Sports shorts Mickelson breaks drought with win

Phil Mickelson ended the longest drought of his career with a playoff victory Sunday over Justin Thomas in the Mexico Championship, capping off a final round of lustrous cheers in thin air that included Thomas holing a wedge for eagle on the final hole of regulation.

Mickelson, who closed with a 5-under 66, won for the first time since the 2013 British Open at Muirfield, a stretch of 101 tournaments worldwide.

“I can’t put into words how much this means to me,” Mickelson said. “I knew it was going to be soon — I’ve been playing too well for it not to be. But you just never know until it happens.”

Thomas was coming off a playoff victory at the Honda Classic last week, and he delivered the biggest moment at Chapultepec Golf Club. Tied for the lead, his shot to the 18th from 119 yards landed in front of the pin and spun back into the hole for an eagle and a 64.

Mickelson, who turns 48 in June, responded with a two-putt birdie on the par-5 15th and a 20-foot birdie putt on the 16th to tie Thomas.

Tyrrell Hatton, playing in the final group with Mickelson, was stride for stride.

He capped off a 3-33-3 stretch on the back nine with an eagle at the 15th.

But on the final hole, Hatton missed the green to the right, chipped 10 feet by and missed the par putt for a 67 to fall out of a playoff.

In the playoff, Thomas went long on the par-3 17th hole and chipped to just inside 10 feet. Mickelson’s 18-foot birdie putt for the victory swirled around the cup. Zac Dalpe, as a young hockey player growing up in Paris, Ontario, Canada, went to his father for advice on how to improve his game.

“I grew up in a household where your dad wanted you to shoot the puck,” the Monsters’ 28-year-old center said with a smile on March 4 outside the home team’s locker room in Quicken Loans Arena.

Fifteen minutes earlier, Dalpe’s one-timer from between the circles at 2:17 of overtime over the left pad of Tucson goalie Adin Hill gave the Monsters a thrilling 3-2 victory over the Roadrunners and sent 11,538 fans home happy.

The goal was the second of the game for Dalpe and the second time in 21 days he delivered the game winner in overtime.

He needed only 32 seconds of overtime to beat Manitoba goalie Jamie Phillips high on the glove side to win, 3-2, on Feb. 11.

After his blast on March 4 avenged a 5-1 loss to Tucson two nights earlier, Dalpe said virtually the same things he said 21 days before — he got lucky.

— Jeff Schudel