Champion’s Breakfast :: May 11th Fowler, Cool Coetzee, tough for Tiger

Fantastic Fowler

Rickie Fowler rocketed back into the world top ten with his second PGA Tour win after defeating Sergio Garcia and Kevin Kisner in a play-off at the Players Championship.

But it was his back nine performance that lit up TPC Sawgrass as he played his final ten holes in eight-under par and took just 11 shots for the final four holes, the best of anyone in the history of the Players Championship.

Garcia, who was two shots ahead at one stage on the back nine, tweeted his congratulations to the American.

Cool Coetzee

Nine days after being knocked out of the WGC-Cadillac Match Play in San Francisco, South African George Coetzee jetted halfway round the world to Mauritius, with the trip made worthwhile as he claimed the inaugural AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open title after defeating Dane Thorbjorn Olesen in a play-off.

It’s the 28-year-old’s second win on the European Tour this season and lifts him up 11 places to No.52 in the world rankings.

Coetzee said: “It is great to get another victory on the European Tour and obviously it counts towards my Sunshine Tour ranking as well so I’m pleased with that too.

“I actually played on the Asian Tour in 2009 and I couldn’t make a cut – I was living on scraps – so it is nice to finally get an Asian Tour win as well.”

Tough for Tiger

Tiger Woods continued his comeback to regular tournament golf at the Players Championship but couldn’t make any impression throughout his four rounds as he posted his worst ever 72-hole score at TPC Sawgrass.

The 39-year-old just made the cut but finished way down in T69, a result which has dropped him further down the world rankings to No.133.

“It was a mixed bag pretty much all week,” said Woods. “A lot of really, really good stuff out there, some mediocre and some bad. I had three sevens and that’s not very good.”

Rory bemoans poor putting

Rory McIlroy said his putting was to blame for not getting himself properly into contention at the Players but was satisfied with his performance nonetheless.

The world No.1 finished in a tie for eighth after a final round of 70 and said he’ll be heading to the putting green in between his busy schedule.

“Another solid week,” said the 26-year-old. “A lot of positives to take from tee to green, just need to go home over the next couple of days and work on my putting a little bit and hopefully it will be a bit better for next week.

Play-off woe again for Kisner

Kevin Kisner was defeated in a play-off for the second time in his last three starts as Fowler took the spoils at Sawgrass.

Kisner, 31, is searching for his maiden PGA Tour win and also narrowly missed out at the RBC Heritage last month, which was won by Jim Furyk. Nevertheless, the American has risen from No.236 to No.66 in the world as a result of his performances on tour in 2015.

This at St Andrews anyone?

Looks like these guys were enjoying the final round action at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open anyway…