Schwartzel Claims Valspar Golf Championship

Coming up on five years since he won the Masters, Charl Schwartzel was starting to wonder if he would win again on American soil.

He didn't have much reason to think that would change Sunday at the Valspar Championship. Schwartzel was 5 shots behind going into the final round on an Innisbrook course that was tougher than ever, and he was 3 shots behind as he approached the toughest part of the Copperhead course.

What followed were extraordinary shots and a playoff victory over Bill Haas.

All it took was a 65-foot birdie across the green on the 13th. Schwartzel got up and down for birdie from a tough lie in the bunker. His go-for-broke pitch from a dicey lie on the edge of the bunker on the 16th hole allowed him to save par. Then he made a 25-foot birdie putt he couldn't afford to miss on the 17th.

Schwartzel closed with a 4-under 67 -- the best score Sunday -- and won on the first extra hole when Haas made bogey from a bunker.

 It is never wise to put too much credence into the results of one tournament, certainly one round of golf.

Jordan Spieth is well aware of that, even if he couldn't resist the urge at one point to fire back at a social media critic following the first round of the Valspar Championship.

But while Spieth saw positives during his four days at Innisbrook, he was also clearly miffed that, at a tournament where he was on the fringe of contention, he went the opposite direction during the final round on Sunday.

And he took the unusual step of panning -- along with himself -- caddie Michael Greller.

"Really poor from both me and Michael today,'' Spieth said after a 2-over-par 73 left him tied for 18th. "Our decisions cost us a few shots early and all the momentum. We both get the credit when things are going good and we're going to take the fall today.

"I hit the shots, but we made a couple decisions that make me look back and think, 'Wow, we got some stuff to talk about before we get ready to go to a major.' Bit of a bummer. But it's OK. We got plenty of time.''

Spieth did not elaborate in a short interview session, but he did point to being over par at the start of three of his four rounds in the tournament.

For the week, he bogeyed four of the par-5s. On Sunday, he failed to birdie the par-5 first, then he bogeyed the second hole after starting the round just 6 strokes back of third-round leader Bill Haas. Spieth hit just 38 of 72 greens in regulation for the tournament.