JACKSONVILLE, Fla.: Phil Mickelson won for the third time in four career PGA Tour Champions starts, closing with a 4-under 68 on Sunday for a two-shot victory in the Constellation Furyk & Friends.
The 51-year-old Mickelson won for the first time since his out-of-nowhere triumph at the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island in May for his sixth career major title. He has struggled on the PGA Tour since then, and this was his first Champions event since February.
Miguel Angel Jimenez battled with Mickelson throughout the day at breezy Timuquana Country Club and pulled even with birdies on the par-5 13th where Mickelson three-putted for par and the par-3 14th. But Mickelson converted a two-putt birdie on the par-5 15th to move ahead for good.
Jimenez shot a 68, nearly holing a long birdie putt on the par-4 18th that would have forced Mickelson to make his 10-foot birdie for the win. Mickelson holed it anyway for the two-shot margin.
Mickelson finished the first-year event at 15-under 201. Last year, he opened his senior career with consecutive victories in Missouri and Virginia.
Mickelson said he plans to play at least two more tournaments on the 50-and-over tour this fall in Richmond, where hes the defending champion, and at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix.
LPGA TOUR
WEST CALDWELL, N.J.: Jin Young Ko finished off a wire-to-wire victory in the Cognizant Founders Cup with her 14th consecutive round in the 60s that matched a 16-year record held by Annika Sorenstam.
Even in a steady rain at Mountain Ridge, the 26-year-old South Korean star made it look easy. She closed with a 5-under 66 for a four-shot victory over Caroline Masson of Germany. Ko finished at 18-under 266.
It was her 14th consecutive round in the 60s dating to a 69 in the final round of the Evian Championship. That ties the mark Sorenstam set in the middle of her 10-win season in 2005.
Ko joined Nelly Korda as the only three-time winners on the LPGA Tour this season, and she became the fifth South Korean with at least 10 victories, still well short of the record 25 held by pioneer Se Ri Pak.
Ko successfully defended her title at the Founders Cup, though it was as different as could be. The tournament was held in Phoenix in 2019, was canceled last year during the pandemic, and then picked up a new title sponsor and moved to the Donald Ross design in New Jersey.
Those back-to-back victories came two years, six months and 16 days apart on opposite ends of the country. More importantly, she pulled within 20 points of Korda in the Race to the CME Globe with the end of the season fast approaching.
EUROPEAN TOUR
MADRID: Rafa Cabrera Bello birdied the first playoff hole in a Spanish duel with Adri Arnaus to win the Spanish Open.
Cabrera Bello closed with a 2-under 69 to force a playoff with Arnaus (67), who was going for his first European Tour victory. Arnaus had a birdie putt to win in regulation and just missed.
Jon Rahm, the No. 1 player in the world and two-time defending champion, couldn’t mount a charge and shot 69 to tie for 17th.
Cabrera Bello won for the fourth time on the European Tour, his first title since the Scottish Open in 2017. He is the 13th Spaniard to win on home soil.
Three players ended two shots off the lead Frenchman Julien Guerrier (69), Indias Sharma Shubhankar (66) and Scotlands Grant Forrest (65), who had a hole-in-one on the first round and finished with five birdies and an eagle on his last seven holes on Sunday.
OTHER TOURS
Tomoyasu Sugiyama closed with a 5-under 66 for a three-shot victory over Jinichiro Kozuma and Naoyuki Kataoka in the Bridgestone Open. Sugiyamas first win on the Japan Golf Tour came with an exemption into the Zozo Championship in two weeks. … Former Womens British Open champion Hinako Shibuno closed with a 4-under 68 and won a four-way playoff to capture the Stanley Ladies Golf Tour on the Japan LPGA. Shibuno defeated Ayako Kimura (65), Seon Woo Bae (67) and Miyu Sato (70). … Su Ji Kim shot an even-par 72 and won the Hite Jinro Championship on the Korean LPGA by two shots over Min Ji Park and Hee Jeong Lim. … Mauricio Molina closed with a 5-under 67 for a four-shot victory in Riegler and Partner Legends in Austria. It was the Argentine’s first victory on the European Legends Tour. … The SunBet Challenge on the Sunshine Tour in South Africa was canceled because of heavy rain that made the Wild Coast Sun course unplayable, and a forecast for more rain.
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