A week after he bogeyed the 72nd hole lose the Players Championship by a single strokeMatthew Fitzpatrick flipped the script with a birdie of the final hole to win the Valspar Championship by one.
Fitzpatrick — who had never hit No. 18 at Innisbrook’s Copperhead Course in 11 previous attempts — found the fairway at the finish and hit his approach 13 feet, setting up a look at 3. He dropped that shot into the center of the hole, punctuating the moment with an emphatic uppercut.
When David Lipsky’s birdie attempt ended up just short of the hole about 10 minutes later, Fitzpatrick’s victory was official.
“I think the big thing was that I felt like I was playing well,” Fitzpatrick said of his Players Championship comeback. “I was playing well this week, obviously I wanted to continue that and I felt like I had the confidence in myself to do that. Then obviously to do that in four rounds was special this week.”
He was sitting in the white-walled Notes trailer when he got the news, then shared emotional FaceTimes with his wife and parents before speaking with NBC’s Kira Dixon.
“I haven’t seen (his wife) Katherine in three weeks, so I’m really excited to go back and see her; and my parents are coming out in a week or so. Yeah, they’re just such special people in my life and, yeah, I’m really excited to share this with them,” he said in that interview.
Fitzpatrick’s latest worldwide victory came to the DP World Championship last fall, but it was his first PGA Tour win in nearly three years — since 2023 RBC Heritage.
“Every win is great. For me, just getting over the line is always tough,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s very hard to win here. Three wins now here is something that, you know, I definitely want a lot more, and more and more big wins. So yeah, winning this week is a big step forward.”
A Fitzpatrick-Lipsky showdown was hardly the expected story of the final round. Sunday’s final pairing had set up an unlikely duel between Brandt Snedeker, the 45-year-old President’s Cup captain with conditional PGA Tour status, and Sungjae Im, who had been out for months due to camp and injury. The two were a combined zero for six in cuts made this season. I hold a two-shot lead over Snedeker and Lipsky, with Fitzpatrick lurking one shot back.
But Im was erratic early, making five bogeys and five pars in his opening 10 holes as the rest of the contenders blew by him, making him the fourth straight 54-hole Florida Swing leader to go into the final round. Snedeker stumbled on the back nine; he was even par through 11 holes but five the rest of the way to fall to T18.
“This golf course, it’s a perfectly designed golf course, if you get out of position it will punish you. All those shots I made all week dried up today,” Snedeker said. “It’s frustrating, it’s disgusting and all the good stuff this week feels like I threw it away today. But that’s part of golf, that’s why I enjoy this challenge and I’ll come back next week and try to figure out what I did wrong and try to fix it.”
That left the door open for Fitzpatrick, who somehow survived Saturday AND Sunday no bogey. His last round wasn’t perfect; he bogeyed none of the course’s four par-5s. But he shattered some par expectations, held a clean slate and carded 15 and 18 to seal the deal.
“I was feeling frustrated all day that I hadn’t done anything. Obviously to do something there on the 15th and to open that long on the 18th all the way to secure the win was an amazing feeling,” he said.
Jordan Smith finished tied for third after one of the day’s rounds, a five-under 66 that moved him into the clubhouse lead with nine under.
Xander Schauffele shot a 65 to finish T4 a week after his third-place finish at the Players; he finished tied with Im and Marco Penge, who entered the top 10 of his season.
“Just relax, maybe take a few days off next week,” said Schauffele, who is in good form entering the big league season. “Then some sort of device for Augusta.”
Patrick Cantlay was part of a group that finished T7; it was his first top 10 since last August … Jordan Spieth finished T11, his third top-12 in four starts … Gary Woodland finished T14 on the week after an emotional interview as he continues to battle both his physical and emotional health… Brooks Koepka finished T18, his third straight top-20 since returning to the PGA Tour.
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