reeling after blowing a six-stroke lead on the back nine Sunday in The American Express.
“I don’t want to be a part of something like that ever again,” the 32-year-old Texan said.
He regrouped — telling caddie Terry Walker, “Let’s go get this job done, like, quit messing around” — to win his second PGA Tour title with a shot to spare.
Landry broke a tie with Abraham Ancer with a 7-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole, the jagged rockringed, island-green par 3 called Alcatraz.
“That was probably the shot of the tournament for me,” Landry said. “Just to be able to go over there and, to that right hole location, and just hold one up and hit a good distance and have a 7-, 8-footer to look at. … Thankfully, it went in and kind of made 18 a little bit easier.”
He closed with a 6-foot birdie putt on the par-4 18th for a 5-under 67 and a two-stroke victory, winning two years after losing a playoff to Jon Rahm at PGA West.
The former University of Arkansas player won after missing seven of eight cuts to start the season.
“That’s why you just got to keep grinding it out,” said Landry, also the 2018 Texas Open winner. “We all search for these weeks, and the majority of players out here are going to have them, four, five, six times a year and top-10 players are going to have them a little bit more often.”
Trying to become the third Mexican winner in PGA Tour history and first since 1978, Ancer matched the Stadium Course record with a 63.
“All week, really, I hit the ball great off the tee and iron shots, and in the first three rounds, I feel like I didn’t score as low as I should have for how good I hit the ball,” Ancer said. “But stayed patient and today the putts started to fall in.”
EUROPEAN TOUR: In Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Lee Westwood secured his 25th European Tour win by closing with a 5-under 67 for a two-shot victory Sunday in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
The 46-year-old Westwood now has won in each of the last four decades. Eleven players in the field at Abu Dhabi were not even born when he won his first title in 1996 at the Scandinavian Masters.
Victor Perez (63), Tommy Fleetwood (63) and Matt Fitzpatrick (67) tied for second.
Brooks Koepka, the world’s No. 1 player, who returned to competition for the first time since October because of a knee injury, shot 69 and tied for 34th.
Westwood won for the first time since the Nedbank Challenge in South Africa toward the end of 2018.
LPGA TOUR: In Lake Buena Vista, Fla., the final round of the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions featured a little bit of everything Sunday, except for a winner. That will have to wait until Monday.
Nasa Hataoka and Gaby Lopez matched par five times in a playoff at the 197-yard 18th hole until it was too dark to continue. They will return Monday morning at Four Seasons Golf and Sports Club to see who gets the trophy.
LPGA Hall of Famer Inbee Park also was in the playoff, but was eliminated on the third extra hole when her tee shot with a fairway metal caromed off rocks left of the par-3 18th and bounded into surrounding water.
ASIAN TOUR: In Singapore, Matt Kuchar closed with a 1-under 70 for a three-shot victory over Justin Rose on Sunday in the Singapore Open.
Kuchar seized control with a 62 in the third round. His only blemish in the final round was a triple bogey on the par-5 seventh hole. He didn’t drop a shot the rest of the way.
The American now has worldwide victories in each of the last three years.
LATIN AMERICAN AMATEUR: In Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Argentine teenager Abel Gallegos rallied from a two-shot deficit with a 4-under 67 at Mayakoba and won the Latin American Amateur Championship on Sunday to earn trips to the Masters and British Open.
Gallegos, a 17-year-old from a small town outside Buenos Aires, finished with a birdie at El Camaleon Golf Club to win by four shots over Aaron Terrazas of Mexico, who also shot 67.
Jose Vega, the 26-year-old regional sales director for Trackman, started with a two-shot lead but made only two birdies and closed with a 74 to finish alone in third.
Gallegos finished at 4-under 280, the only player in the field under par.
The victory gives Gallegos a spot in the Masters in April and in the British Open at Royal St. George’s in July.