LSU 5, Texas A&M 3

Quite a tournament that unfolded yesterday afternoon at Shoal Creek. Jeff Maggert and Kevin Sutherland went head to head on the back side and put on what turned out to be an exciting match play event at the first major of the year on the Champions Tour, the Regions Tradition . Maggert and Sutherland stayed three clear of the rest of the field for all of the back nine, and Maggert, despite some putting issues on the back side, did enough to secure his first major championship on the Champions Tour on a warm, pleasant Sunday afternoon at Shoal Creek.
Maggert shot a final round 72 while Sutherland shot a final round 71 as they played together on Sunday. Both finished -14 for the tournament. Jeff Hart and Gene Sauers tied for third at -10. Michael Allen, Bernhard Langer, Kenny Perry and Tom Lehman all finished tied for fifth at -9.

It was pretty dramatic as Maggert and Sutherland traded jabs on the backside. Maggert could have put the tournament away earlier, but missed a pair of four footers for birdie on Numbers 10 and 11, then bogeyed 12 from four feet after Sutherland had knocked in a  five footer for par. That knotted the players up  at -13. Both parred 13 and 14 and came to the 15th all even. Maggert and Sutherland both drove it right down the pipe and Maggert hit his second shot on the 405, yard Par 4 to 14  feet.  Sutherland responded by hitting it 9 feet from the hole. Both players drained their putts. On the 209 yard Par 3, 16th, both players hit it short and to the right side off the green, but both of them chipped it up to two feet and sank their par putts to remain even at -14. On the 525 yard par 5 17th, both players crushed their drives, with Maggert having 223 yards to the hole for his second shot and Sutherland facing a 233 shot over water. Sutherland hit first and knocked it into the right trap to the side of the green. Maggert then hit an all world three wood to 20 feet where he would be putting for eagle. Sutherland was short sided in the trap and could’t get his sand shot very close leaving himself a 25 foot putt for birdie. He knocked his birdie putt four feet by, so Maggert had a distinct advantage as he faced a 20 foot putt for eagle. Lanny Wadkins, the lead commentator for Golf Channel, which was covering the major, said he thought that Maggert should  make a run at the eagle putt. I kind of thought about that one, and said to myself, maybe he ought to lag this one up and have a one stroke lead heading into 18. Wadkins thought a two shot lead would be a lot better than a one shot lead. It was aggressive thinking. You could go either way, but 18 is a hard hole to birdie, it was playing the second hardest hole on the course, so a birdie on 17 would be an excellent score. Maggert went for the eagle and knocked it three feet by. Sutherland sank his par putt from four feet and Maggert just didn’t hit the line on his birdie putt or maybe opened his putter face up too much with the nerves playing a factor and missed the putt, so the golfers were all even at -14 heading into the 72nd hole.

With a little history, both players had won Match Play events in their careers. Maggert had won the WGC Anderson Consulting Match Play Championship in 1999 (before it became the Accenture), and Sutherland won the WGC Accenture in 2002. But both had not won in a playoff before. Sutherland lost to Cameron Beckham in the 2008 Fryes.com Open, and also lost in 2008 to Vijay Singh at the Barclays, while Maggert had lost his only regular PGA playoff to former PGA Championship winner Mark Brooks at the Shell Houston in 1996. And a playoff looked likely unless one of the players birdied 18 or one of them bogeyed. Both players hit it right down Main Street the off the tee, but Sutherland, the longer hitter, had only 136 yards to the hole, while Maggert had 155. Maggert hit it 15 feet with an 8 iron and Sutherland hit a pitching wedge that landed 12 feet from the hole, but spun back to 22 feet. Sutherland two putted for par, so Maggert had a shot of winning in regulation. He stroked his birdie putt three feet past the hole. He had been struggling with the short ones all day, but calmly sank his par putt to send it into extras.

On the first playoff hole, the 444 yard 18th, Sutherland was first and knocked his drive in the right trap right below the lip of the trap. He would have a very difficult second shot. Maggert stroked it right down the middle of the fairway. He is an excellent ball striker. Maggert had 170 to hole and didn’t hit a very good shot ending up 45 feet away for birdie. Sutherland didn’t have much of a shot at all out of the trap and hit it short and to the right of the green, leaving himself a very difficult up and down for par. Maggert was probably not going to birdie it the way he was putting, but Sutherland tried to run his chip from 70 yards up the slope and left it 30 feet short of the hole. The better play would have been to lob it up to the hole and let the ball drop in there. He misjudged that. He two putted for bogey sinking a pretty clutch four footer for bogey, just to give himself a shot at another hole. Maggert putted his 45 footer to three feet. With the pressure on and facing another short putt, Maggert sank it and claimed his first major on the Champions Tour. It was the second win of the 51 year old’s career as he won the Gulf Coast Resort Classic in Mississippi in April of 2014.

Maggert took home the $345,000 first place prize money and earned 690 Schwab Cup points and now leads the Schwab Cup standings with 834 points. Sutherland is second with 596. The winner of the Schwab Cup earns a $1 million annuity at the end of the season. The tour now goes to French Lick, Indiana this week for the second major of the season, the Senior PGA Championship. The Champions Tour has four more majors after this one in the next two months with this week’s Senior PGA, then the Senior Players Championship at Belmont Country Club in Belmont Mass, June 11-14th,  the U.S. Senior U.S. Open Championship June 25-28th at Del Paso CC in Sacramento, California, and the Senior Open Championship at the Sunningdale Ole Course in Berkshire, England, July 23-26th. Colin “Montae” Montgomery is the defending champion at this week’s Senior PGA.

The Regions Tradition moves to Greystone Golf and Country Club next year. Shoal Creek had a nice five year run with it.

Rory went off shooting -21 to capture the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club. It was quite an exhibition of golf and cemented his spot as the number one player in the world without a doubt. Still believe in Jordan Spieth and there are a lot of outstanding players, but Rory is the best right now.

American Pharaoh captures the 140th Preakness

American Pharaoh is quite a horse. There was an onslaught of rain before the race started and it favored Pharaoh, which had the number one post, but was the strongest running horse in the field. Pharaoh is a powerful runner and was by far the strongest horse on this sloppy track on Saturday. Pharaoh jockey Victor Espinoza employed the perfect strategy to get his horse out of the gate quickly and grab the lead. Once Pharaoh took the lead, he never looked back. I see Pharaoh having a very good chance at winning the Triple Crown at the Belmont Stakes on June 6th. The Belmont is a mile and a 1/2, by far the longest of the three triple crown races, The Derby is a mile and 1/4 and the Preakness is a mile and 3/16.  Trainer Todd Pletcher held all four of his horses–Materialiaty, Carpe Diem, Competitive Edge and Stanford– out of the Preakness to get them ready for the Belmont. I don’t like that strategy. Last year when California Chrome was going for the Triple Crown some other trainers held their horses out of the Preakness and Chrome lost to one of them in the Belmont. It’s kind of cowardly strategy. Chrome co-owner Steve Colburn called the other owners and  trainers “cowards,” and “cheaters.” They aren’t technically cheating, but it is pretty cowardly. Tonalist won the Belmont last year, but had contracted a lung disease in May, thus sitting out the Derby and the Preakness, so that was understandable. But I see Pharaoh having an excellent shot at winning the Triple Crown at the Belmont and becoming the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978, 37 years ago. This is a very special horse. Will have preview and prediction Wednesday, June 3rd.

SEC Baseball Tournament prediction later on this afternoon.

LSU football  preview tomorrow