Valspar Championship Tournament Betting Preview: Everything To Know About Copperhead Course

Another week of Florida golf on the PGA Tour brings us to The Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort with the 2025 Valspar Championship. Compare Valspar Championship odds at the best sports betting sites to increase your potential PGA Tour golf betting payouts: Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, and Tommy Fleetwood project as the top favorites for this upcoming tournament.

Yet another week of golf in the Sunshine State, many of the PGA Tour’s best are headed to Palm Harbor to paint the town red for the 2025 Valspar Championship at Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead Course.

The fourth and final leg of the Florida Swing, the Valspar Championship is yet another demanding course from tee to green. Innisbrook tests the field’s total ball-striking and short game around pure Bermuda greens. With many tight doglegs and some of the most challenging par-3s on tour, it’s a course where long iron and Bermuda putting specialists thrive.

Here’s a full look at everything to expect from the 2025 Valspar Championship.

2025 OPENING VALSPAR CHAMPIONSHIP ODDS: THE FAVORITES

Scroll to the bottom of this article to compare complete Valspar Championship outright odds. Find the favorites in Florida this week here with 20-to-1 and shorter odds. Click to bet now.

THE FIELD AT A GLANCE

Historically, expectations were pretty low for the field strength of the Valspar Championship. It sits in an unenviable position on the schedule, following back-to-back Signature events in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and THE PLAYERS. Traditionally, the WGC Match Play in Austin followed, making a natural bye week for top players to recuperate. Despite an outcry from golf fans to keep the one event on tour each year that breaks up Stroke Play, Match Play has been removed from the PGA Tour schedule since 2023.

Ultimately, that’s a net positive for the Valspar. An impressive cast of 13 OWGR top-25 players are here to tee it up. Xander Schauffele headlines, although he’ll be a name to closely monitor as he continues to nurse himself back to full health from a rib injury. He looked rusty in his first start back at THE PLAYERS last week and seemed a bit non-committal when interviewed about his place in this field after his Friday round at TPC Sawgrass.

In addition to Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Tommy Fleetwood, Sepp Straka, Shane Lowry, Viktor Hovland, Sam Burns, Jordan Spieth, and Tom Kim will headline as the favorites this week. Each of these top names has played Innisbrook Resort well in the past and figures to be a popular consideration when Valspar Championship odds release on Monday.

Peter Malnati shocked the world by out-dueling Cameron Young in his victory here last year. He has not played well in a single tournament since in the year that’s past, but he will be back to defend his title nonetheless.

Taylor Moore, Sam Burns, Jordan Spieth, Adam Hadwin, Luke Donald, and Gary Woodland are past champions in this week’s field.

INTRODUCTION TO THE COPPERHEAD COURSE AT INNISBROOK RESORT

Innisbrook is a bit of a hidden gem on the Florida swing, often overshadowed by Bay Hill and TPC Sawgrass. Those courses typically attract stronger fields. Despite the logjam of premium Florida events, Valspar continues to attract a solid field. It takes patience and a strong all-around game to compete here.

Innisbrook Resort (Copperhead) is a treelined, positional golf course that forces many layups off the tee. Players must work the ball in both directions. It’s a shot-makers course with significant elevation changes, opening the playing field to bombers and short plotters alike.

It’s one of the most challenging courses on tour to gain strokes off the tee. Fairways are narrow and difficult to hold, even when laying up with less than the driver. Innisbrook yields below-average ranks in both driving accuracy and driving distance.

Only twice since 2013 has the winning score pushed lower than -10. Course History has proven repeatable at this event, as Burns and Casey have gone back-to-back over the last seven years. The Valspar Championship historically mitigates advantage off the tee and favors the top players in Approach, Scrambling, and Par-5 Scoring. These pure greens have also proven to be a dream for Bermuda (Overseed) putting specialists. Burns, for example, gained 3+ strokes putting at this event in each of his first five appearances.

For Innisbrook Resort course specs, hole-by-hole breakdown with yardages, and past Valspar winners with their pre-tournament odds, visit our Valspar Championship odds page.

Editor’s Note

EVENT HISTORY AND COURSE COMPS

The Copperhead Course forces many layups at 175+ yards. Any time we see a course funnel approach shots from the field to the same yardage range on repeat, those tend to be the courses that breed the stickiest course history.

Looking at that history, 13 players have had multiple T20 finishes over the last five years: Sam Burns, Justin Thomas, Tommy Fleetwood, Lucas Glover, Taylor Moore, Adam Hadwin, Mackenzie Hughes, KH Lee, Xander Schauffele, Matt Wallace, Adam Schenk, Luke Donald, and Charley Hoffman. These players share similar traits as strong approach players with reliable accuracy off the tee.

Seven players made it through the cut in each appearance over the last five years (min. three starts): Justin Thomas, Lucas Glover, Joseph Bramlett, Greyson Sigg, Joel Dahmen, Patton Kizzire, and KH Lee.

The top 10 players in terms of SG: TOT at the Valspar Championship are Sam Burns, Tommy Fleetwood, Jordan Spieth, Xander Schauffele, Cameron Young, Justin Thomas, Viktor Hovland, Davis Riley, Chandler Phillips, and Taylor Moore.

Sam Burns

In six career appearances at the Valspar, Burns finished T12, T30, and T5 and has a pair of victories. Those Valspar finishes begin to paint a compelling picture of course dominance. However, a closer look suggests some smoke may be behind those finishes.

It’s no secret that Burns putts his best on Bermuda greens. Five of his 15 best career putting displays have come at this event, something not due for massive regression. Still, seeing the No. 1 player in total course history rank outside the top 20 regarding SG: T2G is unusual. As Jesse Pinkman would say, “He can’t keep getting away with this!”

The two-time past champion is likely to come with short odds this week. I’ll likely be looking elsewhere, at least from an outright perspective.

Course Comps

This is not a Pete Dye course but resembles some of Dye’s most famous positional courses like TPC River Highlands, Harbour Town, and TPC Sawgrass. Each course mitigates any advantage from driving distance and forces strategic shots with driver or less off the tee. With the Copperhead Course’s added length, it produces more of a challenge than comp courses and places a slightly stronger emphasis on total driving.

Colonial CC stands out as the best comp course in my eyes. Burns won at both of these demanding and positional courses last season. Jordan Spieth has also won at both courses, and players like Davis Riley, Jason Kokrak, Justin Rose, and Louis Oosthuizen have all recorded top-five finishes at both venues since 2018.

The Copperhead Course’s five par-3s are a unique characteristic shared with only Accordia Golf Narashino, host of the ZOZO Championship. Both are courses that reward accuracy off the tee to avoid penal rough.

For the Bermuda specialists like Burns and Taylor Moore, TPC Southwind, CC of Jackson, and Sedgefield CC are solid recent comp courses worth referencing. Riviera CC and TPC Twin Cities have also rewarded a similar style of play from tee to green.

The top 10 players in comp course history this week are Xander Schauffele, Viktor Hovland, Justin Thomas, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Tom Kim, Tommy Fleetwood, Sam Burns, Eric Cole, Lucas Glover, and Mac Meissner.

KEY STATS TO CONSIDER FOR 2025 VALSPAR CHAMPIONSHIP ODDS

• SG: APP
• Good Drives Gained / SG: OTT
• SG: ARG / Scrambling
• Prox 175+
• Par-3 Scoring
• Par-5 Scoring
• SG: Putting (L36, Bermuda)
• Course & Comp Course History

A difficult par-71 with four par-5s, Par-5 Scoring told the most consistent story in terms of winning trends. Players who take advantage of those four scoring opportunities should position themselves well to contend this week. The top 10 players in par-5 scoring entering this week are Neal Shipley, Niklas Norgaard, Sepp Straka, Kurt Kitayama, Steven Fisk, Joe Highsmith, Erik van Rooyen, Billy Horschel, Matti Schmid, and Jacob Bridgeman.

With a bonus five par-3s this week, it’s a good time to identify the most comfortable par-3 scorers in the field. There aren’t many birdie opportunities on the par-3s, but keeping a clean card throughout the week across those par-3s may be the difference in determining the winner. The top 10 par-3 scorers in the field are Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Xander Schauffele, Nico Echavarria, Seamus Power, Beau Hossler, Ryo Hisatsune, Brian Campbell, Akshay Bhatia, Michael Thorbjornsen, and Lucas Glover.

Approach And Short Game

This is one of the most crucial courses on tour for SG: APP. Many drives funnel to the same layup areas and several elevation changes must be navigated. The top-10 players SG: APP entering this week are Justin Thomas, Joel Dahmen, Henrik Norlander, Jackson Suber, Sepp Straka, Kurt Kitayama, Gary Woodland, Nicolai Hojgaard, Tommy Fleetwood, and Doug Ghim.

Over 50% of approaches come from beyond 175 yards, and the top 10 best long iron players in the field are Joel Dahmen, Kurt Kitayama, Rico Hoey, Nate Lashley, Charley Hoffman, Nico Echavarria, Mac Meissner, Joe Highsmith, Xander Schauffele, and Ryan Fox.

With players hitting the fairways and greens well below the tour average, it’s also a crucial week for short games. Five players rank in the top 40 in Scrambling, SG: ARG, SG: Short Game, and SG: P (Bermuda): CT Pan, Beau Hossler, Michael Kim, Harry Hall, and Christiaan Bezuidenhout.

Combining the key stats, eight players rank above average in Par-5 Scoring, Prox: 175+, and each of the Short Game stats: Charley Hoffman, Andrew Putnam, Sam Ryder, Bud Cauley, Jacob Bridgeman, Shane Lowry, Michael Kim, and Billy Horschel.

Correlation And Innisbrook Resort (Copperhead)

Looking at the stat correlations this week for Innisbrook, some notable shifts surface compared to the tour average. Here, P4: 450-500, Par-3 Scoring, and SG: OTT each fall outside the top 10. Instead, Par-5 Scoring, SG: APP, and Good Drives Gained make the most notable jumps in importance. Outside the top 10, we also see notable jumps this week in the importance of P5: 600-650, Fairways Gained, and SG: ARG.

Just nine players rank above average in each of the above top-10 stat categories for Innisbrook: Chan Kim, Andrew Putnam, Will Zalatoris, Bud Cauley, Joseph Bramlett, Shane Lowry, Tommy Fleetwood, Ben Griffin, and Matt Kuchar.

PLAYER SPOTLIGHT: Will Zalatoris

Zalatoris had the rug pulled out from under him in the third round of THE PLAYERS as he quickly went from a share of the lead to eight strokes behind over his closing six holes. TPC Sawgrass can do that to the best of ’em, though, so I’m sure Zalatoris is licking his chops to get a fresh start on another positional and challenging Florida venue.

He’ll be making his Valspar Championship debut this week. Perhaps he was turned on to this event after watching his Wake Forest teammate, Cameron Young, finish runner-up in his debut here last year. Like Young, Zalatoris has also established a reputation for playing his best on the most challenging setups, thriving on courses where elite ball-strikers can separate.

Although the results haven’t shown it yet, Zalatoris has returned to his vintage form in 2025, consistently gaining from tee to green and showing some expected volatility with the putter. He’s finished top-25 in five of his first six starts in 2025 but ranks No. 12 in SG: T2G. On a problematic course setup like Innisbrook Resort, the putter does not need to work as hard for elite ball-strikers, as par is a good score on most holes here. And despite his shortcomings in converting putts inside the 10-foot range, Zalatoris remains an elite lag-putter, ranking in the top 10 in Approach Putting. This stat measures the average distance left to the hole after their first putt.

With winning scores typically falling around -10 at the Valspar Championship, Zalatoris’ tee-to-green strengths and ability to avoid bogeys set him up well, leading into his Innisbrook debut this week.

2025 VALSPAR CHAMPIONSHIP ODDS: DFS PLAYER POOL

With all the course-fit profiles in mind, I’m leaning early toward the below player pool. I’m also looking their way in the 2025 Valspar Championship odds. I’ve broken the list by actualized pricing/odds tier for DraftKings and rankings projections for Underdog Fantasy, with odds and pricing released earlier this week.

UNDERDOG GOLF DRAFT RANKINGS TIERS

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Tier 1

Justin Thomas
Sepp Straka

Tier 2

Sam Burns
Jordan Spieth
Tommy Fleetwood
Shane Lowry
Will Zalatoris
Corey Conners

Tier 3

Ben Griffin
Taylor Moore
Luke Clanton
Viktor Hovland
Alex Smalley
Nicolai Hojgaard

Tier 4

Doug Ghim
JT Poston
Gary Woodland
Joel Dahmen
Christiaan Bezuidenhout
Harry Hall

Tier 5

Adam Schenk
Joseph Bramlett
Niklas Norgaard

VALSPAR CHAMPIONSHIP MODEL RESULTS & BREAKDOWN

For my model this week,  I’m prioritizing SG: APP, SG: ARG, Comp Course History, Par-5 Scoring, and Prox 175+, followed by a more balanced mix of SG: P (L36, Bermuda), Par-3 Scoring, Good Drives Gained, SG: OTT, and Scrambling Gained.

Model Favorites

One of the most consistent ball-strikers in this field, Tommy Fleetwood, emerges in the No. 1 spot in my model this week. Fleetwood has a good history at this event, finishing T16 and T3 in his first two appearances. His first PGA Tour win is imminent this season, and he’ll be amongst the top betting favorites when Valspar Championship odds release on Monday.

After Fleetwood, my model’s top 10 is rounded out by Justin Thomas, Shane Lowry, Xander Schauffele, Sepp Straka, Lucas Glover, Michael Kim, Taylor Moore, Jacob Bridgeman, and Adam Scott.

When more Valspar Championship odds are released on Monday, I expect to build a more extended card, as the Valspar Championship has been volatile over the years. I’m looking to start my card with Will Zalatoris and Corey Conners, among my favorites. I will also consider Joel Dahmen, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, and JT Poston further down the odds board.

Thanks for reading, and good luck with your 2025 Valspar Championship bets!

2025 VALSPAR CHAMPIONSHIP ODDS Comparison TABLE

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