Paul Casey comes from behind for Valspar win as Tiger falls short

Paul Casey made a stunning run up the leaderboard on Sunday to win the Valspar Championship.

On Sunday at Innisbrook, yet another long winless drought ended, but not the way many expected coming in. This particular streak belonged to Paul Casey, whose last PGA TOUR title came almost nine years ago. That is over now, as Casey held off Patrick Reed and, yes, Tiger Woods to win the Valspar Championship.

Casey’s return to the winner’s circle has been a long time coming, especially on American soil. To be fair, he’s won plenty of tournaments since the 2009 Shell Houston Open, his only other PGA TOUR title. To be specific, in that span, he won five times on the European Tour. However, even the most recent of those victories came back in 2014, at the KLM Open.

The 40-year-old Englishman has proven his talents against the best of the best in recent years. Last year, he posted nine top-ten finishes on the PGA TOUR. In 2016, he had seven top-tens, but he also finished runner-up in back-to-back FedEx Cup Playoff events, eventually finishing fourth at the TOUR Championship.

Let’s even go back to 2015, where Casey forced playoffs at the Northern Trust Open and the Travelers Championship. This is a player who’s been prepared for this moment for years – even if he had Tiger Woods chasing him down.

Okay – perhaps that sounds a little overdramatic, but it’s also pretty accurate. While the eyes of everyone in the golf world (yours truly included) were glued onto Woods, it was Casey who came in ready to continue a trend that’s been happening at Innisbrook for years.

Casey’s comeback a push towards Paris and the Ryder Cup

Despite some of the low scores we saw throughout this week, Innisbrook is no pushover. Combine an already tough course with the “Snake Pit” closers, and the pressure of having a lead in a big-time tournament, and you find the door open for a comeback more often than you’d think.

7 of the last 10 winners of the @ValsparChamp trailed entering the final round. Overall since 2013, only 24.7% of players with a 1-shot lead after 54 holes on the @PGATour go on to win.
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) March 11, 2018

Corey Conners held the 54-hole lead, but fell off the pace early, with bogeys on two of his first three holes. He leveled off for the rest of his front nine, but he didn’t make a birdie all day, and wound up coming in at six-over 77. From the get-go, it was clear that we would have a come from behind champion, the only question left was who it would be.

As it so often is, someone just needed to post a number and get in the clubhouse. Sergio Garcia got hot late, making four birdies on the back nine to get in at eight-under par. It was a fantastic round for the dad-to-be, but it never really looked like it would be enough.

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Enter Casey. Playing far ahead of the leaders – teeing off nearly an hour and a half before the final group – he was able to play freely. While the scoring came smoothly, it was the wait that got to him.

“Awful,” Casey said when asked about the time spent watching Woods, Reed and the rest. “Rubbish. Can’t stand it.”

I imagine things are better now.

And while so much attention was understandably thrown to Woods, don’t let that take away from what Casey accomplished. This week in Palm Harbor, he ranked inside the top ten in strokes gained: tee-to-green (sixth), scrambling (third) and total birdies (tied-third). Better yet, this win will go a long way toward setting him up for his first Ryder Cup appearance since 2008.

Next: Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson destined for date at Augusta?

Casey did admit after the tournament that he thought Tiger would pull off the win. He even went so far as to say that he was pulling for Woods to get the job done.

That is, if he couldn’t win it himself. Hey, trade-offs need to be made. I imagine he’ll sleep just fine tonight knowing that Tiger will have to wait another week.

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