Cantlay, Schauffele hold on at Zurich
AVONDALE, La. – Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele held off Sam Burns and Billy Horschel by two strokes Sunday in a record-setting, wire-to-wire victory in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
Cantlay and Schauffele closed with an even-par-72 in the alternate-shot final round to finish at 29-under 259 at TPC Louisiana. They broke the tournament record of 27 under set by Kevin Kisner-Scott Brown and Jonas BlixtCameron Smith in 2017, the first year the tournament was played as a team event.
Cantlay and Schauffele opened with a record 59 in best-ball play Thursday, and began Sunday at 29 under after shattering the 54-hole record of 23 under.
Local favorite and LSU graduate Sam Burns and Billy Horschel pulled within one after birdieing the eighth, 10th and 11th holes. But Burns’ tee shot on the short par-4 16th found the water and a bogey on the par-3 17th left them three behind. They shot 68.
Doc Redman and Sam Ryder were third at 24 under after a 67.
Cantlay, the defending FedExCup champion and PGA Tour Player of the Year, won his seventh tour title and first since the Tour Championship in September. He was second last week in the RBC Heritage.
Schauffele won for the fifth time. He last won at the 2019 Sentry Tournament of Champions.
LPGA Tour
LOS ANGELES – Nasa Hataoka ran away with DIO Implant LA Open on Sunday at Wilshire Country Club to open the LPGA Tour’s two-week run in the Los Angeles area.
Four strokes ahead entering the round after Jin Young Ko’s late meltdown Saturday, Hataoka closed with a 4-under 67 for a five-stroke victory over Hannah Green.
Hataoka finished at 15-under 269, a stroke off the tournament record set last year by Brooke Henderson. The 23-yearold Japanese player won her sixth LPGA Tour title a week after missing the cut in the windy LOTTE Championship in Hawaii with rounds of 75 and 77.
The Palos Verdes Championship begins Thursday at Palos Verdes Estates.
After seven straight pars, Hataoka put the tournament away on the par-4 15th when she raced in a 35-foot eagle
putt to open a six-stroke lead. She played the first seven holes in 3 under with four birdies and a bogey.
Green finished with a 68. The Australian won both of her LPGA Tour titles in 2019.
PGA Tour Champions
IRVING, Texas – Scott Parel two-putted for birdie on the par-5 18th hole for a 6-under 65, and then won the inaugural ClubCorp Classic with a par on the same hole in a playoff for his second PGA Tour Champions title.
Parel won a three-man playoff at Las Colinas over Steven Alker and Gene Sauers, who both went into the hazard on the closing hole and failed to make par.
Sauers birdied his last two holes in regulation for a 63. In the playoff, his shot bounced back into the rocks. After a penalty drop, he chipped to 8 feet and his par putt to extend the layoff caught the edge of the cup and spun out.
Alker had reason to feel even worse. After a double bogey to start the final round, he ran off seven birdies over his next nine holes and reached 12 under through 10 to seize control.
But he never made another birdie, dropping a shot on the par-3 13th with a three-putt bogey.
On the final hole in regulation, Alker was just long and off the green and chipped down to 8 feet. Lee Janzen putted first from the same line and made birdie for a 67 to finish one shot out of the playoff.
Alker’s birdie missed. He shot 68 and joined the playoff at 11-under 202.
On the first extra hole, Alker had a long iron from a good lie in the rough but it came out heavy and into the water. He took a penalty drop and couldn’t get up and down.
“I’m glad to win a playoff – I’m 0-3 in these things,” Parel said. “I was fortunate both the guys didn’t hit the best second shots. I was just trying to get it over here and try to get up and down, which in the end turned out to be the right play.”
In the celebrity division, former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo was on the verge of winning the Stableford scoring until he hit into the hazard on the 18th and made bogey, while former tennis player Mardy Fish made birdie. They finished at 106 points, and Fish won the playoff when Romo again
went into the hazard and Fish made birdie.
European Tour
LA PINEDA, Spain – Spaniard Pablo Larrazábal shot 8-under 62 to win the ISPS Handa Championship for his seventh European tour title – and first on home soil. Larrazábal made nine birdies and a bogey at the Lakes Course to secure a one-shot victory over countryman Adrian Otaegui (66).
“What a day. But I knew that my golf was there,” the 38-year-old Larrazábal said. “I couldn’t make any putts the first three days but I told my girlfriend last night that she had to choose my clothing for the (winning) pictures. I knew that I had a low one in my bag and that’s what I did. Today I holed putts and that was key. I mean, to shoot 62 in windy conditions with the flags out there, it was good.”
Larrazábal finished with a 15-under 265 total. His first title of the year was at the MyGolfLife Open in South Africa.
Hennie Du Plessis of South Africa and Aaron Cockerill of Canada both shot 67s and tied for third, two shots behind Larrazábal.