Matthew Fitzpatrick Miraculously Beat His Front Nine Score by 10 Shots at Valspar Championship

Matt Fitzpatrick rallied, Jordan Spieth sunk putts from everywhere, and Ryan Brehm made a timely ace during Round 1 of the Valspar Championship.

On the Valspar Championship leaderboard, Matthew Fitzpatrick’s 3-over 74 hardly stands out. Take a peek at his scorecard, however, and the round is suddenly worthy of a double take. 

The Englishman started the day at Innisbrook’s Copperhead course with a birdie, but disaster struck soon after the smooth opening hole. At the third, Fitzpatrick made a quintuple-bogey nine that included an out-of-bounds ball, a painful walk back to the tee box, another lost ball—this time in the pond—two chips and finally, a two-putt. Fitzpatrick must have been rattled by the implosion, as he followed it up with two more bogeys and went on to shoot a 6-over-par 42 on the front nine.

While many would be make a beeline for the parking lot after such a disaster, Fitzpatrick rallied back in a big way, as former U.S. Open champions tend to do. 

Fitzpatrick carded three birdies on the back nine and escaped Copperhead’s infamous Snake Pit (holes 16 through 18) in even par for a 3-under 32 on the back. Fitzpatrick not only beat his front nine by 10 shots, but he also gave himself a decent shot to make it to the weekend. 

At the top of the leaderboard, Ryan Brehm, Stephan Jaeger and Adam Schenk are the first round co-leaders at 5 under par. Brehm had a day to remember, as he aced the 17th hole. The hole-out wasn’t even Brehm’s first of the week—on Monday, the 36-year-old made a rare hole-in-three.

“Ironically, in the Monday pro-am, I rinsed one on 13 for my first shot, grabbed a different club, teed it up, and jarred it for a par,” Brehm said. 

Jordan Spieth also got off to a hot start Thursday. The Texan, who sits one shot back of the leaders at 4 under par, holed a 57-foot putt on his sixth hole of the day to take an early share of the lead. Spieth then drained a 31-footer to momentarily claim the solo lead after his 15th hole. 

A 57-footer for back-to-back birdies and a share of the lead.@JordanSpieth is off and running @ValsparChamp. pic.twitter.com/LWpkgdFDTp

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 16, 2023

“With feeling comfortable with the speed control and just overall with the putter, it allowed—even if I was missing them, I felt like I could play to center of greens and not attack pins. That’s a different place than I’ve been living as I’ve been trying to get better and better with the putter,” Spieth said. 

Coming off of a strong performance at the Players Championship, Tommy Fleetwood posted a 3-under 68. Defending champion Sam Burns and Justin Thomas each carded 69s.