Haas stumbled again and bogeyed the 18th hole in the playoff and Schwartzel parred it to claim victory at the Valspar Championship.
Advertisement
Schwartzel, who last won the Masters on American soil in 2011, has now won three times in his last seven worldwide starts.
Schwartzel, playing the 177-yard par-3, drained a 64-foot putt for birdie to move to 5-under for the tournament and inch closer to leader Bill Haas.
Schwartzel had to overcome a two-shot deficit on his opponent with three holes left to play, but a Haas bogey on the 16th paved the way for the 31-year-old to draw level. Schwartzel still put together the round of the day, a four-under par 67 that helped him erase the five-shot deficit with which he began the day.
While the win will boost Schwartzel’s confidence going into next month’s Masters, world number one Jordan Spieth has some work to do as he tunes up for his title defence at Augusta. “You know, I’ve always dreamt of just getting a tee time here on Thursday”. But then again, I hit a great iron at 17 and a decent iron at 18, and I thought I made the putt to win.
“Charl had the mentality of needing to shoot a good score, and he did, and that was a hard thing to do”, Haas said. Haas held a three-shot lead at one point during the final round of the Valspar Championship, but it wasn’t enough to hold off Schwartzel.
“It was even more fun than you can possibly imagine with it being my home course, being in contention on Sunday playing with the No. 1 player in the world who is an absolute gentleman all day long”, McCoy said.
Schwartzel has another American win, and the first major is around the corner – the Masters, where he first rose to fame. He shot 73 and finished at par 284.
“I think everyone’s goal is to keep bogeys off the card”, Schwartzel said when he finished his regulation round.
Spieth settled for par on the par-5 opening hole, and then was forced to take a penalty stroke on his way to a bogey after his tee shot on the second hole ended up in an unplayable lie.
Credit also has to go to amateur Lee McCoy, 22, who played alongside Spieth and whose 69 earned him fourth place at Innisbrook, while another underdog was also shining on the other side of the world, where world No798 Piya Swangarunporn defied his lowly ranking to finish second in the Thailand Classic after a course record final round of 63.
Yates, who lives on the Black Mountain course, signed off with a two-under-par 70 as he chalked up his first top-10 finish in a European Tour event for almost nine years.
Advertisement
“There’s nothing like that that gets you pumped like winning”, Schwartzel said.
