Simpson holds on to big lead for win at Players
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Webb Simpson wasn’t at his best in Sunday’s final round of The Players Championship.
He was still plenty good enough to conquer the toughest field in golf, rule over the demanding Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass and win the PGA Tour’s flagship event by four shots.
After a tour de force performance the first three days, where he built up a seven-shot, 54-hole lead with rounds of 6under-par 66, a course-record-tying 63 and a 68, Simpson steadied himself after a shaky start Sunday and polished off his victory with a 73 to finish at 18 under and four shots clear of Charl Schwartzel, Jimmy Walker and Xander Schauffele. Another stroke back in fifth were Jason Day and Jason Dufner.
Another winner was Justin Thomas, who shot 66 and supplanted Dustin Johnson as the world’s No. 1 player. And reigning U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka holed out from 208 yards on the
par-5 16th for the fourth albatross in tournament history en route to shooting
63 and tying for 11th.
But the day — and the week — belonged to Simpson.
“It was tough. Being in that position is harder than I thought,” said Simpson, who was aware that no one in PGA Tour history had ever squandered a sevenshot lead after 54 holes. “It’s hard to stay motivated with a big lead, hard to continue to do what you’ve been doing, but I got it done.”
It was Simpson’s first victory since the fall of 2013 when he won in Las Vegas.
Another player who is confident about winning for the first time since
2013 is Tiger Woods. The former world No. 1 shot 65-69 on the weekend. After making the cut on the number and being
11 shots behind heading into the final round, he got within four before falling back after a bogey on the 14th and hitting his first shot into the water on the
par-3 17th in 13 years. Woods finished at
11 under and in a tie for 11th.
“I played really good today. I hit it so good. It was nice. I had control of it from tee to green; I made some putts; I felt good on basically every facet of the game,” Woods said. “And it’s weird, not to really mishit a shot today and only shoot 3-under par is just weird, because I played much better than that.”
And he’s playing much better than he thought he would be at this time following spinal fusion surgery last April. This was his seventh start of the year, and he’s full of confidence going forward.
“There’s no way I would have predicted I would be at this point the beginning of the year, the way I was just coming back and just trying to get a feel for it and then hopefully have a schedule,” Woods said. “I just didn’t know. But now I feel like I’ve got my playing feels and I’m playing tournament golf. I’m not that far off from winning golf tournaments.”
Simpson’s win — which came with a $1.98 million check, the largest in golf — was the fifth in his career, a huge addi- tion to his résumé that includes the 2012 U.S. Open. It was his first in 107 starts, however, as he spent years trying to overcome putting woes that mounted after golf ’s governing bodies outlawed anchoring.
“To be at the bottom of the barrel like we were, I didn’t know if he’d ever putt well again,” said Simpson’s caddie, Paul Tesori, who noted that Simpson fell more than 100 spots in the putting rankings over the years. “When you putt that poorly for that length of time and you play at this level, you can’t hide. To look at him now, it’s nothing short of miraculous.”
Simpson’s putting reversal began at last year’s Players when he bumped into Tim Clark, who also anchored the putter. Clark suggested Simpson try the claw method. The new way clicked as Simpson tied for 16th, and he kept tinkering and added his style where he pinned the shaft of the putter against his left forearm.
“If it hadn’t been for my faith, it would have been a lot harder to get through,” Simpson said. “I love this golf tournament, and it was here last year where I got that lesson, so I think it’s pretty special that a year later we come out with a victory. This is one that I do want to celebrate with the team and just reinforce that it’s a group effort.”