LA QUINTA, Calif. - Andrew Landry was reeling Sunday after blowing a six-stroke lead on the back nine of PGA West's Stadium Course.
"I don't want to be a part of something like that ever again," the 32-year-old Texan said.
He regrouped - telling caddie Terry Walker, "Let's go get this job done, like, quit messing around" - to finish first at The American Express, winning the second PGA Tour title of his career with a shot to spare.
Landry broke a tie with Abraham Ancer with a seven-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole, the jagged rock-ringed, island-green par 3 called Alcatraz.
"That was probably the shot of the tournament for me," Landry said. "Just to be able to go over there and to that right hole location and just hold one up and hit a good distance and have a seven-, eight-footer to look at. Thankfully, it went in and kind of made 18 a little bit easier."
He closed with a six-foot birdie putt on the par-4 18th for a 5-under 67 and a two-stroke victory, winning two years after losing a playoff to Jon Rahm on the same course.
"This is a golf course that has suited me very well in the past," Landry said. "And just to look back on some of the things that happened a couple years ago and then now, just to be able to finally get it done - I didn't want to have to go back into a playoff again."
The former University of Arkansas golfer whose first PGA Tour victory was the 2018 Texas Open won after missing seven of eight cuts to start the 2019-20 season.
Trying to become the third Mexican winner in PGA Tour history and the first since 1978, the 28-year-old Ancer matched the Stadium Course record with a 63.
Playing two groups ahead of Landry, he birdied Nos. 16 and 17 and parred the 18th, missing from 35 feet but saving par with a 4 1/2-footer. He realized he was tied for lead just before teeing off on 17.
"I wasn't paying much attention to the leaderboard," Ancer said. "And then that's when I noticed, and I was like, 'All right, well, we've got to make two other birdies.' I made the putt there on 17, which was big, and then just couldn't make it happen on 18. But I played good, man. I'm proud of how I played."
Landry finished at 26-under 262. He opened with a 66 on the Stadium Course, shot a 64 in the second round at La Quinta Country Club and had a 65 on Saturday on PGA West's Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course for a share of the third-round lead with Scottie Scheffler, with no one else closer than four strokes.
The anticipated duel between Landry and Scheffler fizzled early. Scheffler closed with a 70, briefly giving Landry a scare with an eagle on 16, to finish third at 23 under.
Former Baylor School and University of Georgia golfer Harris English closed with a 74 and shared 48th at 11 under.
Westwood wins
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates - Lee Westwood won the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship for his 25th European Tour victory.
Westwood, who had a one-shot overnight lead, has now won in four decades starting in the 1990s. The 46-year-old Englishman closed with a 5-under-67 for a two-shot margin over a chasing pack of France's Victor Perez (63) and England's Tommy Fleetwood (63) and Matthew Fitzpatrick (67), who all finished at 271.
Austria's Bernd Wiesberger and second-round leader Francesco Laporta of Italy, who both started the final round one back of Westwood, fell away with closing scores of 72 and 74, respectively.
Top-ranked Brooks Koepka (69) tied for 34th at 8 under in the American star's first tournament since aggravating a knee injury in October.
Westwood, who was No. 1 in the World Golf Ranking for two different runs in the early part of the last decade, was challenged throughout Sunday's final round but continued to putt well to secure his victory. He was ranked No. 63 going into the event but should move into the top 30.
Jimenez denies Els
KA'UPULEHI-KONA, Hawaii - Miguel Angel Jimenez made a 12-foot birdie putt on the second hole of a playoff with senior newcomer Ernie Els to win the PGA Tour Champions' season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship late Saturday.
Fred Couples dropped out on the first extra trip down the par-4 18th at windy Hualalai Golf Course, missing a short par putt.
Jimenez, paired with Couples in the second-to-last group, birdied Nos. 13-15 for a 5-under 67 to match Els (65) and Couples (67) at 14-under 202 after 72 holes.
The 56-year-old Spaniard has nine victories on the 50-and-older tour, also winning at Hualalai in 2015. He has won in each of his seven senior seasons.
Els, a four-time major winner from South Africa, missed a chance to become the 19th player to win in his tour debut. Jimenez was the most recent to accomplish the feat, doing so at the 2014 Greater Gwinnett Championship.
Major rewards
PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico - Argentina's Abel Gallegos rallied from a two-shot deficit with a 4-under 67 to win the Latin American Amateur Championship and earn trips to this year's Masters and British Open.
Gallegos, a 17-year-old from a small town outside Buenos Aires, caught 26-year-old Jose Vega of Colombia with a birdie on his third hole of the final round. He took the lead for good with a birdie on the par-5 seventh hole at El Camaleon Golf Club.
Gallegos finished with a birdie to win by four shots over Mexico City native Aaron Terrazas (67), who completed his University of Texas at El Paso golf career in 2019. Gallegos finished at 4-under 280, the only player in the field to finish under par.
Vega made only two birdies in the final round and closed with a 74 to finish alone in third.
Gallegos is the first Argentine to win the Latin American Amateur, which is organized by Augusta National Golf Club, the Royal & Ancient Golf Club and the United States Golf Associations. Three of the previous five champions were from Chile, with the other two from Costa Rica and Mexico.
In addition to his spots in the Masters in April and in the British Open at Royal St. George's in July, Gallegos goes directly to the final stage of qualifying for the U.S. Open in June at Winged Foot Golf Club near New York City and is exempt for all USGA amateur events for which he is eligible.
Darkness falls
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - The final round of the LPGA Tour's Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions featured a little bit of everything: clutch shots, bold play, lead changes, a few costly mistakes and even bonus golf.
Sunday's play did everything but decide a champion.
Japan's Nasa Hataoka and Mexico's Gaby Lopez matched par five times in a playoff at the 197-yard 18th hole until it was too dark to continue. They will return this morning to Four Seasons Golf and Sports Club to see who gets the trophy.
LPGA Hall of Famer Inbee Park of South Korea was in the playoff, too, but she was eliminated on the third extra hole when her tee shot caromed off rocks left of the par-3 18th and the ball bounded into the water.
Five players spent time with at least a share of the fourth-round lead. Lopez (5-under 66), Hataoka (68) and Park (71), who led by two shots after 54 holes, finished 72 holes of regulation at 13-under 271.
M.J. Hur (63), who made 10 birdies in the final round, and Brooke Henderson (67) finished one shot out of the playoff in this event featuring 26 LPGA tournament winners from the past two seasons.
There was one champion crowned as former Atlanta Braves pitcher John Smoltz repeated in the celebrity division. He finished with 150 points in the modified Stableford scoring system, nine better then former tennis player Mardy Fish, who won the event in 2016 and 2018.