SAN ANTONIO – Jordan Spieth ended a fall that lasted almost four years, closing with a 6-under 66 on Sunday to win the Valero Texas Open for his first victory since the 2017 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.
Now he goes to Augusta National as a favorite in the Masters Tournament.
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“This is a monumental victory for me,” said Spieth. “It’s been a long road. I often didn’t know I would be here.”
Spieth sealed with a 5-foot birdie putt at hole 17, and he won by two shots over Charley Hoffman.
Spieth made 82 matches on the PGA TOUR without a win since Royal Birkdale. He lost the TOUR Championship in the past two years and almost dropped from the top 100 in the world earlier this year.
But the 27-year-old from Dallas showed signs that he was going to change his situation. He was tied for the 54-hole lead in Phoenix. He led by two going into the final round at Pebble Beach. He was two behind on the last day at Bay Hill.
Tied by the lead with Matt Wallace going to Sunday at TPC San Antonio, Spieth took the lead and didn’t let anyone catch him. He built a three-shot lead with a birdie on hole 12, when Hoffman made him sweat.
Hoffman, needing a victory to return to the Masters, contributed to birdie in par 3 13th and hit a birdie putt from 20 feet from the edge in par 3 16 to get inside a shot.
But he found a bunker off the tee in the short par 4 17th and had to settle for the pair, while Spieth advanced twice, and the two hit the pair on the final hole. Hoffman closed with 66.
Spieth, who finished 18 and 270, moved up to 7th place in the FedExCup ranking.
Wallace was unable to keep up and closed with a 70 to finish third alone. Lucas Glover (66) finished fourth, while Anirban Lahiri birdied the last hole for a 69 to finish alone in fifth.
Spieth is usually a favorite at the Masters, where he was runner-up on his debut in 2014, won wire-to-wire the following year and was runner-up again after losing the lead of the top nine in 2016.