But it was not to be as the reigning U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun won his third PGA Tour event and second Texas Open title. He shot a final-round 67 to end at 17-under-par total to top Matt Wallace, Michael Kim and Robert MacIntyre by a shot. He took home $1.764 million from the overall $9.8 million purse.

Nine of the top-20 players in the world were participating at TPC San Antonio, with World No. 4 Tommy Fleetwood the best. World No. 8 Collin Morikawa withdrew early in the week because of continued back issues. Russell Henley (No. 10) was the next highest ranked player. Spaun had dipped to 13th after starting the year at No. 6, but will move up heading into the first major championship of the year.

Here’s the rundown of the prize money in San Antonio

WIN: J.J. Spaun, -17/271, $1.764 million

T-2: Matt Wallace, -16/272, $741,533.33

T-2: Michael Kim, -16/272, $741,533.33

T-2: Robert MacIntyre, -16/272, $741,533.33

T-5: Andrew Putnam, -15/273, $378,525

T-5: Ludvig Aberg, -15/273, $378,525

7: Kevin Yu, -14/274, $330,750

T-8: Chandler Phillips, -13/275, $296,450

T-8: Ryo Hisatsune, -13/275, $296,450

T-10: Si Woo Kim, -11/277, $237,650

T-10: Austin Eckroat, -11/277, $237,650

T-10: Tommy Fleetwood, -11/277, $237,650

T-10: Kristoffer Reitan, -11/277, $237,650

T-14: David Thompson, -10/278, $159,250

T-14: Sami Valimaki, -10/278, $159,250

T-14: Eric Cole, -10/278, $159,250

T-14: Andrew Novak, -10/278, $159,250

T-14: John Parry, -10/278, $159,250

T-14: Alex Smalley, -10/278, $159,250

T-14: Sudarshan Yellamaraju, -10/278, $159,250

T-21: Marco Penge, -9/279, $95,550

T-21: Hideki Matsuyama, -9/279, $95,550

T-21: S.Hl. Kim, -9/279, $95,550

T-21: Maverick McNealy, -9/279, $95,550

T-21: Sam Ryder, -9/279, $95,550

T-21: Bud Cauley, -9/279, $95,550

T-21: J.T. Poston, -9/279, $95,550

T-28: Zach Bauchou, -8/280, $71,540

T-28: Nick Taylor, -8/280, $71,540

T-30: A.J. Ewart, -7/281, $60,025

T-30: Doug Ghim, -7/281, $60,025

T-30: Alex Noren, -7/281, $60,025

T-30: Mac Meissner, -7/281, $60,025

T-30: Paul Waring, -7/281, $60,025

T-30: Kevin Roy, -7/281, $60,025

T-36: Billy Horschel, -6/282, $48,673.33

T-36: Austin Smotherman, -6/282, $48,673.33

T-36: Chris Kirk, -6/282, $48,673.33

T-39: Chad Ramey, -5/283, $35,809.20

T-39: Taylor Moore, -5/283, $35,809.20

T-39: Adam Svensson, -5/283, $35,809.20

T-39: Adam Schenk, -5/283, $35,809.20

T-39: Brandt Snedeker, -5/283, $35,809.20

T-39: Kevin Streelman, -5/283, $35,809.20

T-39: Brian Harman, -5/283, $35,809.20

T-39: Christiaan Bezuidenhout, -5/283, $35,809.20

T-39: Matt McCarty, -5/283, $35,809.20

T-39: Rico Hoey, -5/283, $35,809.20

T-49: Christo Lamprecht, -4/284, $24,676.40

T-49: Beau Hossler, -4/284, $24,676.40

T-49: Adrien Dumont de Chassart, -4/284, $24,676.40

T-49: Tony Finau, -4/284, $24,676.40

T-49: Thorbjorn Olesen, -4/284, $24,676.40

T-54: Hank Lebioda, -3/285, $22,834

T-54: Gordon Sargent, -3/285, $22,834

T-54: Vince Whaley, -3/285, $22,834

T-54: Steven Fisk, -3/285, $22,834

T-54: Bronson Burgoon, -3/285, $22,834

T-59: Erik van Rooyen, -2/286, $22,050

T-59: Stephan Jaeger, -2/286, $22,050

T-59: David Ford, -2/286, $22,050

62: Takumi Kanaya, -1/287, $21,658

T-63: Jordan Spieth, E/288, $21,364

T-63: Peter Malnati, E/288, $21,364

T-65: Jeffrey Kang, +1/289, $20,972

T-65: Mark Hubbard, +1/289, $20,972

T-67: Danny Walker, +2/290, $20,482

T-67: Joe Highsmith, +2/290, $20,482

T-67: Will Zalatoris, +2/290, $20,482

70: Luke Clanton, +3/291, $20,090

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It also broke at least one heart—that of Matt Wallace, who could only make the Masters with a win, and had a realistic shot when his 68 gave him the clubhouse lead for nearly 90 minutes at 16 under. But it was consecutive 2s from Spaun on 16 and 17, the former after a 199-yard tee shot to three feet, that shut the door on Wallace’s dreams.

199 yards 3 feet

J.J. Spaun is one back with two to play @ValeroTXOpen.

NBC pic.twitter.com/oD9aq54x1e

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 5, 2026

2022 winner J.J. Spaun has taken the solo lead @ValeroTXOpen with an eagle at the par-4 17th!

NBC pic.twitter.com/NhpRNleeR7

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 5, 2026

After those fireworks, though, Spaun still had a few obstacles to dodge. The first came in his own game, when he had to make par on the incredibly challenging par-5 18th, which—considering the wind—was playing to the equivalent of 670 yards at times. Spaun managed to get greenside in three shots, and was helped considerably by the ability to lift, clean, and place his ball. His downhill chip came to rest beside the hole, and the first job was done. He finished at 17 under, and his 67 was the best round of the final round.

But because he finished so early, he had to watch nervously as a parade of players threatened to equal his score. Michael Kim had the first shot, but his approach on 18 found the bunker, and he narrowly missed holing out for birdie. Andrew Putnam came next, making birdie on 17 and needing the same on 18, but he found the same bunker Kim found on his third, and unlike Kim, his shot from the sand never reached the green.

Finally, just when he seemed totally lost, 54-hole leader Robert MacIntyre closed with a flourish, making birdie on 15 and eagle on 17 to fight his way to a shot behind Spaun. Once again, though, 18 put up an ironclad defence, and when MacIntyre hooked his second shot to the far right, his chances were hurt—despite a generous TIO ruling keeping Spaun on tenterhooks while he stayed warm on the range. MacIntyre missed the ensuing 30-foot putt, and Spaun was the champion.

The fact that Spaun hadn’t won in 2026 wasn’t as remarkable as how poorly he played after the year of his life. Coming into San Antonio, he’d missed four of seven cuts and hadn’t done better than his T-24 at the Players. As Golf Digest’s Dave Shedloski wrote from Pebble Beach, he spent a long time figuring out how to handle the changes and expectations that come from being a major champion.

Dylan Buell

“This game is so crazy,” Spaun said after his win. “There’s just so much that comes with winning such big events like [the U.S. Open], but I put a lot of pressure on myself this year to start the year and had a lot of expectations. It’s just the complete opposite of the mantra I had last year that really helped me, so I tried to get back to that, and went into the last few weeks starting at the Players just kinda trying to be freed up and put less pressure on myself. It’s been trying, but sticking to that mantra has really helped me.”

One major improvement in Spaun’s game came with his iron play, where he finished the week second in the field to Ryo Hisatsune, a number far more like his top-five finish in that category in 2025 than he had compiled thus far in 2026. But it was his putting that saw the biggest leap—he came in 159th on tour, not far from dead last, but gained almost four strokes on the field in Texas. (He also showcased once again his unique ability to bury clutch putts with the 10-footer for eagle on 17.)

“I’m just trying to take each day as it comes and accept what I have,” he said. “I’ve got such a great team behind me that’s been supporting me, and it just means a lot to come back here and win at a place that’s meant so much to me.”

Part of that team is his caddie Mark Carens, who celebrated his birthday on Sunday, and got a “happy birthday” from Spaun the moment MacIntyre’s birdie try on 18 failed to fall. That, and a nice check, will make a fine gift, and Spaun’s present will be heading to Augusta National next week with a head of steam. His vanishing act in early 2026 was brief, and now it’s over, and one thing we know about Spaun is that he’s reliably clutch under the highest pressure. With the Masters looming, who knows? This could be a case of terrific timing.

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The winner of the Valero Texas Open would’ve earned the final invitation to the Masters if not already eligible. But that won’t be happening as Brian Harman, already in the field in Augusta, cruised to a three-shot victory despite shooting a final-round 75 on a cold, windy day at TPC San Antonio.

The 38-year-old took home $1.71 million from the $9.5 million purse for his fourth PGA Tour title, his first since winning the 2023 Open Championship. Ryan Gerard was second, while Maverick McNealy and Andrew Novak tied for third place.

Here’s the rundown of what each player earned this week who made the cut.

WIN: Brian Harman, -9/279, $1.71 million

2: Ryan Gerard, -6/282, $1.035 million

T-3: Maverick McNealy, -5/283, $560,500

T-3: Andrew Novak, -5/283, $560,500

T-5: Bud Cauley, -4/284, $304,000

T-5: Chan Kim, -4/284, $304,000

T-5: Patrick Fishburn, -4/284, $304,000

T-5: Thorbjorn Olesen, -4/284, $304,000

T-5: Ryo Hisatsune, -4/284, $304,000

T-5: Chad Ramey, -4/284, $304,000

T-5: Tom Hoge, -4/284, $304,000

T-12: Nate Lashley, -3/285, $182,875

T-12: Jordan Spieth, -3/285, $182,875

T-12: Henrik Norlander, -3/285, $182,875

T-12: Alejandro Tosti, -3/285, $182,875

T-12: Keith Mitchell, -3/285, $182,875

T-12: Sami Valimaki, -3/285, $182,875

T-18: Doug Ghim, -2/286, $113,050

T-18: Chandler Phillips, -2/286, $113,050

T-18: Cameron Young, -2/286, $113,050

T-18: Matt Kuchar, -2/286, $113,050

T-18: Emiliano Grillo, -2/286, $113,050

T-18: Corey Conners, -2/286, $113,050

T-18: Zach Johnson, -2/286, $113,050

T-18: Denny McCarthy, -2/286, $113,050

T-26: Matt Wallace, -1/287, $72,200

T-26: Harry Hall, -1/287, $72,200

T-26: J.T. Poston, -1/287, $72,200

T-26: Eric Cole, -1/287, $72,200

T-30: Harry Higgs, E/288, $62,225

T-30: Daniel Berger, E/288, $62,225

T-30: Rickie Fowler, E/288, $62,225

T-33: Steven Fisk, +1/289, $50,666.67

T-33: Ben James, +1/289, $0 (amateur)

T-33: Antoine Rozner, +1/289, $50,666.67

T-33: Quade Cummins, +1/289, $50,666.67

T-33: William Mouw, +1/289, $50,666.67

T-33: Jesper Svensson, +1/289, $50,666.67

T-33: Patrick Cantlay, +1/289, $50,666.67

T-40: Carson Young, +2/290, $37,525

T-40: Sam Ryder, +2/290, $37,525

T-40: Kevin Roy, +2/290, $37,525

T-40: Ben Griffin, +2/290, $37,525

T-40: Francesco Molinari, +2/290, $37,525

T-40: Lanto Griffin, +2/290, $37,525

T-40: Gary Woodland, +2/290, $37,525

T-47: Keegan Bradley, +3/291, $26,809

T-47: Justin Rose, +3/291, $26,809

T-47: Adam Svensson, +3/291, $26,809

T-47: Aldrich Potgieter, +3/291, $26,809

T-47: Rafael Campos, +3/291, $26,809

T-52: Mac Meissner, +4/292, $23,132.50

T-52: John Pak, +4/292, $23,132.50

T-52: Ben Martin, +4/292, $23,132.50

T-52: Matthew Riedel, +4/292, $23,132.50

T-56: Noah Goodwin, +5/293, $22,040

T-56: Camilo Villegas, +5/293, $22,040

T-56: Tony Finau, +5/293, $22,040

T-56: Patrick Rodgers, +5/293, $22,040

T-60: Beau Hossler, +7/295, $21,470

T-60: Brice Garnett, +7/295, $21,470

T-62: Tommy Fleetwood, +8/296, $21,090

T-62: Erik van Rooyen, +8/296, $21,090

64: Peter Malnati, +11/299, $20,805

T-65: Patton Kizzire, +12/300, $20,520

T-65: Taylor Dickson, +12/300, $20,520

Main Image: Jonathan Bachman

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It was an emotional day for Harman, because winning wasn’t the only thing on his mind. Last fall, while Harman was in China, a family friend named Cathy Dowdy attempted to rescue his 6-year-old son Walter when he was carried out to sea on a rip tide while on vacation. She was unable to reach him—Walter was rescued by another man—and in the process of her rescue attempt, she suffered injuries and went into a coma for weeks. As Dan Hicks noted on the NBC broadcast, Dowdy was recently moved to hospice care, and Harman’s family flew home on Saturday to be with her.

“I’m playing with a heavy heart today,” Harman said after his round. “Miss Cathy went after my boy in the water, she’s not doing so good, and just thinking about her all day.”

As the gusts topped 30 mph in San Antonio, Harman actually outdueled his playing partners, Andrew Novak and Tom Hoge, each of whom shot 76 to slip down the leaderboard. In the end, the only whiff of a challenge came from Ryan Gerard, one of only three players to crack 70 on the day. Gerard, the Raleigh, N.C., native playing in just his second full season on tour, posted a 69 to move up 15 spots on the leaderboard into solo second. Still, he was never a true threat, finishing a full three shots behind the 38-year-old Harman.

https://twitter.com/PGATOUR/status/1909031698521633116

In fact, despite the 75, Harman didn’t have a particularly “bad” round, by the stats—the average score for the field clocked in at 74.803, putting him just decimal points behind the mean. In fact, the tournament average for all players (72.477) put the Valero as the second-hardest course of the year on tour, behind only Torrey Pines South.

For Harman, his strength lay in his irons (second in strokes gained/approach on the week) and his flat stick (sixth in strokes gained/putting), which more than made up for losing strokes off the tee. He used a new putter this week after some frustration with his mid-range results, and returns were instant, as Harman didn’t miss a putt inside eight feet all week until late in the final round. But it was far from smooth sailing for the Georgia alum and 2023 Open champion on the front nine Sunday, when he followed a birdie on two with bogeys on 4 and 6 and a worrying double on 9 after an errant drive incurred a penalty. He righted the ship with two pars, then seized control of the event once again with a 14-foot birdie on 12—which extended his lead back to two, and which he counted as one of the day’s two most important moments—and a nine-footer on 14. Subsequent bogeys on 15 and 16 didn’t cost him, as he coasted in with two tap-in pars to secure the trophy.

“Just having a little bit of experience and knowing that score was kind of a relative thing today, it was more kind of a game of attrition,” Harman said. “The conditions just wouldn’t allow for a super low score. I didn’t have my best stuff today, but good enough to make a few putts, and a couple birdies on the back nine helped a lot.”

Harman’s experience paid dividends all day, but that experience was hard-earned, he told reporters, through a good deal of competitive misery earlier in his career.

“I’ve had to learn that lesson the hard way with a bunch of failures across my career where you look back at a tournament, like gosh, if I could have just kept my cool for a little bit longer, if I could have just hung in there for a little bit longer, maybe I could have made a run,” he said. “So I just tried really hard today to not let my emotions get out in front. As much as I wanted to think about winning and holding the trophy and calling my wife and telling her how happy I was, you don’t get to do that until the job’s done. Just left foot, right foot, finish the job and then you get to have fun.”

Jonathan Bachman

At around the turn, Harman said that his competitive focus turned to Novak, the only player who seemed, at the time, within reach. But Novak, seeking his first tour win, began to unravel on 8, and finished with six bogeys on the day against three birdies.

“I could never figure out the greens,” Novak said. “I felt like the greens were way slower today for some reason. I could not get a ball to the hole … I can’t even count how many putts I left short, and I don’t know why they were slow today.”

Gerard’s back door second-place finish is the best of his career, and he chalked up his strong play amid the broader devastation to his short game, where he finished as the fourth-best putter and the best around the green player by strokes gained in the final round.

“Even if you’re striping it, you’re probably going to miss some greens whether it just be some wind gusts or some weird angles,” he said. “This course is not easy without the wind, so you’ve just got to really be prepared for whatever it might give you and just try and take it as it comes and just be positive all day.”

That positivity and skill led to what Gerard called a “one in a million” up-and-down on 12, when he intentionally hit a low 7-iron chip from the trees into a bunker, aiming just below the lip in the hope that it would pop out onto the green. It worked, and he buried the ten-footer to preserve his bogey-free day—a streak that would only come to an end on 18, when a tap-in bogey secured him second alone.

Only two players bested Gerard on Sunday—Patrick Fishburn and Thorbjorn Olesen each posted a 68, and each fought their way to four under and a top-five finish. Five other players matched them at that score, just a shot behind Maverick McNealy and Novak, who finished at five under in a tie for third.

Inevitably, late in Harman’s news conference, discussion turned to Augusta, where he’ll seek to capture the second major of his career. Despite the magnitude of that challenge, Harman will take the positive signs where he gets them, especially after feeling rusty earlier in the year.

“You know, I’m 38, I’m not 25 anymore,” he said. “I know that I’m getting a little greyer, so you start looking at like, man, how many more chances do I have at Augusta, how many more chances do I have at a U.S. Open, and all the things that you want to do? Just knowing I can come out here in tough conditions and play well as an older veteran on Tour makes me feel good about next week … this is about as good of prep as you can get for Augusta.”

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Akshay Bhatia took advantage of the situation, although he had to work overtime to do it. The 22-year-old held a six-shot lead at one point Sunday during the final round, but Denny McCarthy, looking for his first PGA Tour victory, made eight birdies on the last nine holes and shot 63. Bhatia, in fact, needed to make a birdie putt on the last hole to shoot 67 and get into a playoff, which he won on the first hole when McCarthy hit his third shot into the water. Bhatia will now play in his second major championship and first Masters.

He earned $1.656 million for his victory from the purse of $9.2 million. McCarthy took home $1.0028 million.

Rory McIlroy shot a final-round 66 to sneak into solo third place, nine shots behind Bhatia. Russell Henley was fourth, while Adam Schenk and Brendon Todd tied for fifth place.

Here’s the complete breakdown of what each player earned who made the cut.

WIN: Akshay Bhatia, -20/268, $1.656 million

2: Denny McCarthy, -20/268, $1.0028 million

3: Rory McIlroy, -11/277, $634,800

4: Russell Henley, -10/278, $450,800

T-5: Adam Schenk, -9/279, $355,350

T-5: Brendon Todd, -9/279, $333,500

T-7: Hideki Matsuyama, -8/280, $289,033.34

T-7: Ben Martin, -8/280, $289,033.34

T-7: Tommy Fleetwood, -8/280, $289,033.34

T-10: Mac Meisner, -6/282, $223,100

T-10: Jordan Spieth, -6/282, $223,100

T-10: Matt Fitzpatrick, -6/282, $223,100

T-10: Peter Kuest, -6/282, $223,100

T-14: Adam Scott, -5/283, $131,601.82

T-14: Ludvig Aberg, -5/283, $131,601.82

T-14: Keith Mitchell, -5/283, $131,601.82

T-14: Sam Stevens, -5/283, $131,601.82

T-14: Andrew Putnam, -5/283, $131,601.82

T-14: S.H. Kim, -5/283, $131,601.82

T-14: Rico Hoey, -5/283, $131,601.82

T-14: Chan Kim, -5/283, $131,601.82

T-14: Tyson Alexander, -5/283, $131,601.82

T-14: Alex Noren, -5/283, $131,601.82

T-14: Thorbjorn Olesen, -5/283, $131,601.82

T-25: Justin Lower, -4/284, $67,735

T-25: Christiaan Bezuidenhout, -4/284, $67,735

T-25: Max Homa, -4/284, $67,735

T-25: Brian Harman, -4/284, $67,735

T-25: Lucas Glover, -4/284, $67,735

T-25: Mark Hubbard, -4/284, $67,735

T-25: Corey Conners, -4/284, $67,735

T-25: Nick Hardy, -4/284, $67,735

T-33: Alexander Bjork, -3/285, $49,066.67

T-33: Garrick Higgo, -3/285, $49,066.67

T-33: Chez Reavie, -3/285, $49,066.67

T-33: Kevin Chappell, -3/285, $49,066.67

T-33: Austin Eckroat, -3/285, $49,066.67

T-33: Robby Shelton, -3/285, $49,066.67

T-39: Nate Lashley, -2/286, $37,260

T-39: Ben Griffin, -2/286, $37,260

T-39: Stewart Cink, -2/286, $37,260

T-39: Bud Cauley, -2/286, $37,260

T-39: Aaron Baddeley, -2/286, $37,260

T-39: Kevin Yu, -2/286, $37,260

T-45: Davis Thompson, -1/287, $26,772

T-45: Kevin Streelman, -1/287, $26,772

T-45: Victor Perez, -1/287, $26,772

T-45: Ryan Moore, -1/287, $26,772

T-45: Webb Simpson, -1/287, $26,772

T-45: Vincent Norrman, $-1/287, 26,772

T-51: C.T. Pan, E/288, $21,988

T-51: Adam Svensson, E/288, $21,988

T-51: Joe Highsmith, E/288, $21,988

T-51: Lanto Griffin, E/288, $21,988

T-51: Tyler Duncan, E/288, $21,988

T-51: Martin Laird, E/288, $21,988

T-51: J.J. Spaun, E/288, $21,988

T-58: Josh Teater, +1/289, $20,148

T-58: Harry Hall, +1/289, $20,148

T-58: Andrew Novak, +1/289, $20,148

T-58: Bronson Burgoon, +1/289, $20,148

T-58: Parker Coody, +1/289, $20,148

T-58: Aaron Rai, +1/289, $20,148

T-58: Maverick McNealy, +1/289, $20,148

T-58: Carl Yuan, +1/289, $20,148

T-58: David Lipsky, +1/289, $20,148

T-58: Dylan Wu, +1/289, $20,148

T-58: Hayden Springer, +1/289, $20,148

T-69: Charley Hoffman, +2/290, $18,860

T-69: Vince Whaley, +2/290, $18,860

T-69: Matti Schmid, +2/290, $18,860

T-72: Kevin Kisner, +3/291, $18,400

T-72: Brandt Snedeker, +3/291, $18,400

74: Pierceson Coody, +4/292, $18,124

T-75: Tom Whitney, +5/293, $17,756

T-75: Collin Morikawa, +5/293, $17,756

T-75: Nicolai Hojgaard, +5/293, $17,756

T-78: Ben Kohles, +6/294, $17,204

T-78: Beau Hossler, +6/294, $17,204

T-78: Ryo Hisatsune, +6/294, $17,204

81: Ben Silverman, +7/295, $16,836

82: Ryan McCormick, +10/298, $16,652

Image: Raj Mehta

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In fact, it would have been plenty, against 80 of the other 81 players in the field, none of whom shot better than a 66. The bad news for Bhatia is that his second-place challenger was Denny McCarthy, and Denny McCarthy got so scorching hot and tracked Bhatia so relentlessly that he very briefly took the lead. That moment came on the 18th hole when he reinforced his bona fides as one of the world’s greatest putters by pouring in a 12-foot birdie—his seventh straight—to reach 20 under. That gave him a 63 for the round, including an absurd 28 on the back, and forced Bhatia to make his 11-foot attempt just to head to a playoff. A sleepy waltz to victory had transformed gradually and then suddenly into a quasi-nightmare, and Bhatia found himself staring down a heartbreaking, unjust defeat.

But he made the putt.

CLUTCH!@AkshayBhatia_1 birdies the par-5 18th to force a playoff @ValeroTXOpen. pic.twitter.com/MhL2ysKfq1

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 7, 2024

And if all of that seems weird, buckle up, because it was about to get weirder. Because Bhatia, by way of celebration, gave what seemed like a fairly restrained series of fist pumps. Not restrained enough, apparently, because one of those fist pumps threw his shoulder out of the socket. We here at Golf Digest are not medical doctors, but still, it seemed like an inauspicious way to start a playoff.

He spent some of the interval looking for help on his shoulder, but things hadn’t improved when he got to the tee to replay the par-5 18th. He and his opponent hit decent drives, both laid up, and then the impossibly red-hot McCarthy stepped up to hit his 100-yard wedge … and chunked it straight into the creek guarding the green.

Game, set, match…right?

Winning is hard.

Denny McCarthy has found the water from 99 yards out on the first playoff hole. pic.twitter.com/41GpsUEvEZ

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 7, 2024

Actually, yes, but at this point nothing about the tournament was straightforward. Sensing that he could actually still win this thing, Bhatia didn’t want to hit his wedge with a potentially screwed up shoulder, and at last, he managed to get some treatment from Aki Tajima, formerly of the Orlando Magic. Only he didn’t want to get his shoulder taped in front of the entire crowd, so they went off to find a quiet place, putting a halt to the proceedings exactly one shot before it was all over. (Yes, we thought of all the jokes about “tape delays” too.)

When he came back, he stuck his wedge close, McCarthy failed to hole out, and Bhatia rolled in his birdie to complete the victory and cap a truly bizarre final hour in Texas.

What else can possibly be said about it? Well, for one thing, the 22-year-old Bhatia gets to play in his first Masters next week—which happened to be his mom’s recent birthday wish. For another, it’s more heartbreak for McCarthy, a sublime putter whose closest chance at a PGA Tour win before this also went to a playoff, when he lost the 2023 Memorial to Viktor Hovland. That tournament, too, featured a late hiccup, when McCarthy couldn’t make par on 18 to seal the deal. This time, though, it’s hard to fault the guy who played out of his mind in what seemed for so long like a pipe dream. But if nobody else expected it, Bhatia did.

“Denny played unbelievable, you have to give him credit,” he said. “It’s hard because he’s one of the best players out here and when you see him get hot it’s scary, because I had a six-shot lead going into the back nine and all of the sudden we’re tied going into 18. And then of course he makes that putt, and man, what a crazy, crazy day.”

Winning is hard.

Denny McCarthy has found the water from 99 yards out on the first playoff hole. pic.twitter.com/41GpsUEvEZ

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 7, 2024

So what happened with McCarthy’s wedge? It seems as though the culprit may have been a bug, which just about fits with all the other madness of the finish.

“Wish I could have had that wedge shot back there,” McCarthy said. “I backed off a couple times. There was a bug on my ball and some noise in the stands and a bug jumped back on my ball. I probably should have backed away again, but I thought I could kind of not let it distract me and maybe it did a little.”

The good news for McCarthy is that he’s already in Augusta thanks to strong play last year, and his skills with the putter should translate well. He was the third-best putter by strokes gained for the tournament, but perhaps even more surprisingly, he was second only to Bhatia in strokes gained from tee to green.

Raj Mehta

But it was Bhatia who collected the hardware, and the $1.66 million, and took the next step in what has been a terrific early career. And he learned, if he needed the lesson, that absolutely nothing is easy when it comes to winning on Tour.

“It was hard…you feel like you’re kind of losing, right?” he said. “You’re losing the golf tournament. This guy’s making a ton of birdies, I’m not making any mistakes and yet, you know, I was tied for the lead going into the last…I did such a good 71, job just coming out, sticking to my game plan. I still had to shoot 5 under to just get into a playoff.”

Brendon Todd, playing in the final group with Bhatia and McCarthy, limped to the finish with a 71, clearing the way for Rory McIlroy to seize a solo third with his 66—tied for the second-best round of the day with Hideki Matsuyama, who finished T-7.

Main Image: Brennan Asplen

The post Akshay Bhatia earns last Masters invite after blowout in Texas turns wild with Denny McCarthy’s 8 back-nine birdies appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

It started, like so many underdog stories, with a near disaster. On the first hole at TPC San Antonio, Spaun blundered his approach shot into the left rough, hacked out to 60 feet, and ended with a double bogey. Before the rest of the leaders had even posted a single score, he had dug himself an early hole. To his great fortune, though, the rest of the leaders would falter through a painful Sunday, while Spaun’s day would only get better.

“Honestly, it didn’t bother me as you would think,” he said after the round. “If anything, it kind of calmed me down. … I knew there was still a lot of golf and I’d rather double the first hole than the last hole, if I was patient and plugged away, I might put myself in contention.”

Beau Hossler, in the final group, was seeking to become the first player to win on the PGA Tour with a sponsor’s exemption since Martin Laird in 2020, and to complete a rapid turnaround after slipping below 400th in the World Ranking earlier this season. He played a strong front nine to reach 12 under, including a chip-in birdie at six, but a bogey at 10 knocked him back. He then lived out a nightmare on 14, butchering the par-5 to the tune of a double bogey:

From 2 back to 4 back.

Beau Hossler takes an unplayable and makes double after hitting it over the green at the 14th. pic.twitter.com/LrPAr3XKma

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 3, 2022

He finished the day right where he started, at 10 under, which marks his second excellent result of the year after a third-place finish at Pebble Beach, but which will come with its share of regrets for what might have been.

Those regrets also will plague Brandt Snedeker, who came off five straight missed cuts to vault into a share of the lead after a 66 on Friday and 67 on Saturday. In his last 18, though, he couldn’t make a single birdie, and a three-over 75 performance to fall to T-18 ended in mild embarrassment with a rushed three-putt on the last hole.

Like his playing partners, Dylan Frittelli was also at a loss, answering every birdie with a bogey until a rough stretch midway through the back nine ended his chances.

In the absence of any fireworks among the other leaders, Spaun regrouped after his double bogey and began his slow rise to the top of the leader board. A brilliant approach on six yielded his first birdie of the day, and an up-and-down birdie on the par-5 fifth brought him back to even. Then on the ninth, trailing Hossler by two, Spaun responded to a bad break (his ball hit an NBC microphone) by pitching in from 50 feet:

Up and in

Perfection from @JJSpaun below the green. pic.twitter.com/l3JMREGf5s

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 3, 2022

As the leaders collapsed around him, Spaun played a steady back nine highlighted by a birdie at 11 and another at 14. By the time the endgame came around, Hossler was nowhere in sight, Frittelli and Snedeker were even further afield, and all Spaun had to worry about was a late charge from Matt Kuchar. (Matt Jones shot a field-best 66 to reach 11 under, two shots off the eventual winning score, and was one of the few players to best Jordan Spieth, who shot 67 in his final round before the Masters.)

The last moment of real drama came after Kuchar’s birdie on 17 to bring him within two shots heading to the par-5 18th. There, Spaun seemed to open the door just slightly with a pulled drive into the native area. But Spaun recovered safely into the fairway, forcing Kuchar to go for the green in two from 284 yards. His miracle attempt faded too early, and too much, and when the ball splashed into the water, Spaun knew a par would be plenty to seal the deal. His approach left a bit to be desired, but a terrific lag from 50 feet guaranteed his maiden Tour win.

Spaun has struggled with health issues in recent years after doctors told him he had diabetes but misdiagnosed the kind. Carmen Mandato

Spaun became the first player to win after making double at the first hole since Tiger Woods at the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. Unlike Tiger, Spaun needed this badly for his career. After reaching the PGA Tour for the first time in 2016, he put together three steady but unspectacular years. Then in his fourth full season, he endured unexpected weight loss. Diagnosed with diabetes, Spaun changed his diet and routine, but wasn’t feeling any better, later learning he was misdiagnosed with Type 2 when he suffered from Type 1. He stumbled to a 185th-place finish in the FedEx Cup points race in the 2019-20 season and followed that with 174th a year ago. Now, he’s got his full exemption, financial security, and a spot at Augusta. It marks quite a change of fortune, and he knows it.

“I think a year ago … I would have been telling you I have to do a lot of work to [stay on tour],” he said. “But to be here and overcome a lot of things and finally get a win? It’s everything you dream of.”

Dreams were a big theme of his post-round remarks, when Spaun admitted that the prospect of Augusta had floated into his thoughts on Saturday night.

“It’s something you dream of as a kid, playing at the Masters,” he said. “I was thinking about it last night, but there was still so much to be done. You’ve got to do your best to stay in the present. That’s what guys who win do that week, they take it one moment, one shot at a time.”

With a taste of success like this, Spaun will undoubtedly stick to the plan for the rest of the season, but it’s a good bet that despite the benefits of a zen mentality, he might take a moment sometime on Sunday to think ahead to what awaits him at Augusta National. For all the benefits of staying in the present, there are days when the future’s not so bad either.

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By Ron Kaspriske
If social distancing during the pandemic has revealed anything noteworthy about how PGA Tour pros go about their business, it might be just how much thought Jordan Spieth puts into every shot he hits. Without large galleries to muffle what is said inside tournament ropes, Spieth’s conversations with his caddie, Michael Greller, have been a fascinating peek inside the mind of one of the game’s most thoughtful and determined players.

“He’s worked very hard over a long period to get his swing to where, when he takes the club back, he’s only got a picture in his mind about the ball flight he’s trying to create. That’s what he’s talking [to Michael] about,” says his longtime coach, Cameron McCormick. “His swing is now jelling with what he sees. There’s no conflict.”

A victory (the Valero Texas Open) and four other top-four finishes in a stretch of eight events earlier in 2021 speak to the resurgence of Spieth and the golf swing that won three majors. McCormick says that Jordan 3.0 is a blend of what he did right earlier in his career and some new wrinkles—and how he arrived at this point is what’s really interesting.

“We reverse-engineered the swing changes starting with creating a good feel at impact and then building the rest around that,” McCormick says. “We recognized that if he started feeling better about impact, then pre-impact, then transition, the jigsaw-puzzle pieces fit together really well. Make sense?”

It does, but that’s not typically the way elite golfers go about improving. Diagnostics usually follow the sequence of the swing, starting at address. But Spieth and McCormick went directly to the moment of truth, the strike, and worked backward. Spieth is now in a place where he’s “giving himself permission to go after the ball,” McCormick says, and he has returned to predominantly hitting a “bullet cut,” meaning a lower-flying drive that starts a little left and works back to the right and rolls out once it lands.

Spieth is not chasing yards. He’s keeping his tee shots in play and relying on his irons and short game to challenge the field regularly since finishing tied for fourth in the Waste Management Phoenix Open in February. Spieth ranked in the top 25 in strokes gained/approach the green and top 15 in putting average on tour through April.

The key is that at the top of the swing, Spieth senses the club is in great position to create the feel he wants through impact. “He’s swinging much more like he did when he first came out on tour,” McCormick says.

Specifically, Spieth takes the club back on a steeper angle than he returns it to the ball. He doesn’t roll his forearms clockwise through the middle of the backswing, and the butt end of the shaft points inside his target line as he approaches the top. But in transition, things dramatically change. As Spieth begins to unwind aggressively starting with hip rotation, the shaft flattens with the butt end now pointing at the ball or even outside the target line. From there, Spieth knows he can just turn hard and produce the ball flight he sees in his mind during those in-depth conversations with Greller.

If you want to know what that move feels like, Spieth and McCormick talk about the club going from “light to heavy.” It’s light as Spieth takes the club back, by virtue of the shaft being more vertical in orientation. But when Spieth transitions into the downswing, the club starts to feel heavy in his right hand because the shaft is lying down or flattening.

“That’s what some people call the slot or the hitting position,” McCormick says. “The earlier he can set that hitting position, the better he feels about it. It’s funny, but when he won at Valero and finished third at Augusta, he actually got to the point where he was setting it up way too early. He couldn’t wait to get there.”

Overcooking a great swing feel aside, Spieth is mostly doing everything right with his full swing these days, McCormick says. He’s gripping the club slightly stronger after recovering from a hand injury that forced him to hold the club in a weaker position in recent years. That weak grip helped contribute to his predominant miss right of the target. He’s also standing more athletically over the ball (a deeper hip hinge), McCormick says. And when he swings through the impact zone and gets into the follow-through, it’s a result of good body turn and a feeling of passive hands.

He can still hit a draw and get some extra distance when he needs it, but it’s not something Spieth looks to do often.

“With his covered cut, you’d expect he’d lose some carry distance because he’s launching the ball lower,” McCormick says. “But honestly, so what, he’s still hitting it around 300 yards and control trumps distance.”

ATHLETIC FROM THE START

Among the improvements Jordan Spieth and his coach, Cameron McCormick, have worked on is to get Spieth in a more athletic setup. A deeper hip hinge at address (above left) puts him in position to make a more dynamic swing.

A GRIP THAT WORKS BETTER FOR HIS BALL FLIGHT

Since recovering from a painful injury to his left hand, Spieth has been able to strengthen the orientation of his hands on the club so the right palm is turned slightly more under the shaft (above right). This gives him better control of the clubface, so he doesn’t lose many shots to the right.

THE MOVE SPIETH CAN’T WAIT TO MAKE

Spieth takes the club back with the shaft in a more vertical position as he reaches the top but then lets it flatten during the transition to the downswing (above left). From a feel standpoint, this “laying down” of the shaft mentally gives him the green light to go after the ball aggressively.

GOOD ROTATION IS KEY

Spieth isn’t trying to guide the clubhead into the ball with his hands. Instead, impact is a result of good body rotation toward the target in the throughswing (above right). He gets the club in the position he wants at the top of the swing and then it’s turn, turn, turn.

Editor’s Note: This cover story appears in June 2021 issue of Golf Digest Middle East. Read our latest issue in its entirety here.

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By Alan Shipnuck
AUGUSTA, Ga.—He has already given us so much of himself. A 72nd hole birdie to win the U.S. Open. The greatest driving range bogey in golf history. (“Go get that.”) Chasing the Grand Slam on the hallowed turf of the Old Course. A Masters Sunday so wrenching it felt like a death in the family. (“Buddy, it seems like we’re collapsing.”) A mystifying, almost four-year slump that confounded and transfixed the golf world, followed by a cathartic victory just as this Masters beckons. He was a phenom at 16 and a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame by 23 but what has always made Jordan Spieth so riveting is his openness. We feel his joy and, even more acutely, his pain.

For most Tour players, the barrier between them and the fans is much more formidable than a thin rope. But Spieth lets us in and makes us part of the journey. He arrived on Tour just as Tiger Woods’ health and career were cratering and this enigmatic champion had retreated into the well-guarded fortress of his inner-self. Spieth is the opposite, a compulsive oversharer whose self-talk between the ropes can be amusing but often strays into self-flagellation. His rollercoaster play has always drawn comparisons to Phil the Thrill but the key difference is that Mickelson’s crack-ups rarely leave a bruise because he seems in on the joke—he is part jester and part stuntman and his job is merely to entertain us. Spieth is different. His golf is raw and real and elemental. Even in the best of times the wolf is at the door—let us not forget his sloppy 71st hole double bogey to nearly boot away the 2015 U.S. Open. But he rallied to win that national championship, part of an epic three-year run during which he took three-quarters of the Grand Slam, won a total of 10 PGA Tour events and nabbed a FedEx Cup. But time marches on as inexorably as Spieth’s hairline recedes. The one-time boy wonder is now nearly 28 and married. After his breakthrough victory last week in Texas he is suddenly the betting favorite for this Masters. While Golf Twitter collectively loses its mind, Spieth is doing his best not to get caught up in the whirlwind. “I feel it’s actually been a lot easier for me, over the last 12 hours, to just look forward versus kind of looking back, I guess,” he said on Monday after touching down in Augusta.

Spieth went so far as to backtrack on having used the word “monumental” to describe the importance of his victory at the Texas Open. “Yeah, I think I used a word that was within 30 seconds of tapping in the last putt and kind of just not really knowing where my head was at, and I think that was probably a little aggressive of a term,” he says.

With more time to reflect, he has been better able to put the breakthrough in its proper perspective. “I was happy that it didn’t hit me that hard, that it felt more normal, that it felt like me and that’s where I’m supposed to be and this is who I am.”

Who is he, exactly? The overwhelming statistical favourite for this Masters, as crazy as that might be. As recently as February, Spieth was on the verge of falling out of the top 100 in the World Ranking and he hadn’t had a top-5 finish in over 20 months. Before his slump, he had constructed a game very similar to peak Mickelson, built on stellar iron play and sensational work on and around the greens. When Spieth drove it well he was very, very difficult to beat; when he drove it OK he was still a contender.

Over the preceding three-plus years he often struggled to keep his drives on the planet, leading Brandel Chamblee to opine earlier this year that Spieth is “headed for oblivion.” But he pushed forward with the squinty determination that once led Ben Crenshaw to compare Spieth to Wyatt Earp. He never panicked, even as everyone else did. He remained loyal to his “team” even as the cognoscenti called for the ritual sacrifice of a caddie or swing coach. Spieth just kept grinding and preaching patience to a sports world that demands instant gratification. And then it all finally came together last week, as he gained 12.89 strokes on the field tee-to-green, the most dominant performance of any of his 12 career wins.

Now Spieth has arrived at his favorite course, where his 70.46 scoring average is the best in history (among players with 20 more rounds played). The surge in expectations has led to a familiar feeling swirling in the dogwoods, of hope mixed with dread. Spieth has broken our heart here before; think of his watery doom in 2016, or the overhanging tree branch near the 72nd tee in ’18, when Spieth was stalking a 62 and a comeback for the ages. Earlier this year, on Saturday at Pebble Beach, after Spieth played a wild slinging hook on 16 and his ball trickled into the hole for an eagle that salvaged a shaky round, Gary Murphy of Sky Sports said,“That is why he is so enjoyable to watch. A bit like Seve, he defies logic–a vulnerable genius.”

That is now the central question of this Masters: is Spieth still wounded, despite the recent win, or can he again access the genius that carried him to a green jacket at 21? The answer may be found in something he said at Pebble, when his luck was just beginning to turn: “It’s crazy, you go on runs of cards out here. You get good ones and then you go on a bad run of cards. I’m now hitting it and kind of thinking it’s going to be a good break again, which is really nice.”

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By Joel Beall
Jordan Spieth, whose three-plus-year odyssey from the top of the sport to its peripheries was one of its great wonders and concerns, capped the comeback that has dominated golf in 2021 with a win at the Valero Texas Open.

“It has been a long time,” Spieth said. “It’s been since July of 2017. There’s peaks and valleys in this sport. I never expected to go this long. Back then, in between wins, I just kind of took a lot—maybe more for granted than I should have,” Spieth said. “It’s very difficult to win out here and I’ll certainly enjoy this one as much as I have any other.”

This was no surprise; the win had been coming into focus for weeks now. There were near-misses at TPC Scottsdale and Pebble Beach and Bay Hill, strong showings at Riviera and Austin C.C. This victory seemed like a matter of if, not when. But though he was heading out of the darkness, the beauty of this game is the end is never predetermined. As Spieth’s past has proved, the present is no guarantee of the future.

A sentiment all too evident at the beginning of the final round. Sharing the 54-hole lead with Matt Wallace, Spieth looked very much like the guy who had laboured mightily on Sundays (146th in Round 4 scoring) by missing his first three fairways of the day. Yet his approach game kept him afloat as he settled down on the tee, with his putter—the tool that was once friend and now occasionally foe—cleaning up a handful of 10-footers for birdies. He made the turn in 33, and the Texas crowd was ready for the victory parade.

“Just to see those putts go in, I felt like I was doing everything right those other Sundays and I hit good putts and they wouldn’t go in,” Spieth said. “Today I hit a couple that I didn’t quite strike very well, but they went in. It’s a funny game. It shows that as long as you put yourself in that position enough times, the bounces do go your way.”

Only Charley Hoffman had no intentions of letting such a march happen. Hoffman, who’s made a living at this event (more on him in a second), also made the turn in 33, and a chip-in birdie at the 13th brought Spieth’s advantage down to two. After trading birdies at the par-5 14th, Hoffman cut the lead to one with another birdie, this one at the par-3 16th.

But Hoffman sprayed his drive into a bunker at the 17th, and though his approach was true, his birdie try was not. Spieth answered, his second from 75 yards finishing five feet from the hole. Five feet that was converted for birdie to move the lead back to two. With Spieth finding the fairway at the 18th, the tournament appeared to be a wrap.

Just kidding. This is Jordan Spieth we’re talking about. Anyone who thought he’d land this plane without skidding off the runway and deploying an emergency parachute hasn’t been paying attention, which is why his lay-up hooked far left and near a scoreboard. Somewhere, TV executives exchanged high-fives. But Spieth decided that was enough drama, his third safely finding the edge of the green. With Hoffman unable to apply pressure off another tee-shot miss, Spieth’s conservative lag completed the journey.

Where Spieth goes from here—starting this week at Augusta National, a course that has been his playground—is now the preeminent storyline in golf. And watching him at the Masters and going for the career Grand Slam at Kiawah and attempting to do the things that were on his former all-time trajectory will be fun. But Sunday was a day to cherish the day, and all the days that came before it. A day some thought might never come.

“There’s also moments I look back on where I hit balls till my hands bled and I wasn’t doing the right thing and I just went home [and] thought about it; sleeping, lost sleep,” Spieth said. “This sport can take you a lot of different directions. So I think it’s just most important to embrace when I have moments like this and just really appreciate them and keep my head down, keep the process that I’m doing.”

That in itself is a miracle to celebrate. Three other takeaways from the final round of the Valero Texas Open.

Steve Dykes

Hoffman keeps cashing cheques
Spieth won the day, but consider Sunday’s performance an official petition to change the Texas Open to the Charley Hoffman Invitational. Or at least put a Hoffman ATM on the first tee.

In 14 career starts at the event Hoffman has never missed the cut while racking up more than $3.7 million in the event. Though he failed to grab the trophy he’s adding to those figures with a $839,300 payday for finishing in second thanks to a final-round 66. Not that Hoffman was overly ecstatic about it.

“Obviously you come to each event trying to win, but second place isn’t that bad,” Hoffman said. “Obviously I want to get back to the Masters, I want to get back to Kapalua. I play to win, not finish second. But obviously had a chance, gave my best and just fell slightly short.”

To be fair, while he somewhat stumbled on the final two holes, this was a tournament Spieth won, not one given away by Hoffman. “Jordan played some great, amazing golf,” Hoffman acknowledged. “Bogey free on that back nine is something special.” And even though Hoffman is the epitome of a horses-for-courses at this tournament, this marked his third top-10 finish in his last six starts.

As he mentioned, Hoffman needed the W to earn the Augusta invite. But the 44-year-old, after a few lean years, is enjoying a late-career rejuvenation. There’s no doubt he’ll be a favorite once this tournament returns next year. Expect to hear his name again well before that.

Kuchar gets momentum into Masters
Two weeks ago it was fair to wonder where Matt Kuchar was heading. After finishing in 16th or better in nine of the past 11 FedEx Cups, Kuchar entered the WGC-Dell Match Play 183rd in the rankings thanks to missing the cut in five of 11 starts with his best finish a T-34. He was struggling in nearly every facet of the game—181st in SG/off-the-tee, 120th in approach, 124th in SG/putting—and turning 43 this summer, the question was raised if Kuchar was running out of gas.

Two weeks later, the man enters the Masters with Big Mo riding shotgun. Kuchar proved his run in Austin (ultimately finishing with a T-3 in Match Play) was no aberration, following up with four solid rounds at TPC San Antonio to log a T-12 at the Texas Open.

A bit of context is needed. Like the Match Play, Kuchar has a strong track record at the Texas Open. He also never truly contended and failed to break 70 all four rounds. Conversely, Kuchar was arguably the weakest player (by current form) in the world’s top 60; before the Match Play his last top 10 was at Riviera in 2020.

Now he rides into Augusta with his game trending and his conviction intact. Like the previous two tournaments, Kuchar has had success at the Masters with four top-10s and eight top-25s in 14 career starts. As we’ve seen at Augusta National, two of the key ingredients are experience and momentum. After a vague forecast just two weeks ago, the horizon looks bright—and possibly green—for Kuchar next week.

Steve Dykes

Fowler’s major streak comes to a close
He gave it a run. But it is a run that came up short.

Rickie Fowler needed a win in San Antonio to make the Masters and keep his streak of 42 consecutive major appearances alive. An opening-round 76 put the kibosh on those aspirations. The former Players champ battled to make the weekend and did thanks to a Friday 68, and followed that performance up with a 69 and 70 over the final two rounds. Still, for the first time since the 2010 U.S. Open, Fowler will be watching one of the big four at home.

For Fowler fans seeking solace, this week was littered with signs of hope. Entering the Texas Open 178th in SG/approach and 176th in SG/putting, Fowler made strides in both categories (30th in approach, 39th in putting). Although Bogey avoidance remains an issue (196th on tour), Fowler had a 14-to-5 birdie/bogey ratio over the final three rounds. And his T-17 is his first finish inside the top 20 this season.

A player of his skill set has higher ambitions. But when you’re engulfed in struggle like Fowler, every little step forward can feel like a leap. For the first time in what feels like forever, Fowler is heading in the right direction, even if that direction isn’t Georgia.

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