The PGA TOUR wraps up the Florida Swing this week with a stop at the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort. The Valspar Championship usually brings a great week of golf and plenty of drama as players try to navigate the difficult course and avoid being bitten by “The Snake Pit.” In the jam-packed, full-field event finding the right low-ownership plays can be challenging. Here are my top three fantasy golf pivot plays this week: Jordan Spieth ($9,100), Sahith Theegala ($7,800) and Matti Schmid ($6,800). Each of those players should have lower ownership but also the ability to outperform expectations at their price point.
To make sure we’re all targeting the same fairway, a “pivot play” is a golfer with lower ownership but similar upside to more popular options available near the same DFS salary. Sometimes, the golfer with lower ownership brings extra risk factors, but to make your lineup stand out in tournament formats, it’s worth the extra risk for the higher ceiling. Players with lower ownership increase the chance of your entry finishing higher on the leaderboard. These pivot plays tend to be “boom-or-bust,” bringing high risk and high reward. Even though they’re NOT the safest plays in the price range, they have enough potential upside to be worth the risk. Be sure to check out my picks for cash lineups if you’re looking for safer options that raise the floor of your lineup.
Let’s break down why I like each of my top-three pivot plays this week.
Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $750K Sand Trap [$200K to 1st]
Jordan Spieth ($9,100)
I signed up for the full Jordan Spieth experience last week at THE PLAYERS in my pivot plays, and the roller-coaster ride was in vintage form. Spieth had his typical chip-ins from off the green and also his typical holes where he took paths that were at best “non-traditional.” This week, he’s a little more expensive and still being overlooked with an expected ownership way down the list and well outside the top 10 expected ownerships.
Spieth is exactly the kind of boom-or-bust play I love for my GPP tournament lineups since he can go off for huge weeks, and I’m fine with the extra risk to get the extra ceiling. After a sizzling start at TPC Sawgrass, he cooled of and finished T59. He made the cut for the fourth time in his five tournaments since returning from a wrist injury. Even though he didn’t hit his ceiling, his short game looks in excellent form. He ranked second in the whole field last week in Strokes Gained: Around the Green.
Earlier this season, he posted a top-five finish at the WM Phoenix Open and a top-10 finish at the Cognizant Classic. He ranked in the top 10 for the tournament in both Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and Strokes Gained: Putting. The different aspects of his game have started to show signs of life, and this could be the week he gets all cylinders firing at the same time.
Spieth won at the Valspar in 2015 and has made the cut in five of his seven career appearances at this venue with a top-20 finish in all five of those events. He finished T3 just two years ago but did miss the cut last season.
Climb on board the Spieth roller-coaster and let’s see if he can bring us a win this week!
Sahith Theegala ($7,800)
Theegala has been solid but not spectacular this season, which is why players like Stephan Jaeger ($7,900), Keith Mitchell ($7,800) and Jake Knapp ($8,100) are getting more attention than him.
Theegala has made the cut in seven of his eight events in 2025 but only finished in the top 25 at The Genesis Invitational. He followed that up with a missed cut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, but managed to make the cut and finish T52 last week at THE PLAYERS.
Like Spieth, his short game has looked sharp lately. He actually ranks in the top five in the field in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green in his last eight rounds. Last week, his irons looked a little better, especially in the last round as he closed with a 73 in difficult conditions.
Theegala seems overdue for a big week and has shown he can navigate this course successfully in the past. He finished T7 in his only previous tournament at Copperhead back in 2022, and he’ll look to get on track this week and finally get his first big finish of the season.
It’s high-risk to pick him for a breakout this week, but the talent and potential is definitely there for him to out-produce his salary and be a great leverage play, which is why he’s one of my top fantasy golf pivot plays.
Matti Schmid ($6,800)
A massive number of 125 golfers have a salary of $7,500 or less on DraftKings this week, and picking any of them will differentiate your lineup a little. Kevin Roy ($7,100), Rasmus Hojgaard ($7,500) and last week’s Cinderella Danny Walker ($6,900) are getting most of the attention, but I think Schmid has the potential to surprise people as one of the week’s top fantasy golf pivot plays.
The 27-year-old from Germany didn’t make the cut last week at TPC Sawgrass but heated up with two top-20 finishes prior to that. He turned in eight straight rounds under 70 at the Cognizant Classic and the Puerto Rico Open to finish T18 and T6, respectively. He opened with a 78 at THE PLAYERS and even bouncing back with a strong 68 in Round 2 wasn’t quite enough to get him to the weekend.
Last season at Copperhead, Schmid finished in the top 20. He has the ability to go low and contend every week, and he’s another “all-or-nothing” play that I think could pay off this week.
Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $750K Sand Trap [$200K to 1st]
