MIAMI, Florida: Canada’s Adam Hadwin captured his first US PGA title despite squandering a four-stroke lead, parring Sunday’s final hole to win the Valspar Championship by one shot over American Patrick Cantlay.
A double bogey by Hadwin after finding water off the tee at the par-4 16th left the last-pair duo deadlocked, but Cantlay found a bunker at 18 and missed a 15-foot par putt, allowing Hadwin’s tap-in par to give him the victory.
Hadwin fired a level par 71 to finish 72 holes on 14-under 270 while Cantlay’s final-round closing 68 left him on 271 with Americans Jim Herman and Dominic Bozzelli sharing third on 272 and Tony Finau on 273.
Hadwin began the day with a four-stroke lead but could not shake Cantlay.
Hadwin took a bogey at the par-4 sixth, missing a five-foot par putt, but bounced back with birdie putts of 11 feet at the par-3 eighth and 15 feet at the par-5 11th followed by a tremendous 53-foot birdie effort at the par-3 13th.
Cantlay opened with a birdie but also stumbled with a bogey at six, then rebounded with birdies on five of the next six holes, including a five-footer at 13 to follow Hadwin and the longest putt among them — a 20-footer at the par-5 14th — to reach 15-under and pull one shy of Hadwin with four holes remaining.
Cantlay found a bunker off the tee at the par-3 15th and missed a 20-foot par putt to make bogey and fall back.
Then it was Hadwin’s turn to stumble, finding water off the tee at the par-4 16th and missing a 25-foot putt for a double bogey that dropped him back into a share of the lead with Cantlay on 14-under.
At 18, Cantlay found a greenside bunker with a 7-iron from 168 yards while Hadwin was on the back fringe. Cantlay blasted out to 15 feet while Hadwin rolled inches from the cup.