Taylor Moore snatches first career win after Adam Schenk’s stumble on last hole
All Adam Schenk needed on the 18th was a par.
Sure, a birdie would have won him, but an easy par would have at least forced a playoff at the Innisbrook Resort Sunday afternoon.
But Schenk, who is in the middle of a ten-week marathon, collapsed.
Schenk sent his drive left into the crowd and straight into a tree on the course in Tampa, Fla., and then had to settle for a bogey – handing the win to Taylor Moore.
Moore posted a 4-under 67 on a near-perfect Sunday that sent him into the clubhouse with part of the lead well ahead of the final group of Schenk and Jordan Spieth. He made four birdies in his last 10 holes of the day and saved on the last par to finish under 10 for the week and eventually claim the win.
The win was the first of Moore’s career.
Schenk’s drive at #18 landed squarely on a tree to the left of the fairway, forcing him to swing his left hand.
His out actually crossed the fairway and landed in the rough on the other side.
But his approach shot landed on the other side of the green, leaving him with a 41-foot shot to try and force a jump-off. While he actually hit the cup with that putt, the ball was moving too fast to fall. That officially gave Moore the win.
Schenk has been playing non-stop this spring. The Valspar Championship marked his 10th consecutive start on the tour, dating back to the Sony Open in Hawaii. While he made the cut in eight of those, his best finish was just a T20 run at the Farmers Insurance Open in January. He also missed the cut at The Players Championship last week.
Schenk is only playing as much as he can at the moment to take some time off this summer. His wife is expecting their first child in about six weeks.
“So [I’m just] I’m trying to score as many points as possible to take as much time as possible and spend time with him and my wife, which will be very special,” he said after Friday’s round.
Schenk didn’t seem nervous at all before Sunday’s race.
He held a one-shot lead over Jordan Spieth and Tommy Fleetwood earlier in the day and his first Tour win was within reach.
“If I win, great. If I don’t win, that’s okay too,” he said calmly on Saturday night. “I mean, of course I want to be a winner on the PGA Tour. I played here for six years, not that I did anything but win, but I played, you know, many, many years. Winning would be everything and great.”
He almost made it.
Schenk carded a 1-under 70 on Sunday and finished the week alone in second place with a 9-under. Spieth also had several chances of his own to take the win, but he bogeyed #16 and #18 and missed a very doable birdie putt on the 17th.
Moore, on the other hand, played almost perfectly all day. He made back-to-back birdies at #15 and #16, then saved par on the 17th to stay on top. He was the only one in the last 11 groups of the day to score a round in the 60s.
Moore entered the week after a T35 finish at The Players Championship last week. His win marked his only top 10 finish from 15 events that season, his second full year on the tour.
