Scott wins at Riviera
Australian gets 14th PGA Tour victory, wins by two shots; Tiger finishes last
Manfred: No tolerance for beanballs in wake of Astros’ scam
NORTH PORT, Fla. — With baseball ablaze over the Houston Astros’ cheating scandal, commissioner Rob Manfred met with nearly half of the major leagues managers Sunday and told them to knock off any notion of get-even beanballs.
“I hope that I made it extremely clear to them that retaliation in-game by throwing at a batter intentionally will not be tolerated, whether it’s Houston or anybody else,” Manfred said. “It’s dangerous and it is not helpful to the current situation.”
Cody Bellinger, Kris Bryant, Trevor Bauer and Carlos Correa were among the All-Stars recently trading threats, accusations and barbs as spring training opened. The revelation of Houston’s signstealing scam, the punishment imposed by Major League Baseball and poorly received apologies by the Astros further enhanced anger across the sport, with players, club management and fans all joining in.
“I think that the back and forth that’s gone on is not healthy,” Manfred said.
Manfred had previously planned to attend a news conference at the Atlanta Braves’ new camp, along with managers and representatives of teams training in Florida to talk about the upcoming season. Instead of an uplifting look at the upcoming season, as this annual press session is, there was no doubt what was the No. 1 topic.
Manfred said he would personally talk to the managers of the teams that train in Arizona on Tuesday.
In further fallout from the Astros’ scheme, Manfred said the investigation into the Boston Red Sox could be completed within two weeks. He also said he planned to meet the players’ union to discuss new rules limiting in-game video access.
“I do expect that we will for 2020 have really serious restrictions on player and playing personnel access to video ingame,” Manfred said. “I think it’s really important for us to send a message to our fans that not only did we investigate and punish, but we altered our policies in a way that will help make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Manfred said MLB officials discussed the possibility of vacating the Astros’ 2017 World Series championship.
“First of all, it had never happened in baseball,” Manfred said. “I am a precedent guy. The 2017 World Series will always be looked at as different, whether not you put an asterisk or ask for the trophy back. Once you go down that road as for changing the result on the field, I just don’t know where you stop.”
Astros players were granted immunity for taking part in the investigation but Manfred said that “if I was in a world where I could have found the facts without granting immunity, I would have done that.”
LOS ANGELES — Adam Scott contemplated the safe shot to get him out of his mess on the 15th hole at Riviera, knowing it would probably cost him his twoshot lead but not yet the tournament.
On a Sunday filled with big blunders and untimely mistakes, Scott changed his mind.
“I thought, ‘Well, you can maybe win the tournament if you hit a great flop shot here.’ So I thought I might as well go for it,” Scott said after his two-shot victory in the Genesis Invitational, this one that counts in the record book.
The flop shot to 5 feet allowed him to escape with bogey. Two holes later, he ran in a 10-foot birdie putt for a two-shot cushion and carried that to a 1-under 70 and a win that felt overdue.
Scott won the Australian PGA two months ago and hadn’t played since then. Still, it had been nearly four years since his last PGA Tour victory. That changed at Riviera, his favorite course, on a final day so tough no one shot better than 68.
Scott made clutch putts for birdie, par and bogey. But it was that decision — and the shot — that stood out.
“I had a little bit of that kind of mindset, not just today but the whole week, of ‘what have I got to lose?’ ... Give myself a good chance to get back in the winner’s circle on the PGA Tour,” he said.
The victory comes 15 years after Scott won a playoff at Riviera that didn’t count as official because rain shortened the tournament to 36 holes. He earned every bit of this victory, his 14th on the PGA Tour and 29th worldwide.
So tense was Sunday that nearly a dozen players had a chance to win. Five players had a share of the lead at some point.
The list included Rory McIlroy, who never recovered from a triple bogey; Harold Varner III, who chunked his 3-wood off the 10th tee so badly that the shot traveled 129 yards and led to double bogey. Matt Kuchar went 15 holes with three bogeys and no birdies to fall behind.
“Honestly, I didn’t expect it to be as difficult as it was, but everyone was finding it tough out there,” McIlroy said after a 73 that left him in a tie for fifth, but still No. 1 in the world. “Adam held on well at the end.”
Tiger Woods had his problems, too, but he was never in contention.
Woods played a five-hole stretch late in his round at 5 over and shot 77 to finish last among the 68 players who made the cut. It was the first time Woods has finished last alone since the Memorial in 2015.
“Good news, I hit every ball forward, not backwards, a couple sideways,” Woods said.
The final round became wide open after the fifth hole when Scott and McIl