Simpson’s Tour drought ends with masterful effort

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Webb Simpson is a very religious person, so it was fitting that fate had so much to do with one of the most important victories of his career.

Simpson won the Players Championship on Sunday, shooting a final-round 73 to win by four shots at TPC Sawgrass.

Charl Schwartzel, Xander Schauffele and Jimmy Walker finished tied for second, but none was a factor in pushing Simpson, who owned this tournament all week.

It had been 107 starts in a span of about 4 ¹/2 years since Simpson’s last win.

When Simpson finally capped off the victory, he met his wife, Taylor Dowd, on the 18th green and buried his head in her shoulder as they embraced and said, “It’s been a long time. We did it. I love you.’’ “It was tough,’’ Simpson said of the final round. “Being in that position is a lot harder than I thought. You would think having a seven-shot lead would be easy, but it’s hard to stay motivated to continue what you’ve been doing. But I was able to get it done.’’

Given the record lead Simpson took with him to the first tee, his victory was as close to a given as you can get in golf. No player in PGA Tour history, after all, had ever taken a seven-shot lead into the final round and lost.

But Simpson’s journey to his first victory since 2014 is what made watching him hoist the trophy Sunday so meaningful.

Had it not been for a series of significant events in Simpson’s life, Sunday’s fifth career victory would not have been possible. So often in sports, these things that occur in an athlete’s journey, as small as they might seem at the time, make all the difference.

The first of these fateful events for Simpson was connecting with veteran caddie Paul Tesori in 2010 after Tesori had been fired by Sean O’Hair. He and Simpson found each other and the two have been together since, share similar strong religious beliefs and have become like family. Tesori is from St. Augustine, about a 30minute drive from Sawgrass, and estimates he has played the Stadium Course more than 700 times. Simpson called Tesori “the mayor” because of his local ties, saying, “He can’t get from the putting green to the range without getting stopped a few times. Everybody loves him.” Another crucial event that turned Simpson’s golfing life around took place a year ago this week, on the eve of the 2017 Players Championship when 2010 Players winner Tim Clark talked Simpson into using a claw grip on his putting. “It was on the putting green last year … and Tim asked me how I’ve been putting,’’ Simpson recalled. “I told him, ‘Pretty inconsistent.’ He asked me had I ever tried the claw grip, and I said no. So I tried it. I liked it. So, thanks to Tim I started putting better last year.’’ Simpson, the 2012 U.S. Open winner, had plummeted from 34th on the Tour’s strokes gained putting in 2014 to 177th in the first year of the USGA’s 2016 ban of the anchored putter Simpson had been so successful with. Simpson was 88th in strokes gained putting last year and entered this week at the Players ranked 10th this season. “To be at bottom of the barrel like we were after 2 ¹/2 years I got to the point were I didn’t know if he’d ever putt well again,’’ Tesori said. “And a year ago Wednesday, right here, Tim Clark puts that claw on him. And look at him now — a top-10 putter on Tour. It’s nothing short of miraculous for us.’’ Asked where he would be had he not had that random moment with Clark on the TPC putting green last year, Simpson shook his head. “I don’t know,’’ he said. “I’m really thankful that he was here that day and thought to himself he should say something. I wasn’t going in a good direction. It was a couple years of struggle up and down. I’m very thankful that he gave me that lesson. Every day that I putt well, I’m just thankful that I had another day.’’