Day grabs second triumph of season, wins Wells Fargo
Jason Day fought through some wayward tee shots and his own self-doubt to shoot a 2-under 69 Sunday and win the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, N.C., by two strokes over Aaron Wise and Nick Watney, his second victory of the season.
After squandering a threeshot lead on the back nine, Day’s tee shot on the difficult 230-yard par-3 17th hole crashed into the pin and settled less than 3 feet away. He made the putt to take a two-shot lead, becoming the only player to birdie the hole in the final round.
Day finished at 12-under 272.
“One of the best wins I have ever had,” said Day, who never felt on top of his game Sunday. He missed more than half the fairways — including an ugly hook into the water on the par-4 14th — hit just eight greens in regulation and made four bogeys on the day. But he toughed it out on the final three holes at Quail Hollow, playing them in 2 under.
“You play sit there and play mental games with yourself, subconsciously saying, ‘You can’t do this. You’re going to fail,’” Day said. “I just kept on saying to myself, ‘Forget about it and keep pushing.’”
Day fell back into a tie with Wise after back-toback bogeys on 13 and 14, but regained the lead by draining a 10-foot birdie putt on the par-4 16th. That set up the shot of the tournament on the 17th, a hole with water short, left and long of the green that gave players fits all day because the putting surface was so firm that it was tough to stop the ball. Day caught his break when the ball bounced four times and hit the flagstick, drawing a huge roar from the crowd.
Day then hit an iron off the 18th tee, knowing he had a two-shot lead. He got up-and-down from the rough right of the green to finish with a par.
It was Day’s 12th career win on the PGA Tour. The former world No. 1 also won the Farmers Insurance Open earlier this year after a winless 2017.
The 21-year-old Wise had the best finish of his career. He was alone in second before Watney drained a 59-foot putt on the 18th. Day pumped his fist and cheered on his playing partner before he rolled in the winning putt.
If Day was expecting a challenge from some of the other high-profile players in the field, it never came. Phil Mickelson opened with two bogeys, failing to capitalize on the momentum from his third-round 64. Mickelson started firing at flags and made six birdies, but finished five shots back after a 69.
Champions: Bernhard Langer won his first Champions event of the year, saving par on the final hole for a 2-under 70 and a one-shot victory over Paul Goydos, Jeff Maggert and Bart Bryan in the Insperity Invitational at The Woodlands, Texas.
LPGA: Nicole Broch Larsen was penalized one shot for causing her ball to move while at rest during the second and final round of the weather-abbreviated LPGA Texas Classic on Saturday, causing her to fall into a five-way tie for the lead. She played 32 holes Saturday in 6 under. She was tied with Sung Hyun Park, Jenny Shin, Aditi Ashok and Gaby Lopez.
David Bote went 5 for 5 with a home run and Duane Underwood Jr. pitched seven shutout innings Sunday afternoon to carry the Iowa Cubs to a 4-1 victory over the Round Rock Express at Dell Diamond.
It was the second win in a row for the Cubs (7-21) in the Pacific Coast League series and the second straight big game for Bote, who homered, singled, drove in two runs and scored two in a 7-3 win Saturday night. The Express (11-20) won the series opener 4-3 Friday night.
Underwood (1-3) struck out seven, walked two and allowed only one hit.
The game was scoreless until the top of the fifth, when Iowa’s Ryan Court and Chesny Young had consecutive singles and Mike Freeman delivered an RBI double. Young was thrown out at the plate, but singles by Bote, Efren Navarro and Mark Zagunis brought in two more runs and knocked Express starting pitcher Yovani Gallardo (0-1) out of the game.
The Cubs got their final run when Bote homered in the seventh inning.
Andy Ibanez hit his first homer of the year in the eighth to give Round Rock its only run.
The Express bullpen was sharp as Deolis Guerra, Matt Bush and Tayler Scott combined to allow one run on four hits with six strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings.
In Saturday’s game, Jacob Hannemann went 2 for 3 with a double, a run scored and an RBI for Iowa.
Freeman hit a two-run single and then scored on a two-run home run by Bote in the third inning.
Round Rock cut into the deficit with three runs in the fifth. Christian Lopes started the rally with a leadoff triple, and Scott Heineman followed with an RBI single. Willie Calhoun singled, and Destin Hood laced a twoout double down the leftfield line, driving in a pair of runs to cut the gap to 4-3.
Hood finished 2 for 4, and Calhoun had a double and two singles for the Express.
The Cubs tacked on three runs in the eighth. Bote walked and scored on a double by Navarro. Four straight walks by two Round Rock relievers brought in the other two runs.
Rob Zastryzny (2-0) got the win with 12/3 innings of scoreless, one-hit relief. Express starter David Ledbetter (0-4) took the loss.
The teams finish the fourgame series Monday night at Dell Diamond, with twotime Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum expected to pitch an inning for Round Rock while on a rehab assignment for the Texas Rangers. Austin Bibens-Dirkx (1-3, 4.10 ERA) is scheduled to start for the Express against Iowa’s Jen-Ho Tseng (0-4, 8.04).