Weekly Recap: Spaun Stars

The recurring story within the story at the Valero Texas Open is that, if you win the tournament, you also get to go to the Masters. Sure, that's the case whenever you win a tournament. But when the Masters is next week, there's just that much more urgency and immediacy and, yeah, coolness. Of course, if you're already in the field, well, there's just one story.

On Sunday at TPC San Antonio, there were layers and layers of compelling stories and storylines. There was a bunch of guys looking to win and get that coveted Masters invite. For most of them, that would've rare or never before. But two of them were Masters regulars, longtime stars who played Augusta for years but now were, well, older. And when you're older, you never know when you've played your last Masters.

Matt Kuchar and Brandt Snedeker were 1-2 on the leaderboard at one point on the front nine. And that would've been quite a duel between the two 40-somethings looking to win the Valero but perhaps eyeing the Masters invite even more. Neither could sustain it, and they both still will wonder whether they'll ever back to Magnolia Lane.

In the end a pretty good story still unfolded -- and not just because the winner is one of my guys in the RotoWire League, but that definitely contributed. 

PGA Tour non-winner J.J. Spaun accomplished something last done by Tiger Woods in beating Kuchar and another 40-something, Matt Jones, by two strokes. The 31-year-old Spaun double-bogeyed the first hole, and a PGA Tour winner hadn't opened the final round with a double since Woods at the 2008 U.S. Open. Spaun played the next 17 holes brilliantly, recording five birdies and no bogeys, to become the ninth first-time winner on Tour this season.

A few years ago, none of this -- winning a tournament, going to the Masters -- seemed possible for Spaun.

The 5-foot-9 Los Angeles native was well over 200 pounds in 2018 when he was diagnosed with diabetes – but also misdiagnosed. The original call was Type 2 diabetes and Spaun changed his lifestyle but things didn't get much better. It wasn't until the middle of 2021 that a specialist said it was actually Type 1 diabetes and, without getting into the medical specifics, that's a pretty big difference, certainly for a professional athlete.

Spaun was nearly 600th in the world rankings at that time, but he had climbed into the mid-200s entering the Valero and now sits at a career-best 103rd. He's missed only four cuts in 17 starts, has five top-25s and is ranked in the top-100 in every strokes-gained category but Around-the-Green.

Collectively that's way better than average and you have to wonder if Spaun hadn't plummeted into the 600 range, where would he be now ranked now? Early in 2017, after consecutive top-10s at Torrey Pines and Phoenix, he was nearing the top 100. Soon after, he started to fall back.

This will be Spaun's fourth major. He made the cut at the 2018 and 2019 PGA Championships and missed at last year's U.S. Open. We shouldn't expect much from him this week -- he has to scramble just to find a place to stay. A made cut would be a huge success.

Don't look toward Augusta, look at how Spaun handles the rest of this season.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Matt Kuchar
Kuchar had played in 12 straight Masters and 15 overall, enjoying some great success though the year. But now at 43 years old, this was a great chance for perhaps one last try. It was a weak field at a track where he can still compete. But bogeys on 7 and 8 effectively killed his chances. The co-runner-up, his best finish since another T2 at the 2020 Genesis Invitational, did move Kuchar back into the top 100 of the OWGR at No. 98. He will be in the field for next month's PGA. But it's not the Masters.

Matt Jones
Jones now has a runner-up and a third (Tournament of Champions) already in 2022. He's 41 years, 61st in the world, still going strong and obviously can be a part of winning lineups.

Adam Hadwin
Hadwin has strung together three top-10s in a row, with this week's tie for fourth the best of the bunch. He's back inside the top-100 in the world at No. 97. Hadwin won't be in the Masters but the RBC Heritage the following week is another good fit – if he's in the field.

Troy Merritt
With a tie for fourth, Merritt has two top-5s in eight starts in 2022. He has been around for years but just last year cracked the top-100 for the first time and now seems, at age 36, to be playing his best golf.

Beau Hossler
Hossler is a former top-100 player who has struggled for the past few years, and even fell into the 400s of the OWGR earlier this year. But since then he's had a solo third at Pebble Beach and now a tie for fourth at the Valero. He still has a long way to go to get back inside the 100 -- he's 191st -- but there are at least positive developments.

Keegan Bradley
Bradley tied for eighth, giving him four top-12s already in 2022. And that's with some terrible putting, where he ranks 146th. In every other Strokes Gained category, Bradley checks in top-35, which is truly elite. He's up to 62nd in the world but is not in the Masters. 

Matthias Schwab
Don't look now, but the young Austrian who got his card via the Korn Ferry playoffs has three top-10s in his past five starts with this tie for eighth. One of them was at the opposite-field Puerto Rico Open but the other was at the Honda. Not too shabby.

Gary Woodland
Woodland continues with his best stretch of golf since winning the 2019 U.S. Open. He tied for eighth, giving him three top-10s and four top-25s in his past five starts. He'll be in the Masters thanks only to that major title.

Mito Pereira
Many expected Pereira to be the next Korn Ferry grad to take a big leap on the PGA Tour. It hasn't happened yet. But his tie for 13th was his third top-25 in eight starts in 2022. Maybe it's just taking a little longer for Pereira.

Brandt Snedeker
Not only isn't Snedeker going to the Masters, his game is in far more disarray than Kuchar's. Snedeker shot a 3-over 75 to tumble into a tie for 18th. He was bidding for his first top-10 since last year's Valero. The good news is he ended a stretch of five straight missed cuts. But he's ranked 255th in the world and you have to think that this mostly good week was an outlier.

Jordan Spieth
Spieth tied for 35th in his title defense and was never a factor. He hasn't been much of a factor so far in 2022, with just one top-20 in eight starts. His putting is a real problem – like, a huge problem – with a ranking of 180th. It's hard to do well at Augusta with putting like that.

Rory McIlroy
We'll find out soon enough if McIlroy's plan to skip the Match Play and play the week before the Masters works out. But for now it looks ridiculous. McIlroy missed the cut, and you have to wonder about his motivation. He was at Augusta on Tuesday, just two days before the start of the Valero, which was a good indicator of where his head was at.

Bryson DeChambeau
DeChambeau missed the cut, but he got in two more rounds of reps in advance of the Masters. He did not play well, missing the cut by five strokes. He's never been great at Augusta to begin with and now, after being idle for two months with injuries before playing in the Match Play, it doesn't appear that will change this year.

Jason Day
Day had played in every Masters since 2011 but his poor play the past few years finally caught up with him. He missed the cut and will not be playing Augusta this year. Day is still relatively young at 34, but with all the wear and tear on his back and now ranked outside the top-100 in the world, you wonder if/when Day will play another Masters. Or will ever be relevant on Tour again.

Ian Poulter
Like with Day, Poulter did not qualify for the Masters this year, with his final attempt ending with a missed cut at the Valero. He is 46 years old, has fallen from the top-50 and it's only fair to thik that Poulter probably has played his final Masters. He had been in 16 of them dating to 2004.

Charley Hoffman
Mr. Valero, with a win and three runners-up, including the past two years, missed the cut. It was a classic case of course history butting heads with recent form. And, with Hoffman's recent form pretty bad all year, course history did not stand a chance.

Rickie Fowler
We're three months into 2022 and halfway through the 2021-22 season, and by now we see that Fowler is not getting better. He had fallen from 85th in the world at the start of the year to 130th entering the Valero. And with another missed cut, he's now 134th. Fowler has missed four out of seven cuts in 2022 with no top-40 results. He'll miss the Masters for a second straight year.

Takumi Kanaya
Kanaya has been a top-50 player based almost totally on his great results in Japan. But making his way out of group play two weeks ago at the Match Play might've been the first indication that he was beginning to make a dent on the PGA Tour. But then he turned around and missed the Valero cut. He'll be in the Masters, where he made the cut as an amateur, but it's hard to expect anything this time around.

Lee Westwood
Westwood will not head to Augusta in any sort of good form. He missed the cut, same as he did at THE PLAYERS, which followed a T68 at Bay Hill. The 48-year-old Englishman is now 65th in the world rankings and he's another guy who may be prepping for his final Masters.

Hideki Matsuyama
After withdrawing before THE PLAYERS and skipping the Match Play with a neck injury, this was a critical week for the Matsuyama on the eve of defending his Masters title. But he couldn't make it through two rounds in San Antonio before withdrawing again. This puts his title defense in jeopardy, but it would also be unbelievable if Matsuyama didn't at least give it a go on Thursday.