San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
ICE CREAM HELPS WOLFF SCOOP LEAD
Matthew Wolff has been working on his mindset, trying to have a good time regardless of results to help him perform closer to his potential.
An ice cream truck outside the Detroit Golf Club seemed to help.
Wolff had a roller-coaster round that went well enough Saturday to give him a three-shot lead in the Rocket Mortgage Classic. He shot his second straight 8-under 64 to move into position for his second PGA Tour victory.
“I have to give credit to the ice cream truck that was circling the property,” said Wolff, who was 19under at 197 after three rounds. “I’m not joking, actually.”
Wolff made a 35-foot putt on the 138-yard No. 5 for birdie, his second of nine birdies.
“I heard the ice cream truck and I’m like, ‘I have a good feeling about this,’ ” Wolff recalled. “Just had that little like ice cream truck song in my head. I think that helped me just not think about the speed or the line or anything, just keep my head free.”
Ryan Armour and Bryson Dechambeau were tied for second after 67s.
Wolff made a 14-foot eagle putt at the 559-yard, par-5 14th to pull into a tie with Armour at 17 under, and added birdies on the par-3 15th and par-5 17th. He finished with the eagle, nine birdies, five pars and three bogeys.
If the 21-year-old Wolff can hold on today, it will be his first victory since the 3M Open last year in Minnesota.
“Just going to go out there, have fun and hopefully I hear the ice
cream truck a little bit,” he said.
Last year, he made a 26-foot putt from the fringe for eagle on the final hole for a one-stroke win at the 3M Open in his third tournament as a professional.
Wolff joined Tiger Woods and Ben Crenshaw as winners of a PGA Tour event and the individual NCAA title in the same year.
The former Oklahoma State star, though, has struggled enough this season that he was 108th in the world going into the week. He missed the cut at the previous two tournaments and was 54th at the PGA Tour’s first event after its restart.
Armour played well and was in a great mood on the front nine while making five birdies to reach 16 under, giving him a one-shot lead.
He chatted and laughed with some fans, watching the tournament from beyond a chain-link fence, near the seventh tee.
The former Ohio State player has his school’s logo adorned on the bag, and that caught the attention of some spectators perched on a platform a few minutes later.
“Go get ’em Buckeye,” one fan shouted from the backyard of a home.
Otherwise, it was often so quiet sans fans that the jingle from an ice cream truck in the neighborhood and a single-engine plane overhead broke through the eerie silence.
Golf is the second major sport in the U.S., behind motorsports, to resume a schedule shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Elsewhere
Will Zalatoris won the TPC Colorado Championship at Heron Lakes for his first Korn Ferry Tour victory.
Zalatoris closed with a 3-under 69 for a one-stroke victory over Chase Johnson. The 23-year-old former Wake Forest star earned $108,000 and jumped from fourth to first in the points race for 25 PGA Tour cards.
“It’s been probably four years since I’ve won a golf tournament,” Zalatoris said. “It still hasn’t sunk in. That’s the part that’s kind of crazy.“
Zalatoris finished at 15-under 273 for his fourth straight top-10 finish and sixth in nine starts this season. The 2014 U.S. Junior champion birdied the par-3 16th and parred the final two holes to hold off Johnson.
Notable
The Indian Open event on the European Tour was canceled because of the threat posed by the coronavirus pandemic.
The tournament was initially postponed from March to an unspecified time later in 2020, but has now been scrapped following consultation with the European Tour and Asian Tour.
The European Tour is due to restart this month with six straight events in Britain.