The Florida swing ends this week with the Valspar Championship at the Copperhead Course (par 71, 7,352 yards, POA Trivialis greens) of the Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor. Since this event’s inception in 2000, no other course has hosted the Valspar Championship. Viktor Hovland (-11) won this event last season and for this week, there will be 133 players competing and a top-65 and ties cut after the first two rounds.
Below, I dive into three of my favorite DFS options on DraftKings for the Valspar Championship.
Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $750K Sand Trap [$200K to 1st]
Brooks Koepka ($9,100)
Koepka has been playing steady golf the last two weeks and is on the brink of breaking out. After finishing T-9 at the Cognizant Classic, Koepka finished T-13 at THE PLAYERS Championship last week. The 35-year-old has shot under par in six of these past eight rounds, including three straight under par rounds to conclude THE PLAYERS Championship. Koepka finished fourth in SG APP among the stacked field at TPC Sawgrass and he ranks third in the metric this season.
Koepka has struggled with his flat stick, ranking 152nd in SGP this season, but he has shown some signs of life in that department, finishing with an average of 29 putts per round in each of his last two starts, after posting over 30 at three straight events. Koepka finished T-12 while gaining strokes with his putter in his last start at the Copperhead Course in 2022 and if he can manage a solid showing on the greens again this week, Koepka could find himself in the mix for a win. During that T-12 at the Copperhead Course in 2022, Koepka closed the week with a 6-under 65, which was the lowest score of the final round.
Corey Conners ($9,000)
Conners’ resume at the Copperhead Course is impressive. The Canadian has finished T-16, T-21 and T-8 in his three starts at the par 71, with that T-8 coming last season. In his 12 rounds at the Copperhead Course, Conners has shot under par nine times. The 34-year-old is coming off a T-13 finish at THE PLAYERS Championship last week, where he ranked sixth in SG APP.
In general, Conners has been excellent at Florida-based tracks. The two-time PGA TOUR winner has produced 13 top-30 finishes in the Sunshine State and he ranks third among this field in strokes gained per round in Florida. Conners should record another high finish at the Copperhead Course this week and he is a great combination of safety and upside at this $9,000 salary.
Matti Schmid ($7,100)
Schmid finished a respectable T-46 at THE PLAYERS Championship last week, and leading up to this, he had finished T-9 at the Cognizant Classic and T-5 at the Puerto Rico Open in his previous two starts. Schmid has only failed to make the cut once in his last seven starts and he has shot under par in 11 of his last 13 rounds.
Schmid has also gained strokes with his putter in four consecutive starts. The German professional now heads to the Copperhead Course, where he has finished T-17 and T-28 the last two years. Another top-30 finish at the par 71 is a strong possibility for Schmid this week and he should come with very low ownership.
