Fitzpatrick goes from disappointment to winning at Valspar Championship
Fitzpatrick managed to play bogey-free on a sunbaked Copperhead course at Innisbrook.
PALM HARBOR, Fla. — Matt Fitzpatrick put the disappointment of a close call at Sawgrass behind him Sunday when he birdied the 18th hole from just inside 15 feet to cap off a 3-under 68 and win the Valspar Championship by one shot over David Lipsky. Fitzpatrick managed to play bogey-free on a sunbaked Copperhead course at Innisbrook that ruined the hopes of so many others, from Sungjae Im to Presidents Cup captain Brandt Snedeker.
The final hour turned into a duel with Lipsky, the 37-year-old American who has won on four tours around the world but never on the PGA Tour. Fitzpatrick, who missed four birdie chances from inside 10 feet in a seven-hole stretch around the turn, holed a 30-foot birdie putt on the par-3 15th to take the lead, only for Lipsky — playing in the group behind him — to make a 7-foot birdie on the 14th to catch him. Fitzpatrick, who won the DP World Tour Championship to close out the European tour season last November, had the final say.
His birdie putt was pure and the 2022 U. S. Open champion was emphatic thrusting his fist down to celebrate.
Lipsky’s birdie chance from just outside 30 feet on the 18th just missed to the left. The victory, his third on the PGA Tour to go along with nine European tour titles, came one week after Fitzpatrick felt he did everything right only to see Cameron Young beat him on the final hole of The Players Championship. They were tied when Fitzpatrick hit a drive that he felt was right down the middle, only to run through into the pine needles that forced him to lay up.