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Jason Kokrak watches his tee shot on the second hole Sunday during the final round of the CJ Cup in North Las Vegas, Nevada. Kokrak earned his first PGA Tour victory, beating Xander Schauffele by two strokes. David Becker/Associated Press

NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. — In his 10th season, in his 233rd tournament, Jason Kokrak can finally call himself a PGA Tour winner.

Kokrak matched the best round of the tournament with an 8-under 64 Sunday to overcome a three-shot deficit at the start and win a duel on the back nine with Xander Schauffele in the CJ Cup at Shadow Creek.

“Couldn’t be happier,” said Kokrak.

The timing couldn’t be better. The CJ Cup moved from South Korea this year to Shadow Creek because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Kokrak is an ambassador for MGM Resorts, which owns the prestigious Tom Fazio design.

“It feels like home,” Kokrak said. “I’ve played this golf course enough that I should know it by now.”

Kokrak began to pull away with four straight birdies on the front nine, and birdie putts from 20 feet and 18 feet to start the back nine stretched his lead to two shots.

Schauffele answered with three straight birdies, the last one a 45-footer by using his putter from the thick collar of the 13th green. Then, it was a matter of who blinked first.

That turned out to be Schauffele on the par-5 16th, when he only managed to advance his shot from deep rough left of the fairway some 85 yards into more rough. Swinging with all his might, his third shot peeled off to the right into more rough well below the green, and he made his only bogey in his round of 66.

Kokrak also was in the left rough, hacked out to the right rough and put his third shot in the bunker. But he splashed it out to just inside 4 feet and made par for a one-shot lead, and Schauffele couldn’t catch up.

Kokrak, a 35-year-old from Ohio, all but clinched the victory when he drilled his drive into the fairway on the par-5 18th, leaving only a short iron to 25 feet. He two-putted for his final birdie of a round he won’t soon forget.

Russell Henley, who began the final round with a three-shot lead, never got anything going early and fell behind when he bogeyed the par-5 seventh while Kokrak was on his early run of birdies.

Henley’s hopes ended on the reachable par-4 11th when he drove over the green into thick rough and, facing a downhill chip, left it in the rough short of the green and made bogey on the second-easiest scoring hole at Shadow Creek. That put him four shots behind, and a late push of birdies was never going to be enough.

He closed with a 70 and tied for third with Tyrrell Hatton, who was coming off a victory last week in the European Tour’s BMW PGA Championship. Hatton closed with a 65.

Kokrak played bogey-free on a course where trouble was never too far away. Justin Thomas, within five shots of the lead, has two straight bogeys on the front nine and three more in a four-hole stretch on the back for a 74. Rory McIlroy was headed for a good finish until he made a pair of bogeys and two double bogeys over the last five holes for a 74.

Making it even tougher on Kokrak and Schauffele was that Jason Day, the third in their group, withdrew on the second holebecause of a neck injury. That meant a twosome amidst a course filled with threesomes, and a lot of waiting. They still played at the highest level, with Kokrak delivering all the key putts.

CHAMPIONS TOUR: Phil Mickelson became the third player to win his first two starts on the PGA Tour Champions, slamming the door on Mike Weir with a back-nine surge in the Dominion Energy Charity Classic in Richmond, Virginia.

Mickelson closed with a 7-under 65 to finish at 17-under 199, three strokes better than second-round leader Weir, another 50-year-old left-hander who had a 71.

Mickelson was a stroke off the tournament record set last year by Miguel Angel Jimenez.

The winner in late August at Ozarks National in Missouri in his first start on the 50-and-over tour, Mickelson joined Bruce Fleischer and Jim Furyk as the only players to win in their first two senior events. Fleischer accomplished the feat in 1999, and Furyk did it this year.

Mickelson plans to return to the PGA Tour for the upcoming event – the Zozo Championship in California. After a week off, he’ll play in the Houston Open as his final preparation for the Masters on Nov. 12-15.

EUROPEAN TOUR: Spanish golfer Adrian Otaegui captured his first stroke-play title by shooting 9-under 63 in the final round of the Scottish Championship in Fife, Scotland.

Otaegui made eight birdies in an 11-hole stretch to overtake third-round leader Matt Wallace, who shot a 71 and finished four shots back. Otaegui’s previous two wins on the European Tour were match-play events.

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