A lengthened week at the Players will make this week’s Valspar Championship feel like the shortest week ever. But PGA DFS does not take a break, with the standard $250,000 to first and $1 million guaranteed as the top offering from DraftKings. It will take place in Palm Harbor, Fla., a beautiful town just steps from the gulf. Being fortunate enough to call the area home since 2015, there is not any course on tour I know more about than the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook. In this article you can expect to see the standard PGA DFS Fantasy golf preview with information about the course, the players and the statistics. This edition will also go hole-by-hole for an up-close look at the venue as well as some early fantasy golf picks this week.
PGA DFS Preview | 2022 Valspar Championship
Course Facts Figures & Walk Through
After going through a few different sponsors and names, Valspar stepped up and made a long commitment to the tournament. They are always trying to add color to the event, allowing caddies to wear colored bibs this week, among other things around the course. Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort and Spa provides a stellar test to close out the tour’s Florida swing. Let’s go through the course hole by hole.
The Holes
1. Par 5, 560 yards
A downhill par 5 that plays even shorter than the given 560. Golfers with length off the tee will have a slight advantage if they can keep the ball inside the corridor, but the downhill nature of the hole makes it reachable for everyone in the field. A fairway bunker about 300 yards comes in off the left, and the driving range is out of bounds on the right. It ranked second easiest on the course in 2019.
2. Par 4, 435 yards
The first of many challenging par 4’s on the course, as this one does not allow golfers to use length off the tee all that much, with trouble lurking everywhere. The tee sits up on the hill by the first green and plays tight, with water right and nothing but trees and out of bounds left. The hole is set up by an iconic tree covering the entire left side of the landing area. The fairway also runs out the further one goes, making length not really much of an advantage here.
3. Par 4, 455 yards
Another tight driving hole that is on the other side of water hazard right of hole No. 2. It comes into play on both the tee shot and the approach shot. Golfers are forced to lay up short of the pond with their tee ball. The fairway cuts off at about 310 yards off the tee, and the pond takes over. It also runs up the entire right and side of the hole, with swampland and out-of-bounds left. There is nowhere to miss it here.
4. Par 3 194 yards
Players start to head back up the hill on this par 3 guarded by bunkers all around. Three is a good score, as the hole played over par for the championship last year.
5. Par 5, 605 yards
Not only is it 605, but it is also severely uphill. Unlike most par 5’s, golfers will struggle to make 4, and it was the only par 5 here with no eagles last year. Golfers do not really need a driver. However, they will need to advance the ball down the hill to get past the over-hanging tree that guards the left side of the fairway at about 130 yards out from the green.
6. Par 4, 465 yards
The famed “magnet” hole is a challenging dogleg-right par 4. The tall oaks that line the right side of the fairway gobble up a ton of balls each round, forcing players to punch out through the native area onto a two-tiered green.
7. Par 4, 429 Yards
A hole that favors golfers that have length and accuracy off the tee can turn this into a birdie hole quite easily. The magnet trees do not come into play unless a golfer really blocks one way right off the tee.
8. Par 3, 234 yards
There is not another scorable hole after the first, which plays the easiest on the course until the 11th. This par 3 play slightly downhill but is long and guarded by bunkers all around. The green is also quite long. It is just a difficult hole all around.
9. Par 4, 430 yards
For those that do have length off the tee, it can come in handy here. Although it plays uphill, it is a shorter par 4 with a wide landing area.
10. Par 4, 445 yards
The start of the most scorable stretch of golf on this course, a shorter downhill par 4 that has trees and native areas both left and right off the tee. The fairway is relatively wide, so golfers should have plenty of birdie looks on this hole.
11. Par 5, 575 yards
Either the second- or third easiest hole on the course, this par 5 provides a wider landing area if one can clear the fairway bunker that sits about 295 yards on the left. The room to the right does run out, but there are plenty of good eagle looks here, as there were nine in last year’s event.
12. Par 4, 380 yards
A positional hole off the tee, as a large body of water comes into play at about 240 yards. The green is guarded by a bunker front right but is accessible with a well-positioned shot off the tee. Something less than driver will be taken off the 12th tee.
13. Par 3, 200 yards
One of the shorter par 3’s on the course is guarded entirely short on the right-hand side by that same body of water from hole 12. There will be plenty of water balls here this week. Oddly enough, it played as the second-hardest hole in last year’s event.
14. Par 5, 590 yards
A hole that has provided some funny imagery in the past, as Justin Thomas famously took driver off the deck for his second shot and basically shanked it into a fan. This hole is tough to reach in two and has a pond that runs up the right side of the hole to about 40 yards short of the green. There are plenty of quality birdie looks here, though.
15. Par 3, 215 yards
Another medium-length par 3 that normally will play into the wind but downhill. The green looks open and inviting from the tee, with no trouble right and a bunker left.
16. Par 4, 475 yards
The start of a brutal stretch of finishing holes known as the Snake Pit. The challenging par 4 has trouble lurking on both sides, with trees and native area just left of the fairway and a pond stretching the entire right-hand side of the hole. This is the hardest hole on the course and played as such last year, with an average score of 4.204.
17. Par 3, 215 yards
Another difficult, long par 3 with bunkers guarding it. It requires another medium to long iron shot with precision. The green complex is very difficult and can provide some nasty pins on a few of the days, especially Sunday.
18. Par 4, 445 yards
An uphill par 4 that has fairway bunkers guarding both sides of the fairway. Having length off the tee would help take out most of the trouble that lurks on the hole.
Awesemo golf betting experts Ben Rasa and Eytan Shander will be coming to you every week on the OddsShopper YouTube Channel with the Putting for Dough golf betting show, where they give you their expert PGA picks and predictions for the week. This week, they are giving their free golf betting picks for the 2022 Valspar Championship.
Course Length
Par 71: 7,209
Course Difficulty
Copperhead typically ranks inside the top 15 hardest courses on tour, but last year, with the event being played later than normal in April, the course got easier. Sam Burns set the tournament scoring record at -17.
Hole Dispersion
- Five par 3’s: 194, 234, 200, 215, 215
- Nine par 4’s: 435, 455, 465, 429, 430, 445, 380, 475, 445
- Four par 5’s: 548, 561, 575, 585
Grass Types and Hazards
- Grass Type: TifEagle Bermudagrass
- Average Green Size: 5,822 square feet
- Water Hazards: About half of the holes have water in play
- Bunkers: 74
- Rough Length: 2-3 inches
Designer
Larry Packard in 1971
Best Stats for DFS Golf Picks This Week
Off the Tee: Driving Accuracy ticked up last year, with roughly 65% of the fairways hit.
Approach to the Green: Greens are a lot harder to hit at this golf course compared to last week, with elevation changes aplenty. About 63% of the greens were hit in regulation.
Around and On the Green: Golfers failed to get up and down about 40% of the time whenever they missed the green.
Valspar Championship Tournament History
A staple on tour for quite some time, tournament history here goes back a ways. Typically this column stays within a five-year window with at most 10 years for some data points.
Paul Casey is the first golfer to mention, as he has won the tournament twice and in back-to-back years — 2018 and 2019. He, Louis Oosthuizen and Jason Kokrak are the only golfers to have multiple top-10s here since 2018. Bubba Watson has performed well here in each of his last two trips, coming in fourth in 2019 and 13th last year. Similarly, Abraham Ancer has come in fifth and 16th in his only two trips to the Valspar. Burns, the defending champion, is 3-for-3 here with a win and a 12th-place finish back in 2018.
Others that deserve mention include Joaquin Niemann, who is 2-for-2 here with an eighth-place finish; Dustin Johnson, who came in 48th and sixth in his two trips; and Thomas, who has one missed cut and three finishes inside the top 20.
A little bit deeper down the board, Keegan Bradley has had some varied success here, coming in second last year, holding the first-round lead then missing the cut back in 2016, and a few other made cuts. Troy Merritt has two top-10s and three missed cuts, while Denny McCarthy is 2-for-2 with a ninth-place finish.
Lastly on the made cut list, Brandt Snedeker is 6-for-6 since 2012, Wyndham Clark is 2-for-2, as is Hank Lebioda. Luke Donald also has only missed one cut here since 2012 and has four top-10s. His last, however, was in 2019.
PGA DFS Golf Rankings & Stats
As previously mentioned, the first hole is the easiest. In total, the four par 5’s equate to about 46% of the scoring.
2022 Valspar Championship PGA DFS Player Preview
As of now, the field is expected to be the strongest in quite some time. Five of the world’s top 10 are here and 15 of the world’s top 30. That is very strong for the last stop in the Florida swing.
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Valspar Championship Stats: Strokes Gained Review
Averages for Last Year’s Top 10
- Strokes Gained Off the Tee: 0.10
- Strokes Gained on Approach: 0.78
- Strokes Gained Around the Green: 0.29
- Strokes Gained Putting: 1.5
- DFS Points: 96
- DFS Ownership: 8%
- Average DFS Salary: $8,125
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