Taylor Moore Earns a Berth in the Masters Tournament with a Victory in the Valspar Championship
It looked to be Jordan Spieth’s tournament to win, even Adam Schenk who was chasing his first PGA TOUR victory, but Taylor Moore had other ideas. The 29-year-old Texan played bogey-free golf over his final 11 holes to fire a 4 under par 67 and claim the Valspar Championship by a single shot.
“It still really hasn’t sunk in. It’s a pretty awesome feeling, obviously, knowing everything that goes with it. Super happy and — not only for myself, but everybody that’s here with me today, my family and my team, and really looking forward to what’s to come,” said Moore in the winner’s news conference at Innisbrook Resort.
What’s to come is Moore jumping to 49th in the Official World Golf Rankings, but not in time to qualify for this week’s WGC-Dell Technology Match Play in his home state. The cut-off was after last week’s Player’s Championship. His first-place finish did earn him a chance to play for the coveted green jacket at Augusta National next month, bringing The Masters field to 85 players.
Moore’s four-day total was 10 under par, and he was the only player in the top five who did not bogey over the back nine on the Copperhead Course.
Taylor Moore tops Jordan Spieth and Adam Schenk at Innisbrook to capture his first PGA TOUR Victory
“I have done a lot of good things this year, excited about where my game’s at, for sure, and, yeah, just so happy to get it done today,” added Moore.
Schenk, like Moore, was also seeking his first PGA TOUR victory, but a bogey on 18 provided him his best-ever finish, runner-up – and solo second place.
“It stinks to get so close, but great week all in all, so I can’t really complain. David and I did about as good as we could have done with how I hit it today,” said the 31-year-old Indiana pro who played one under-par golf Sunday and was minus nine for the week.
Meanwhile, Spieth, the three-time major winner and 2015 champion, allowed the snake pit to live up to its name as he bogeyed two of the final three holes – numbers 16 and 18 – to finish two shots back in a tie for third with Tommy Fleetwood at eight under par.
“I don’t really look back and think I could have done a whole lot different today. It was a really challenging day to play golf. He must have shot 4-under, is that right? And that would be one of the low rounds of the day, I imagine. Which coming late in the day, that’s pretty good,” said the 2015 Valspar Championship winner and three-time major champion.
Spieth now has three top-10 finishes in nine TOUR starts this season, while Moore is the sixth player to make the Valspar championship his first TOUR victory – just like Sam Burns did in 2021 before repeating as last year’s winner.
Wyndham Clark finished six under to round out the top 5, while Burns ended the week alone in 6th place at minus five after firing a 4 under par 67 in his final round. He was trying to secure the first three-peat on TOUR since Steve Stricker won the John Deere Classic back-to-back to back (2009-2011).
