2022 Valspar Championship standings, divisions: Sam Burns wins consecutive titles at Innisbrook
Sam Burns held on to the field by making a save after a save on Sunday at the 2022 Valspar Championship. He then knocked out Davis Riley in the playoffs with a birdie from the range. deep will be considered one of the best putts of the year.
The win for Burns was his second in a row at the tournament and it was a thrilling finish like the PGA Tour has had the whole season.
The burn is perfect for 16 holes. He made multiple pars between 9-12 feet to keep his downhill run and open the holes he was supposed to hit all while playing with Justin Thomas in the second to last group on the top. yard, right in front of Matthew NeSmith and Riley. On the 17th, he made the mistake of letting his bunker shot near the green and getting his chip past the 9-foot hole. But again, another shot in that 9-12 foot range – this time to save the bogey – kept the trophy alive for Burns.
Riley played that hole right after he tied everything in under 17 and both hit the final point to go to a playoff. As far as extra holes between PGA Tour players go, this is an underrated match. A pair of 25-year-olds from the SEC – Burns from LSU, Riley from Alabama) – one is already a star, the other is going in that direction. Two brilliant talents are trying to tackle the second PGA Tour trophy of the week.
After analyzing the double on the first playoff hole, the duo advanced to a nasty round of 16. The two looked more parsing-determined and another flawed as Riley left his approach 28 feet from the latch and Burns 33 feet away from him. But Burns buried it and delivered the punch “we’ll see this at the Ryder Cup at some point in the near future” pumping into his caddy player for his third win in the past 12 months.
“Davis played well today, especially the way he finished,” Burns told NBC. “Throw a hat to him. He played great. Travis and I were just trying to stay consistent today. We didn’t make a lot of mistakes. A lot of times on Sunday, if you can plan it out. my way – mix parsing, throw a few birdies here and there, a lot of times it works fine. … I’m very happy.”
It’s true that Riley did a good job. After hitting a triple (on par 5!) in the previous 9 on Sunday, he started back into the mix and made an extraordinary birdie on a nearly 200-yard par-3 17 just to get into the playoffs. . His fight is almost as good as the swing, and his pedigree tells me we’ll see a lot of both in the near and distant future on the PGA Tour.
Sunday is about Burns, though. It’s about his final hit and how, in the last year, he has gone from perhaps the best player on the PGA Tour without a win to a full-fledged star, even as he It’s not a familiar name. Get to know him. Review the highlights. Burns are big time. Not only did that come to fruition on Sunday with his second straight win here, but the victories are a public display of who the best player is. With three of his last 24 events, Burns is definitely among them. Grade: A+ (Riley Grade: A+)
Here’s the rest of our scores for the Valspar Championship.
T2. Justin Thomas (-16): JT leads the field in strokes from tee to green for the week and has a chance on Sunday. However, he ended the week with sixth in the top 10 in his last eight starts instead of his first win in just over a year. If you’re looking for a problem, there really isn’t a problem at all. Profit margins are very thin. JT hit very well, the way he is, and the pitch was solid this week. Look at it this way: If Thomas fails to play the 11th par-5, which he kicks every day this week, he’ll be in the playoffs against Burns and Riley with a hit for his first win since. from the 2021 Players’ Championship. He’ll win it soon if he keeps hitting it like this, and all the evidence we have about his career is that he’s going to keep hitting it. like this. Grade A
“I mean it’s coming,” Thomas said. “I just have to be patient and have the right mindset because you can’t force anything in this game. As soon as I start doing that, you’re going to go down some rabbit holes. I really do. I’m doing a lot. good things. I just have to keep putting myself there and it will start happening.”
First Cut Crew reacts to Sam Burns’ playoff win at the 2022 Valspar Championship. Watch and listen to The First Cut on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
T7. Sahith Theegala (-12): This week, Theegala had their best finish since their last win at the Phoenix Open over a month ago. The most impressive part of his performance at Innisbrook was that he finished second from tee to green against JT. He shot three 67s and 71s on Friday, which resulted in the difference between the position he finished and actually engaged on Sunday afternoon. I’m still excited about his future and how often he incorporated it in his first year on the PGA Tour. He’s ranked 164th in the world this week, but the top 10 here would push him closer to that top 100 ranking (he was ranked outside the top 1,100 at this time a year ago). Grade A
T39. Dustin Johnson (-5): After the DJ started off strong with a 67 on Thursday, I’m excited about his trajectory following that stunning 63 at TPC Sawgrass on Monday at The Players Championship. However, he played the next 54 in just 1 under and fell down the leaderboard with a T39 result. He will likely regain some lost momentum at next week’s WGC-Dell Match Play in Austin, but I was hoping he’d have more this week, especially with masters less than three weeks. The good news if you’re a DJ fan is that it was his putter that let him down a bit at Innisbrook, and that’s something he could easily return to from next week. Grade: OLD
