Weekly Fantasy Golf Recap: Victory is Spaun-d

J.J. Spaun had to overcome a lot to win the storm-delayed Valero Texas Open on Sunday at TPC San Antonio.

• Amid terrible playing conditions all week, he had to complete his third round Sunday morning. With 27 holes ahead of him, he was seven shots back.
• It was cold and windy and he was wearing a knit hat over his ears.
• There were about a dozen guys going on and off the first page of the leaderboard, notably Robert MacIntyre and Ludvig Aberg.
• Spaun even had to wait things out -- in the cold on the range -- after his round ended, until 54-hole leader MacIntyre missed a final birdie try on No. 18 about an hour later.

That's a lot to overcome. But most of all, Spaun had to overcome himself. Specifically, his season-long poor play.

"Yeah, this game is so crazy," Spaun said, standing on the range right after MacIntyre's miss. "I haven't been feeling at the form that I wanted to be based off of last season."

Spaun had had only one top-25 in seven starts in 2026 -- barely, at that -- and had missed three of his past four cuts. It was a far cry from his breakthrough 2025 season, when he won the U.S. Open and vaulted into the top 10 in the world rankings.

The only glimmers of hope he had had over the past six weeks were a tie for 24th at THE PLAYERS Championship, and a little hidden gem within his terrible stats. Early in the Florida Swing, he was ranked outside the top 100 in Strokes Gained: Approach. But by the time the Valero rolled around, he had improved significantly to 38th.

And after ranking second in the field at TPC San Antonio, he's now 17th on Tour on the season.

Nowhere was Spaun's vast improvement more evident than in the final three-hole stretch, when he took the lead for the first time all week.

On the 198-yard 16th, he hit it to inside four feet and made birdie. On the short 306-yard par-4 17th, he drove the green to inside 10 feet and drained the eagle putt.

So now Spaun has his third PGA Tour win -- he also won the Valero in 2022 -- and heads to Augusta and the rest of the season with a much sunnier outlook.

"I put a lot of pressure on myself this year to start the year, and a lot of expectations," he said. "It's the complete opposite of the mantra I had all year last year that really helped me, so I tried to get back to that. Went into the last few weeks starting at THE PLAYERS just trying to be freed up and put less pressure on myself. It's been trying, but sticking to that mantra has really helped me."

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Robert MacIntyre
MacIntyre led for much of the tournament. But in the final round, he couldn't get anything going and had played even-par golf – until the 17th hole. It was there he sank a 17-footer to match Spaun's eagle, then needed a birdie on 18 to force a playoff. He didn't get it. Despite the disappointment of not closing the deal, MacIntyre heads to Augusta in fantastic form. Last time out he tied for fourth at THE PLAYERS. 

Matt Wallace
Wallace needed a win to qualify for the Masters and he almost got there. He shot a 4-under 68, one of the better rounds on a difficult day for scoring. But the shared runner-up moved him to second in the Aon Swing 5, which all but assures him of a spot in the RBC Heritage Signature Event the week after Augusta. This was Wallace's first finish better than 40th place all season.

Michael Kim
Kim's breakthrough 2025 was fading from memory with each passing poor result in 2026. This shared runner-up was easily his best showing of the season, and only his second top-25 in nine starts. Kim was already in the Masters and all the Signature Events, so he will be in action the next two weeks.

Ludvig Aberg
On one hand, Aberg heads to Augusta riding three straight top-5s after Sunday's tie for fifth. But he had a chance to win this tournament, same as at THE PLAYERS, and just couldn't get across the finish line. You have to figure that one of these weeks, he will. He was runner-up to Scottie Scheffler two years ago at Augusta and tied for seventh last year. 

Andrew Putnam
Putnam is quietly having a good season. Well, maybe not so quietly anymore after tying for fifth this week. He opened the season with a runner-up at The Amex, and he's made 6 of 8 cuts. He's among the shorter hitters on Tour, though he's ranked too-75 in SG: Approach, Tee-to-Green and Putting. That's pretty dang good.

Tommy Fleetwood
Fleetwood has had a lot of weeks like this one: top-10, didn't contend. This tie for 10th was his fourth top-10 in five starts. He now heads to the Masters, where another top-10 would surprise no one.

Si Woo Kim
Kim tied for 10th, his fourth top-10 and sixth top-25 in nine starts. He hasn't missed a cut. It might be a bit of a reach to envision Kim contending at the Masters, though he is top-5 on Tour in both SG: Approach and Tee-to-Green.

Kristoffer Reitan
The Norwegian will play in his first Masters on the heels of his best result on the PGA Tour this season, a tie for 10th. Making the Augusta cut would constitute a successful week.

Sami Valimaki
Valimaki will become the second Finn to play in the Masters next week, joining Mikko Ilonen. His outlook will be a bit brighter after a tie for 14th, by far his best result so far in a terrible season. Valimaki had missed 4-of-7 prior cuts with no finish inside the top 30. Like Reitan, making the cut at his first Masters would be great.

Sudarshan Yellamaraju
The new-found darling of the PGA Tour continued his strong play with a tie for 14th. That's two top-10s and two top-20s in his past five starts. He sits in eighth place in the Aon Next 10 and, if he stays there after the Masters, he will qualify for the RBC Heritage the following week. Yellamaraju is not in the Masters field.

Marco Penge
The Englishman heads to the Masters with his third top-25 (T21) in his past five starts. He has the game to make the cut at Augusta.

Hideki Matsuyama
Matsuyama picked a good time for his best result in almost two months -- a tie for 21st.

Tony Finau
Finau needed to win the Valero to play in his ninth straight Masters and 34th straight major. He tied for 49th after a closing 78. The last major Finau didn't play in was the 2017 U.S. Open. He had played in eight straight Masters.

Jordan Spieth
Spieth turned in one of his worst showings of the season, a tie for 63rd. But it should not downgrade his chances of being relevant at the Masters -- and perhaps even find himself in contention.

MISSED CUTS

Russell Henley, Sepp Straka, Max Homa, Johnny Keefer, Haotong Li, Michael Thorbjornsen, Rickie Fowler. The first five players are heading to the Masters this week. For Henley and perhaps Straka, a missed cut really doesn't change things for them at Augusta. Homa, Keefer and Li could've used a good result to carry some good vibes to Augusta. … Thorbjornsen and Fowler both have had good seasons, especially Thorbjornsen, but didn't do enough to crack the top 50 of the OWGR after last week's Valspar. And thus neither will be playing in the Masters.

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