AVONDALE, La. (AP) — Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans team event Sunday, beating Chad Ramey and Martin Trainer with a par on the first hole of a playoff.
Trainer pushed a 6-foot par putt to the right of the cup to end it, with Lowry and McIlroy sharing a smiling embrace on the green.
The 34-year-old McIlroy, playing in the event for the first time, won his 25th PGA Tour title and first of the season. Lowry claimed his third PGA Tour victory. The Irish tandem closed with a 4-under 68 in the alternate-shot final round to match Ramey and Trainer at 25-under 263.
Ramey and Trainer began the day tied for 27th and shot to the top of the leaderboard with nine birdies between the seventh and 18th holes. They tied the alternate-shot tournament record of 63, but then had to wait nearly three hours to see if their lead would stand up.
They struggled to execute on the playoff hole. Trainer pulled his drive into the left rough, Ramey also yanked his approach left off the cart path and into the wall below the suites around the 18th green. Trainer then chipped short before Ramey finally got onto the green.
Ryan Brehm and Mark Hubbard missed the playoff by one shot when Brehm’s birdie putt from the fringe narrowly missed to the right. Former BYU teammates Patrick Fishburn and Zach Blair, the 54-hole leaders, were tied for the lead until failing to birdie the par-5 16th and taking double bogey on the par-3 17th.
LPGA TOUR
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hannah Green closed with a 5-under 66 and won LPGA Tour’s JM Eagle LA Championship for the second straight year, holing out twice from off the greens in a pivotal back-nine stretch at Wilshire Country Club.
A year after making a 25-foot birdie on the final hole of regulation and winning on the second hole of a playoff, Green took the drama out of this one for her fifth LPGA Tour victory and second of the year.
Green began the key run with a chip-in birdie on the par-3 12th and made a 6-foot birdie putt on the par-5 13th. Then, after Stark bogeyed the par-4 16th two groups ahead, Green ran in a 25-footer for eagle from the fringe on 15 to open a four-stroke lead, and she made it 5 under in five holes with a birdie on 16.
Stark birdied her last two holes for a 68. The 24-year-old Swede also finished second last week outside Houston in The Chevron Championship, two strokes behind top-ranked Nelly Korda in the first major of the year.
Grace Kim, four strokes ahead entering the weekend, closed 76-77 without making a birdie the last two days. She tied for 25th.
LIV GOLF LEAGUE
ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) — Brendan Steele closed with a 4-under 68 to hold off Louis Oosthuizen and win LIV Golf Adelaide by one shot at The Grange Golf Club.
The 41-year-old Steele finished with a 54-hole total of 18-under 198 for his first victory since he won his second Safeway Open in 2017 on the PGA Tour.
Steele had a streak of five consecutive birdies early in the round, before some putting jitters appeared in his back nine to open the door for a fast finishing pack of challenges including Oosthuizen (65) and former previous Masters champions Charl Schwartzel (64) and Jon Rahm (64).
Schwartzel and Rahm were among a group of five players at 16-under 200, with Joaquin Niemann (66), Andy Ogletree (65) and Dean Burmester (67) in a tie for third.
Defending champion Talor Gooch shot 70 and finished in a tie for 26th at 10-under.
Australia-based Ripper won the team title on the second playoff hole against South African-based Stingers.
EUROPEAN TOUR AND JAPAN GOLF TOUR
GOTEMBA, Japan (AP) — Yuto Katsuragawa began the back nine with five birdies in seven holes that carried him to a 7-under 63 and a three-shot victory in the ISPS Handa Championship, the third Japanese player this year to claim a European tour title.
The tournament was co-sanctioned with the Japan Golf Tour. Katsuragawa follows Rikuya Hoshino at the Commercial Qatar Masters and Keita Nakajima in the Hero Indian Open for Japanese winners. A year ago, Ryo Hisatsune won the French Open.
Katsuragawa started the final round three shots out of the lead, but got into the mix when 54-hole leader Casey Jarvis and Yannik Paul faltered on the front nine. The 25-year-old pulled away and won by three over Sebastian Soderberg, who had a 67.
Jarvis closed with a 74 to tie for 18th. Paul, who started one shot behind, shot 76. It was a missed opportunity for Paul, in the mix for the second and final spot for Germany in the Olympics.
PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS
DULUTH, Ga. (AP) — Stephen Ames celebrated his 60th birthday with a successful title defense in the Mitsubishi Electric Classic, closing with a 5-under 67 for his eighth PGA Tour Champions victory.
A stroke behind Paul Broadhurst after matching the tournament record Saturday with a 64, Ames had two eagles in the final round. He won by four strokes, finishing at 14-under 202 at TPC Sugarloaf for his record third victory in the event.
Broadhurst, the 58-year-old Englishman coming off a victory last week in the Invited Celebrity Classic, closed with a 72 to tie for second with Doug Barron (69). K.J. Choi (70) and Steven Alker (71) were 9 under.
Ames became the first multiple winner this year on the tour, also taking the Chubb Classic in February. He has six victories in his last 29 starts after winning twice in his first 175 — the first at TPC Sugarloaf in 2017 — on the 50-and-over tour.
KORN FERRY TOUR
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Tim Widing of Sweden won for the second straight week on the Korn Ferry Tour, closing with an 8-under 63 to cap off a week of low scoring with a four-shot victory in the Veritex Bank Championship.
The week began with Frankie Capan III posting a 58 for the third sub-60 round on the Korn Ferry Tour this year. It ended with Widing’s worst score of the week a 65 on Saturday.
He finished at 31-under 253 to boost his position atop the Korn Ferry Tour points list as he closes in on a PGA Tour card.
Myles Creighton of Canada closed with a 62 to finish second, followed by Trent Phillips (65). Capan wound up seven shots behind in fourth place. None of the Korn Ferry Tour players who broke 60 this year have gone on to win.
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OTHER TOURS
Juliana Hung of Taiwan closed with a 5-under 67 for a nine-shot victory in the IOA Championship on the Epson Tour. … Rasmus Neergaard-Peterson won his second Challenge Tour of the year, closing with a 5-under 67 for a one-shot victory over Wilco Nienaber in the UAE Challenge in Abu Dhabi. … Manon De Roey of Belgium capped off a four-shot victory with an even-par 72 in the Investec South African Women’s Open on the Ladies European Tour. … Stuart MacDonald of Canada closed with a 1-under 71 for a two-shot victory over Samuel Anderson in the Diners Club Peru Open on the Tour de Americas. … Haruka Amamoto closed with a 6-under 66 for a two-shot victory in the Panasonic Open on the Japan LPGA. … Jungmin Lee won the KLPGA Championship by closing with a 6-under 66 for a four-shot victory on the Korea LPGA.
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