KOKRAK WINS CJ CUP TO GET PGA TOUR TITLE IN 233RD TRY
NORTH LAS VEGAS, NEV. » Jason Kokrak was playing for the 233rd time in his 10th season on the PGA Tour without ever having won, so he didn’t need any reminders Sunday in the CJ Cup at Shadow Creek that anything would come easily.
He watched Xander Schauffele stuff a wedge to 5 feet for birdie and roll in a 45- foot birdie putt from the thick collar of the 13th green on the next hole to tie for the lead.
Kokrak never flinched.
Holding his nerve to the end and delivering all the key shots, Kokrak matched the low score of the week with an 8- under 64 to overcome a three- shot deficit at the start and win by two shots to finally be able to call himself a PGA Tour winner.
“To wait this long for my first win, it’s a pretty special thing,” Kokrak said. “Couldn’t be happier.”
The timing couldn’t have been 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, and he has played the course some two dozen times.
“It feels like home,” Kokrak said. “I’ve played this golf course enough that I should know it by now.”
Adding to the feeling was having outdueled Schauffele, who made him work for it.
Kokrak, a 35- year- old from Ohio, 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 that stretched his lead to two shots.
Schauffele answered with three straight birdies, the last one a 45footer that made it feel as though he was going to claim another PGA
Tour victory by coming from behind.
“I couldn’t be happier for him,” Schauffele said. “He finally started rolling in some putts and it kind of shows how dangerous he can be out here.”
Mickelson 2 for 2 on senior tour
RICHMOND, VA. » Phil Mickelson became the third player and second this year to win his first two starts on the PGA Tour Champions, slamming the door on Mike Weir 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 lefthander who had a 71. Mickelson was a stroke off the tournament record set last year by Miguel Angel Jimenez.
Mickelson joined Bruce Fleischer and Jim Furyk as the only players to win in their first two senior events. Fleischer accomplished the feat in 1999 and Furyk did it this year with victories at The Ally Challenge and Pure Insurance Championship.
Longtime Minnesota sports columnist dies at 100. MINNEAPOLIS » Minnesota sports columnist and radio personality Sid Hartman, an oldschool home team booster who once ran the NBA’s Minneapolis Lakers and achieved nearly as much celebrity as some of the athletes he covered, died Sunday. He was 100.
Hartman, whose first newspaper column was published in 1945, died surrounded by his family, Star Tribune sports editor Chris Carr said.
“It’s a sad day,” Carr told The Associated Press. “He is the Star Tribune in many ways, at least in the sports department.”
Steve Torrence beats father Billy in Top Fuel. ENNIS, TEXAS » Steve Torrence powered past father Billy Torrence on Sunday in the Top Final final on their home track in the AAA Texas NHRA Fall-Nationals.
Points leader Steve Torrence won for the second time in three years at Texas Motorplex, finishing at 3.716 seconds at 328.78 mph in the final.
Jack Beckman won in Funny Car, Matt Hartford in Pro Stock and Jerry Savoie in Pro Stock Motorcycle in the ninth of 11 events in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season.