2021 Valspar Championship Sleeper Picks

The Valspar Championship is the final stop in Florida for the PGA Tour as the golfers hit Innisbrook Resort and the Copperhead course also known as the “Snake Pit”. The golf course is one of the toughest on Tour and newbies can get snake bitten their first time out.

This week players will face skinny tree-lined fairways along with small greens that are fairly difficult to hit. Both the fairways and greens are Bermuda grass and water hazards are in play on five of the holes. Golfers that have been playing the last few Florida course will notice that this one is more unique with lots of elevation changes and dog legs that resemble more course in the Carolinas than in Florida.

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Valspar Championship Golf Course

Innisbrook Resort (Copperhead) par 71 - 7,340 yards

Many golfers on the PGA Tour enjoy the challenge of the Copperhead course and more notably the “Snake Pit” – holes 16-18 which is arguably the toughest three hole stretch on the PGA Tour. Scoring is at a premium and the last ten years has seen the winner post a four day score of -7 to -15 and generally winning by a stroke or in a playoff so no one is running away with the Valspar Championship and more or less surviving the week.

Distance off the tee doesn’t matter as much when you are looking for Valspar Championship Sleeper picks. Innisbrook can be a tricky course with its narrow fairways and smaller than average greens you will want to focus on golfers that can find the fairway and can then get that second approach shot onto the green with a chance for birdie or two putt for a par. A lot of guys will leave the driver in the bag even on long holes so look more for guys that have strong tee to green stats as opposed to driving accuracy.

As mentioned above, the greens at Copperhead are small so the obvious stat to look at is greens in regulation (GIR) and also stats like Strokes gained approach and Strokes gained >175 yards. This of course leads into looking at putting stats, especially guys that are solid on Bermuda grass as a lot of players will be faced with long putts for a birdie or at the very least a two putt for a par to avoid bogey. History has shown at the Valspar Championship that the leaderboard usually has a bunch of guys that are always near the top of the putting percentage stats on the PGA Tour.

Players are going to get into trouble this week so look for the good scramblers and bogey avoidance players that know how to bail themselves out when they get into their inevitable bad lies. Innisbrook is a course that the golfers will be grinding on this week so guys that play a safe boring style could excel here.

The Valspar course is a bit unique because for a Par 71 it has four Par 5’s and five Par 3’s. You should look at stats for both but don’t focus too much on the Par 5 scoring as they are all really tough holes and rank low on the PGA Tour for birdie and eagle rate. On the par 3’s, guys are going to want to just get it close enough to give them a birdie chance or the very least walk away with a safe par.

Key Stats Summary for the 2021 Valspar Championship

Strokes Gained Tee to Green

Birdie or Better %

Strokes Gained Approach

Strokes Gained Approach > 175 Yards

Par 3 Scoring

Par 5 Scoring

Driving Accuracy (or Fairways Gained)

Scrambling

Greens in Regulation

Strokes gained Putting (Emphasis on Bermuda Grass)

2021 Valspar Championship Tournament Preview

Check out our 2021 Valspar Championship Tournament Preview.