Moore delivers surprise at Innisbrook
PALM HARBOR, Fla. – Taylor Moore delivered the clutch shots to move into contention, closed with a 4-under 67 and won the Valspar Championship on Sunday when he avoided the mistakes that cost Jordan Spieth and Adam Schenk.
In only his second year on the PGA Tour, the 29-year-old who grew up outside Oklahoma City is now headed to the Masters next month.
He was on the practice range preparing for a playoff and missed a wild finish on the Copperhead course at Innisbrook.
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-and-down from 163 yards to salvage bogey. On the par-3 17th, which yielded only two birdies all day, Spieth hit 4-iron to 6 feet – only to miss the birdie putt.
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.
His only shot was hitting an inverted gap wedge left-handed, 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.
Spieth was entertaining as ever. He made a 10-foot birdie putt at the par-5 14th to regain a share of the lead with
Schenk. But his worst swing of the day came at the worst time, the 16th hole with water down the right side.
Spieth made a 15-foot bogey putt, only to miss the great birdie chance on the next hole – no one hit it closer than his shot all day – and then his approach to the 18th missed by about a foot of getting to the top shelf for a good look at birdie. He missed a par putt on the 18th that was worth FedEx Cup points and money, signed for a 70 and tied for third with Tommy Fleetwood.
Fleetwood (70) also had a share of the lead on the back nine. His round came undone on the par-5 14th hole when he went for the green in two. He pulled it left and caught a brutal lie in the downslope of the sand.
He could only advance that in the big bunker, blasted out to about 15 feet and missed the par putt. He never caught up again. No one was paying all that much attention to Moore until the 29-year-old who played at Arkansas started hitting one quality shot after another. He stuffed his approach to 2 feet on No. 12 for a birdie.
LIV Golf
MARANA, Ariz. – 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 on Sunday 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 Saudi-funded 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.
Lee nearly squandered a great chance to win on the first playoff hole when he put his approach 5 feet from the hole on No. 18 on the first extra hole. He pushed it to the right.
Ortiz was eliminated after the first extra hole when he went long off the 18th green, chipped to 6 feet and missed the par putt.
European Tour
ST. FRANCIS BAY, South Africa – Matthew Baldwin claimed his maiden title on the European tour in style by storming to a seven-shot victory at the SDC Championship in South Africa.
Baldwin finished with a 4-under 68 on the St. Francis Links course for 18 under overall as his challengers fell away.
Spain’s Adri Arnaus finished second with a 5-under 67 taking him to 11 under.