Valspar Championship Odds, Preview And Picks

Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas, the top-ranked players in the world, are paired together on Thursday and Friday and headline the 2021 Valspar Championship at the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort. Two time defending champion Paul Casey will try to get through Copperhead’s “Snake Pit”, holes 16-18, to earn a third straight title.

Valspar Championship

J Thomas 9/1
D Johnson 12/1
P Reed 18/1
V Hovland 20/1
P Casey 20/1
C Conners 20/1
T Hatton 25/1
S Im 30/1
S Scheffler 30/1
A Ancer 30/1
L Oosthuizen 30/1
J Kokrak 30/1
J Niemann 35/1
R Henley 35/1
J Rose 40/1

72 Hole Winning Score prop: 273.5 Over -120

— Jeff Sherman (@golfodds) April 26, 2021

I provide an early Valspar Championship preview with odds, course description and information you can bet on at TheLines.

Top players in the field include: World Golf Ranking (OWGR)

• Dustin Johnson (No. 1)
• Justin Thomas (2)
• Patrick Reed (7)
• Tyrrell Hatton (8) – out, COVID
• Viktor Hovland (15)
• Sungjae Im (19)
• Paul Casey (20)
• Scottie Scheffler (21)
• Ryan Palmer (27)
• Abraham Ancer (30)
• Louis Oosthuizen (33)
• Jason Kokrak (36)
• Corey Connors (38)
• Justin Rose (40)
• Max Homa (41)
• Kevin Kisner (41)
• Carlos Ortiz (50)
• Russell Henley (56)
• Gary Woodland (57)
• Bubba Watson (60)

COURSE AND TOURNAMENT INFORMATION

• Course: Copperhead at Innisbrook Resort
• Location: Palm Harbor, FL
• Date: April 29 – May 2
• Par: 71 / Yardage 7,340
• Purse: $6.9 Million / Winner $1.2 M
• Fairways/Rough: Bermudagrass
• Greens: : Bermudagrass
• TV/Online: Golf Channel, CBS (Sat/Sun), PGA TOUR Live
• Twitter & Hashtag: @ValsparChamp
• Defending Champion: Paul Casey

Copperhead is not your typical Florida course, as there are plenty of elevation changes and dog legs along the rolling terrain. The winning scores since tell the story of difficulty, and in the last event in 2019, Copperhead averaged 0.981 strokes over par – which ranked as the third toughest golf course on the PGA TOUR that year. Copperhead rated as the sixth-most difficult course on the PGA TOUR in 2018.

KEY STATS

The Copperhead course has typically been a test of iron play. Players that can shape the ball both ways with Ball Striking precision and Approach play have the greatest chance for success. Golfers looking for strokes gained success are forced to hit very narrow fairways that are lined with pine trees. So Accuracy from the tee is required to stay competitive at Copperhead, and Fairways Gained is a stat to put on your search list. Distance off the tee is not required, but patience and precision is a prerequisite.

The tournament match-up record is now 14-4 since the start of 2021 and the Sony Open. Our 9-1 run was snapped at the RBC Heritage. That included a 2-0 match-up results at The Masters, a 4-0 run since the Honda Classic, where we had longshot Matt Wallace as a match-up winner by the weekend, and 5-1 since The PLAYERS Championship when we had Justin Thomas as both the outright winner and tournament match-up winner. Continuing a 6-1 run since Will Zalatoris (+4500) delivered a top-10 finish as a golfer to watch and another match-up winner for us in the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and 8-1 since the WGC Workday with two more match-up winners (plus a push), and a golfer to watch in Collin Morikawa (+4500) who won the tournament outright. Finally, the run was 9-1 back to the Genesis Invitational at Riviera where we whacked another  easy match-up winner (plus a push) when our opponent missed the cut.

Valspar Championship

Fairway’s Favorites: Viktor Hovland, Sungjae Im, Russel Henley, Jason Kokrak
Fairway’s Longshots: Chris Kirk (+5500), Bubba Watson (+7000), Sam Burns (+10000), Lanto Griffin (+10000)

Tournament Match-ups: Jason Kokrak (-145) over Kevin Kisner (Circa)

For more match-ups, prop bets, stats and profiles, reach me directly and I’ll chip-in more insight and information you can bet on.

Next week it’s the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, NC.

UPDATE: Sam Burns wins his first PGA Tour title, and we were right there to enjoy it with him with a pizza slice bet on Burns. A $5 bet won $500 at 100/1. Another match-up winner on Kokrak over Kisner (cut) runs the 2021 tournament matchup record to 15-4. We chipped in another match-up winner on Sungjae IM at a nice plus price over world No. 1 Dustin Johnson.