Steele wins Safeway Open again
NAPA, Calif. — Brendan Steele is getting accustomed to fast starts, and he likes it.
Steele won the PGA Tour’s season-opening Safeway Open for the second straight year, closing with a 3-under-par 69 in windy conditions Sunday for a two-stroke victory over Tony Finau.
“I’m getting pretty spoiled winning the first event of the year twice,” said Steele, the 34-year-old from the Southern California mountain town of Idyllwild. “This place is so great to me. I feel so comfortable here, and it’s been a great run.”
Phil Mickelson and Chesson Hadley finished three shots behind.
Steele finished at 14-under 273 for his third PGA Tour title.
Two strokes behind surprising leader Tyler Duncan entering the day at Silverado Resort and Spa, Steele birdied the par-5 16th and 18th holes on the North Course, holing a three-footer on the latter.
“The greens were firming up in the afternoon,” Steele said. “I knew the weather was going to be windy, and it seems Sunday is always the hardest day on the PGA Tour for whatever reason. That was about as hard as it can play out there.”
Finau, whose lone PGA Tour victory came in the 2016 Puerto Rico Open, moved into a tie for the lead with Steele at 14 under with a birdie on the par-4 13th. But he made double bogey on the par-4 14th. After pars on 16 and 17, Finau had a 40-foot eagle putt on the 18th and settled for birdie and a 69.
Mickelson, who began the round four shots off the lead, birdied the 16th from 10 feet to move within one shot of Steele. But Mickelson bogeyed the 17th before a birdie on the 18th for a 70.
“Unfortunately, on the front nine I made a couple of bogeys and made the turn at 1 over,” said Mickelson, who is winless since the 2013 British Open. “But on the back nine, I played some good solid golf and made a late move.”
It was the 47-year-old Mickelson’s 27th third-place finish in 27 PGA Tour seasons to along with 42 career wins and 34 runner-up finishes.
Hadley finished with a 73. Duncan, a PGA Tour rookie who began the round with a one-stroke lead over Hadley, had five bogeys on the front nine and finished with a 75 to tie for fifth with Graham DeLaet (72) at 11 under.
Chattanooga’s Stephan Jaeger (69), who played at Baylor School and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, tied for 30th at 5 under in his first tournament since earning his PGA Tour card. Luke List (71), another former Red Raider, tied for 37th at 4 under.
Hatton repeats
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Tyrrell Hatton repeated as the winner at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, where the final round at St. Andrews included Ross Fisher shooting a courserecord 61 at the home of golf.
On a calm day on the storied Old Course, even a bogey-free round by Fisher that featured 11 birdies could not reel in overnight leader Hatton, who shot a 6-under 66 for a threestroke victory. Fisher was the runner-up for the second straight year.
Hatton became the first repeat winner in the 17-year history of the event, which stages its first three rounds at three famed Scottish links — the Old Course, Kingsbarns and Carnoustie. His aggregate score of 24-under 264 was a stroke better than in 2016 and set a tournament record.
Fisher had a putt for eagle from the Valley of Sin on No. 18, which would have sealed the first round of 59 in the history of the European Tour. It fell two feet short and he missed the birdie putt back, though he still broke the course record — held jointly by six players — by a stroke.
Fisher birdied four holes in a row from No. 2, then Nos. 7, 8 and 9 for a front nine of 29. A burst of four straight birdies starting on No. 12 then helped Fisher reduce Hatton’s lead to three strokes, down from a margin of six at the turn.
Victor Dubuisson was 10 under after 15 holes and also on course to break the course record, but that was before a bogey at No. 16 slowed him. Dubuisson finished with a 63 and was third, seven shots behind Hatton.
Rory McIlroy shot a 72 to finish tied for 63rd at 4 under, meaning he ended a season without a victory for only the second time in his professional career.
Meaningful victory
SAINT-JEAN-DE-LUZ, France — Cristie Kerr completed a wireto-wire victory in the Lacoste Ladies Open de France for her first Ladies European Tour title.
The 39-year-old American closed with a 1-under 69 at Golf de Chantaco for a four-stroke victory over China’s Xi Yu Lin, who shot a 64. Kerr opened with rounds of 62, 64 and 69 to take a nine-stroke lead into the final round. She finished at 17-under 263.
Kerr donated $5,000 to a charity called ARTIC in memory of Cassandra Kirkland, the Ladies European Tour player who died from cancer in April. She also remembered a friend in the United States who died of cancer this past Tuesday.
“I’ve been having an angel on my shoulder all week,” the 19-time LPGA Tour winner said. “I was on a mission, and I got it done for them.”