Valspar Championship: PGA Golf Odds And Predictions
After a pit stop in Mexico last weekend, the PGA Tour returns to the Florida Swing this week at the Valspar Championship in the Tampa Bay area. The defending champion is Moose Jaw’s own Adam Hadwin.
Valspar Championship Background
Last week at the WGC-Mexico Championship, our value play to win was Belgium’s Thomas Pieters at +4000. He was right in contention after opening rounds of 69-68 but shot 74-72 on the weekend and finished tied for 37th. We did recommend world No. 1 Dustin Johnson for a Top-10 finish, and he did so at T7. The winner was American Phil Mickelson, his first victory anywhere since the 2013 British Open. Mickelson has been playing well for weeks and looks like he should be a major factor at the Masters next month, a tournament he has won three times. Lefty is now +1900 at Sports Interaction to win a fourth green jacket.
Usually, this week’s Valspar Championship at the Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead Course in Palm Harbor, Fla., has a watered-down field simply because of its spot on the schedule – i.e. a week ahead of Arnold Palmer’s tournament down the road in Orlando at Bay Hill, which all the big names play. However, this year’s Valspar field is excellent with five of the world’s Top 13 playing and Tiger Woods making his first-ever appearance at the event. Mickelson is not in the field, and neither is Johnson.
The Copperhead Course is a favourite on Tour because it’s not like a typical Florida track as it has very rolling terrain with a lot of trees. It’s a par 71 measuring 7,340 yards.
Valspar Golf Betting Favorites
Canada’s Adam Hadwin got his first and still only PGA Tour win here a year ago, and he’s +2300 to repeat. No one has won this tournament back-to-back, but both K.J. Choi and Retief Goosen have won it twice overall. Hadwin finished at 14-under 270 to beat out Patrick Cantlay by a shot. Hadwin nearly blew it with a double-bogey on 16 Sunday. That victory got him into the Masters, meaning he had to alter his honeymoon plans. Cantlay badly missed a his 15-foot par putt to force a playoff. Hadwin had his second straight Top-10 finish on Tour this season last week in Mexico.
The golf betting favourite is Jordan Spieth at +720. He won this tournament in 2015 in a playoff over Sean O’Hair and Patrick Reed and was 18th in 2016 before skipping a year ago. Spieth was 14th last week in Mexico. Rory McIlroy is +1300 as he makes his first trip to the tournament. He took last week off after missing the cut at the Honda Classic.
Rose and Sergio Garcia are each +1700 with Tiger at +2000. Rose was Top 10 here in 2011 & ’14 but missed the cut his last visit in 2015. Sergio was seventh last visit in 2013 and also seventh last week. Tiger comes off an encouraging 12th-place finish at the Honda Classic.
Other Canadian Golfers
Nick Taylor is +17800 and Mackenzie Hughes +26800 to win this week. Taylor finished 62nd here in 2017 at 3 over. He last played at the Genesis Open in L.A. and was 41st. Hughes makes his tournament debut. He had been missing cut after cut but finished 59th last time out at the Honda Classic. Ben Silverman also is +26800. It’s his tournament debut, and Silverman is off a missed cut at the Honda.
Valspar Championship Predictions
Take Spieth and Hadwin for Top 10s, but the winner at +2100 is Sweden’s Henrik Stenson. The Swede has played here three times with a worst finish of 11th. It’s his first PGA Tour event of 2018, but Stenson has a couple of Top 10s on the European Tour.