As Matt Fitzpatrick wins the Valspar, 2 different types of losses unfold

As Matt Fitzpatrick celebrated a birdie on the 72nd hole that won him the Valspar Championship, two players were considering Sunday’s unique miss as they prepared to leave Innisbrook Resort.

One was destroying what might have been one of his last best pictures. One hoped that defeat would be the key to the next one.

There was President Cup captain Brandt Snedeker, who came out of the final group along with 54-hole leader Sungjae Im. Snedeker, 45, is a nine-time winner on the PGA Tour, but his last victory came at the 2018 Wyndham Championship, when he opened with a 59. Since then, Snedeker has been leading the way. In 2022, he underwent surgery to repair a dislocated sternum joint. It took him eight months to return to competition. Although his health has been “much better” over the past decade, Snedeker has struggled on the course, posting only top 10 finishes in 62 events over the past three years.

But at Valspar, Snedeker rode a hot putter and a clean short game into contention, giving him a chance to return to the winner’s circle for the first time in nearly eight years.

“No one expects me to be here,” Snedeker said Saturday.

He came into Sunday with a chance. By the time Snedeker made his turn, Im had shot a front-9 40 and Snedeker found himself in a five-way tie for first.

Everything was there for Snedeker. And then, suddenly, it wasn’t.

Snedeker missed makable birdie attempts on 10 and 11, then made a dirty double bogey on the 4th 12th. Bogeys on 13, 16 and 17 followed as Snedeker came up with a par on the 18th.

“I’m in tenth place tied for the lead, which is what you can do,” said Snedeker after the round. “My swing left me on the back nine. I really struggled. I couldn’t find anything to put the ball where I wanted to. This golf course—a very well-designed golf course—if you get out of position, it will punish you. All those clubs I’ve been making all week are dry today.

“It’s frustrating, it’s sad, and every good thing this week is like I threw it away today. But that’s part of golf. That’s why I love this challenge, and I’ll come back next week and try to figure out what I did wrong and try to fix it.”

Snedeker started the year in conditional form and opened with four straight missed cuts. For 63 holes at Valspar, he had a chance to write an unlikely story. Instead, he limped to the finish and left the Copperhead Course hoping this was a sign of things to come and not a single flash of good play.

“I’m very happy with my performance today,” Snedeker said. “I’ve never felt nervous, I’ve never felt like I’m not comfortable with the conditions I’ve been in. I feel like my swing has slowed down. This golf course can make you pay. It’s not like I’ve hit any uncontrollable, bad shots, I’m just pulling a little bit. Miss a fairway here, miss a fairway there, miss a green there, and put the ball in the wrong spot and you’re going to make that the back on the boneys. The nigeys that one before. It’s a nine. I wish I could go back and play 10 more times.”

When Snedker finished bleeding a little on the back-nine, David Lipsky was on top pushing Fitzpatrick to the limit.

The 37-year-old Lipsky has never won on the PGA Tour and is currently playing with conditional status after finishing 107th in the FedEx Cup Fall. He arrived at Valspar with one top-20 in four starts this season, but Lipsky opened with rounds of 69-65-70 to start the final round tied with Snedeker, just two out of Im’s lead.

Lipsky got out of par and birdied 14 to join Fitzpatrick atop the leaderboard at 10 under. He missed a birdie putt on No. 15 and then watched his birdie attempt from 15 feet on 17 reach. When Fitzpatrick went 18 birdies ahead of him, Lipsky needed to answer on the final hole to force a playoff. But his tee shot landed right, and his approach left him 32 feet for birdie. Lipsky made a run, but his attempt to force a playoff just missed, leaving him tied for second.

Sunday at Valspar could have changed everything for David Lipsky. But the near Miss did not leave him with regret or frustration; all there was on Sunday was happiness for the future. That solo second place finish puts him at the top of the AON Swing Five, meaning he’s in the running for the RBC Heritage, the next Signature Event. That could open everything up for a mover who is still chasing opportunities to play on the PGA Tour and hopes to get out of the country where he currently resides.

“It’s huge,” Lipsky said of his week. “Maybe it’ll get me into a few Signature events or something. It’s a good week. I don’t have points for that.

“It gets you into a lot of events. You don’t feel like you’re behind the 8-ball, especially going into the summer. So this week was a good week and I’m looking forward to seeing what events I get into at the end of the year and trying to play my way into those playoffs.”

Lipsky will head to Houston this week, looking to bolster his chances of kicking down the Signature door. Snedeker, meanwhile, will continue to “split” his focus between his duties as President Cup captain and being a nine-time PGA Tour winner as he seeks to restart a defunct career.

His Valspar could be the start of that. But there’s one thing it won’t be: the start of an interview that shows what Keegan Bradley lived last year as he tried to play for his Ryder Cup team. Snedeker will be at Medinah in September as captain, and only captain. His golf will be second to last putt this fall.

“There’s no chance,” Snedeker said Thursday about the chances of becoming the playing captain. “Let’s talk about madness here, there is no chance, there is no chance.

“I want to make sure I’m playing good golf out here,” Snedeker said Sunday after his stumble. “But most importantly, I want to make sure I do a good job of captaining the President’s Cup.”