Newsday (N.Y.): J.B. Holmes finishes alone in third in two-man British Open

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

TROON, Scotland — J.B. Holmes finished third in a two-man race.

They say anything can happen in golf, that a couple of bogeys by one player and a couple of birdies by another can erase a lead in a few holes. But when Holmes began the final round of the British Open on Sunday, eight shots behind eventual winner Henrik Stenson and seven back of runner-up Phil Mickelson, he wasn’t thinking of a championship.

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Copyright © 2016 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): British Open: Henrik Stenson wins duel with Phil Mickelson for title

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

TROON, Scotland — It doesn’t get any better than this, a golf championship in the land where the game was born, with two players, one of the game’s best, the other trying after years to break through, throwing caution to the considerable wind and birdies at each other in a repetitive display of brilliance and excitement.

Henrik Stenson finished in front, with Phil Mickelson second. Sport was the winner. There were no losers.

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Copyright © 2016 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Henrik Stenson leads British Open, Phil Mickelson a shot back

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

TROON, Scotland — One hole on this blustery, chilly Saturday and the leader became the chaser, the hunted the hunter. For the first time in the 145th British Open, the man in front when the final putt was holed was not Phil Mickelson.

First place after 54 holes belongs to Henrik Stenson, who at 40 probably is nearer his first major championship than anytime in his career, having swept from one stroke behind to one in front on the 220-yard par-3 17th that like most of the back nine at Royal Troon played into a wind that at times gusted above 25 mph.

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Copyright © 2016 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Jordan Spieth dealing with high expectations from media

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

TROON, Scotland — Jordan Spieth is learning what so many athletes already know: After you win a championship — in his case, two championships, the Masters and U.S. Open — people nod their heads and then in so many words ask what you’ve done lately.

Not a great deal other than answer questions he doesn’t particularly like, any more than he didn’t like the way he played the 12th hole the final round of the Masters in April, taking a triple-bogey seven and tossing away the tournament.

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Copyright © 2016 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): France’s Clement Sordet writes ‘Pray for Nice’ on hat at British Open

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

TROON, Scotland — Clement Sordet said he tried not to think about it. But that was impossible for the French golf pro and for virtually everyone else.

Sordet finished his second round at the British Open on Friday and then spoke about the tragedy in Nice, where a truck rammed into a celebrating crowd during a Bastille Day fireworks display Thursday night along a seaside boulevard. Officials said 84 people were killed and 202 were injured.

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Copyright © 2016 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): British Open: Phil Mickelson keeps lead in rainy second round

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

TROON, Scotland — This was the kind of day Phil Mickelson rarely gets at home, golf against the elements, when a cool head and a dry grip are no less important than a consistent swing. The kind of day — classic Scotland, wind and rain — that Mickelson, a California kid, said he relishes.

It was the kind of day — gray, gloomy and mainly wet — that Soren Kjeldsen has experienced during much of his golfing life in his native Denmark. “I’m used to playing in bad weather,’’ he said. “You don’t stay inside, because you miss too many days.”

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Copyright © 2016 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Rory Mcllroy is in contention at British Open despite double bogey

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

TROON, Scotland — After others, especially those involved with Great Britain’s Olympic team, had taken their shots at him, verbal of course, Rory McIlroy on Thursday took his shots at Royal Troon in the British Open, the golfing kind. With one exception, they were effective.

In his first Open Championship round in two years — the winner in 2014, he missed 2015 because of an ankle injury — McIlroy shot a two-under 69. But for one 6 iron hit too well, he would have been further under.

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Copyright © 2016 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): British Open: Phil Mickelson laments missed chance at history

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

TROON, Scotland — Phil Mickelson’s try at history missed by the distance of a gnat’s eyelash. An 18-foot putt on the final hole of the British Open’s first day agonizingly spun out of the cup, coming to rest oh so close to the first 62 ever in a major golf championship.

“I want to shed a tear right now,” said Mickelson, only half joking. “That putt on 18 was an opportunity to do something historical. I knew it, and with a foot to go, I thought I had it done.

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Copyright © 2016 Newsday. All rights reserved.

S.F. Examiner: Miller brings candid style to the booth at British Open

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

TROON, Scotland — He was the skinny, blond kid from out in the avenues, a student at San Francisco’s Lincoln High, not far from the Coast, just another golfer in a school rich with them.

Some you might not remember or ever knew, but they could play, people such as Bob Lunn, who won the Amateur Pub Links, Doug Nelson, Ron O’Connor and Tom O’Kane. And one person you certainly would know, Johnny Miller.

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©2016 The San Francisco Examiner

Newsday (N.Y.): British Open at Royal Troon: Where golf returns to its roots

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

TROON, Scotland — Golf has returned to its homeland, to the rain, wind and green hills of Scotland, a place of kings, kilts and courses with rhythmic names such as Auchterarder, Machrihanish, and the one where the 145th British Open — known here as the Open Championship — begins Thursday at Royal Troon.

The game was created on the Scottish links land in the Middle Ages. It is old as forever and modern as now, with changes in personnel certainly, in attire and equipment yet still affixed to the basic principle: Each swing of each club, from driver to putter, counts one stroke.

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Copyright © 2016 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Elephant man Todd Hamilton returns to British Open

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

TROON, Scotland — Todd Hamilton won the 2004 British Open here, but it was an elephant that became the story.

Back then nobody really knew much about Hamilton except that he was from the Illinois town where a circus elephant named Norma Jean was hit by a bolt of lightning and buried in the city square.

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Copyright © 2016 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Jordan Spieth struggled with decision to skip Rio Olympics

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

TROON, Scotland — Jordan Spieth insisted the decision not to play golf in the Rio Olympics, which came only 24 hours earlier, was the hardest he has been forced to make in his young life.

“I can honestly say that,” the 22-year-old Spieth said Tuesday. “Harder than trying to decide what university to go to. Whether to turn professional and leave school. This was something I very much struggled with.”

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Copyright © 2016 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Global Golf Post: McIlroy Leaves Without A Word

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By Art Spander
Global Golf Post

OAKMONT, PENNSYLVANIA — He had telegraphed his feelings clearly upon arrival. "I'm obviously excited to be here," Rory McIlroy told us a few days earlier at Oakmont. But now after missing the cut he wasn't saying anything other than, "I'm not talking."

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Copyright 2016 Global Golf Post

The Sports Xchange: Watson wins Northern Trust with two late birdies

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By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — For Bubba Watson, it was two weeks filled with trouble, with joy and finally with yet another victory in the Northern Trust Open, his second in the Los Angeles-area event in three years.

With birdies Sunday on the 16th and 17th holes at Riviera Country Club, Watson overcame a one-shot deficit to win by one stroke.

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Copyright © 2016 The Sports Xchange

The Sports Xchange: Bubba leads by 1 at Riviera

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By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — One moment Jason Kokrak was in front of the Northern Trust Open. Then it was Chez Reavie. When the third round came to a close, it was Bubba Watson.

Two-time Masters champion Watson, who won this tournament in 2014, shot a 4-under par 67 on Saturday at Riviera Country Club to take a one-stroke lead over Kokrak (70), Reavie (69) and Dustin Johnson (68) with a 54-hole total of 12-under 201.

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Copyright © 2016 The Sports Xchange

The Sports Xchange: Kokrak leads Northern Trust after two rounds

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By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — The PGA Tour chooses to describe golfers' skills with a tidy phrase: These guys are good.

That might be an understatement. As the leaderboard of the Northern Trust Open verifies, these guys are fantastic.

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Copyright 2016 The Sports Xchange

Global Golf Post: Young Players, Celebs Revive Pebble Beach

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By Art Spander
Global Golf Post

PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA — His legacy lives on the bluffs above Carmel Bay, flourishes in the comfortable tavern called the Tap Room. Bing Crosby is a name out of the past and yet into the future. The new kids on the block, the millenials, may know know of the man, but they do know his golf tournament.

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Copyright 2016 Global Golf Post

The Sports Xchange: Taylor gets 'magical' win at Pebble Beach

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By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — It would have been a great story if Phil Mickelson had won. It might be an even better story because Vaughn Taylor did win.

Golf, as tennis, is built on personality, recognition, and certainly, success. Mickelson is famous, beloved even, and at 45 is in the final stages of an excellent career. He hadn't finished first in two-and-a-half years, and after he came so close in this AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, just missing a five-foot putt on the final green which would have forced a playoff, you can wonder if he'll ever again finish first.

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Copyright © 2016 The Sports Xchange

The Sports Xchange: Mickelson up 2 at Pebble after 66

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By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Phil Mickelson always was the most cooperative man on the PGA Tour, amiable, informative.

When Mickelson was called "Lefty," it wasn't only because of the manner he swung a golf club but a term of endearment, an appreciation of his style, easy going, helpful, a nicknamed you'd give your best friend.

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Copyright © 2016 The Sports Xchange