Round 4 – Patton Kizzire claims first PGA Tour title

November 13, 2017

American Patton Kizzire battled through numerous weather delays to capture his first PGA Tour title Sunday by winning the OHL Classic on a 36-hole final day.

Kizzire fired a four-under 67 in the final round at the Playa del Carmen course to edge Rickie Fowler by one stroke with a 19-under 265, capping a tournament that was delayed for over seven hours because of thunderstorms.

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The 31-year-old Kizzire won his first tournament in 63 US Tour appearances by holding a share of the lead after each round.

“I was glad to get it done,” Kizzire said. “Rickie made me work hard.”

He shot a 66 in the third round early Sunday morning then returned in the afternoon to close it out with a 67.

Fowler also fired a 67 and finished the tournament at 18-under. He shot a 65 in the opening round and posted 67s in each of the final three rounds.

Fowler set the stage for a dramatic final hole finish by making long birdie putts on Nos. 16 and 17.

On No. 18, Fowler’s birdie attempt was short while Kizzire’s approach shot landed near the hole. Kizzire tapped in the winning putt to seal the victory.

By winning the event, Kizzire clinched a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour along with spots in the field at the Tournament of Champions at Kapalua and PGA Championship.

South Korea’s Kim Si Woo finished with a 65 to claim third, four shots adrift of Kizzire. He was foiled by a double bogey on 14.

Charles Howell (66) and Martin Piller (65) finished five strokes behind.

Round 3 – Three top leaderboard

November 12, 2017

Rickie Fowler woke up at 5 a.m. Saturday and played three holes in the OHL Classic at Mayakoba. It was enough to get him a three-way share of the 36-hole lead going into a marathon finish in Mexico.

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Fowler and Patrick Rodgers had to wait out a five-hour rain delay just to resume their second round Saturday. Fowler saved par from a bunker on the 18th hole for a 4-under 67. Rodgers finally make his first bogey of the tournament on his 17th hole had to settle for a 65.

They shared the lead at 10-under 132 along with Patton Kizzire, who hasn’t hit a shot since his 70 on Friday.

The last three groups didn’t have enough light at El Camaleon Golf Club to even start the third round, leaving them a 36-hole finish on Sunday. But that’s only if the weather at this rain-plagued event allows. More thunderstorms, with heavy downpours, were in the forecast for the next two days.

”We deal with weather every once in a while on the PGA Tour, around the world, really,” said Fowler, at No. 10 the highest-ranked player at Mayakoba. ”You kind of just learn to play when you get to play, relax when you get to relax. Rest when you can, tee it up when you can.”

Fowler had three tough finishing holes Saturday morning, and they were even more challenging after another storm moved through. There was mud on the golf balls, and it didn’t help when Fowler twice wound up in bunkers. Both shots came out a little hot, but we managed to escape with pars.

Rodgers finally dropped a shot when he missed the green on the par-3 eighth and failed to get up-and-down. But he saved par from right of the ninth green to at least keep in a share of the lead going into the final day. With the forecast, there was no guarantee of getting in 72 holes.

Players will be allowed to lift, clean and place their golf balls through the green for Sunday.

John Oda, playing the PGA Tour for the first time as a pro, shot a 65 and was one shot behind along with 31-year-old rookie Brandon Harkins and Brian Gay, neither of whom hit a shot Saturday because they were already done with their second rounds.

Charles Howell III already was 4 under through six holes of the third round when darkness halted play. Howell was at 8-under par.

Seventy-nine players made the cut at 1-under 141, but there will not be a 54-hole cut because the groups will stay the same over the final two rounds. Patrick Reed bogeyed three of his last four holes to miss the cut by one.

Fowler hasn’t played since Oct. 1 at the Presidents Cup except for a few casual rounds. He is playing at Mayakoba for the first time under the tour’s ”strength of field” policy that requires players to go to a tournament they haven’t been to in the last four years.

So far, he has no regrets, and not much rust.

”I’m very happy, coming from basically five weeks of very little golf played,” Fowler said. ”There were only two rounds last week when I was playing at home that were consecutive. All the other ones were spread out. It was never far off, so I was looking forward to getting down here. Hard not to enjoy yourself when you’re at a place like this where you can go hang at the beach and really throw your feet up and relax.”

Rodgers is trying not to press.

He won the Jack Nicklaus Award as the nation’s top college golfer when he was at Stanford, and it has been frustrating to see friends from his high school class of 2011 already have PGA Tour titles – in the case of Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, plenty of them.

Rodgers and Thomas once were roommates in south Florida when they turned pro.

”To be honest, at times it’s been really hard because I feel like I have the game that everyone else has and I feel like I work as hard as everyone else does, but everyone has a different process and I have to be patient with that,” Rodgers said. ”But I’ve always felt that I have the game to win a lot out here and I’m looking forward to a good chance this weekend.”

Round 2 – Patrick Rodgers leads weather hit day

November 11, 2017

Patrick Rodgers kept making birdies until his name was atop the leaderboard and it was too dark to play any longer Friday.

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Rodgers, a former Jack Nicklaus Award winner as the top player in college, ran off four straight birdies on the back nine and reached 11-under par until the storm-delayed OHL Classic at Mayakoba was suspended by darkness.

Rodgers hit his tee shot on the par-5 seventh hole, one of the three holes he will have to complete Saturday morning.

Rickie Fowler, playing for the first time since the Presidents Cup, was at 10 under with three holes left. The second round was halted for 2 hours, 15 minutes.

Patton Kizzire, the 18-hole leader after a 62, overcame the wind and the rain – at times both – and a double bogey on his 10th hole. He made three straight birdies for a 1-under 70 and finished 36 holes at 10-under 132.

Brian Gay and Brandon Harkins, the 31-year-old rookie from northern California, were at 9-under 133.

Martin Piller was at 8 under and still had nine holes to play.

Rodgers, who was 7 under for his round when play was stopped, is one of the few players from the fabled high school class of 2011 who is still looking for his first PGA Tour victory. He grew up in junior golf with fellow class members Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Daniel Berger, Emiliano Grillo and Xander Schauffele.

Rodgers, who grew up outside Indianapolis and starred at Stanford, has yet to make a bogey at El Camaleon in 33 holes.

For all the attention on the youth movement golf, Harkins is a different kind of rookie. He has toiled on the smaller tours, particularly in Canada on the Mackenzie Tour, to finally earn his card. He began his rookie season with a tie for ninth at the Safeway Open.

He finished up the second round of the OHL Classic with his name on the leaderboard, though it wasn’t quite the finish he had in mind. Starting on the 13th hole, Harkins alternated making birdies and bogeys until he drove into a fairway bunker on the 18th, didn’t get on the green and failed to get up-and-down.

”Definitely exciting,” he said of his name on the board. ”But to be honest, I didn’t really watch any board. Wasn’t quite the finish I was looking for, trading birdies and bogeys like that, but I really can’t complain in the wind like this.”

Kizzire also had to lean on patience in the tough weather.

”I had a few hiccups out there, but with the wind and the rain – and with the wind and rain together – it was tough,” Kizzire said. ”And the stop and start was tough. But I hung in there, made a few birdies there toward the end of my round and then survived that really tough rain that we had there at the end.”

Oscar Frausto had a 66 and at 7-under 135 had the low score among the five Mexican players in the field. Roberto Diaz, who also competed in the World Golf Championship in Mexico City earlier this year, had a 65 and was another shot behind.

Beau Hossler, who had a chance to win last week in Las Vegas, shot 66 to reach 6-under 136.

Round 1 – Patton Kizzire leads after a 62

November 10, 2017

Patton Kizzire shot a nine-under-par 62 to grab the first-round lead at the PGA Tour’s OHL Classic on Thursday.

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The 31-year-old American rolled in 10 birdies and had his only blemish with a bogey at the 18th hole to leave him with a two-shot lead over Vaughn Taylor.

Kizzire, who is seeking his first win on the Tour, finished tied for fourth last week in Las Vegas, closing with a final-round 64 that included birdies on four of the last five holes.

Kizzire stormed up the leaderboard Thursday with six straight birdies from Nos. eight to 13 and needed 25 putts in his career-low round. He tied the tournament record held by Fred Funk for the lowest first-round score.

Taylor had five birdies and an eagle in his bogey-free round to grab sole possession of second place. He is one stroke ahead of four-time PGA Tour winner Rickie Fowler and Brandon Harkins.

Fowler, who is competing for the first time since the Presidents Cup, is the highest ranked player in the field at No. 10. He had three birdies on each side in his bogey-free round, while rookie Harkins closed with four birdies over his final six holes.

South Africa’s Retief Goosen, a two-time U.S. Open champion, led a group of six players in a tie for fifth place at five-under 66. Goosen is looking for his first win since 2009.

Among the players bunched with Goosen was rookie Keith Mitchell, who started his round with a flourish with a hole-in-one on his first shot at the par-three 10th hole.

Defending champion Pat Perez opened with a 67 and was in a 10-player tie five shots off the pace. John Huh, the 2012 tournament winner, also carded a 67.

Scores

1	USA	Patton Kizzire	-19	–	62	70	66	67	265
2	USA	Rickie Fowler	-18	–	65	67	67	67	266
3	KOR	Si-Woo Kim	-15	–	67	68	69	65	269
T4	USA	Charles Howell III	-14	–	68	70	66	66	270
T4	USA	Martin Piller	-14	–	66	68	71	65	270
T6	USA	Ryan Moore	-13	–	70	66	67	68	271
T6	USA	Scott Brown	-13	–	67	69	66	69	271
8	USA	John Oda	-12	–	68	65	69	70	272
T9	USA	Abraham Ancer	-11	–	71	69	65	68	273
T9	GER	Alex Cejka	-11	–	69	67	68	69	273
T9	USA	Brian Stuard	-11	–	69	70	69	65	273
T9	ARG	Emiliano Grillo	-11	–	69	67	70	67	273
T9	SCO	Russell Knox	-11	–	68	68	69	68	273
T14	IND	Anirban Lahiri	-10	–	67	69	67	71	274
T14	USA	Bryson DeChambeau	-10	–	70	68	70	66	274
T14	USA	Chez Reavie	-10	–	67	69	68	70	274
T14	USA	J. J. Spaun	-10	–	68	69	67	70	274
T14	USA	J. T. Poston	-10	–	69	68	67	70	274
T14	USA	Patrick Rodgers	-10	–	67	65	72	70	274
T20	USA	Kevin Streelman	-9	–	68	68	69	70	275
T20	USA	Shawn Stefani	-9	–	71	67	68	69	275
T20	CHN	Xinjun Zhang	-9	–	66	73	70	66	275
T23	USA	Joel Dahmen	-8	–	68	70	69	69	276
T23	USA	Zach Johnson	-8	–	70	70	72	64	276
T25	USA	Brandon Harkins	-7	–	65	68	75	69	277
T25	USA	Brian Gay	-7	–	68	65	73	71	277
T25	USA	Brice Garnett	-7	–	69	68	71	69	277
T25	USA	Cameron Tringale	-7	–	71	68	70	68	277
T25	NZL	Danny Lee	-7	–	70	69	72	66	277
T25	USA	John Huh	-7	–	67	74	67	69	277
T25	MEX	Oscar Fraustro	-7	–	69	66	72	70	277
T25	MEX	Roberto Diaz	-7	–	71	65	73	68	277
T25	RSA	Tyrone van Aswegen	-7	–	69	71	67	70	277
T34	USA	Adam Schenk	-6	–	69	69	72	68	278
T34	USA	Beau Hossler	-6	–	70	66	70	72	278
T34	USA	Gary Woodland	-6	–	68	73	68	69	278
T34	NIR	Graeme McDowell	-6	–	69	70	70	69	278
T34	USA	Pat Perez	-6	–	67	74	71	66	278
T34	RSA	Retief Goosen	-6	–	66	70	69	73	278
T34	USA	Rob Oppenheim	-6	–	68	68	73	69	278
T41	USA	Nicholas Lindheim	-5	–	70	67	74	68	279
T41	USA	Richy Werenski	-5	–	69	71	70	69	279
T41	USA	Talor Gooch	-5	–	69	69	69	72	279
T41	USA	Vaughn Taylor	-5	–	64	73	68	74	279
T45	USA	Blayne Barber	-4	–	69	72	68	71	280
T45	MEX	Carlos Ortiz	-4	–	67	71	74	68	280
T45	ARG	Fabian Gomez	-4	–	66	70	75	69	280
T45	USA	Jason Kokrak	-4	–	69	68	74	69	280
T45	KOR	Meen-Whee Kim	-4	–	69	69	67	75	280
T50	USA	Austin Cook	-3	–	66	72	72	71	281
T50	COL	Camilo Villegas	-3	–	72	68	70	71	281
T50	USA	Conrad Shindler	-3	–	69	72	72	68	281
T50	AUS	Matt Jones	-3	–	72	67	69	73	281
T50	USA	Tyler Duncan	-3	–	69	72	72	68	281
T55	TPE	Cheng Tsung Pan	-2	–	71	66	73	72	282
T55	USA	Ethan Tracy	-2	–	71	69	70	72	282
T55	USA	Nick Watney	-2	–	71	69	70	72	282
T55	USA	Ryan Armour	-2	–	68	69	73	72	282
T55	NZL	Tim Wilkinson	-2	–	70	71	70	71	282
T55	USA	Zac Blair	-2	–	72	68	68	74	282
T61	USA	Brett Stegmaier	-1	–	71	67	74	71	283
T61	VEN	Jhonattan Vegas	-1	–	69	70	69	75	283
T61	USA	Johnson Wagner	-1	–	72	67	73	71	283
T61	USA	Jonathan Byrd	-1	–	72	67	75	69	283
T61	USA	Lanto Griffin	-1	–	71	70	72	70	283
T61	USA	Matthew Every	-1	–	68	73	75	67	283
T61	USA	Tom Hoge	-1	–	72	68	70	73	283
T68	USA	Denny McCarthy	Par	–	75	65	72	72	284
T68	USA	Derek Fathauer	Par	–	70	70	74	70	284
T68	AUS	Geoff Ogilvy	Par	–	68	71	72	73	284
T68	AUS	Greg Chalmers	Par	–	69	71	73	71	284
T68	USA	Keith Mitchell	Par	–	66	75	78	65	284
T68	USA	Ken Duke	Par	–	68	68	77	71	284
74	AUS	Aaron Baddeley	1	–	73	68	74	70	285
T75	CAN	Corey Conners	2	–	70	71	73	72	286
T75	USA	D. A. Points	2	–	75	66	69	76	286
T77	USA	Ricky Barnes	3	–	67	74	75	71	287
T77	RSA	Rory Sabbatini	3	–	74	67	74	72	287
CUT	USA	Aaron Wise	Par	–	70	72	–	–	142
CUT	CAN	Benjamin Silverman	Par	–	68	74	–	–	142
CUT	USA	Chris Stroud	Par	–	69	73	–	–	142
CUT	USA	Patrick Reed	Par	–	72	70	–	–	142
CUT	USA	Peter Malnati	Par	–	72	70	–	–	142
CUT	USA	Sam Ryder	Par	–	73	69	–	–	142
CUT	USA	Steve Wheatcroft	Par	–	72	70	–	–	142
CUT	USA	Stewart Cink	Par	–	72	70	–	–	142
CUT	USA	Troy Merritt	Par	–	71	71	–	–	142
CUT	USA	Andrew Putnam	1	–	72	71	–	–	143
CUT	USA	Ben Martin	1	–	71	72	–	–	143
CUT	USA	Hunter Mahan	1	–	70	73	–	–	143
CUT	CAN	Mackenzie Hughes	1	–	71	72	–	–	143
CUT	USA	Mark Wilson	1	–	74	69	–	–	143
CUT	USA	Martin Flores	1	–	70	73	–	–	143
CUT	CAN	Nick Taylor	1	–	68	75	–	–	143
CUT	IRL	Seamus Power	1	–	70	73	–	–	143
CUT	ENG	Brian Davis	2	–	72	72	–	–	144
CUT	USA	Bronson Burgoon	2	–	72	72	–	–	144
CUT	KOR	Byeong-Hun An	2	–	75	69	–	–	144
CUT	USA	Charley Hoffman	2	–	71	73	–	–	144
CUT	USA	Harris English	2	–	75	69	–	–	144
CUT	USA	Kevin Chappell	2	–	67	77	–	–	144
CUT	USA	Kyle Thompson	2	–	72	72	–	–	144
CUT	USA	Nate Lashley	2	–	71	73	–	–	144
CUT	USA	Ted Potter Jr.	2	–	73	71	–	–	144
CUT	USA	Billy Hurley III	3	–	73	72	–	–	145
CUT	ESP	Javier Colomo	3	–	72	73	–	–	145
CUT	MEX	Jose de Jesus Rodriguez	3	–	70	75	–	–	145
CUT	SCO	Sean Jacklin	3	–	71	74	–	–	145
CUT	USA	Luke List	4	–	70	76	–	–	146
CUT	USA	Matt Atkins	4	–	73	73	–	–	146
CUT	USA	Sam Saunders	4	–	74	72	–	–	146
CUT	USA	Alex Kang	5	–	70	77	–	–	147
CUT	USA	Brandon Hagy	5	–	74	73	–	–	147
CUT	USA	Jim Herman	5	–	72	75	–	–	147
CUT	USA	Jordan Niebrugge	5	–	76	71	–	–	147
CUT	KOR	Sang-Moon Bae	5	–	70	77	–	–	147
CUT	USA	Cameron Champ	6	–	75	73	–	–	148
CUT	USA	J. J. Henry	6	–	72	76	–	–	148
CUT	USA	Jason Bohn	6	–	76	72	–	–	148
CUT	USA	Jon Curran	6	–	77	71	–	–	148
CUT	GER	Stephan Jaeger	6	–	78	70	–	–	148
CUT	KOR	Sung-Hoon Kang	6	–	73	75	–	–	148
CUT	USA	Wyndham Clark	6	–	71	77	–	–	148
CUT	USA	Smylie Kaufman	7	–	73	76	–	–	149
CUT	USA	Andrew Yun	10	–	75	77	–	–	152
CUT	USA	Tom Lovelady	15	–	78	79	–	–	157
RET	USA	Andrew Landry	Par	–	69	47	–	–	116
RET	USA	Chesson Hadley	Par	–	71	70	34	–	175
RET	SWE	David Lingmerth	Par	–	72	60	–	–	132
RET	RSA	Ernie Els	Par	–	74	58	–	–	132
RET	USA	Ryan Blaum	Par	–	77	–	–	–	77
RET	CHN	Zecheng Dou	Par	–	78	37	–	–	115