As we inch closer to the first major tournament this season at Augusta, the PGA Tour will continue to bring more exciting events leading up to The Masters, including the next installment of the Valspar Championship this week.
The Copperhead Course in Palm Harbor is no walk in the park, but many notable golfers have made their names here in years past. Who’ll be the next to prevail victorious in the first of two remaining tournaments of the PGA’s Florida swing? Let’s find out below.
An untimely stomach illness prevented Henrik Stenson from further competing at the WGC-Mexico Championship last week, but his overall body of work this season remains exceptional. Not counting his withdrawal from Chapultepec, the Swede has racked up six-straight top-10 finishes to date, with a triad of runner-up finishes during that stretch all the more.
What’s also encouraging for Stenson this week is that he’s no spring chicken at Innisbrook either. The 40-year-old veteran ended up fourth in the 2015 edition of the tournament and a decent 11th last season.
As the current leader in the FedExCup standings, it really stands to reason then as for why Justin Thomas has nearly similar odds with Stenson as front-runners to win at Palm Harbor this week. The young ‘Bama product is the only golfer thus far to have three PGA Tour wins for the season, and he’s also currently tops amongst the entire field in birdie average.
Although Thomas has only stepped unto the Copperhead course twice in his professional career, he still came out with top-20 finishes in both instances. Given his spectacular campaign thus far, we won’t be surprised at all if he bags his fourth victory this week and finally conquer Innisbrook’s ins and outs.
The Valspar Championship must have a special place in Gary Woodland’s heart. After all, he won his first-ever PGA Tour event as a rookie at this event back in 2011.
Woodland could definitively revive his now-middling career this week considering his recent performances on the main tour. He’s nabbed three top-10 finishes in 2017 already and is in the midst of a five-start run of top-20 finishes as well, which includes a superb T2 finish at PGA National just a couple of weeks ago.
You should never count out Matt Kuchar this week in Palm Harbor. The Florida native has found Innisbrook as his home turf of sorts over the years, having made the cut in all six of his trips to the course and coming away with four top-15 finishes within that span.
Kuchar even has relative momentum heading into the tournament, as he has four top-25 finishes for the season along with a win and a third-place finish from a couple of unofficial PGA Tour events in December at the Frank Templeton Shootout and the Hero World Challenge respectively.
Speaking of the Frank Templeton Shootout, it was Harris English who was paired up with Kuchar in that tournament, with the two emerging victorious from the Greg Norman-hosted annual event. However, that event is, again, a non-sanctioned PGA Tour tournament, and it also happens to be the last time that the 27-year-old pro had won anything on the tour for quite some time (his most-recent win on the pro circuit dates back to November of 2013).
In general, English has not done so well when it comes to individual performances, as he had only secured four top-10 finishes in 27 starts during his 2015-16 campaign. As for the current season, he’s been cut from four of nine tournaments already, and his only top-10 finish was when he was tied for fourth in Las Vegas back in early November.
Writer’s Prediction
Make that two Valspar Championship victories now for Gary Woodland (+1,800).
