On a day when Jordan Spieth’s trip to the winner’s circle or Adam Schenk’s first win was inevitable, it was Taylor Moore who took a 10-point lead below to claim his first title. on the PGA Tour at the 2023 Valspar Championship. Starting the day at two strokes and two groups before the final pairing, the sophomore PGA Tour golfer played as if he were a seasoned veteran. experience at Copperhead Course in Innisbrook with an excellent record of 4 under 67.
Moore’s day began in a relatively casual fashion with a birdie at the opening par-5 before a string of five consecutive pars. That would be as boring as his round would be as a bogey-birdie exchange near the first leg saw Arkansas Razorback take the 7th under-7 lead for the tournament and with the goal The goal is to perform a stun phase.
This was followed by a difficult birdie on the 12th hole, and before Moore knew it, his odds of winning had skyrocketed. While Spieth and Schenk had their own moments in between their backshots – namely the 71-foot birdie from Schenk on the 12th – Moore had the advantage of leading the clubhouse and waiting. wait.
However, for this strategy to work, Moore must hit the right golf swing at the right time. He did it with a laser tee on the 15th par-3 to set up a birdie and another unlikely birdie switch on the 16th most difficult par-4 to score. under 10.
A pair of pars on the last two holes gave Moore the lead in the club, and only then did the real madness of the month begin.
Still needing help from the people behind, the unannounced loser got it when the last pair reached the Dangerous Snake Hole. Spieth, the tournament’s favorite athlete, made his biggest mistake of the week at the most inopportune moment when his tee shot on the 16th was flooded. Still able to recover for the bogey, Spieth faced a birdie on one of his last two holes. When his 7-foot birdie on the 17th missed, Moore dodged a bullet.
Schenk, the overnight lead, tried his best to maintain the spotlight with a couple of key saves on the 16th and 17th but sealed his faith with a ill-advised tee-ball on the 16th and 17th. Day 18. Hitting a quick hook from the tee, Schenk found his ball so close to a tree that he had no other choice for a second shot but a left-hander. When his equal effort yielded too much speed and dashed through the hole, the title officially went to Moore.
Victory couldn’t have come at a better time for Moore. As a player ranked 103rd in the Official World Golf Rankings and 53rd in the FedEx Cup earlier in the week, he is one of many members of the PGA Tour’s middle class. While some may feel uneasy about the changes to the 2024 schedule, Moore has proven that one person’s play can erase all worries.
With his victory, the 29-year-old tennis player will receive a ticket to the first major of the year, the Masters 2023 in two weeks. He’s up 49 places in the FedEx Cup and is ninth ahead of the likes of Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa and Patrick Cantlay. Moore’s efforts in the Tampa area have taken him to the next level, and if the rest of his career is anything like the number nine defender at Innisbrook on Sunday, it’s likely he’ll be there. back there. Grade A
Here is a breakdown of the rest of the standings at the 2023 Valspar Championship
T3. Jordan Spieth (-8): For much of the day, it felt as if Spieth reigned supreme for a second time at the Copperhead Course. Playing a “boring” round by his standards, Spieth’s first 15 holes had 3 birdies and 12 pars. Trouble came when he made a misdirected tee shot on the 16th, and while he saved the bogey, the damage was down.
“I did two terrible turns today,” says Spieth. “I won game 6 and didn’t lose game 16. I fought hard from there and made a nice bogey, then some nice shots in the last pair, and that 18th pawn was brutal. there. You can’t rely on having to birdie that hole on that peg.”
A missed opportunity on the 17th decided his fate, but Spieth didn’t lose everything. He continues to hit his irons to the full and makes several important putts over the long haul, solving any potential putter problems. His eyes are certainly on Augusta National, but one has to wonder: If Spieth can’t take down Moore and Schenk, will his game stack up like Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm’s? Grade B
T3. Tommy Fleetwood (-8): Entering the final round of Sunday, Fleetwood entered the final round of a professional event in the top 5 nearly 40 times. On average, he won 0.5 over the course in those performances, winning four of them and losing the rest. That’s not terrible, but it’s not great either. He didn’t thrive in those scenarios. To give you an example of some of the other real numbers of SG players that have fallen into those groups, here they are.
- Bryson DeChambeau: 2.0
- Fony Finau: 1.9
- Jon Rahm: 1.9
- Dustin Johnson: 1.8
- Rory McIlroy: 1.8
- Justin Thomas: 1.4
- Rickie Fowler: 0.9
- Jordan Spieth: 0.8
Fleetwood is clearly a really good golfer, and he’s been playing brilliantly all week, but until he can finish a tournament on the PGA Tour, there’s bound to be some question marks. Does that do justice to the amount of money he has won on the DP World Tour? I don’t know, but they will continue to exist. Class B-
6. Burnt Sam (-5): Burns has now lost to five golfers in his last three Valspars games. He had a monster finishing kick in which he shot the second inning of the day on Sunday and started to climb up the leaderboard a bit with the leads at the front nine. . He was way too far behind on the last 18 holes to make any real noise, but this is a really nice result for him after the upcoming MC-MC-T35 stretch. check out the regulations at the Riv – “it’s been a rough couple of weeks, trying to figure out something I like” – and it looks like he’s finally done it. Burns finished in the top 15 in driving this week and appears to be back on track. Grade A-
T10. Justin Thomas (-3): JT had a good week after the lousy Players Championship. His iron play has really stabilized in the last month after the Riviera, but placing is still a bit of a concern at the start masters. It’s something to watch out for at Match Play in Austin next week as he finishes his final prep for Augusta. To better understand his week, his tee-to-green play is better than Spieth’s. If he hits the ball, he can win. It’s a pretty good place to be, but at some point you really have to hit the ball. Grade: B+
MC. Matt Fitzpatrick (+3): So far, there hasn’t been a year that people have come to expect from Fitzpatrick. He hit a 9 on the third hole of the golf tournament, got knocked out at 42, and never recovered. Fitz has struggled with a number of neck injuries in the first few months of 2023 and has not made it into the top 10 since placing 7th at the League of Champions in January. That was unsettling going into the major championship season, and Fitzpatrick didn’t have much time to regain his fitness and his play was in a position favorable to Augusta. Grade: D-
