The PGA TOUR is wrapping up its four-week stay in Florida, just north of Tampa, for this week’s Valspar Championship at the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort. The full field event runs from Thursday through Sunday, barring any weather delays.
Let’s start the week with a look at the format, history, and course for the Valspar Championship.
The Format of the Valspar Championship
The field of 133 golfers lined up for the Valspar will play all four rounds at the Copperhead Course, and the event uses the typical cut rules: reducing the field to the top 65 and ties after Round 2.
The purse for this week is $9.1 million in total, with the winner claiming $1.638 million and 500 FedExCup points. The points not only improve a player’s playoff status, but also earn them spots in the Aon Swing 5 — which can help them earn spots in the upcoming signature event, the RBC Heritage, following the Masters.
The history of the tournament
This tournament began in 2000 as the Tampa Bay Classic and replaced the JCPenney Classic, which was held at Innisbrook from 1990 to 1999. It was a team event that paired players from the PGA TOUR and LPGA Tour, similar to the Grant Thornton Invitational, held in December in Naples, Florida.
The individual event crowned John Huston as its inaugural champion in 2000, but was canceled the following year after the September 11 attacks. It was held as an alternate field event for several years in the fall before moving to March in 2007. Valspar has been the title sponsor since 2014.
It has been held at this same course throughout its history and is known as a player-friendly venue, even though it is a difficult course. Last year, it was Viktor Hovland who got the win by one stroke over Justin Thomas. Two years ago, Peter Malnati won by two strokes over newly crowned PLAYERS champion Cameron Young.
The next three weeks serve as a ramp-up for players to the first major of the season at the Masters. Many of the biggest names in golf will take the week off, before returning in Texas in one of the next two tournaments before heading to Augusta National to try and claim the green jacket.
The field is still solid this week, though, with plenty of former PGA TOUR champions in the field, along with some young players hungry for a breakthrough victory.
Check out the full field and opening odds on DraftKings Sportsbook.
A Closer Look at the Course
The Copperhead Course at Innisbrook is famous for “The Snake Pit,” which is the nickname for the difficult three-hole closing stretch that features two difficult par-4 holes sandwiched around a long par-3. All three holes have plenty of water and bunkers in play, which makes par a good score through that stretch of the course.
Like all the courses in the Florida Swing, Copperhead uses plenty of water to ramp up the risk/reward in play throughout the course. Unlike the courses of the last few weeks, though, Copperhead uses more elevation changes in the terrain and is also lined with more pine trees than palm trees. It’s a different test than the pros have faced the last few weeks, but it will again put their positional golf game to the test — especially if the wind kicks up.
The course requires precision and accuracy off the tee and utilizes doglegs on 12 different holes to prevent players from overpowering it. There are even four holes on the layout that use double doglegs.
Here are a couple of course overview videos to refresh your memory on the layout. This one is from Golf Stay And Plays, and here’s a “Crash Course” from No Laying Up.
From a statistical perspective, Strokes Gained: Approach remains the most predictive metric to attack this week, along with Bogey Avoidance, Scrambling and Good Drive %. Since the course has been hosting the event for so many years, most golfers have an extensive course history to consider, as well.
Stay tuned to DK Network all week as we run down our top picks and best bets for this week’s event!
