English birdies first playoff hole, wins at Kapalua
Harris English went more than seven years without winning on the PGA Tour, and he didn’t mind going one extra hole to win the Sentry Tournament of Champions on Sunday in Kapalua, Hawaii.
English missed a 10-foot eagle putt in regulation on the par-5 18th hole at Kapalua Resort for a 4-under 69 to force a playoff with Joaquin Niemann, and he ended it on the 18th with a 6-foot birdie.
Niemann, who closed with a 64, pulled his approach into the greenside rough, chipped short and missed his birdie putt.
English capped off his remarkable turnaround at a tournament he ordinarily wouldn’t be allowed to play. The Tournament of Champions is for winners only from the previous year, but the field was expanded to include anyone who reached the Tour Championship because of the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down the PGA Tour for three months.
English was mired in a slump that dropped him to No. 369 in the world. He did everything last year but win, and he took care of that in the first event of the new year.
Now the 31-year- old from Georgia is among the top 20 in the world, and guaranteed a return to Kapalua next year.
Niemann had eight birdies through 14 holes and matched the low score of the tournament. His regret might be a 6-foot birdie putt he missed in regulation. All he could do was wait.
English won for the third time in his career, and his first title since the OHL Classic at Mayakoba at the end of 2013, his second victory of that year.
Justin Thomas shot 66 to finish a shot out of the playoff. Ryan Palmer had an early lead with an eagle on the fifth hole. His hopes came undone when he made double bogey at the par-3 11th. Dustin Johnson shot 69 and tied for 11th, ending his streak of seven consecutive top 10s. THOMAS APOLOGIZES AFTER SLUR CAUGHT ON BROADCAST >> Thomas apologized following Saturday’s third round of the Sentry Tournament for Champions in Hawaii after he was heard uttering a homophobic slur during the television broadcast.
A microphone picked up the slur, which Thomas directed at himself after missing a short par putt on No. 4.
He apologized in an interview with Golf Channel after his round.
“There’s just no excuse. I’m an adult. I’m a grown man,” said Thomas. “There’s absolutely no reason for me to say anything like that. It’s terrible. I’m extremely embarrassed. It’s not who I am. It’s not the kind of person that I am. But unfortunately I did it and I have to own up to it and I’m very apologetic.”
PGA CHAMPIONSHIP DROPS TRUMP NATIONAL IN 2022 >> The PGA of America cut ties to President Donald Trump when it voted to take the PGA Championship event away from his New Jersey golf course next year.
The PGA is at Kiawah Island in South Carolina in May this year and was held at San Francisco’s TPC Harding Park last year.
Baseball
LONGTIME BASEBALL MAN JOE AMALFITANO RETIRES >> Longtime baseball adviser, major league coach and former player Joe Amalfitano is calling it a career following 67 years in professional baseball.
The San Francisco Giants announced that Amalfitano is retiring just shy of his 87th birthday Jan. 23 after 30 years and six different stints with the club. Amalfitano had most recently been Giants special assistant of player development and spent 16 years in San Francisco’s baseball operations department.
He served as a senior adviser to baseball operations for the Dodgers from 2002- 04 after concluding his major league coaching career with Los Angeles as the late Tommy Lasorda’s third base coach from 1983-98.
Tennis
KENIN REACHES ABU DHABI QUARTERFINALS >> Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin of the United States came back from match point down to beat Yulia Putintseva and reach the quarterfinals of the Abu Dhabi Open.
Kenin posted 57 unforced errors to Putintseva’s 43 but still prevailed 3- 6, 7- 6 (5), 6- 4 over the 13th-seeded Putintseva.
Next up is a quarterfinal match with ninth- seeded Maria Sakkari, who beat former French Open and Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza 7-5, 6- 4.
Also, Elina Svitolina saved two match points in a final-set tiebreak to beat Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-2, 6-7 (5), 7- 6 (8) for a place in the quarterfinals.
Aryna Sabalenka recorded her 12th consecutive win in tour matches with a 6-2, 6- 4 win over Ons Jabeur.
Olympics
MAJORITY SURVEYED IN JAPAN WANT TOKYO GAMES CANCELED OR DELAYED >> About 80% of people in Japan say this year’s Tokyo Olympics should be canceled or delayed as worries mount about a record surge in coronavirus cases across the country, a Kyodo News poll showed on Sunday.
The survey found 35.3% want the Games to be canceled and 44.8% favored another delay. The world’s biggest multisports event, postponed last year due to the pandemic, is scheduled to be held from July 23Aug. 8 in the Japanese capital.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga declared a state of emergency for the greater Tokyo region on Thursday.