Golf roundup: Spieth wins in home state
Jordan Spieth has a win at home in the Lone Star State.
Spieth won at Colonial in Fort Worth, Texas, after birdieing the last three holes Sunday for a 5-under 65, including a chip-in from behind the 17th green following a fortunate bounce off a marshal. He punctuated his first PGA Tour victory in Texas with a closing 34-foot putt when needing only a bogey to win.
It was the eighth career win for Spieth, the world’s No. 2-ranked player, and came in only his third tournament since blowing a five-stroke lead on the back nine last month when trying to win the Masters for the second year in a row. He will try to defend his U.S. Open title in three weeks at Oakmont.
At 17-under 263, Spieth finished three strokes ahead of Harris English (66) at the Dean & Deluca Invitational. Colonial member Ryan Palmer and Webb Simpson tied for third, both shooting 68 while in the final group with Spieth to finish at 13 under.
Nearly two months before his 23rd birthday, Spieth broke a tie with Tiger Woods for wins at age 22 or younger. The only player with more that young was Horton Smith with 14 from 1928-30. With the first-prize check of $1.2 million, Spieth has earned more than $24 million on the PGA Tour.
Senior PGA
Rocco Mediate holed out from a greenside bunker for birdie on the par-3 17th to wrap up a record-setting, wire-to-wire victory at the Senior PGA Championship in Benton Harbor, Michigan.
Smoking cigars during the round, the 53-year-old Mediate closed with a 5-under 66 – holing a 15-footer for par on the last hole at the Jack Nicklaus-designed Harbor Shores, for a three-stroke victory over two-time defending champion Colin Montgomerie.
Mediate finished at 19-under 265 to break the tournament record of 268 set by Sam Snead in 1973 at PGA National. The six-time PGA Tour winner became the first wire-to-wire winner in the event since Nicklaus in 1991 at PGA National. Mediate matched the course and tournament records with an opening 62 and added rounds of 66 and 71 to take a two-stroke lead over Montgomerie into the final round.
Mediate broke through with the PGA Tour Champions major victory nearly eight years after losing the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines to Tiger Woods on the first extra hole after an 18-hole playoff. He won for the third time on the 50-and-over tour, with the first two coming in 2013.
Montgomerie shot a 67 – and matched Snead for the second-best total in tournament history. The 52-year-old Scot won in 2014 at Harbor Shores and last year at French Lick in Indiana.
LPGA
Ariya Jutanugarn became the first player to win three straight LPGA Tour events in three years, closing with a 5-under 67 for a five-stroke victory at the Volvik Championship in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The 20-year-old Jutanugarn is the first player since Inbee Park in 2013 to win three consecutive tournaments and the first ever to make their first three career victories consecutive.
Jutanugarn finished at 15-under 273 at Travis Pointe after starting the day with a one-shot edge thanks to a closing eagle in the third-round.
Jutanugarn became the first Thai winner in tour history three weeks ago in Alabama and followed that up last week with a victory in Virginia. Jutanugarn doesn’t plan to play the next event in New Jersey, where she would have had a shot to become the first since Lorena Ochoa in 2008 to win four scheduled tournaments in a row.
Christina Kim was second after a 71. Jessica Korda (72) and Canada’s Brooke Henderson (68) tied for third at 9 under. The 18-year-old Henderson has nine top-10 finishes this season.
European Tour
Chris Wood won the BMW PGA Championship in Virginia Water, England, by one stroke for the biggest victory of his career, taking advantage of third-round leader Scott Hend’s collapse.
Wood had a front-nine 29 and held a four-stroke lead after a birdie at No. 11, but dropped shots on Nos. 14, 16 and 17 to trim his advantage to one. The Englishman played the par-5 18th safe to make par for a 3-under 69 and 9-under 279 overall, finishing a shot ahead of Sweden’s Rikard Karlberg (65).
Masters champion Danny Willett had a third at 7 under after a 71.
Hend began with a one-stroke lead and took two shots out of a fairway bunker to make double bogey on No. 1. The Australian dropped nine shots in his first 10 holes to tumble down the leaderboard and wound up shooting a 78 to tie for 15th at 3 under.
The 54th-ranked Wood’s previous European Tour wins came in Qatar in 2013 and Austria last year. He led the BMW PGA Championship by two shots after three rounds in 2010, only to shoot 77 to fall away.