SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The shot will be remembered as one of the best under pressure that hardly anyone witnessed. It made Collin Morikawa a major champion Sunday in a thrill-a-minute PGA Championship that not many will forget.
Morikawa hit driver on the 294-yard 16th hole that was perfect in flight and even better when it landed, hopping onto the green and rolling to 7 feet for an eagle that all but clinched victory on a most quiet Sunday afternoon at Harding Park.
In the first major without spectators, the 23-year-old Californian finished with a bang. He closed with a 6-under 64, the lowest final round by a PGA champion in 25 years, for a two-shot victory over Paul Casey and Dustin Johnson, two of 10 players who had a chance on the back nine.
Now, Morikaw has three PGA Tour victories and is No. 5 in the world.
For Johnson, it was another major that got away. It was his fifth runner-up finish in a major and his second straight runner-up in the PGA Championship.
Morikawa finished at 13-under 267.
Matthew Wolff, who grew up with Morikawa in Southern California and turned pro last summer with him, shot a 65 and joined Jason Day, Bryson DeChambeau, Tony Finau and PGA Tour rookie Scottie Scheffler at 10-under 270.
LPGA TOUR
SYLVANIA, Ohio (AP) — Five shots behind with six holes to play, Danielle Kang won her second straight LPGA Tour event when Lydia Ko took double bogey on the final hole in the Marathon Classic.
Kang began her rally with consecutive birdies on the 13th and 14th holes at Highland Meadows, and then all she needed were pars the rest of the way for a 3-under 68, all because of Ko’s shocking collapse.
Ko was poised to end two years and 44 tournaments without a victory. She made bogey on the 14th hole, and with Kang’s birdies, the lead suddenly was down to two. Ko dropped another shot on the 16th, and caught a break when Kang was in position for birdie on the par-5 17th and had to settle for par.
But on the closing par 5, Ko fell apart. She hit her chip through the green. With a slightly uphill lie in patchy rough, Ko muffed the chip and watched it roll into a bunker. She blasted that out to 10 feet and missed the putt that would have forced a playoff. She wound up with a 73.
Jodi Ewart Shadoff, in contention for the second straight week but still without an LPGA victory, played bogey-free after the opening hole for a 67. She wound up in a tie for second with Ko.
Kang finished at 15-under 269 in winning for the fifth time in her LPGA Tour career.
U.S. WOMEN'S AMATEUR
ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) — California teenager Rose Zhang won the longest U.S. Women’s Amateur title match in 54 years, denying Gabriela Ruffels a repeat victory when the 20-year-old Australia missed a 3-foot par putt on the 38th hole.
Neither player led by more than 2 up the entire 36-hole match, and they halved the last five holes with par to force extra holes for the first time since 2001.
Zhang, a 17-year-old who has committed to play at Stanford next year, sent it to overtime with a clutch flop-and-run from the rough about 40 yards away on the 18th hole at Woodmont Country Club to tap-in range.
On the first extra hole, Zhang missed about a 12-foot putt for the win. On the 38th hole, Ruffels went just beyond the green from the rough and hit a good pitch to about 3 feet. Zhang missed her birdie putt, and then Ruffels’ par putt to extend the match spun around the cup.
Ruffels, who plays at USC, was trying to become the first back-to-back winner of the U.S. Women’s Amateur since Danielle Kang in 2011.
EUROPEAN TOUR
WARE, England (AP) — An emotional Andy Sullivan ended a near five-year wait for his fourth European Tour title as he recorded a seven-shot victory at the English Championship.
Heading into the final round at Hanbury Manor with a five-shot advantage, Sullivan saw his lead cut to just two by Spain’s Adrian Otaegui (66).
But while his challenger faltered over the closing stages, Sullivan recorded four birdies on the back nine to shoot a 6-under 65 for a 27-under 257 total.
The victory was his first on the European Tour since the 2015 Portugal Masters and his first since the birth of his son and the deaths of both his brother-in-law as well as a close friend.
KORN FERRY TOUR
NORTH PLAINS, Ore. (AP) — Lee Hodges birdied the 18th hole on the way to an even-par 71 and a two-stroke victory at the Winco Foods Portland Open on the Korn Ferry Tour.
The win on the Witch Hollow Course at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club was the first on the Korn Ferry Tour for the 25-year-old Hodges, who had five straight top-20 finishes entering this week.
There was a four-way tie for second place among David Lipsky, Carl Yuan, Chad Ramey and Paul Barjon.
