Cantlay wins at Sherwood; McDonald has birthday breakthrough
Patrick Cantlay rallied from four shots behind and got far enough ahead that Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas couldnt quite catch him in the Zozo Championship at Sherwood.
Cantlay closed with a 7-under 65 for a one-shot victory, the third of his career, and first in his home state of California. All three required making up a deficit of three shots or more.
As much as Cantlay celebrated a victory he felt was overdue, Rahm and Thomas were left to rue their mistakes.
Rahm took the lead with a birdie on the par-5 11th, only to drop shots on each of the next two holes, including the par-5 13th. The Spaniard had a chance to force a playoff, but narrowly missed from 15 feet on the par-3 17th and from 20 feet on the final hole. He shot 68.
Thomas, who started the round with a one-shot lead, had to scramble for par on the last two par 5s, and hit into hazards on consecutive holes down the stretch.
His tee shot to a front pin on the par-3 15th plugged into thick grass, and Thomas did remarkably well to hack out to 30 feet and make bogey.
Cantlay, in the group ahead of Thomas and Rahm, bungled the par-5 16th by missing the green from 114 yards and making only his second bogey of the round, and the tournament. That reduced his lead to two shots.
Thomas drilled a drive and was in perfect position with a 4-iron. But he sent that out to the right, trying to avoid a shot left of the green, and it bounced off a tree and into the creek. After the penalty drop, he had to play a marvelous pitch-and-run off hard pan to get up-and-down for par.
But he needed birdies, and that didnt come for Thomas until he needed to hole out from the 18th fairway for eagle. His approach landed 4 feet next to the hole. The birdie gave him a 69, and denied Rahm a small consolation. Rahm needed to finish second alone to return to No. 1 in the world. Dustin Johnson, a Sherwood member who missed this week recovering from a positive coronavirus test, remains No. 1.
The other show at Sherwood was on the opposite side of the course, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson playing together in the final round with no fans. There was nothing to see, anyway.
Woods closed with a 74 and still beat Mickelson by four shots. Mickelson, coming off a victory last week on the PGA Tour Champions, had five 6s on his card. Both finished out of the top 70 against a 78-man field.
LPGA TOUR Ally McDonald gave herself a big birthday present, winning the LPGA Drive On Championship-Lake Reynolds Oconee for her first tour title.
The 28-year-old from Mississippi held off Danielle Kang by a stroke on the Great Waters Course, closing with a 3-under 69 for a 16-under 272 total. Kang birdied the par-5 18th for a 68.
McDonald birdied the first three holes on the back nine, dropped a stroke on 14, birdied 16, bogeyed 17 and parred the par-5 18th. Kang birdied Nos. 12, 13 and 14 to pull within a stroke, but bogeyed the 15th.
Kang won back-to-back events in Ohio in the summer, leads the Race to CME Globe and, at No. 5 in the world, was the top-ranked player in the field.
Bianca Pagdanganan of the Philippines was two strokes back after a 70. She was making her sixth LPGA Tour start of the year and seventh overall.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)
