Vaughn Taylor Stuns Phil Mickelson At Pebble While Charl Schwartzel Dominates In South Africa

A STUNNED Vaughn Taylor won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am after shooting a superb final round of 65. It was his first victory since 2005 and, in the process, he beat Phil Mickelson by a shot.

AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

Lefty holed a crucial birdie putt at the 17th and came to the last requiring another to force a playoff or an eagle to snatch the title for the fifth time. He was just short of the par-five 18th in two, pitched to five feet and needed to hole the putt to force a playoff. The ball rolled agonisingly past the hole, meaning that Mickelson is still looking for his first win since the 2013 Open Championship.

He was stunned afterwards. "It didn't enter my head that I would miss that putt on 18," he said. "I was really surprised that it didn't fall." Mickelson has worked tirelessly in recent weeks trying to iron the kinks out of his swing and although he was bitterly disappointed not to finish the California Swing with a victory, he can draw some satisfaction from a runner-up finish and a joint third in his four starts.

He is determined to finally land the US Open this year and to qualify for the US Ryder Cup team - on this evidence, he could be on course to achieve both, and will surely take some consolation from coming so close without being at his absolute best. He missed a lot of fairways in the final round.

Taylor has endured a traumatic time with illness and injury and came to Pebble Beach without a tour card. All that has changed now, thanks to a wonderful display on the back nine, during which he holed a succession of crucial putts and hit one great iron shot after another.  He birdied the 10th, 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th, and also had chances at the 17th and 18th. His winning total was 17 under par, one better than Mickelson.

"This has been a long time coming, and it means more to me than I can put into words," Taylor said. "To win a tournament like this on such an iconic golf course is just about as good as it gets."

Jonas Blixt was third on 15 under, with Freddie Jacobson and Hiroshi Iwata next on 14 under. Justin Rose hit his second at the final hole into the Pacific Ocean but his 69 gave him a tie for sixth place with Patrick Reed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cxe3Zkmh2aQ

Tshwane Open

CHARL SCHWARTZEL coasted to victory in the Tshwane Open in South Africa by eight shots for his ninth win on home soil. In doing so, the former Masters champion proved the truth of the expression: "You drive for show and you putt for dough."

Schwartzel's long game was a strange mix of the brilliant and the awful, but his putter was on fire during a round of 63. Typical of his round was the par-four 11th, where he took an iron from the tee for safety and carved the ball into the trees on the left. He missed the fairway by such a margin that he was left with no option but to play his second to the sixth fairway, from where he struck a brilliant recovery that soared over the trees and finished six feet from the hole. It was one of the few putts he missed, but it was typical of his day.

At the next, a par five, he carved his drive way right but found a decent lie and was able to get his second shot just short of the green. He pitched stone dead to pick up the birdie that took him back to 13 under par, with playing partner Zander Lombard also scoring a birdie to progress to nine under. He was Schwartzel's nearest challenger.

The tournament effectively ended on the 14th hole. Schwartzel hit an iron from the tee, an approach to 35 feet and holed the putt for a birdie while Lombard dropped a shot. The lead was six shots - and nobody on the planet can make up six shots on Schwartzel in four holes. Game over.

Had Lombard been able to apply any serious pressure on the leader it would have asked serious questions, but he also missed his share of fairways and played a series of approaches from the middle of the fairway that cleared the putting surface by upwards of 10 yards - he was the one who was feeling the pressure, no more so than at the 16th, where his approach finished in the rocks beside the water hazard guarding the green. At the same hole, Schwartzel holed a fabulous downhill putt of fully 35 feet for yet another birdie to extend his lead to seven shots.

The rest of the field made things easy for Schwartzel, taking one step forwards and two back. On a typical South African layout, with tricky, grainy greens, it came as little surprise that the leaderboard was dominated by local players. Anthony Michael, who finished third, had his chances, but made too many mistakes, and he wasn't alone.

There were good signs from George Coetzee, the defending champion, Brandon Stone, the South African Open champion, and Haydn Porteous, who played a a recovery shot from the water on the opening day having divested himself of his top and removed his trousers. A surge in interest from the country's female population was reported on day two!

Dean Burmeister was another who briefly threatened to usurp Schwartzel before his game fell apart. Jeff Winther, of Denmark, was the only European in contention. He finished with a 64 and an eight under total that was good enough for second place. Lombard eventually finished on four under par in a tie for seventh place - it  wasn't what he had in mind at the start of the day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoS7Jeu9IgI