One of the biggest pre-tournament concerns for the players was not to get the coronavirus. Paul Casey, who opened with 65 but closed with 77 to finish T38, was only half joking when he said he was so worried about getting it and missing Augusta he didn’t let his kids have play dates.
Johnson tested positive for the virus in Las Vegas on Oct. 11, and after withdrawing from THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK, spent 11 days holed up in his hotel room. It had a little outside area where he would sometimes go sit, and he would get up to shower, but otherwise that was it. He watched a whole lot of TV, especially the series “Yellowstone.”
The silver lining was he figured now that he’d had it, he would be OK for the Masters.
“I know 2020 has been a really strange year, but it’s been good to me,” he said after his fourth win of the year. “I’ve played some good golf. You know, I can’t thank Augusta enough for just having the Masters. Obviously when it canceled in April, none of us knew if we were going to be able to play in it. I was just happy to be here playing, and it worked out OK for me.”
3. DeChambeau wasn’t himself
The biggest pre-tournament storyline, whether the newly beefy, ultra-long-hitting DeChambeau would tear apart Augusta National, never materialized. If anything, Augusta tore him apart, exposing the runaway U.S. Open champion’s susceptibility to the blowup hole.
DeChambeau double-bogeyed the 13th hole in the first round, and triple-bogeyed the par-4 third hole (with a lost ball) in the second. Ironically, the third and 13th holes are two of the shortest on the course. He closed with a 1-over 73 (T34) that featured a double-bogey at the par-4 fifth hole.
He also complained of dizziness and brain fog.
“At the beginning of the week I felt like I could have a great chance to win the tournament if I just played my game,” DeChambeau said. “… I made way too many mistakes that I’ve got to talk about with my caddie and go, ‘Hey, how do we not make these mistakes anymore? How can we work better as a team to have that not happen?’ At Winged Foot we did a great job of it. This week we didn’t.”
4. Tiger and Phil flashed form
Phil Mickelson was 5 under through two rounds and “driving it like a stallion.” If he could just shore up his faulty putting, he said, he could potentially make a run at his fourth Masters title.
It didn’t happen, as he shot 79-73 to finish T55.
Defending champion Woods had a crazier week. He, too, was 5 under through two rounds, but went 72-76 to finish T38. His final round was especially topsy-turvy as he hit three balls in the water and made a 10 – the highest score of his PGA TOUR career – at the par-3 12th hole.
He then birdied five of his last six holes, including the last four in a row, to finish the round.
“I committed to the wrong wind,” he said of his misadventure on 12.
“This sport is awfully lonely sometimes,” he added. “You have to fight it. No one is going to bring you off the mound or call in a sub. You have to fight through it. That’s what makes this game so unique and so difficult mentally. We’ve all been there, unfortunately.”
Rory McIlroy, 31, keeps flirting with winning Masters, the one major that eludes him for the career Grand Slam. With his opening-round 75, he spotted the winner 10 strokes, but beat Johnson by one the rest of the way to lose by nine and finish T5 with Dylan Frittelli (72).
“You know, when I birdied the 8th hole and I got to 11 (under), I saw DJ had dropped to 15, and I thought, maybe there’s a chance,” said McIlroy, who hasn’t won in over a year.
In retrospect, there wasn’t a chance, and he played his last 10 holes in even par with a bogey at 10 and a birdie at the par-5 13th, which had vexed him all week. He signed for a 3-under 69, his third straight sub-70 round, and now has six top-10 finishes in his last seven Masters.
“The wind sort of got up as we hit the turn,” he said, “and it just was hard to make birdies.”
TOUR TOP 10
The PGA TOUR Regular Season top 10 will receive bonuses for their efforts.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.
The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.
The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.
Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.
The final is scheduled for Saturday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.
EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.
The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.
Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.
TAKEAWAYS
Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.
Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.
KEY MOMENT
New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.
KEY RETURN?
Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.
OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN
The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.
The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.
UP NEXT
Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt pounded into the end zone from two yards out in overtime to give the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs a 30-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
DeAndre Hopkins had two touchdown receptions for the Chiefs (8-0), who drove through the rain for two fourth-quarter scores to take a 24-17 lead with 4:17 left. But then Kansas City watched as Baker Mayfield led the Bucs the other way in the final minute, hitting Ryan Miller in the end zone with 27 seconds to go in regulation time.
Tampa Bay (4-5) elected to kick the extra point and force overtime, rather than go for a two-point conversion and the win. And it cost the Buccaneers when Mayfield called tails and the coin flip was heads. Mahomes and the Chiefs took the ball, he was 5-for-5 passing on their drive in overtime, and Hunt finished his 106-yard rushing day with the deciding TD plunge.
Travis Kelce had 14 catches for 100 yards with girlfriend Taylor Swift watching from a suite, and Hopkins finished with eight catches for 86 yards as the Chiefs ran their winning streak to 14 dating to last season. They became the sixth Super Bowl champion to start 8-0 the following season.
Mayfield finished with 200 yards and two TDs passing for the Bucs, who have lost four of their last five.
It was a memorable first half for two players who had been waiting to play in Arrowhead Stadium.
The Bucs’ Rachaad White grew up about 10 minutes away in a tough part of Kansas City, but his family could never afford a ticket for him to see a game. He wound up on a circuitous path through Division II Nebraska-Kearney and a California junior college to Arizona State, where he eventually became of a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2022 draft.
Two year later, White finally got into Arrowhead — and the end zone. He punctuated his seven-yard scoring run in the second quarter, which gave the Bucs a 7-3 lead, by nearly tossing the football into the second deck.
Then it was Hopkins’ turn in his first home game since arriving in Kansas City from a trade with the Titans.
The three-time All-Pro, who already had caught four passes, reeled in a third-down heave from Mahomes amid triple coverage for a 35-yard gain inside the Tampa Bay five-yard line. Three plays later, Mahomes found him in the back of the end zone, and Hopkins celebrated his first TD with the Chiefs with a dance from “Remember the Titans.”
Tampa Bay tried to seize control with consecutive scoring drives to start the second half. The first ended with a TD pass to Cade Otton, the latest tight end to shred the Chiefs, and Chase McLaughlin’s 47-yard field goal gave the Bucs a 17-10 lead.
The Chiefs answered in the fourth quarter. Mahomes marched them through the rain 70 yards for a tying touchdown pass, which he delivered to Samaje Perine while landing awkwardly and tweaking his left ankle, and then threw a laser to Hopkins on third-and-goal from the Buccaneers’ five-yard line to give Kansas City the lead.
Tampa Bay promptly went three-and-out, but its defence got the ball right back, and this time Mayfield calmly led his team down field. His capped the drive with a touchdown throw to Miller — his first career TD catch — with 27 seconds to go, and Tampa Bay elected to play for overtime.
UP NEXT
Buccaneers: Host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
