UNDER RADAR NO MORE
Taylor Moore was never really the star attraction Sunday at the Valspar Championship until he had finished hitting all the right shots and posed with the trophy for his first PGA Tour title that sends him to the Masters.
Adam Schenk and Jordan Spieth provided enough compelling theater for so much of the day, locked in a battle on the back nine of the Copperhead course at Innisbrook in Palm Harbor, Fla.
When it was over, all they shared was misfortune.
Moore surged into the mix with a 9-iron to 5 feet for birdie on the 15th hole and a 25-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole, followed by two tough pars for a 4-under 67.
That turned out to be a winner when Spieth hit his tee shot into the water on the 16th and Schenk, going for his first PGA Tour victory, hit a drive on the final hole that settled next to a large pine tree. He made bogey and finished one shot behind.
Moore, who grew up outside Oklahoma City, was on the practice range anticipating a playoff when he realized he had won at 10-under 274.
“I might have been under the radar to some people watching, but I felt like I was in the golf tournament from the time I teed off today and was just excited to control what I could control and get it done,” Moore said.
The victory sends him to the Masters in three weeks, a welcome addition to his schedule.
Spieth was tied for the lead when he sent his tee shot into the water on the 16th and managed to stay in the game by getting up-anddown from 163 yards to salvage bogey. On the par-3 17th, which yielded only two birdies all day, Spieth hit 4iron to 6 feet — only to miss the birdie putt.
Tommy Fleetwood was part of a three-way tie early on the back nine until he took bogey on the par-5 14th. Spieth didn’t realize anyone else was in the mix.
“I thought it was me and Adam. I thought it was down to us two,” Spieth said. “I was thinking it was Tommy one back of us with a few holes to go and so I thought we could still kind of control it from the last group. Then I saw 10 (under) was posted walking off 16 green.”
The real heartbreak belonged to Schenk, whose wife flew down to Florida for the final round a month before she is due with their first child. Schenk holed a 70-foot birdie putt on the 12th hole. He made tough par saves on the 16th and 17th holes to stay tied.
On the 18th, however, he pulled his tee shot to the left. It was roughly the same line as Moore had hit his tee shot earlier, only Schenk’s ball rolled through the gallery and stopped next to a pine tree.
“Wish I could have lightly hit somebody and stayed where I had a chance to get to the green, but it did not, and I didn’t deserve it,”
Schenk said.
His only shot was hitting an inverted gap wedge lefthanded, and it was a dandy, shooting across the fairway into the rough. His third shot came up just short of a ridge and rolled onto the fringe 40 feet away. The par putt to force a playoff hit the hole, but had too much pace and hopped out.
Schenk, playing for the 10th consecutive week so he can take time off when his son is born, closed with a 70.
“It stinks to get so close,” he said.
Spieth missed a par putt on the 18th that was worth FedEx Cup points and money, signed for a 70 and tied for third with Fleetwood.
Els denies Langer
Ernie Els kept making birdies no matter how he gripped the putter, and it carried him to a 6-under 65 to win the Hoag Classic in Newport Beach and deny
Bernhard Langer a chance at setting the career victory mark on the PGA Tour Champions.
Els started the final round five shots behind Langer when the big South African rolled in three straight birdie putts to get in the mix, and he closed it out with a 65-yard bunker shot to 12 feet and a birdie on the 18th hole about the time Langer began to falter.
Langer has 45 career wins on the PGA Tour Champions, tied for the most with
Hale Irwin.
The 65-year-old German began the final round with a one-shot lead and picked up an early birdie. He was still tied for the lead when he made two bogeys on the back nine, and failed to make birdie on the par 5s.
Langer finished with a 2over 73 and tied for seventh, three shots behind.
He is in the field next week in Rancho Mirage, where he gets another shot at the record.
“It’s disappointing to shoot 73,” Langer said. “Obviously, Ernie had a great day, so my hat’s off to him, but I had a two-shot lead at one point in the round and would have loved to play a little better.”
Elsewhere
Danny Lee birdied his final two holes for a 2-under 69 and then won LIV Golf Tucson on the second hole of a four-man playoff by making a 25-foot birdie putt from off the 18th green for his first win in nearly eight years.
It was the second playoff in LIV Golf since the Saudifunded series began last year. Dustin Johnson won the playoff outside Boston last year.
Lee finished at 9-under 275 and got into the playoff with Carlos Ortiz (65),
Brendan Steele (70) and
Louis Oosthuizen (70). Oosthuizen bogeyed the par-5 17th to fall one behind, only to birdie the 18th to join the playoff.
Matthew Baldwin claimed his maiden title on the European tour by closing with a 4-under 68 for a seven-shot victory at the SDC Championship in South Africa.