Afternoon is Lefty’s, but season is Langer’s
Phil Mickelson birdied three of the final holes Sunday to win the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship, and Bernhard Langer earned his sixth PGA Tour Champions season points title.
Mickelson shot a 6-underpar 65 at Phoenix Country Club, getting up-and-down from short of the par-5 18th for birdie to reach 19-under. He joined Jack Nicklaus as the only player to win four of his first six PGA Tour Champions starts.
Langer, dealing with back pain, struggled getting putts to fall as he labored through a 69. The 64-year-old German finished at 12-under and had to wait for Jim Furyk to see if he would win the Schwab Cup for the fifth time in seven years.
Furyk needed to win or tie for third and have Langer end up worse than eighth to win his first PGA Tour Champions series title. Furyk shot 71 to tie for fifth at 16-under.
“I’m just overwhelmed, you know, at 64 to win this thing six times,” Langer said. “It will probably be my last one, I’m almost sure of that, but it’s very, very special.”
LPGA: An epic duel between Nelly Korda and Lexi Thompson turned into a stunning meltdown by both of them. Korda then won a four-way playoff in the Pelican Women’s Championship in Belleair, Fla.
Korda fell out of the lead on the 17th hole at Pelican Golf Club by chopping her way to a triple-bogey to fall two shots behind. She answered with an 18-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a 1-under 69 and got into a playoff when Thompson made a second straight bogey for 69.
They were joined at 17-under 263 by Sei Young Kim (67) and Lydia Ko (66). Korda ended it quickly with her second birdie on the 18th hole.
PGA: Jason Kokrak made four straight birdies on the back nine for a 5-under 65 and a two-shot victory. Two shots behind with six holes to play, Kokrak delivered to pull away from a fading Scottie Scheffler and Martin Trainer and win for the third
time in the last 13 months.
European: Dane Joachim B. Hansen had a 4-under 68 to hold off co-overnight leader Francesco Laporta and a soaring Bernd Wiesberger by one stroke to win the Dubai Championship.
⏩ Jon Rahm pulled out of the DP World Tour Championship, despite having a chance to win the Race to Dubai for the second time in three years. Rahm, who won the money list title in 2019, won’t contest the European Tour’s season-ending event.
S.F. City: Amol Mahal needed two extra holes to win the men’s title and USF alum Kesaree Rojanapeansatith won 2 up for the women’s crown in the 105th San Francisco City Championships at Harding Park.
Mahal, an Aragon-San Mateo alum, beat Santa Clara’s Justin Polk with a birdie on the 38th hole. Rojanapeansatith birdied 16 and 17 to defeat Kylee Choi, a 16-year-old from Murietta.