England's Matt Fitzpatrick birdies 18th hole to win PGA Valspar title in Florida

[p]The 31-year-old from Sheffield birdied two of the last four holes to shoot a bogey-free three-under-par 68 and finish on 11-under 273.[/p][p]A week after settling for a runner-up finish at The Players Championship after a last-hole bogey, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/fitzpatrick-matthew/6whOHmtf/"]Fitzpatrick[/a] took the $1.638 million (£1.23m) top prize from the $9.1 million event at Innisbrook's Copperhead course in Palm Harbour, Florida.[/p][p][b]"The big thing was, I felt like I was playing well. Going into this week, wanted to continue that, and I felt like I had confidence in myself to do so," [/b]Fitzpatrick said.[/p][p][b]"To do that for four rounds was special this week."[/b][/p][embed guid="47b2298f-c8ff-419f-9642-69e40b200f56" url="https://x.com/PGATOUR/status/2035834315192389991?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p]Fitzpatrick, the only player in the final seven pairs to break 70 on Sunday, became the third Englishman to win the title after [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/casey-paul/n5Nx2UtA/"]Paul Casey[/a] and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/donald-luke/40E6l95D/"]Luke Donald[/a].[/p][p]It was the third US PGA Tour title for Fitzpatrick after the 2022 US Open and 2023 Heritage tournament and came just four months after defeating [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/mcilroy-rory/djwanksN/"]Rory McIlroy[/a] in a playoff to win the DP World Tour Championship.[/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/lipsky-david/4nBw8dGn/"]Lipsky[/a] missed out on what would have been his first victory in 145 PGA Tour career starts, but matched his best showing.[/p][p][b]"Overall, I'm really happy with how patient I was," Lipsky said.[/b][/p][p]Four shared the lead on the back nine at nine-under, but [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/snedeker-brandt/fZGcwae8/"]Brandt Snedeker[/a] suffered a three-putt double bogey at the par-four 12th to fall back, leaving Lipsky, Fitzpatrick and England's [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/smith-jordan/M9dWuDei/"]Jordan Smith[/a] at the top.[/p][p]Smith, whose only prior top-10 PGA finish was a share of ninth at the 2017 PGA Championship, fired a 66 to finish third on 275.[/p][p]Fitzpatrick sank a 30-foot birdie putt at the par-three 15th to seize the lead at 10-under, but Lipsky made a seven-foot birdie putt at the par-five 14th to match him again at the top, and they parred to the 18th hole.[/p][p]Fitzpatrick landed his approach 14 feet from the hole and sank the intense birdie putt, delivering a right fist pump as he seized the lead.[/p][p][b]"It wasn't an ideal putt," he said. "It was a nice right-to-lefter but... I wouldn't say I was overly keen on it, given my putting performance today. To get it done like that was special."[/b][/p][p]Lipsky missed a 32-foot birdie putt from just off the green, and Fitzpatrick had the crown.[/p][p]South Korea's [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/khan-imran/6uwEI0xf/"]Im Sung-jae[/a] began the day with a two-stroke lead over Snedeker and Lipsky, but Im made bogeys on five of his first 10 holes to fall back.[/p]