On the verge of attempting the greatest feat in golf, Jordan Spieth explained why his future is so bright and why he doesn’t feel pressure

In the final round of the 2018 Valspar Championship, Paul Casey birdies seven of his first 13 holes, then pars in for a 65 and a one-shot win over Patrick Reed (68) and Tiger Woods (70). Welcome to the Monday Finish, where amid great Tiger fervor, Casey won for the second time on the PGA TOUR and the first since the 2009 Houston Open, moving from 39th to eighth in the FedExCup. Here are some further thoughts on the Valspar: FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1- If you want to get more out of your game, sometimes it helps to try less. Casey got into contention a lot last year only to struggle on Sundays. At the TOUR Championship, he was in the mix to win before shooting a final-round 73 to finish fifth. Eventually he realized he was grinding so hard, especially on the greens, that his perfectionism was getting in the way. He was even shutting and de-lofting the putter face. This year, Casey has tried to open the putter face while not getting himself so worked up on the greens. (Jordan Spieth would call it free-rollin’.) It certainly worked at the Valspar. Casey took just 21 putts Sunday, the lowest single-round total of his PGA TOUR career, and was +1.660 in strokes gained: putting on the day. “The way I strike the golf ball … I don’t stress about technique, I never have,â€� Casey said. “I figure everything out and I pick the target and hit it. If it’s a good shot, great. If it’s a bad one and went slightly off line, maybe I make a small adjustment and try not to do the same with the next one. I’ve never done with that the putting. I’ve always been super critical and try to have a great stroke. I’m approaching it the same way I approach the rest of the game. It’s carefree. “If it’s not, I’m not beating myself up,â€� he added. “I’m now striking the ball much better. My speed is infinitely better and I’m not shutting the putter face. And starting on line I can now read putts again. It’s pretty simple, but for so long I just couldn’t see it and trying to be perfect and trying to be better and the trying wasn’t getting anywhere. Getting in my own way.â€� 2- Birdies get the glamour, but pars save the day. Casey sizzled with the seven birdies and one bogey (at the difficult par-4 third hole), but after signing his card and beginning the long wait in the clubhouse, he was most delighted with his par saves at 16, 17 and 18. He missed all three greens in regulation, but chipped up and made knee-knocking par putts of 3 feet, 5 inches; 2 feet, 4 inches; and 5 feet, 2 inches. “The reason I’m happy, the way I cleaned up,â€� Casey said. “I putted brilliantly, the thing that has been holding me back for a couple seasons. Really good to hole the putts at 16, 17 and 18. It’s been a long time since I’ve holed three pressure putts like that in a row. I’m ecstatic about it.â€� 3- Tiger Woods (70) at least enjoyed some smaller victories. He moved to 43rd in the FedExCup and posted four straight sub-par rounds for the first time since THE NORTHERN TRUST in 2013. He also registered his 30th runner-up and 187th top-10 finish in 332 TOUR starts, and this week he heads to the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard, which he’s won eight times. (For more on his comeback and his performance at the Valspar, click here.) 4- Woods wasn’t the only player enjoying a big comeback at the Valspar. Jim Furyk, the 2010 Valspar champion, was playing on a sponsor invitation and shot a final-round 66 to finish solo seventh. It was the first top-10 finish for the 17-time TOUR winner since he finished T6 at The RSM Classic in 2016. At 47, Furyk is trying to bounce back from a disappointing 2017 even as he makes preparations to captain the U.S. Ryder Cup Team in Paris in the fall. 5- Sergio Garcia’s eight birdies Sunday was a tournament best for a single round, but he was left to lament what might have been were it not for his two bogeys, everything adding up to a 65 that left him in solo fourth. Garcia also didn’t capitalize on his first three rounds (70-72-69). “Unfortunately, I left myself too much to do today,â€� he said. “Played really, really nicely. I played nicely all week. Unfortunately, I didn’t really get anything out of my rounds the first three days and today could have been a really, really special round. You know, I probably wasted at least three shots on the front nine with a three-putt and a couple short misses for birdies.â€� FIVE INSIGHTS 1- Casey scrambled exceptionally well, getting up and down 82.14 percent of the time, third best in the field. He was also +.865 in strokes gained: putting (15th), and near the top in driving distance (301.6 yards, 17th) and proximity to the hole (35’ 10’’ for T22). His worst stat was driving accuracy (46.15 percent, T68). 2- Perhaps the winner’s nerve on the greens (just 21 putts in the final round) was helped by the fact that he hit nine of 13 fairways, by far his best of the week. Casey, 40, had hit just six, five and four fairways over the first three rounds, respectively. 3- Woods was attempting to match fellow 40-something Phil Mickelson’s victory at the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship the week before. In no particular order, Woods and Mickelson have won in back-to-back weeks on TOUR 10 times, most recently at the 2013 Farmers Insurance Open (Woods) and Waste Management Phoenix Open (Mickelson). 4- Patrick Reed (68) logged a lot of driving range time at the WGC-Mexico Championship, and it paid off at the Valspar. He matched Casey at 10-under before making bogey at the last. Reed’s sixth TOUR win, and first since THE NORTHERN TRUST in 2016, will have to wait. So, too, will atonement for the 2015 Valspar, when Reed and Sean O’Hair lost a playoff to Jordan Spieth. 5- Sam Burns came into the Valspar with 122 non-member FedExCup points, needing no worse than a two-way tie for third to earn the 147 points that would equal No. 150 on last year’s list (Rick Lamb, 269 points). Alas, Burns finished T12 and remains 88 points of Special Temporary Membership. He’ll play on a sponsor invitation at this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard. TOP VIDEOS

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The second half of the 2017-18 PGA TOUR season opens with one of the toughest tests on the schedule. The AT&T Oaks Course at TPC San Antonio hosts the Valero Texas Open. Hard-track specialist Kevin Chappell returns to defend his breakthrough title. His 12-under 276 on the stock par 72 is tied for the third-lowest aggregate among the eight champions since the course debuted in 2010. Scroll past the ranking for much more on TPC San Antonio and how Chappell solved, er, survived it. POWER RANKINGS: VALERO TEXAS OPEN RANK PLAYER COMMENT The tournament’s all-time earnings leader is 8-for-8 with a win (2016), a T2 (2011), a T3 (2013) and four more top 15s at TPC San Antonio. Logged top 25s in four of last six starts. The 2011 winner has added three top 15s since that breakthrough. Ranks eighth in GIR, 11th in birdies-or-better and T19 in par-5 scoring. Four top 20s in last seven starts. Look out now. He tends to ride a heater. Found some magic with the flat stick at Harbour Town and finished T5. Recorded top fives at TPC San Antonio in 2013, 2015 and 2016. Cooled in last three months, but only relatively speaking. A force at TPC San Antonio where he’s 4-for-4 with no worse than T22 (2010) and a scoring average of 71.25. First visit since 2015. Converted on converging trends here last year. Experiencing duties as a first-time defending champ this week and enters a bit cold, but his tee-to-green game is too good to ignore. Continues to sizzle. T3 at Harbour Town was fifth top 20 in last nine starts. Making fourth trip to TPC San Antonio. Sixth on TOUR in strokes gained: tee-to-green and T19 in par-5 scoring. The course horse hasn’t missed an edition. He has four top 10s (and a T15), including in each of the last three. The course design rewards the native Texan’s confident tee ball. Top 20s in both prior visits to TPC San Antonio (2012, 2017). Ranked second in both fairways hit and greens in regulation at Harbour Town (T16). Finished T5 at Bay Hill a month ago. Sustaining form that yielded a career-best five top 10s in the first half, including a T7 at Harbour Town. Currently 11th on TOUR in the all-around. Placed T4 here in 2015. Perfect in six appearances with three top 15s and a scoring average of 71.58. Two top 10s and two top 30s in his last four starts. Inside top 30 in proximity and strokes gained: putting. First appearance since the inaugural edition in 2010. Served as player consultant on the design. Prior to his unusual experience in defending the Masters, connected three top 10s. Showcased strong tee-to-green work en route to P2 at Harbour Town. Preceded that with a T9 at Match Play and T24 at Masters. Placed T22 here last year; ranking T3 in par-5 scoring. Elevating. Shook off playoff loss at the Houston Open with a T16 at the RBC Heritage where he led the field in strokes gained: putting. Currently 10th on the PGA TOUR in the stat. Front-loaded at Harbour Town but still finished T23. Inconsistent tee-to-green game hasn’t been an issue at TPC San Antonio where he placed fourth in 2011 and T25 in 2016. In the wind (at times) and on tough tracks, he’s gone T16-T13-T8 from Copperhead to Corales to Houston. It makes sense given his roots in Texas and Oklahoma. T42 here in 2016. Zach Johnson, Xander Schauffele and former champions Adam Scott (2010) and Jimmy Walker (2015) will be among the notables reviewed in Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider. The annual irony of the Valero Texas Open is that the incredible charity for which the tournament is known – $11 million was raised last year alone – doesn’t extend inside the ropes. Thanks in part to the ubiquitous winds of south Texas, par is a good score at TPC San Antonio, which tips at 7,435 yards. Last year’s field averaged 72.853 and it still didn’t score high enough to rank inside the top half of any of its first eight editions. The tournament’s co-leaders in bogey avoidance (Carl Pettersson and Kevin Tway) squared eight bogeys or worse, most for any pacesetters in the stat in any non-major since the 2016 Farmers Insurance Open (that included one round on an easier Torrey Pines North). The course relents – with due respect – off the tee. The challenge increases multi-fold on approach into greens that average 6,400 square feet. That’s a typical area for putting surfaces on the PGA TOUR, but designer Greg Norman infused undulations that shrink the overseeded bermudagrass landing areas into some of the most difficult targets of the season. Those hills and curves also defend against Stimpmeter readings of approximately 11 feet, which is lower than most other courses due to the winds. The 2017 field averaged 10.43 greens in regulation per round, third-lowest of any host course, so it’s not surprising that seven of the 12 golfers who finished inside the top 10 on the leaderboard ranked inside the top 10 in GIR for the week. The par 5s aren’t pushovers, either. They’re always among the most challenging groupings of any course. This is one of the areas that explains how Chappell prevailed. He went bogey-free 8 under to slot T3 in par-5 scoring average for the week. He also ranked third in greens hit and T10 in proximity, and he capitalized on his chances in finishing fourth in birdie-or-better percentages after hitting GIR. As usual, Mother Nature will play a role this week. Varied threats of rain and boomers are forecast for Friday and Saturday. Sustained winds of 15-20 mph will precede the front and reenter the picture on Sunday, which projects to be beautiful otherwise. Seasonable daytime highs in the upper 70s will assist cutting through humidity. Touring professionals who embrace this kind of experience can look forward to many more years of it. Last October, it was announced an extension of the existing sponsorship through 2028. It includes a shift to a permanent spot in advance of the Masters. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton covers numerous angles in between tournaments. Look for his following contributions this week. MONDAY: Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Facebook Live, Fantasy Insider WEDNESDAY: One & Done, Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Champions One & Done * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO, which also publishes on Tuesdays.

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