For win No. 3 he had to wait only 371 days, as he defended his title on Sunday at Innisbrook, becoming the first player to successfully do so at the Valspar Championship. His nickname this week, which could be seen on the back of caddie Johnny (Long Socks) McLaren’s bib, was “The Champ,” and it sounds like it will make a return next season at the Copperhead Course.

“Valspar is such an awesome sponsor, and to come back here and defend, it means I don’t have to change the caddie bib next year,” Casey told NBC’s Steve Sands as McLaren held the bib up in the background.

Casey hung on tight on a difficult Sunday, winning with a one-over 72 and becoming the third consecutive European winner on the PGA Tour this season. He’s also the first to defend a title in any PGA Tour event, and he did it in grind-it-out fashion, making four birdies, five bogeys and one clutch par at the 72nd hole, where his tee shot found a fairway bunker right of the fairway. The 41-year-old Englishman clipped a perfect second shot over the lip of the trap to 23 feet and two-putted to victory.

“Today wasn’t easy,” Casey said. “But I felt very different since winning last year, last year’s win was so big that it felt like my first victory as a professional. But I’ve felt so different since then. New confidence, I’m getting older but I feel like I’m getting better.”

Casey held off a worthy pack of chasers that included World No. 1 Dustin Johnson, who failed to make a single birdie and posted his first over-par final round of the season, a three-over 74 that dropped him into a tie for sixth. Louis Oosthuizen gave Casey the biggest scare, posting a two-under 69, but he came up one shot short, as did Jason Kokrak, who finished with an even-par 71.

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Last week, 47-year-old Phil Mickelson won for the first time since 2013.

This week, 42-year-old Tiger Woods nearly did, registering the fastest clubhead speed measured on the PGA Tour this season along the way.

Meanwhile, the guy who kept Tiger from the title was 40-year-old Paul Casey, shooting a spectacular 65 on Sunday at the Valspar Championship for a one-stroke victory over Woods and Patrick Reed.

“I loved Phil’s victory,” said Casey, who began the day six strokes back, made seven birdies and just one bogey in his first 13 holes, then had to wait around an hour or so to see if anyone would match his 10-under 274. “That’s why I thought Tiger was going to win today because he’s probably watched Phil win, and figured I want to win. At least it’s another one for the 40-year-olds this week.”

Casey knows that the next generation of tour stars has already arrived, which makes his accomplishment all the more meaningful. “It’s becoming a young man’s sport, and so it’s very rewarding to be able to go up against the young guys and still beat them and still compete with them.”

In the case of Casey, that meant making putts when it mattered—on the weekend. It was something that he has admittedly struggled with for much of his career, despite having racked up 18 worldwide wins but albeit just one previously on the PGA Tour (2009 Shell Houston Open).

RELATED: The club Paul Casey used to win the Valspar Championship

So Casey spent some time in the offseason working on fixing his stroke. He was shutting and de-lofting the face on the way back, so he played around with starting with it more open. The work paid off on Sunday when Casey needed just 21 putts and took just 48 over the last two days.

He also stopped thinking so much about it.

“The way I strike the golf ball, if I’m hitting other clubs in the bag I don’t stress about technique. I never have,” he said. “I’ve never done that with the putting. I’ve always been super critical and try to have a great stroke. I’m approaching it the same way I approach the rest of the game. It’s carefree.”

So is his attitude. While dropping his membership for a time on the European Tour (he has since re-joined) to concentrate on playing in the U.S., the Englishman had come to peace with the realization that he might never win again on the PGA Tour.

“I’ve reached a very good place in my life where I’ve got a wife and kids and life is very, very good,” Casey said. “To get a victory, another victory it is very much icing on the cake and kind of fills that void and makes me even happier. I was happy before but just happier.”

Even Woods was happy. Amid the chaos after finishing one stroke short, he crossed paths with Casey and congratulated him.

“It’s the only time he’s congratulated me immediately after a victory,” Casey said with a laugh. “Normally it’s the other way around. That’s something special. Just really cool. Great experience.

“I’m sure he was disappointed he didn’t get the victory. I actually thought he was going to win today before the round started. I thought it was just teed up beautifully for him. I said a couple times if I don’t win this thing I actually want Tiger to win it. I’m glad it’s this way.”

Surely, so are all the other 40-somethings out there.

The post Sorry Tiger, but Paul Casey’s Valspar win is a pretty good story, too appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

“I believe that I am not,” he said, eschewing the need for qualifiers.

Well, Johnson has put his best golf on display in his last three starts. And he hasn’t been beaten.

Since acquiring the world No.1 ranking in mid-February at the Genesis Open, Johnson has added two more victories, both in World Golf Championships. His latest performance might have been the most emphatic. Johnson never trailed through seven matches and 112 holes at Austin (Texas) Country Club, and defeated upstart Jon Rahm, 1 up, in the final to win the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.

The 32-year-old reigning PGA Tour player of the year is the first golfer to win all four WGC events and the first since Rory McIlroy in 2014 to win three starts in a row. He has five WGC wins in all, far behind Tiger Woods’ 18. But he’s gaining.

“He’s just a perfect, complete player. Honestly, he doesn’t really make mistakes,” Rahm said after his second setback to Johnson in as many WGC starts. The 22-year-old who turned pro just last June had finished T-3 at the WGC-Mexico Championship after briefly passing Johnson in the final round, and he wanted another piece of the game’s best player.

Well, he got him. And then he was had.

The final possessed more drama than necessary after Johnson led 5 up after eight holes and 4 up with six to play. Even so Rahm, who beat Bill Haas in the semifinals, 3 and 2, exhibited the tenacity and talent that already has made him the world’s 14th-ranked player after a mere 15 professional starts.

In the end, though, the result was as familiar as the one in Mexico, with Johnson holding off the Spaniard.

Johnson’s 15th PGA Tour title was a breeze until Sunday. The U.S. Open champion had taken out four major winners in his first five matches without going more than 16 holes. In Sunday morning’s semifinal match he finally had a close call, fending off Japan’s Hideto Tanihara for a 1-up win after sinking an eight-foot par putt on the final green. Then Rahm wouldn’t go away.

Neither time, however, did Johnson fail to hit the shots he needed to prevail.

“That was a tough day, a long day,” said Johnson, who joined Luke Donald in 2001 as the only WGC-Match Play winners to never trail the entire week. “I definitely didn’t play my best today in the first match or the second. So to win both those matches not having my best stuff is definitely a positive. And I’m definitely proud of the way I hung in there and played tough and just tried to never give away holes, which I felt like I did a pretty good job of that.”

Johnson, who overtook Hideki Matsuyama for the top spot in the FedEx Cup standings, intends to play in this week’s Shell Houston Open and then he’ll be the likely favorite in the year’s first major at Augusta National. He has never been the No. 1 player in the world heading into a major championship, but he’ll have a target on his back in the Masters.

He was asked how that felt, being the favorite.

“How do I like it? I don’t care,” he said.

Why should he, especially when he’s playing his best. – Dave Shedloski

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