Valspar champ has waited for this a long time
PALM HARBOR, Fla. — Nearly 90 minutes before the Valspar Championship officially was in the books late Sunday afternoon, Paul Casey had positioned himself as the leader in the clubhouse, having shot a flawless final-round 6-under 65 to finish 10-under.
Then came the hard part: the waiting. Casey sat in the clubhouse locker room in agony waiting for someone — most notably the resurgent and rejuvenated Tiger Woods — to overtake him and steal victory from his grasp. But it never happened. Woods could get no closer than 9-under and Patrick Reed, who was tied with Casey at 10-under as he stood on the 18th green a two-putt away from forcing a playoff, made a stunning mess of the final hole.
Reed’s birdie putt never made it all the way up the hill and rolled right back to beyond where he was standing. That forced him to chip over a spit of fringe for par to tie Casey, and he failed to hole it. “I just didn’t hit it hard enough, obviously,” a dejected Reed said of the first putt. “I absolutely killed it, and the ball rolled back down to where it was. I knew there was no way I could putt it [again]. It had to be a chip.”
A chip that missed going in by less than a foot, leaving Reed with a shocking bogey and one shot short of the playoff.
“Yeah,” Reed said. “It’s disappointing.”
Reed’s disappointment was Casey’s euphoria.
The 40-year-old Casey, who was five shots out of the lead entering the final round, has 13 career European Tour victories but had only one in the U.S. before Sunday — the 2009 Houston Open. The Valspar was the 150th tournament Casey had played since that ’09 win in Houston.
“It’s probably not the most significant win of my career, but it’s certainly one of the most satisfying,” Casey said.
When Woods reached the scorer’s trailer after his round, he intersected with Casey and congratulated him with an embrace, a big smile and a few words of encouragement.
“We’ve been friends and competitors for a long, long time,” Casey said. “It’s the only time he’s congratulated me immediately after a victory. Normally it’s the other way around. That’s something special. Just really cool, great experience.”
It was an experience Casey has not basked in for what he termed “too long.”
“It means a lot,” he said. “It’s very satisfying — probably more satisfying is the fact that it was on a week where Tiger played some good golf and got to see some amazing stuff. It just was a great week — the buzz, everything about it, the course, I loved it.”
He loved everything but the waiting.
“Awful … rubbish,” Casey said, describing the wait. “I’ve not been in that position many times. I expected guys to continue to make birdies. I think when I finished, I expected somebody to kind of get to 11-under because there were still a couple of par-5s to play.”
Asked if he doubted himself during the eight-year wait since his previous PGA Tour win, Casey said: “Yes. I’d be lying to you if I didn’t say there wasn’t.”
The keys to Casey’s win included improved putting (he needed only 21 putts Sunday) and his play at the “Snake Pit,’’ the Copperhead Course’s final stretch of holes 16, 17 and 18.
In Saturday’s round, Casey hit a shot in the water and took double bogey on 16. On Sunday, he was flawless through the treacherous stretch.
“The cleanups on 16, 17 and 18 were fantastic,” Casey said. “I have not done that in a long time, and that’s the difference. I messed up the closing stretch [Saturday]. I got bitten in the Snake Pit.’’
This time, it was Casey who took a bite out of it, and he finished ahead of everyone in the field — most notably Woods.
Asked if it’s still “a big deal” to beat Woods, Casey said: “Yes. I’m sure I’ll find a photo somewhere with my name above his.”