The 2024 Valspar Championship: PGA Tour Betting Odds
It’s not the best of fields because this tournament has one of the smaller purses on the Tour (not counting the Fall Series or opposite-field events), and it’s in a horrible spot following the Players Championship last week outside Jacksonville and the Arnold Palmer Invitational the week before in Orlando when nearly every top player competed in both. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler won both of them and is taking a well-deserved week off. Most guys will play just once more before the Masters, either next week in Houston or two weeks in San Antonio.
Tournament organizers were holding out hope that Tiger Woods might play simply because he hasn’t since February when he withdrew from the Genesis Invitational and skipped the Players Championship, but no dice. Tom Kim withdrew from illness eight holes into the Players Championship and then withdrew from the Valspar on Saturday. On Sunday, Patrick Cantlay was a WD for the Valspar.
The course itself is a very popular one on Tour as Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club’s Copperhead hosts yet again, a par 71 at 7,340 yards that is quite hilly (and treelined) unlike most courses in the fairly flat Sunshine State. The closing three holes are the toughest and known as the “Snake Pit,” two challenging par-4s sandwiched between a 200-yard par 3. “You are entering the Snake Pit,” the plaque on a giant copper snake statue on the 16th hole says. “The Moccasin, the Rattler and the Copperhead are among the most difficult finishing holes on the PGA Tour.”
Americans have won here the past three years with Taylor Moore the 2023 champion as he shot a final-round 4-under 67 to finish at 10-under 274, one up on Adam Schenk.
Jordan Spieth, the 2015 winner, was tied for the lead on Sunday when he found the water on 16 and managed bogey and then blew an easy birdie putt on 17. Schenk pulled his tee shot left on 18 and it stopped next to a pine tree. To extricate himself from that, Schenk had to hit a left-handed gap wedge. He ended up with a 40-foot par putt to force a playoff but hit it too hard and it hopped out. Moore was warming up on the range for a playoff just in case. It was his first PGA Tour win, and he hasn’t had another yet.
Don’t be shocked if Moore repeats as it tends to happen here of late: American Sam Burns did it in 2022 and England’s Paul Casey in 2019.
The Valspar Championship Golf Odds
Bet on the 2024 Valspar Championship
Xander Schauffele is the +750 favourite to win here for the first time. He last played the tournament in 2022 and was T12. Schauffele is still one of the world’s best players but doesn’t have a PGA Tour win since the summer of 2022. He led the Players Championship on Saturday after 54 holes but finished T2, a shot behind Scottie Scheffler.
Sam Burns, a winner here in 2021 & ’22, is +1100. While trying to threepeat last year, he finished solo sixth. He comes off a T45 at the Players Championship. Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas are each +1400 and Brian Harman +2000. Spieth won here in a playoff in 2015 over Sean O’Hair and Patrick Reed and was T3 last year. He comes off a missed cut at the Players.
Thomas has not won here but has been no worse than T13 the past three years. He missed the cut at the Players. Harman was T2 at the Players. He missed the cut at Copperhead in 2023 but was T5 in 2022.
Canadian Adam Hadwin got his lone PGA Tour win at Copperhead in 2017, shooting 14-under 270, and he’s the only lone Canadian winner of the event. Nick Taylor was the top finisher last year at T10 and the only one to make the weekend as Adam Hadwin and Michael Gligic both finished 36 holes at plus-3 and missed the cut. We liked Hadwin for a Top 10, and he shot a 69 in Round 1 but then 76. Taylor is +3300 this week with Hadwin +4500, Adam Svensson +10000, Mackenzie Hughes +10000, Taylor Pendrith +10000, Ben Silverman +12500 and Roger Sloan +50000.
The Valspar Championship Golf Predictions
Like two-time winner Sam Burns for a Top 10 but will take Brian Harman at +2000 to win as he’s playing really well this year and has gained +14.5 strokes on approach in his previous two starts in Florida.