Kokrak gets PGA Tour title in 233rd try
NORTHLASVEGAS, 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 64 to overcome a three-shot deficit at the start and win aduel on thebackninewith Xander Schauffele.
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.
Kokrak began to pull away with four straight 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 answeredwith three straight birdies, the last one a 45-footer by using hisputter fromthethickcollar of the 13th green to catch him. Then, it was a matter ofwho 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 hemade 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. PGATOURCHAMPIONS » Phil Mickelsonbecame the third player and second this year to win his first two starts on the PGA Tour Champions, slamming the door on MikeWeir 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..
Tennis
ZVEREV BEATS AUGER-ALIASSIME
IN COLOGNE TO END TITLE WAIT » Alexander Zverev ended his 17-month wait for a title by drawing
onthe pain of hisU.S. Open final defeat to beat Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-3, 6-3 and win the Cologne Indoors.
Zverev has had a breakthroughyear inGrandSlam tournaments with his first semifinal at the Australian Open in January and first final at the U.S. Open last month, when he lost to Dominic Thiem.
RUBLEV WINS ST. PETERSBURGTITLE FOR4THOFSEASON » Andrey Rublev joined Novak Djokovic as the only men to win four tour singles titles in the pandemicshortened2020seasonashe beat Borna Coric 7-6 (5), 6-4 in the final of the St. Petersburg Open.
Rublev came back from 5-2 down to win the firstset tiebreakwithafive-point streak after the set went with serve. In the second set he broke Coric’s serve at 2-2 before holding in his next three service games to complete the win. Rublev didn’t face a single break point. DJERE BEATS CECCHINATO
TO WIN SARDEGNA OPEN » Laslo Djere of Serbia beat Italianwild cardMarco Cecchinato to win the Sardegna Open.
Djere won 7- 6 (3), 7- 5, sealing the finalwith a deep backhand return.
It was the 74th-ranked Djere’s second title. Both have come on clay and 11 of Djere’s 13 tour-level victories this year have been on that surface.
Soccer
TOTTENHAM 3, WEST HAM
3» Tottenham was transformed by Gareth Bale’s homecoming, just not in theway that JoseMourinho had imagined.
Cruising 3- 0 when Bale came off the bench in the 72nd minute against West Ham, Tottenham incredibly collapsed in a game it had been in control of to draw 3- 3 in the Premier League.
SHEFFIELD UNITED 1, FULHAM 1 » Sheffield United and Fulham both collected their first point of the season in the Premier League after drawing 1-1 in amatchfeaturing a penalty for each team.
BRIGHTON 1, CRYSTAL PALACE 1 » Brighton scored a deflected 90th-minute equalizer before having a man sent off in its 1-1 draw at local rival Crystal Palace in the Premier League. ASTON VILLA 1, LEICESTER 0» Aston Villa claimed a fourth straight win to open the Premier League season as Ross Barkley scored in stoppage time to secure a 1- 0 victory over Leicester.