SAN ANTONIO – The co-leaders after three rounds at the Valero Texas Open spoke on a Saturday night that darkened their hopes of playing strong and well for another day.
Neither of them mentioned personal bets. We want to win for the first time in 83 matches on the PGA TOUR. The other wants to win for the first time.
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The last group in the final round of the oldest professional tournament in Texas, the one celebrating 99 years on the TOUR, will feature Jordan Spieth and Matt Wallace 12 points below par, with Charley Hoffman two strokes behind them. Spieth, a Texan who has not yet triumphed in his home state, seems to gather the brilliance of his first five seasons, when he has won 11 times, including three majors. Wallace, an Englishman with 36 TOURs started since 2017, has never finished better than the third. Hoffman has not won since 2016. That was right here at TPC San Antonio, the sixth oldest professional golf tournament in the world.
The three parted on a cold, gloomy afternoon after the rain postponed the game for two and a half hours. Spieth and Wallace hit 5 under 67. Hoffman hit 65.
They played against nine in a total of 14 strokes under par, which bodes well for those who believe in the momentum transmitted.
Spieth had his chances in a resurgent 2021 season. He held a part of the 54-hole leadership at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, the first since 2018. He finished tied for fourth. He did the same thing a week later, at AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, but this time he was 36–hole too. He tied for third there.
“I was really looking forward to starting the next day” in Phoenix, said Spieth, whose fights since 2017 have been well documented and widely discussed, including after his par 72 in the fourth round in the desert. “I felt very calm on Pebble,” he said, “and then I’ve been in the fray a few times since then.”
In his five stroke tournament matches, since his lost loss at the Farmers Insurance Open in January, Spieth had a reasonable chance of winning four (he tied for 48th at THE PLAYERS Championship). In each of them, he failed to break 70 in the final round. That pattern must end.
“This week’s goal was to enter the competition and have a chance to win,” said Spieth. “The next goal is to try to put myself in a position to be in control of the nine defenders.”