Valspar Championship Recap: Spieth Making History

The questions about Jordan Spieth were always the finest one could ask: Is he the best young golfer in the game? Is he the top American golfer? Is he the main threat to world No. 1 Rory McIlroy?

But for some reason, no one really asked: When is he going to win on the PGA Tour again?

Yes, Spieth is still only 21, but he's already in his third season on tour. In 2013, Spieth burst out of college with all the hype – and he won in short order. He began to steadily rise in the rankings, contending in some big tournaments against some of the top names in the game. He was runner-up in the 2013 Tour Championship and 2014 Masters. He was one of the U.S. stars on the Ryder Cup team. He moved into the top-10 in the world.

But he wasn't winning.

Not since the 2013 John Deere Classic – a win is a win but the Deere is hardly a biggie – had Spieth tasted victory on the PGA Tour, a span of 40 events entering the Valspar Championship.

On Sunday, Spieth balanced some incredible highs with some desultory lows to squeak into a playoff with Patrick Reed (already with four PGA wins) and Sean O'Hair, and then defeated them with a stirring 12-foot birdie putt on the third hole of sudden death.

With the win, Spieth moved to No. 6 in the world and became just the fourth golfer since 1940 with multiple PGA Tour wins before turning 22. One, Tiger Woods, went on to greatness. Another, Sergio Garcia, has had a very nice career but one defined by underachieving. The third, Robert Gamez, flamed out.

Spieth, in all likelihood, with end up somewhere in the rather large gap between Woods and Garcia. He turns 22 on July 27.

The Dallas native had four runner-up finishes and a boatload of top-10s since his Deere victory, accumulating bushels of world-ranking points and American dollars. Spieth does have two other wins, both coming within a week of each other last fall. He took the Australian Open, prestigious, albeit with a subpar field, and then the Woods' Hero World Challenge, which has a stellar field but goes only 18 deep.

Spieth had to overcome some wild swings, blowing a two-stroke lead early on Sunday and then being three down with six to play. He withstood some bad shots on 17 and 18 by following them with great shots just to get into the playoff. For a good while, it looked as if the winless stretch would continue.

A juicy subplot in the playoff was Spieth facing Reed. Another young golfer as part of the next wave of American stars, Reed is sort of a bravado bad boy to Spieth's squeaky-clean wholesomeness. And he had four wins to Spieth's one, and is still only 24. Reed's first win came at the 2013 Wydham in a playoff -- in which he defeated the far more accomplished Spieth.

Now, we can envision the two dueling for years to come. Now, with an important win for Spieth just as the calendar is about to flip to spring, we can envision another question about him cropping up: Will he win his first major at the Masters in three weeks?

MONDAY TAKEAWAY

Patrick Reed
Reed deserved better. He didn't bogey in his final 30 holes of the tournament and shot a 5-under 67 on Sunday, the first to post a 10-under total. He made some incredible saves in the playoff, including an up-and-down from a plugged lie on the lip of a high-banking greenside bunker. For all the bravado, Reed surely has shown he can back it up. So much so that he might be the one wearing the green jacket next month.

Sean O'Hair
Long before there was Spieth and Reed, there was O'Hair. A day before turning 25, he won the 2005 Deere for his first tour win. By 2009, he had two more wins and finished fifth in the point standings. And then O'Hair fell, and kept falling. He needed the Web.com Tour the past two years just to keep his card, and this was the closest he's sniffed of victory in years. He played great all of Sunday, making a steely 5-footer on 18 to get into the playoff. What does this mean for the 32-year-old going forward (which of course is really the only thing gamers want to know)? Well, his three best events of the year have been his last three: T29 at Pebble, T25 at the Honda and now P2 at the Valspar. If he's available in your league, go for it. He's worth a shot.

Henrik Stenson
You want another Masters contender? We've got one right here. Stenson followed up a T4 in the WGC-Cadillac Championship last week in his stateside debut with a solo fourth at the Valspar. The Swede strung together three birdies on Nos. 14-16 to get to 9-under, but parred out to miss the playoff by a shot. No. 3 in the world, Stenson won the Euro's version of the Tour Championship last year. And it's hard to believe he doesn't have a major.

Ryan Moore
You can make a strong argument that no one has played better the past two weeks than Moore. And all he has to show for it is a T9 at the Cadillac and a solo fifth at the Valspar. Moore had a three-stroke lead with six holes to play on Sunday, and finished with three bogeys and three pars. He was in the mix at the Cadillac from the get-go, but again faltered late with a final-round 76. It sure looks like a win is somewhere in Moore's 2015 plans.

Troy Merritt
The round of the day, a 6-under 66, was fired by Merritt, catapulting him to solo sixth, by far his best finish of the season. He hadn't so much as had a top-25, much less a top-10. There's nothing in Merritt's history to indicate this is the start of something good. Last year, he tied for second in the FedEx St. Jude Classic, his lone top-10 of the season.

Danny Lee
Lee finished tied for seventh with Jason Kokrak and Luke Guthrie, and this wasn't his best showing of the season. The still-24-year-old Korean tied for third at the OHL Classic in the fall. Is this the start of something good for Lee? His pedigree indicates he's got a better shot than Merritt. But probably not.

Vijay Singh
Old enough to be Spieth's father (and Reed's and Lee's -- and even O'Hair's!), Singh is playing some darned good golf at age 52. Fifty-two! He tied for 12th a few weeks back at Riviera and tied for 10th at the Valspar. In both cases, late fades cost him, mostly because of his putter. After two birdies on the back nine on Sunday got him to the first page of the leaderboard at 6-under, Singh bogeyed Nos. 15 and 16 to end his chances.

Derek Ernst
There was an Ernst sighting this week! The surprise winner of the 2013 Wells Fargo had exactly zero top-25s since then. Until this week. Ernst actually led the tournament on the weekend, and was in contention heading into Sunday. But he stumbled to a 3-over 75 to plummet down the leaderboard to T17. Still, that's his best finish in almost two years. (We know what you're thinking. But, no, don't even think about picking him up.)

Luke Donald
If there was any place Donald could still have been expected to play well, it's Innisbrook, where the Englishman won in 2012 and then tied for fourth the next two years. Following a second-round 68 on Friday, Donald was in the mix (the difference between the leaders and the last of the 71 golfers to make the cut was only seven shots, so just about everybody was in the mix). But he shot 73-74 to slide to T53, and Donald looks like he's on a slow, painful ride into the sunset. He's still in the top-50 in the OWGR, but not for long. And that's going to hurt him because, right now, Augusta is the only major he's qualified for.

Adam Scott
Scott looked to be in remarkable form last week at the Cadillac in his first start of the year and going at it with a conventional putter. He was at .765 in strokes-gained putting. Not great, but certainly a plus. Well, at the Valspar, Scott missed his first cut since 2012 and was -2.589 strokes-gained putting. Two words: Ruh-roh.

Justin Rose
Rose, still in the top-10 in the world, has four U.S. starts in 2015 with three missed cuts and a tie for 55th – in a tournament without a cut. At the Valspar, Rose shot a 74-72 trunk-slam and his owners, who no doubt and understandably paid a high price for him, cannot be happy. Of course, Rose isn't happy, either. But that doesn't make his owners any happier.