Familiarity with course a windfall for Kokrak
NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. — In his 10th season, in his 233rd tournament, Jason Kokrak can finally call himself a PGA Tour winner.
Kokrak earned every bit of it Sunday in the CJ Cup at Shadow Creek. He matched the best round of the tournament with an 8-under 6 4 to overcome a three-shot deficit at the start and win a duel on the back nine with Xander Schauffele.
“Couldn’t be happier,” said Kokrak.
The timing couldn’t be better. The CJ Cup moved from South Korea this year to Shadow Creek because of the covid-19 pandemic. Kokrak is an ambassador for MGM Resorts, which owns the prestigious Tom Fazio design.
“It feels like home,” Kokrak said. “I’ve played this golf course enough that I should know it by now.”
Kokrak began to pull away with four consecutive birdies on the front nine, and birdie putts from 20 feet and 18 feet to start the back nine stretched his lead to two shots.
Schauffele answered with three consecutive birdies, the last one a 45-footer by using his putter from the thick collar of the 13th green
to catch him. Then, it was a matter of who blinked first.
That turned out to be Schauffele on the par-5 16th, when he only managed to advance his shot from deep rough left of the fairway some 85 yards into more rough. Swinging with all his might, his third shot peeled off to the right into more rough well below the green, and he made his only bogey in his round of 66.
Kokrak also was in the left rough, hacked out to the right rough and put his third shot in the bunker. But he splashed it out to just inside 4 feet and made par for a one-shot lead, and Schauffele couldn’t catch up.
Kokrak, a 35-year-old from Ohio, all but clinched it when he drilled his drive into the fairway on the par-5 18th, leaving only a short iron to 25 feet. He two-putted for his final birdie of a round he won’t soon forget.
Russell Henley, who began the final round with a threeshot lead, never got anything going early and fell behind when he bogeyed the par-5 seventh and Kokrak was on his early run of birdies.
Henley’s hopes ended on the reachable par-4 11th when he drove over the green into thick rough and, facing a downhill chip, left it in the rough short of the green and made bogey on the second-easiest scoring hole at Shadow Creek. That put him four shots behind, and a late push of birdies was never going to be enough.
He closed with a 70 and tied for third with Tyrrell Hatton, who was coming off a victory last week in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. Hatton closed with a 65.
Kokrak played bogey-free on a course where trouble was never too far away. Justin Thomas, within five shots of the lead, had two consecutive bogeys on the front nine and three more in a four-hole stretch on the back nine for a 74. Rory McIlroy was at least headed for a good finish until he had a pair of bogeys and two double bogeys over the last five holes for a 74.
Making it even tougher on Kokrak and Schauffele was Jason Day, the third in their group, withdrew with a neck injury on the second hole. That meant a twosome amidst a course filled with threesomes, and a lot of waiting. They still played at the highest level, with Kokrak delivering all the key putts.
Kokrak earned a spot in the Masters next month from reaching the Tour Championship a year ago in August. Now he can plan on two trips to Augusta National, qualifying for the 2021 tournament by winning.
Former University of Arkansas golfer Andrew Landry ended the tournament at 3-over 291 and in a tie for 61st
place. Landry fired a 5-over 77 on Sunday.
CHAMPIONS Mickelson now 2 for 2
RICHMOND, Va. — Phil Mickelson became the third player and second this year to win his first two starts on the PGA Tour Champions, slamming the door on Mike Weir with a back-nine surge in the Dominion Energy Charity Classic.
Mickelson closed with a 7-under 65 to finish at 17-under 199, three strokes better than second-round leader Weir, the fellow 50-year-old left-hander who had a 71. Mickelson was a stroke off the tournament record set last year by Miguel Angel Jimenez.
The winner in late August at Ozarks National in Missouri in his first start on the 50-and-over tour, Mickelson joined Bruce Fleischer and Jim Furyk as the only players to win in their first two senior events. Fleischer accomplished the feat in 1999 and Furyk did it this year with victories at The Ally Challenge and Pure Insurance Championship.
Mickelson described his decision to play in Virginia as the start of his Masters preparations with a focus on accurate driving and competitive fitness, and it worked.
Mickelson, who got the lead when Weir three-putted the par-3 14th green, doubled his edge with a birdie on the next hole, then highlighted his distance advantage over the 2003 Masters champion by driving the green on the 274yard, par-4 15th. He two-putted from 30 feet to double his lead, then reached the par-5 16th in two and made birdie. Weir also made birdie to stay within two shots, but ran out of holes.
Mickelson’s chance to work on his competitive side came right away. He erased a three-shot deficit with birdies on three of the first six holes
while Weir made a string of pars, but it was on the back nine that he was really tested, and delighted with his response.
After going a shot behind on the 12th hole, he pulled even at No. 13 and kept pushing.
Mickelson, who hasn’t won on the PGA Tour since early 2019 at Pebble Beach, plans to return to the PGA Tour next week for the Zozo Championship in California. After a week off, he’ll play in the Houston Open as his final preparation for the Masters on Nov. 12-15.
Weir three-putted the par-5 18th, but still hung on to beat Paul Goydos (65) by a shot. Bernhard Langer (67) and Brandt Jobe (68) shared fifth, five behind Mickelson.
It was Weir’s third top-10 finish in eight starts on the tour.
Robert Karlsson, another rookie on the tour, closed with a 64 including an albatross 2 on the final hole. The ball bounced twice, then found the bottom of the cup.
John Daly (Dardanelle, Arkansas Razorbacks), Glen Day (Little Rock) and Ken Duke (Arkadelphia, Henderson State) all finished at 213.
EUROPEAN TOUR Otaegui wins by four
FIFE, Scotland — Adrian Otaegui of Spain won the Scottish Championship for his first stroke-play title on the European Tour, closing with a 9-under 63 for a fourstroke victory.
Otaegui’s previous two victories were match-play events — and one of them was in Scotland, too, at the Paul Lawrie Match Play in 2017. His other was at the Belgian Knockout the following year.
Otaegui had eight birdies in an 11-hole stretch. He finished at 23-under 265 at Fairmont St. Andrews.
Third-round leader Matt Wallace was second after a 71.