Tiger Woods comes up a putt short of playoff
Right when Paul Casey thought he was a winner in the Valspar Championship, he looked up at the TV and saw a scene that was all too familiar.
Tiger Woods, red shirt blazing Sunday, holed a 45-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole at Innisbrook that pulled him one shot back of Casey’s lead. Moments later, Woods settled over a birdie putt from just inside 40 feet that would have forced a playoff.
“I loved his putt on 17. That was amazing,” Casey said. “I thought he was going to hole the one on 18.”
Not this time. A long victory drought on the PGA Tour ended Sunday in Palm Harbor, Fla., just not the one most people were expecting.
Casey rallied from five shots behind. He ran off three straight birdies early on the back nine, closed with a 6-under-par 65 and won by one shot when Patrick Reed’s 45-foot putt rolled back to his feet on the 18th hole, and Woods came up a few feet short of a birdie putt on the final hole.
After Woods signed for a 1-under 70 — his first time since August 2013 that he tied for second with all four rounds under par — he worked his way toward Casey to congratulate him on his first PGA Tour title since the Houston Open in 2009, a span of 132 starts.
“It’s the only time he’s congratulated me immediately after a victory,” Casey said. “Normally, it’s the other way around.”
Woods opened with a twoputt birdie to briefly tie for the lead. That was his last birdie until he revved up the raucous crowd with his long birdie on the 17th, giving him his best chance to win since his back problems began not long after his most recent victory, the Bridgestone Invitational in August 2013.
This was his fourth PGA Tour event since returning from his fourth back surgery.
“I had a good shot at winning this golf tournament,” Woods said. “A couple of putts here and there, it could have been a different story.”
Two shots behind going to the back nine, with Casey running out of birdie chances, Woods failed to birdie both par-5s. He pulled a wedge into the left rough on No. 11 and three-putted from 80 feet on No. 14. He failed to make two birdie putts from the 15-foot range.
Casey, who finished at 10under 274, will rise to No. 12 in the world ranking.
Next up for Woods is the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, where he is an eighttime winner. The tournament begins Thursday.
“I felt very comfortable. My game was quite solid this entire week,” Woods said. “As a whole, I felt very good about what I did this week.” PGA Tour Champions: Vijay Singh got up-and-down for birdie with a putter from off the green on the final hole for a one-shot victory in the Toshiba Classic at Newport Beach (Orange County). The 55-yearold Hall of Famer edged Tommy Tolles, Tom Pernice Jr. and Scott McCarron to win for the first time as an individual on the PGA Tour Champions. European Tour: Matt Wallace birdied the first playoff hole against Andrew “Beef ” Johnston to win the Indian Open in New Delhia. Johnston shot a final-round 66, Wallace a 68. They finished at 11-under 277. Web.com Tour: Gunn-Palo Alto alum Martin Trainer, 26, shot a 3-under 69 to finish at 14-under 274 to win the El Bosque Mexico Championship in Leon by two shots over John Chin.