Charl Schwarzel was four-under heading into the final six holes of the Valspar Championship. He needed to gain four strokes on Bill Haas to force a playoff, and that's exactly what he did.
Schwarzel birdied three out of the final six holes of the PGA tournament as Haas faltered late and bogeyed the 16th. The two went into the playoff at seven-under par.
Haas stumbled again and bogeyed the 18th hole in the playoff and Schwartzel parred it to claim victory at the Valspar Championship. It was the 31-year-old's third victory in his last six worldwide events. He finished tied for 17th at the WGC-Cadillac Championship last weekend.
He carded a 67 on the final day of the event while Haas lost a stroke after shooting a 72. Schwartzel's second career victory on the PGA Tour awarded him $1.1 million of the $6.1 million purse for the event.
The South African's memorable rally featured a 65-foot birdie putt on the 13th hole as well as a 25-foot birdie putt on the 17th. He finished the final round with six birdies and two bogeys.
Jordan Spieth (E) and Henrik Stenson (-1) were the favorites to win the Valspar Championship, as Spieth won the event last year and Stenson finished fourth, but it was Schwartzel, who was a 30/1 underdog, that captured the victory. Spieth finished tied for 18th with Justin Leonard, Justin Thomas and Brett Stegmaier while Stenson tied for 11th with Retief Goosen, Matt Kuchar, Daniel Berger, Jason Gore, Charley Hoffman and George McNeill.
Sunday marked the second time of the tournament that Spieth carded a round over par (and the fourth time in his past six rounds). His first-round 76 put him in danger of missing the cut, but he rebounded with a 68 on day two and a 67 on day three. However, today's score of 73 prevented him from defending his trophy.
Ryan Moore (-5) finished in third and amateur Lee McCoy (-4) finished in fourth.
Heading into today it appeared as if Haas, who was the leader, would be competing with Moore, Hoffman, Charles Howell III, Graham DeLaet, Steve Stricker and Patrick Reed, but Schwarzel's 67, which was the best score of the day, allowed him to climb up the leaderboard late. None of the aforementioned names managed to shoot under par on the final day.
Schwarzel and Moore were the only two in the entire field to shoot par or better in each of their four rounds.
