After a wild Players Championship that featured driving rain on Thursday and Friday, and a Monday finish that also featured the wet stuff, but ended with Cam Smith holding off the field. Next, the PGA Tour stays in Florida, going from Ponte Vedra to Tampa for the Valspar Championship at Innisbrook Resort, where Sam Burns is the defending champion. How will the Valspar Championship odds shake out?
The Copperhead Course at Innisbrook is a par-71 that tips out at 7,209 yards, and last year, it was played in early May, which yielded low scores. Burns’ winning score of -17 was the lowest since Vijay Singh’s -18 in 2004. Now that it is back in March, it’ll have the bite it used to have. The highlight (or lowlight, depending on how you play it) is the Snake Pit. These are the final three holes on the course. The par-4-3-4 stretch has ruined many tournaments for the PGA’s best over the years.
As always, you can catch the Valspar Championship on The Golf Channel on Thursday and Friday from 2-6 PM ET, and then on Saturday and Sunday from 1-3 PM ET. On the weekend, NBC picks up the action from 3-6 PM ET.
All golf betting odds courtesy of the Bovada sports betting book.
Valspar Championship Odds – Favorites
Justin Thomas (+1000)
Thomas finished T33 in his Players Championship title defense, and he finished a solid T13 at Innisbrook in 2021. This is a course that loves ball-striking, and even in the awful conditions at TPC Sawgrass, Thomas showed he was one of the best in the business.
Collin Morikawa (+1200)
Morikawa went the other way as he missed the cut at the Players Championship, but he just got caught up in the bad luck of the draw with the weather. He’ll make his debut at the Valspar this week, and the #2 player in the world (behind Jon Rahm) will be rested.
Viktor Hovland (+1200)
Hovland continued a fantastic stretch of play with another top-10, his seventh in his last nine worldwide starts. That includes a trio of wins, although none in the United States. His T9 at the Players Championship was punctuated with a hole-in-one on the eighth hole in the third round. Hovland was T3 in his Valspar debut last year.
Dustin Johnson (+1400)
Johnson backdoored into a T9 at TPC Sawgrass with a chip-in eagle on his last hole, finishing off a final-round 63. He finished T48 here in 2021 and of course, the tournament was cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19, but Johnson posted a T9 here in 2019.
Valspar Championship Odds – Contenders
Louis Oosthuizen (+2000)
Oosthuizen shot a final-round 76 at TPC Sawgrass to finish T42, but he had a solid three rounds before that. However, he has three top-10s in his last four starts in this event, including a T8 in 2021.
Paul Casey (+2000)
Casey made a run of it at the Players, but had to settle for a solo third. But Casey is pretty good at Copperhead, winning in 2018 and 2019, and he was T21 here last year.
Sam Burns (+2500)
The defending champion was another player that dropped at TPC Sawgrass as Burns finished with a 76 to post a T26. Burns has gone T12-T30-1 in three trips to Copperhead.
Others: Xander Schauffele (+1800), Shane Lowry (+2500) Tyrrell Hatton (+2500), Brooks Koepka (+2800), Matthew Fitzpatrick (+2800), Abraham Ancer (+3300)
Valspar Championship Odds – Longshots
Jason Kokrak (+4000)
Kokrak finished T53 at the Players, but he returns to a place where he’s had success. Kokrak has finished T13-T2-T8-T58-MC, so he’s gotten better and now seems to be in the mix for a win.
Tommy Fleetwood (+4000)
Fleetwood got off to a good start at the Players with a 66 before the weather came, but settled for a T22. It has been a mixed bag for Fleetwood in 2022 with three top-20s and a missed cut, but beware as this is his Valspar debut.
Keegan Bradley (+5000)
Bradley made a late run at the Players, shooting 68-68 to finish solo fifth, which followed a T11 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at tough Bay Hill. He also shot 64-66 here last year to lead into the weekend, but Bradley finished three shots behind Burns to settle for second.
