Griffin earns coveted spot in Masters with first tour victory
Lanto Griffin took the lead with a 35-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole and won the Houston Open in Humble, Texas on Sunday with a 6-foot par at the end that gave him a 3-under 69 and a one-shot victory that sends him to the Masters next year.
Griffin was locked into a battle on the back nine at the Golf Club of Houston with Mark Hubbard and Scott Harrington. None of the three had won on the PGA Tour. Hubbard lost the lead with a bogey on the par-5 16th, while Harrington’s big rally ended with a three-putt bogey on the 17th.
Griffin’s birdie on the 16th was his first since the eighth hole. On the 18th hole, he played it away from the water and into the right rough and hit his approach to 60 feet. His birdie putt ran 6 feet by the hole, and he dropped his putter and raised both arms when it dropped for the win.
He finished at 14-under 274 and earned a two-year exemption, along with trips to the Masters and PGA Championship.
KELLY TAKES CHAMPIONS >> Jerry Kelly closed with a 7-under 65 and won the SAS Championship in Cary, N.C., allowing him to close the gap in the Charles Schwab Cup as the PGA Tour Champions heads into its postseason.
Kelly ran off five straight birdies on the front nine at Prestonwood Country Club to take control. Two birdies late in the final round gave him some breathing room, and he closed with a bogey for a one-shot win over David McKenzie, who shot 63.
Woody Austin and Doug Barron, who shared the lead going into the final round, each shot 71 and tied for third with David Toms (66). WEISBERGER WINS ITALIAN >> Bernd Wiesberger closed with a 6-under 65 to win the Italian Open and move atop the European Tour’s Race to Dubai standings..
Wiesberger rallied from three shots behind Matt Fitzpatrick at Olgiata Golf Club in Rome. Fitzpatrick had chances to force a playoff but narrowly missed an eagle putt on the 17th and a birdie putt on the 18th hole. He shot a 69.
Wiesberger, who finished at 16-under 268, won for the third time this year on the European Tour.
Motorsports
CUP RACE HALTED >> William Byron and his fellow NASCAR Cup playoff contenders are getting an extra day of suspense at Talladega Superspeedway.
NASCAR postponed the final two race stages until today after rain forced a halt moments after Byron won the first stage Sunday. It’s the middle race of Round 2 in NASCAR’s playoffs ahead of an elimination race at Kansas, making stakes high when they resume.
Byron, who came in eighth in the standings, took the lead with three laps left in the first stage by passing Daniel Hemric. Three-time Talladega winner Joey Logano, Alex Bowman, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top five. They were followed after Stage 1 by Kyle Larson, the only driver to have already secured a spot in the round of eight.
Chase Elliott started on the pole. He and his Hendrick Motorsports had the top four starting spots, including playoff contenders Byron and Bowman, along with Jimmie Johnson, who was seventh after the opening stage.
BOTTAS TRIUMPHS IN JAPAN >> Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas surged into the lead at the start and held on to win the typhoon-hit Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka for his third Formula One victory of the season and first since April.
Bottas, who started third on the grid, pulled ahead of Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc almost immediately and then used an effective twostop pit strategy to finish 11.376 seconds ahead of Vettel. Bottas’ teammate and championship leader Lewis Hamilton was third.
College football
LSU NOW SECOND >> LSU moved up to No. 2 in The Associated Press college football poll, giving the Southeastern Conference the top two teams in the country for the 29th time and putting the Tigers behind No. 1 Alabama less than a month before the rivals meet in Tuscaloosa.
The Tigers jumped from No. 5, past No. 3 Clemson and No. 4 Ohio State, after beating Florida in a matchup of unbeaten teams Saturday night. LSU received 12 firstplace votes while Alabama received 30 first-place votes and is No. 1 for the third consecutive week.
Clemson received 11 firstplace votes and Ohio State nine. Oklahoma was No. 5 and Wisconsin became the first new team to crack the top six after Georgia suffered the biggest upset of the season so far. The Bulldogs fell from No. 3 to No. 10 after losing at home to South Carolina in double overtime. HUSKIES RALLY FOR VICTORY >> Jacob Eason threw for 243 yards and two touchdowns, Salvon Ahmed ran for three touchdowns and visiting Washington (52, 2-2 Pac-12) rallied in the second half for a 51-27 win over Arizona (4-2, 2-1) late Saturday night.
Tennis
MEDVEDEV STAYS HOT >> Daniil Medvedev extended the form that made him the hottest player in men’s tennis when he captured the Shanghai Masters title with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Alexander Zverev.
The third-seeded Medvedev picked up his third title in six consecutive finals played since the tour returned to hard courts after Wimbledon in July. He also won the Masters 1000-level tournament in Cincinnati and the St. Petersburg trophy in that stretch.