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Justin Leonard eagles final hole, wins first PGA Tour Champions playoff event

RICHMOND, Va. — Justin Leonard stayed patient with his putting on a windy Sunday and watched it pay big dividends with a birdie-par-eagle finished for a 4-under 68 and a one-shot victory over Ernie Els in the Dominion Energy Charity Classic.

Leonard won for the second time this year on the PGA Tour Champions and moved into top 10 after the first playoff event for the Charles Schwab Cup.

The top 54 advance to the second postseason event next week in Arkansas.

Els was in control on the back nine of the James River course at the Country Club of Virginia and appeared to steady himself with birdies on reachable par-4 15th and the par-5 16th.

But he bogeyed the 17th as Leonard made his move. After a birdie on the 16th, Leonard hit a hybrid 4-iron to about 20 feet and holed the downhill eagle putt to post at 12-under 204.

Els failed to make a 10-foot birdie putt on the closing hole that would have forced a playoff. He closed with a 72 and shared second place with Thomas Bjorn (68).

Bernhard Langer, the 68-year-old German who has won every year on the PGA Tour Champions since turning 50, was within two shots of the lead until a long three-putt bogey ended his hopes. He shot 72 and finished three back in his bid for a first Champions win this year.

Scott Parel shot 71 and tied for 21st, moving up three spots to No. 53 to advance to the Simmons Bank Championship next week. David Bransdon fell out.

The top 36 after next week reach the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship.

Golf

Kim-Schaad wins U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur title on 5th extra hole

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Ina Kim-Schaad outlasted Hanley Long in the longest championship match in U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur history Thursday, winning with an 18-foot birdie putt on the fifth extra hole on Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Dunes Course.

Kim-Schaad, a 42-year-old from Jupiter, Florida, also won in 2019. She is the fourth-oldest winner in event history and the first two-time winner since Julia Potter-Bobb in 2016. The tournament is open to players 25 and older with a Handicap Index that doesn’t exceed 9.4.

“I’m overwhelmed with emotion, honestly,” Kim-Schaad said. “I truly love this place, and my husband and I got married in Carmel. To do it at such a special place, golf course, with my family here and my husband on the bag, his birthday day week, and for a second time, it’s like there’s not even enough language to put around just all the feels that I’m feeling.”

Long, a 28-year-old from Clarksville, Tennessee, squared it with a par on the par-4 17th when Kim-Schaad’s approach flew the green and she had to play her third shot from a cart path. Both players bogeyed the par-4 18th to send it extra holes. They parred the first four playoff holes, with Long holing an 18-footer on the second extra hole.

“It was an absolute battle out there the entire day,” Long said. “Honestly, I’m just so proud of my grit and determination throughout the entire day, keeping my head up and held high and never giving up.”

Both finalists earned spots in the 2026 U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera Country Club and the 2026 U.S. Women’s Amateur, with Kim-Schaad also getting into the 2027 U.S. Women’s Amateur.

The previous longest match in tournament history was 22 holes in 1989 in Robin Weiss’ victory over Page Marsh Lea.

WM Phoenix Open adds new structure and tickets to 16th hole

The famous par-3 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale will have a new look for the 2026 edition of the WM Phoenix Open, with a significant redesign of the hospitality structure that surrounds the hole currently underway.

A state-of-the-art, 100 percent reusable modular structure — the first of its kind in the United States — will greet visitors to the hospitality venue at next year’s tournament. In keeping with WM’s “zero waste” mission, the reusable nature of the structure eliminates material waste and minimizes on-site construction. Materials used to build the former 16th hole structure are expected to be reused by InProduction, a provider of temporary seating, staging and structures, at other events and tournaments.

In addition to plans for an elevated culinary program, 16th-hole hospitality guests can look forward polished, premium finishes, wider interior bays, higher ceilings, fewer support columns and more spacious suites with improved sightlines, thanks to the implementation of frameless glass railings, which will replace traditional scrim and barriers.

A rendering of the new hospitality suites at the 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale
A rendering of the new hospitality suites on the 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale.

Courtesy WM Phoenix Open

There will also be an opportunity to purchase individual hospitality tickets for the first time ever on No. 16 with the introduction of a brand new venue called the Pin Hi Club. The new venue will be located on the golfer’s left of the green and will include LED video boards and a refreshed and modern interior design. Previously, fans’ only non-hospitality option on 16 was a seat in the coveted first-come, first-serve greenside grandstand. That grandstand will remain accessible for daily ticket holders.

“For years, the 16th hole has set the standard for excitement in the golf world, now with this new structure, the 16th hole will also set the standard for what a premium fan experience is, not just in golf, but in sports,” WM Phoenix Open tournament chairman Jason Eisenberg said in a release. “We’ve opened up the sightlines, raised the ceilings, modernized the interior and added the brand-new Pin Hi Club to take the 16th hole hospitality experience to another level.”

While Pin Hi Club ticket prices have not yet been made public, other individual hospitality ticket options on the ninth green and 17th greens start at $421 apiece, with a minimum order of two. There are 11 different corporate hospitality venues around the course, with packages on 16 starting at $100,000.

The 2026 WM Phoenix Open will be played on February 2–8. You can find out more about the tournament and hospitality options here.

Golf

Player loses U.S. Mid-Amateur match after his caddie receives cart ride to 20th hole

Paul Mitzel canâ€t remember a crazier match.

He and his Round-of-64 opponent, Ryan Oâ€Rear, put on a show Monday at the U.S. Mid-Amateur, held this week at Troon Country Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. The two players each took seven holes of regulation, all but two of them via birdie, and their traded pars at the par-4 18th not only marked just the fourth tied hole of the day but sent the match to extra holes.

“The match was incredible,†Mitzel said. “Iâ€ve played a lot of match play, and Iâ€ve never experienced anything like that. … Not sure Iâ€ll ever experience anything like that again.

“Too bad it had to end that way.â€

In the end, Mitzel, a 35-year-old from Seattle, lost in 20 holes to Oâ€Rear.

And the craziest part: Neither player hit a shot on that 20th hole.

Mitzel lost the hole after his caddie, a longtime friend, accepted a cart ride from the first green to the par-4 second, the second extra hole. The walking rules official called the penalty, which, per Model Local Rule G-6, resulted in loss of the hole – and, in this case, the match.

MLR G-6 states, “During a round, a player or caddie must not ride on any form of motorized transportation except as authorized or later approved by the committee.â€

Already on a flight home, Mitzel described the situation to Golf Channel in further detail. Oâ€Rear had just gotten up and down from a greenside bunker while he had two-putted from 25 feet to tie the hole. While Mitzel marched up the hill to the next hole, his caddie, having just put the flagstick back in the hole, was asked if he wanted a ride to the next tee by one of the shuttle drivers, who had just shuttled the players from the 18th hole back to the first and was following the match to bring the players back to the clubhouse upon its conclusion.

Mitzel added that players were also being shuttled between the 14th and 15th holes on the desert layout. He also said that Oâ€Rear asked the official if he could veto the ruling himself and continue the match, though that request was denied.

The violation was reminiscent of the Round of 64 at the 2018 U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach, where Akshay Bhatia lost the 14th hole after his caddie asked someone whom he thought was a USGA official if he could get a cart ride back from the bathroom and then hopped on; Bhatia went on to lose to Bradford Tilley in 19 holes. Also, three Korn Ferry Tour players were penalized two shots at the 2023 Lecom Suncoast Classic after taking shuttle rides midway through their second rounds.

“I have to think anyone in that situation takes the ride when a shuttle driver asks if they want to hop on really quick and not think anything of it,†said Mitzel, coming to his buddyâ€s defense. “… My caddie doesnâ€t deserve any fault. Heâ€s the man and an awesome friend. Iâ€d do the same thing in his shoes. We were having so much fun, itâ€s too bad.â€

This was Mitzelâ€s third straight U.S. Mid-Amateur appearance after he took about a decade off from competitive golf following his college career at Washington State. In addition to winning the 2022 Pacific Northwest Amateur and last yearâ€s Trans-Miss Mid-Amateur, Mitzel noted that heâ€s developed a knack for playoffs; six in three years to be exact – to qualify for his previous two U.S. Mid-Amateurs, to get into match play each of the past two years, to win his first-round match last year in 19 holes, and then Mondayâ€s 20-hole defeat.

“Itâ€s hardened me in a lot of ways,†said Mitzel, who became a dad six months ago, to son, Brooks. “I was looking forward to making a dent this year, and I truly believe I was about to.â€

Oâ€Rear, of Georgetown, Texas, advances to Tuesdayâ€s Round of 32, where heâ€ll face George Ordway of Charlottesville, Virginia. Other notables still alive in the knockout stage include three-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Stewart Hagestad; defending U.S. Mid-Amateur winner Evan Beck; brothers Cody and Bobby Massa, the latter of whom lost to Beck last year; Drew Kittleson and Stephen Behr Jr., both semifinalists last year; and several reinstated amateurs, including Ian Davis, a former college teammate of Talor Gooch at Oklahoma State, and Nahum Mendoza, who played with Xander Schauffele at San Diego State.

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