By Joel Beall
Welcome to the Dew Sweeper, your one-stop shop to catch up on the weekend action from the golf world. From the professional tours, trending news, social media headlines and upcoming events, here’s every golf-related thing you need to know for the morning of May 7.

Day wins Wells Fargo with a fiery finish

The Green Mile is supposed to be one of the toughest stretches on tour. Jason Day made it look as difficult as your local putt-putt.

Tied with rookie Aaron Wise with just three holes remaining, Day birdied the 16th and 17th at Quail Hollow before making a conservative par at the last to win the Wells Fargo Championship by two shots. A clutch performance highlighted by a near ace at the par-3 17th, a hole that surrendered just three birdies on the round:

Not your typical 7-iron from 230 yards …

It hits the flag! Miraculous.@JDayGolf now leads by 2. #LiveUnderPar pic.twitter.com/s4C5snlJZP

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 6, 2018

It was far from a flawless effort, as the Aussie hit just six fairways on the afternoon and made four bogeys, including an ugly snap hook at the 14th into the water. Still, when a push from the 21-year-old Wise made it interesting, Day answered with moxie.

Day already bounced back from his nightmarish 2017 with a victory at Torrey Pines and a runner-up finish at Pebble Beach, and to claim he’s angling to reclaim the No. 1 world ranking is an affront Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm and the like. Conversely, with the Players on the docket and the U.S. and British Opens looming, the 2015 PGA Champ has recaptured his formidable form, a notion that should send head-shakes throughout the sport.

Sam Greenwood

Tiger stumbles in Sawgrass warm-up

There were signs of promise. His driving, poor in his previous six starts, was strong, finishing 16th in strokes gained/off-the-tee. His approach game was similarly solid. But Tiger Woods had his worst finish since the missing the cut at Riviera, shooting a final-round three-over 74 to finish T-55 at the Wells Fargo Championship.

“I didn’t putt well again,” said Woods, who needed 31 strokes on the greens Sunday. “I felt like I drove it pretty decent today, but I made nothing. The chances I did have, I missed them all. It was just a bad week, and the good news is wiped your hands clean and go on to the next one.”

Short-game woes were a recurring theme for Woods at Quail Hollow. The 42-year-old finished the week last in sg/putting for those that made the cut. He also failed to record a red number on Sunday, just the sixth non-major round in his career without a birdie.

“I got shutout,” Woods said.

Not the ideal reps before travelling to TPC Sawgrass, which ranked as the second-hardest track on tour last season. Of course, Si Woo Kim missed four of his previous five cuts before his Players triumph last spring, so perhaps Woods is right where he needs to be. Speaking of which…

Andrew Redington

Golf’s biggest stars paired for Players

Knock the “fifth major” motif all you want, but the Players Championship certainly knows how to set the stage when it comes to marquee pairings.

The event announced its two featured groups on Sunday, with Woods and Phil Mickelson serving as headliners. The two Hall of Famers famously played a practice round together at this year’s Masters, although have not been paired together in tournament play since the 2014 PGA Championship. Both have won at TPC Sawgrass in their storied careers and will be joined by Rickie Fowler, the 2015 Players Champ.

They’re not the only group flaunting firepower. Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy, the past three FedEx Cup champions, will also be teeing it up together on Thursday and Friday. Two more featured groups will be announced early this week, but good luck topping these trios for attention.

Darren Carroll/Getty Images

A peculiar rules snafu

Stop if you’ve heard this sentence before: there was a run-in with the rules of golf this weekend. Denmark’s Nicole Broch Larsen was its latest victim.

On Saturday at the Volunteers of America LPGA Texas Classic, Broch Larsen called over an official because she thought she saw her ball move. However, the official ruled that Broch Larsen hadn’t caused its relocation, saved from a possible penalty.

Except for another official, assigned to watch the broadcast, contacted the on-site Rules Committee with “added information” from seeing video footage. The Rules Committee, upon further review, assessed Broch Larsen a one-stroke penalty under Rule 18-2.

If you’re wondering, “Hey, I thought this review nonsense was over with,” GD’s Ryan Herrington explains: “Video was permitted to help overturn the original ruling in this instance despite last year’s decision, “The Lexi Rule,” which says that a player’s reasonable judgment will be accepted even if video shows it to be inaccurate. That was because “The Lexi Rule” was meant to apply when the issue involved in determining a point of relief or the replacement of a lifted ball, or in instances where it reveals things that could not reasonably be seen with the naked eye.”

Though the penalty dropped her from the lead at the time of the penalty, the stroke ultimately did not decide the fate of the tournament, as Broch Larsen finished six shots behind Sung-Hyun Park. Nevertheless, the recurrence of such matters—specifically, the perceived lack of common sense in which they’re handled in—is getting old. It would be refreshing if those who monitor golf start applying that “game of integrity” maxim to themselves.

Bill Murray, still the man

For the record, gender parties are narcissistic and highly unnecessary. No one cares that you’re having a baby, let alone if it’s a boy or girl. But, if you’re going to ruin everyone’s weekend with this stupid party, might as well bring Bill Murray along for the ride.

Playing in the Murray Bros. Caddyshack Golf Tournament, Michael Davis (no, not that Mike Davis) and his wife wanted to do their reveal a la Dustin Johnson via an exploding golf ball. However, the couple ran into the owner of the Chive, who was able to get Murray to do the honours instead:

Jacquie and Mike Davis asked our co-founder John Resig to do their gender reveal today in St. Augustine. John had a little surprise in store for them, Bill Murray showed up to tee off instead. It’s a boy! @WMurrayGolf pic.twitter.com/DcnfoOiF7I

— theCHIVE (@theCHIVE) April 27, 2018

Props to Murray for playing along, and our apologies to all expecting parents. Because after this video, the old “Alright, let’s take a bite of our cupcakes and see what colour’s inside!” stunt ain’t going to cut it.

The post Weekend recap: Day prevails, Tiger and Phil together at Players, Bill Murray doing Bill Murray things and another rules snafu appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Keely Levins
The week didn’t start out how anyone on the LPGA would’ve liked in Texas, but it ended with a major champion holding another trophy, reigning U.S. Women’s Open winner Sung Hyun Park victorious in a tournament that will go down in history for all the downtime players had to fill.

High winds and rain suspended play at the Volunteers of America LPGA Texas Classic early during Thursday’s first round. And the delays kept coming. Soon, it became Friday’s first round, and the tournament was shortened to 54 holes. When the weather and forecast didn’t improve on Friday, the tournament was shortened again, this time to 36 holes, with the first round now also spilling into Saturday.

Old American Golf Club, hosting the event for the first time, took on so much water that the LPGA decided to play lift, clean and place in the fairways. Every player in the field play both rounds, but only those finishing in 70th and ties earned prize money.

Seemingly anyone could have won this past week, the unintended consequence of truncated tournaments like that. But the champ turned out to be a player who has already proven herself on tour, Park grabbing her third career win with a 65-66 showing, one stroke lower than Lindy Duncan.

Both of Park’s previous wins came in 2017, along with numerous other accolades. The 24-year-old from South Korea won rookie of the year as well as co-player of the year honours. She reached No. 1 in the world, won the Women’s Open at Trump National and had 11 top-10 finishes.

Yet for a player who seemed to transition to the LPGA from Korea with ease, Park had trouble continuing the momentum into 2018. In the seven events Park played leading into Texas, she had missed two cuts and finished inside the top-10 just once.

After a first-round 65, Park was a co-leader with Jenny Shin, who won this event in 2016 when it was played at Las Colinas C.C. Park’s 65 included a 31 on the back nine. Her final round was more of the consistent, dominant play that the tour had been used to from her in 2017. She shot 66 in the final round, chipping in for birdie on the 18th hole. Though Park is never one to show much emotion on the course, she punctuated that chip-in with a fist pump and a rare, big smile.

“The beginning of the season was not good,” said Park after the round, through a translator. “It was super frustrating for me. And even though I don’t know if I’m going to win this yet, my confidence level has really skyrocketed, and I think in the future it’s really going to help me do well.”

There were still plenty of players on-course when Park finished, so she had to wait for her win to be official. No one was able to catch her. Duncan was closest, birdieing her last three holes to finish at 10 under, one shot short of Park. Though it wasn’t the playoff-forcing moment the Duke University graduate hoped for, it is the best finish of her career.

The post Wind, rain and a former LPGA Rookie of the Year dominate in Texas appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.