Rain helps end Axley’s drought
Eric Axley’s 44th birthday came with a gift he didn’t have to unwrap.
It was also a reward he put in plenty of work for, even if the Web.com Tour’s North Mississippi Open didn’t finish as scheduled. A short Sunday on the golf course was no problem for the Athens, Tenn., native, who had waited long enough for this moment.
Officials canceled the final round at the Country Club of Oxford when heavy rain made the course unplayable, awarding Axley his first professional win since the 2006 Valero Texas Open, his lone PGA Tour victory. Sunday’s win was the second on the Web.com Tour for the Knoxville resident, who won the Rex Hospital Open in 2005.
Officials moved up tee times Sunday and the entire field got started, but play was suspended late in the morning and the tournament called as official in mid-afternoon, according to a report on the tour’s website. With 54-hole scores intact, Axley’s 12-under-par 204 total was three strokes better than Kyoung-Hoon Lee, Sebastian Munoz and Willy Wilcox.
“We looked at the forecast and knew they had moved tee times up, and this isn’t our first rodeo, so we thought that there may be a chance that we didn’t play today,” Axley said Sunday, according to the report. “Our goal yesterday was to play like it was the final round, and we went out and played well, and it ends up it was the final round, so we got the win.”
Axley had rounds of 71, 65 and 68 to earn a prize of $99,000 and move up 38 spots to No. 7 on this season’s earnings list.
“You always want to play at the highest level and compete at the highest level,” he said. “You’ll have your ups and downs and your injuries and stuff like that, but if I didn’t play golf, I really don’t know what else I would do.”
Former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga golfer Jonathan Hodge tied for seventh at 7 under, recovering from an opening 76 with rounds of 68 and 65.
Breakthrough victory
SAN ANTONIO — Andrew Landry won the Valero Texas Open for his first PGA Tour victory, pulling away with early birdies in the final round before holding on with par saves.
The 30-year-old Texan, who had been busy at home in Austin with the recent birth of the family’s first child, parred the final seven holes for a 4-under 68 and a two-stroke victory over Trey Mullinax and Sean O’Hair.
“It was obviously a tough week this week,” Landry said. “Going into the last few weeks with the childbirth and just really getting back out.”
Landry played at the University of Arkansas after starring at Port Neches-Groves High School east of Houston. Many family members were at TPC San Antonio on Sunday.
“Everybody was out,” Landry said. “It was pretty special to be able to snag a victory with everybody being here to share it.”
Landry, who finished at 17-under 271 overall, earned $1,116,000 and a spot in the Masters next year.
Mullinax closed with a 69 a day after breaking the AT&T Oaks Course record with a 62. O’Hair shot a 66.
Tied for the third-round lead with Zach Johnson, Landry birdied the first three holes and added two more on Nos. 6 and 10. He bogeyed the par-4 11th before the closing par run.
Landry won in his 32nd PGA Tour start. He earned his tour card last year due to his performance on the Web.com Tour, and he lost a playoff to Jon Rahm at the CareerBuilder Challenge in January.
Jimmy Walker (67) was fourth at 14 under, with Johnson (72) another stroke back in fifth as he remained winless since the 2015 British Open.
Baylor School graduate Keith Mitchell (70) tied for 26th at 4 under, and fellow former Red Raider Harris English (72) shared 36th at 2 under.
Sister act in L.A.
LOS ANGELES — Moriya Jutanugarn won the HUGEL-JTBC L.A. Open by two shots for her first LPGA Tour victory, joining sister Ariya as the second siblings to win on the tour, joining Annika and Charlotta Sorenstam.
Moriya, a 23-year-old from Thailand, closed with a 3-under 68 for a 12-under 272 total at Wilshire Country Club. The tour’s rookie of the year in 2013, she won in her 156th start after three career runner-up finishes, including at the Honda LPGA Thailand in February. She notched 21 top-10 finishes before winning.
Hall of Famer Inbee Park shot a 68 and tied for second with Jin Young Ko (70).
Ariya, 22 and a seven-time winner on tour, tied for 24th after closing with a 70.
Levy doesn’t break
RABAT, Morocco — Alexander Levy closed with a 2-under 70 and finished a shot ahead of 54-hole leader Alvaro Quiros to win the Trophee Hassan II.
One off the lead after three rounds, Levy made two of his four birdies Sunday in his first five holes, then stayed ahead at the Royal Golf Dar Es Salam’s Red Course. It was the 27-yearold Frenchman’s fifth European Tour victory, and this week he’ll try to win his second straight China Open championship.
Levy finished at 8-under 280 overall and moved up to ninth in the season points standings.
Quiros (72) birdied his last two holes to make sure of second place outright — he would have had to made an eagle on No. 18 to force a playoff — and four players tied for third: Alexander Bjork (70), Mikko Ilonen (72), Joakim Lagergren (70) and Andrea Pavan (66).
Playoff winners
RIDGEDALE, Mo. — Kirk Triplett holed out from a bunker for birdie on the first playoff hole in the Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf to lift himself and partner Paul Broadhurst past Bernhard Langer and Tom Lehman.
Broadhurst and Triplett closed with a 6-under 48 on the Top of the Rock par-3 course at Buffalo Ridge to match Langer and Lehman at 24 under overall. Langer and Lehman had a 47, playing the front nine in alternate shot and the back nine in better ball.
Triplett, 56, won his sixth PGA Tour Champions title. It’s the third for Broadhurst, 52.
Spanish stars Miguel Angel Jimenez and Jose Maria Olazabal shot a 48 to tie for third with Carlos Franco and Vijay Singh (50), who won the tourney in 2017 and led after Saturday’s third round.