PALM HARBOR, Fla. — Jordan Spieth and his world-class short game came up big in a playoff victory Sunday at the Valspar Championship.

Spieth capped off an afternoon of back-nine charges, clutch putts and unseemly par saves by making a 30-foot birdie putt on the third extra hole of a playoff at Innisbrook to beat Ryder Cup teammates Patrick Reed and Sean O’Hair.

“A crazy back nine,” said Spieth, who won for the second time in his PGA Tour career and fourth time worldwide to reach a career-high No. 6 in the world.

The 21-year-old Spieth was three shots behind with six holes to play when he made two birdies to catch a faltering Ryan Moore, and then saved par on his final three holes for a 2-under 69 to join the playoff. And these par saves were not what anyone would call routine.

With his right foot in the bunker and his left foot on grass well above the ball in the sand, he blasted out to 3 feet on the 16th. From deep rough on a hill, he hit a flop shot to a short pin to 6 feet to stay tied for the lead. And he holed a 12-foot par putt on the 18th that fell in the left side of the cup.

Reed was just as impressive with his short game to keep his hopes alive in the eighth and perhaps most compelling playoff on the PGA Tour this season. He buried a 30-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole for a bogey-free 66, pumping his fist as if he were still in Gleneagles at the Ryder Cup.

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Reed was the first to finish at 10-under 274.

On the 18th hole in a playoff, he was buried in the lip of a bunker, blasted out to just under 10 feet and made par to stay in the game after Spieth missed from 10 feet. On the next playoff hole, the tough 16th, Reed had no chance well behind the green in grass so deep he could barely see his ball. That came out perfectly for another par.

Reed, who went the final 29 holes without a bogey on the Copperhead course, never had a chance to try for a third par save when Spieth hit the winner.

Not to be overlooked was O’Hair, who has had to earn his full PGA Tour card the last two years in the Web.com Tour Finals. He poured in a pair of big birdies on the back nine, including a 30-footer on the 16th, and made a tough par save on the 18th in regulation.

LADIES EUROPEAN TOUR: South Korea’s So Yeon Ryu won the World Ladies Championship, beating defending champion Inbee Park by a stroke in Haikou, China.

Ryu, the 2011 U.S. Women’s Open champion, closed with a 4 under 69 to finish at 13-under 279 on Mission Hills’ Blackstone Course. The second-ranked Park, also from South Korea, finished with a 71.

Norway’s Suzann Pettersen and China’s Xiyu Lin shot 70 to tie for third at 10 under.

EUROPEAN TOUR: George Coetzee won at the course he grew up playing, closing with a 5-under 65 for a one-stroke victory over countryman Jacques Blaauw in Pretoria, South Africa.

Coetzee finished at 14-under 266 at Pretoria Country Club. Blaauw matched the course record with a 61.


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