Spieth Takes Valspar Championship in Playoff


A trio of Texans battled it out Sunday at the Valspar Championship. In the end, Dallas native Jordan Spieth sank a clutch 28-foot birdie putt on the third sudden-death playoff hole to win the $5.9 million PGA Tour event on the difficult Copperhead course at Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Fla.

Spieth was seemingly destined to win his second Tour title; his first also came in a playoff at the 2013 John Deere Classic. The gritty 21-year-old closed with a 2-under 69 to end up tied in regulation with Sean O'Hair of Lubbock and San Antonio's Patrick Reed at 10-under 274.

All three players had par-4s on the first two playoff holes, the 18th and 16th, before going to the 195-yard par-3 17th. Reed carded four birdies on the back nine - including the 72nd hole - for a 66 to reach the playoffs. The 24-year-old then had made escapes for amazing pars on the first two playoff holes.

But Reed's drive on the 17th landed in the front bunker while O'Hair and Spieth safely found the green.

Reed splashed out close, setting the stage for O'Hair, who could have won on the first playoff hole but his 10-foot birdie attempt lipped out. At the 17th, the 32-year-old - who got into the tournament on a sponsor's exemption as a previous winner (in 2008 when it was called the PODS Championship) and closed with a 67 - came up short on his birdie try.

Spieth then ended it the proceedings by rolling in a difficult, side-hill 28-footer for the winning birdie. He was a master of the up-and-down Sunday, extricating his ball time and again from the gnarly rough around Copperhead's greens and needing only 28 putts in 21 holes.

The victory, worth $1.062 million and 500 FedEx Cup points, makes Spieth only the fourth Tour player in the past 75 years to get two wins before reaching the age of 22. It will also move him to seventh in the World Golf Rankings, which will be released Monday.

"It was a crazy back nine being down three with six holes to play," an excited Spieth said at greenside. "Just the scrambling coming in. Those par saves coming in. That putt was just luck, if that doesn't hit the hole I have a four-foot slider. I guess it was my day."

Spieth added that while being spurred on by the crowd and the tight competition, he needed to be calm, giving thanks to his caddie Michael Greller. "You want to feed off the energy of the crowd. You want to have it all be positive. You can't have any negative thoughts in your head. That's what gets me sometimes. That's what Michael was so good at today. Under this kind of pressure, these fans were unbelievable from the get-go today."

O'Hair, who logged his first top-10 in his past 65 starts and came into the event ranked 401st in the world, believed he'd won on the first extra hole. "I thought that putt on 18 was great. It just wasn't meant to be."

As for the playoff, Reed was pleased with his scrambling skills but knew that he needed a birdie to secure his fifth Tour title and second this year following his playoff victory over Jimmy Walker in January's Hyundai Tournament of Champions. "It had to be a matter of time when someone was going to make a birdie, and unfortunately I was 0 for 3 on the three playoff holes on hitting the greens," the 24-year-old said of his erratic play. "So, I really didn't have much of a chance. Someone was going to."

The top-ranked player in the field, No. 3 Henrik Stenson, just missed out in joining the playoff. The tall Swede birdied Nos. 15-17 but couldn't close with four in a row, finishing with a 4-under 67 and taking solo fourth at 9-under 275.

Also failing to play extra holes was third-round leader Ryan Moore, who started Sunday with a one-stroke edge over the field. The 32-year-old from Tacoma carded a birdie on the first hole before posting two bogeys in a row on Nos. 2 and 3. But on the par-4 fifth, Moore struck the shot of the day, holing out from 172 yards for an unlikely eagle.

From that point forward, however, the four-time Tour winner struggled, recording two birdies and four bogeys on the back nine for a 72. It was Moore's first round in the 60s during the tournament.

"It was a tough day out there," a disappointed Moore said. "For me, just the putter was ice cold today. I had plenty of opportunities. I hit some great shots. You know, I had a lot of good chances, I just didn't capitalize on them and kind of ran out of steam."

Ending up in sixth at 278 was Troy Merritt (66), while tied for seventh another stroke back were New Zealand's Danny Lee (67) and Americans Jason Kokrak (68) and Luke Guthrie (68).

Harris English fired the low score of the day, a 6-under 65, to rise into a share of 10th at 280 with fellow Americans Kevin Na (66), Charles Howell III (68), Daniel Summerhays (71) and Justin Thomas (68), England's Brian Davis (69) and Fiji's Vijay Singh (71).

Derek Ernst began the last round trailing Moore by just two strokes. But the 24-year-old Californian couldn't get going Sunday, closing with a 4-over 75 to drop into a tie for 17th at 281 with six others.

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