Round-up: Wins for Schwartzel and Hend; Nordic start for Grant and Kelly
Charl Schwartzel
PGA Tour — South Africa’s Charl Schwartzel made a par at the first extra hole to deny Bill Haas and claim the Valspar Championship at Innsbrook.
The former Masters champion, who was five off the lead at the start of the day, closed with a four under 67 to set the target at seven under par.
Haas was eight under with three holes to play but he bunkered his approach to the 16th and made bogey, carding a 72 to end up in a playoff with the South African on seven under par.
"It really is a great feeling," Schwartzel said. "You know, winning back in 2011 the biggest tournament in our sport, your expectations go up and I figured that I would win a few times the way I played and it just never came and then I went through a bad thing where my swing was a bit off and I lost a lot of confidence and you start thinking, 'am I actually going to win out here again.'
"You feel good enough because I had a few wins outside of America on the European Tour so I knew it was good enough. I just needed to get over the hurdle of winning out here again and I think the way today played out with it being really difficult, you're grinding just to make pars and keep the ball in play and it was really difficult."
Pádraig Harrington closed with a one under 70 to share 33rd on two over as world No 1 Jordan Spieth posted a two over 73 to share 18th place on level par.
“Really poor from both me and Michael today,” Spieth said of his day with caddie Michael Grellar. "Our decisions cost us a few shots early and all the momentum and, you know, we both get the credit when things are going good and we're going to take the fall today.
"I hit the shots but, you know, we made a couple decisions that make me look back and think wow, we got some stuff to talk about before we get ready to go into a Major. Bit of a bummer. But it's okay. We got plenty of time.
"Ball strike being is getting close. Everything is, I would say, in a good place as far as being ready for the Masters. I'd like to get things sped up and maybe contend before we get to that, to Augusta, but yeah, nice come back this week, all in all. After the first day looked like everything was kind of going the golf course’s way and found a way to fight back."
Amateur Lee McCoy, who is from the area, closed with an impressive 67 alongside Spieth to finish solo fourth before facing a seven and a half hour drive to Athens in Georgia for a college event on Monday.
Asked out losing out on a $200,000 payday, he said: "Jordan, we were sitting in the scoring tent and it was a sheet with the winnings there and he told me not to look. I looked. I shouldn't have looked. Lot of money. Lot of money.
"I think I got like 350 bucks in my bank account right now so it's mostly gas money. It hurt but there's so much going great for me right now. I'm just trying to take it all in, just really grateful to be standing here."
Nordic League — Stephen Grant shot a one over 71 and Mike Kelly a four over 74 in the opening round of the Mediter Real Estate Masters - PGA Catalunya event in Catalonia.
Grant is four shots behind leaders Daniel Lokke of Denmark and Sweden’s Bjorn Hellgren, who shot five under 65s on the Tour Course to lead by one from Lasse Jensen and Christian Aronsen.
Scores
Kelly did well to shoot 74 for a share of 71st after opening his round with a triple bogey seven at the first while Grant was two over after eight and ended the day tied 41st.
Scott Hend. Picture: Getty Images
Asian Tour/European Tour — Scott Hend held off a stunning late charge from home favourite Piya Swangarunporn to win the True Thailand Classic Presented by Chang.
The Australian came into the final round at Black Mountain Golf Club six shots ahead of Swanagarunporn but was a shot behind with five holes to play as the Thai fired a brilliant course record 63 to get to 17 under.
A birdie on the 14th put Hend back into a share of top spot, and when he took advantage of the driveable 17th for the fourth time this week, that was enough to secure a 68 and a second European Tour title by a single shot.
Hend said: “There are so many great players out here on the Asian Tour and obviously the European Tour as well so it was no surprise the guys came after me. But for Piya to shoot 63 today was an amazing round of golf and he must have played extremely well all day.
"He set the score and the target and then I had to just try and keep making birdies to try and catch him. I learned from last year when I pushed too hard on the 17th here and lost my chance to win. So this year I knew I had to be patient and let the golf course come to me.”
