HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — Pondering he might need an opportunity for a playoff, Jordan Spieth rolled in a 10-foot birdie on the 18th gap in regulation. He made an excellent greater shot at Harbour City’s signature gap in a playoff to win the RBC Heritage.
Spieth’s 56-foot shot from a greenside bunker stopped 7 inches away and he beat Patrick Cantlay with a tap-in par Sunday on the lighthouse gap for his thirteenth profession PGA Tour title — and second straight on Easter Sunday.
Typically, Spieth stated, there is a match the place you are feeling you have performed properly, but not adequate to win. “I actually felt like this was that week,” he stated with a smile. “I wanted a whole lot of issues to go proper.”
And he acquired all of them.
Spieth, at 13 below after his 5-under 66, completed 4 teams forward of Cantlay and waited out the stellar subject that had a number of probabilities to tie or transfer in entrance. However all besides Cantlay couldn’t chase down Spieth, who stayed away from watching an excessive amount of of the motion as soon as he completed.
“Each single putt seems prefer it’s stepping into,” Spieth stated. “It was far more nerve-racking than really enjoying.”
Spieth was sure he’d get handed by Cantlay, the FedEx Cup champion, previous Open Championship winner Shane Lowry or third-round chief Harold Varner III. When all three parred the par-5 fifteenth, the perfect likelihood for birdie on the again 9, Spieth felt his probabilities enhance.
When Spieth completed, he was a stroke behind Lowry. However Lowry’s chip on the par-3 14th raced throughout the inexperienced and into the water, resulting in double bogey. He completed a stroke again after a 69.
After Cantlay, who was tied for the lead after a birdie on the seventeenth, hit his method on the inexperienced on his closing gap of regulation, Spieth headed out to loosen up, sure he’d be known as again after Cantlay made the successful putt.
As an alternative, Cantlay slid it by proper to arrange the playoff.
Within the playoff, Cantlay additionally hit into the entrance bunker, together with his lie trying like a fried egg. He blasted 35 ft previous the cup and missed the par putt.
Cantlay was 179 yards from the opening within the playoff and used a 9-iron as he did a short while earlier in regulation. This shot got here up in need of the inexperienced and in an terrible place.
“Clearly, with it plugged like that, it is darn close to unattainable to get it shut,” Cantlay stated.
Three strokes behind Varner coming into the spherical, Spieth eagled each front-nine par-5s to get into the combination.
Spieth had received his final occasion, the Valero Texas Open, on Easter to finish a four-year winless drought.
Subsequent Easter Sunday? The ultimate spherical of the Masters.
“That is good vibes,” stated Spieth, a three-time main champion, together with the Masters in 2015.
Cam Davis (63) additionally was a stroke again with Varner (70), J.T. Poston (64), Cameron Young (66), Sepp Straka (68) and Matt Kuchar (68).
Spieth has received from the bunker earlier than. He beat Daniel Berger with a greenside bunker shot on first additional gap on the 2017 Vacationers Championship.
Others moreover Cantlay, who missed a 15-footer for birdie on his 72nd gap, had an opportunity to catch Spieth. Straka tied Spieth at 13 below with a birdie on the seventeenth, then bogeyed the ultimate gap after his method discovered some gnarly lengthy grass in entrance of the inexperienced. Varner had birdie probabilities on every of his final 4 holes, but couldn’t convert any of them.
Spieth took off with the early eagles. On the second gap, he holed out from a greenside bunker. On the fifth gap, he reached the inexperienced in two and rolled in a 24-footer because the gallery erupted in cheers.
Spieth reached 13 below with a birdie on the eighth earlier than falling again to 11 below with bogeys on the ninth and eleventh. He moved into hanging place with a birdie on the thirteenth, then struck his method to the drama-filled lighthouse gap to 10 ft and made the birdie putt to get to 13 below.
He got here on this week bothered about lacking the lower final week at Augusta Nationwide. “I hated it,” he stated. “It was the worst feeling. It was the worst feeling as a golfer that I can bear in mind.”
That rotated at Harbour City in entrance a cheerful, sold-out crowd that Spieth stated was four-deep throughout his pro-am spherical Wednesday.
“I used to be really very stunned by the quantity of help that everybody had this week, and I felt a whole lot of it personally,” Spieth stated. “These crowds had been simply unbelievable for it being a non-major.”
Spieth had performed the match solely thrice since 2015 as a result of it falls after the always-grueling Masters week.
“What an excellent match to win,” Spieth stated. “It is an incredible golf course.”
