Having an incredibly short memory is a must if you want to have any success on a golf course, and Matt Fitzpatrick showed the world he has both that skill and extreme patience with his victory at the Valspar Championship.
On the other side of the globe, Bryson DeChambeau won his second consecutive LIV Golf event in South Africa. DeChambeau finding the winner’s circle isn’t a shock, but the shot he hit to set himself up to do so and the many tears that flowed afterward were.
Speaking of winning, that’s what we’ve been doing for not one, not two, but for three straight weeks on the PGA Tour. Sometimes you have to pat yourself on the back, especially in the golf gambling space that’s difficult to find success in, so that’s exactly what we’re going to do.
As always, reach out to Mark on X @itismarkharris with all your golf thoughts, or holler at us via email at [email protected].
Bryson DeChambeau Is Officially Trending, But Also Crying
A week after winning his first LIV event of 2026 in Singapore via playoff, DeChambeau hit copy and paste in South Africa on Sunday, but this victory carried a different weight.
After making a par on the 72nd hole to punch his ticket into the playoff against Jon Rahm, DeChambeau waited until the biggest stage to hit what could very well go down as one of the greatest shots of his career when it’s all said and done.
Following a torrential downpour, DeChambeau was able to get free relief from a muddy hillside after tugging his tee shot left. Faced with 285 yards to the flag, an incredibly dodgy lie, and a very real chance he could lose his footing on the wet turf, he still opted to ignore the nasty greenside bunkers and go for the green in two.
It turned out to be a wise decision, as he managed to hit his fairway wood to 12 feet, ultimately leading to a comfortable two-putt birdie to win with Rahm making a bit of a mess of the extra hole.
It was just an utterly ridiculous golf shot to pull off, yet DeChambeau made it look easy.
DeChambeau was overcome with emotion and had tears flowing from his face after getting the job done. Asked about what made this victory, his fifth LIV title, so emotional, he didn’t share any details other than that he’s gone through quite a bit over the past week away from the golf course.
“I wish I could tell you. A lot has happened in my life the past week. I’m just so grateful for my team, the Crushers, and everybody supporting me,” DeChambeau explained on the broadcast.
“It’s so funny, golf is a fickle game and you work so hard at it your entire life, and you realize golf is just golf and there’s a lot more to life than just golf.” “I had some things happen during the off time this week, and you know, I was just praying all day. Praying to give me the perseverance to move forward and keep looking forward. I just gotta say I love everybody, thank you for supporting me. South Africa was unbelievable. I mean, got to be the best LIV event we’ve ever had.”
DeChambeau was also emotional during his team’s formal presser after the Crusher GC earned the team title. The 32-year-old mentioned his late father at different times, while also alluding to a fan saying something that made him cry while walking to the 16th tee on Sunday.
Without another LIV Golf event on the calendar before next month’s Masters, DeChambeau will give his full attention to prepping for Augusta National, and certainly has to like where his game is at heading into the year’s first major championship.
DeChambeau has finished T-6 and T-5 in each of the last two Masters and was in Sunday’s final pairing alongside eventual winner Rory McIlroy a year ago.
Matt Fitzpatrick, The Patient Winner
Fitzpatrick got the job done at Innisbrook on Sunday to earn what was his first win on the PGA Tour since April 2023, and did so with an exclamation point of a birdie on the 72nd hole to win by one, but it’s fair to say he didn’t exactly enjoy his afternoon stroll.
The Englishman played alongside Adrien Dumont de Chassart on Sunday, and after the Belgian made a triple bogey on the opening hole, Fitz’s patience was put to the test for the remainder of the day.
Fitzpatrick reportedly spoke with a Tour official about Dumont de Chassart’s excruciatingly slow pace while playing the sixth hole. Dumont de Chassart was officially hit with a pace-of-play warning on Sunday, and by the 11th hole, commentator John Wood went as far as to describe his pace as “glacial.”
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With Fitz having the reputation of being one of the most reserved guys in the sport, for him to show frustration in the middle of the round, and then take jabs during his victory presser, things had to have reached a legitimate boiling point between the pair during the round.
“Yeah, that was really frustrating. It was slow today. I felt like there was a lot of stop/start. Yeah, just, you know, just not ready.,” Fitzpatrick told reporters after the round. “When you’re not ready to play a golf shot it gets frustrating after awhile. Particularly when you playing well yourself or you’re in contention or whatever it is. There’s definitely, you know, it definitely knocks you out of your rhythm.”
There is nothing more frustrating in golf than playing with someone who is never ready to hit their shot, and having to deal with that for five hours under that pressure, with a title and millions of dollars on the line, seems unimaginable.
Glacial pace aside, Fitzpatrick getting the job done one week after missing an eight-foot putt to force a playoff at The Players only adds to the impressiveness of the victory.
The former U.S. Open champ finding serious form less than a month out from the Masters, a venue that should fit his eye and playing style, should have everyone at least thinking about circling his name to be a factor at Augusta National.
Gambling On Golf Is Supposed To Be Hard?
That question is obviously tongue in cheek, but folks, we’re officially on a heater when it comes to picking PGA Tour winners.
In 2025, I hit just one winner all season, and it came extremely early with Nick Taylor’s Sony Open victory. This year, we’ve already hit four winners and are on a run of three in a row.
Two of the last three were winners in the without Scottie Scheffler market, but a win is a win.
Akshay Bhatia getting it done at the Arnold Palmer, followed by Cameron Young’s masterclass down the stretch at TPC Sawgrass, and now this past weekend at the Valspar with Fitzpatrick getting across the line is a run of form we may very well never see again. Chris Gotterup at Waste Management was our first winner of the year.
Despite the fact that we’re on the run of a lifetime in picking winners, I’m still pessimistic and very much aware that we’re due for a cold stretch unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.
BUT, maybe, just maybe, we keep things rolling with the Tour heading to Texas the next two weeks before the Masters is upon us. We’re seeing the board as clearly as humanly possible.
