Valspar Championship betting tips
Valspar Championship betting tips: top selections
There will be plenty of you out there that will see Dustin Johnson’s arrival – he hasn’t played Copperhead since missing the cut in 2010 – as significant and he’s obviously the short priced favourite.
He had his chances to really challenge at Sawgrass but was inconsistent on the greens. Even so, he was still fifth and will have plenty of supporters.
But Copperhead isn’t a course you can overpower and so it’s to the precision play of Sergio Garcia I’m going to turn at 18/1.
The Spaniard has only played in Palm Harbor twice in the last six years but finished top 10 on both occasions (4th last year and 7th in 2013).
He was solid enough at The Players and can look back to four top 10s in his last seven events for inspiration.
If you consider you need to be a good wind player, accurate off the tee and with your irons, then it is no surprise that Copperhead would be a good fit. If his temperament, particularly on some tricky to read greens, remains good he’d have every chance.
Much of the value we had last week at The Players has disappeared on Jim Furyk. The 48-year-old was a lovely 150/1 each-way punt for us and he’s widely being quoted at prices of 33/1 just a few days later.
While that might not initially feel like a great investment, I include him to point out that, while under the burden of Ryder Cup captaincy and struggling with injury, he still managed to finish 7th here last year.
The victor in 2010, he’s also recorded a runner up and seventh placed finish in the intervening years. He’s by far from the great price he was at Sawgrass but, coming off his third top ten of the season, that doesn’t mean he won’t feature.
And given that accuracy and hitting fairways and greens are paramount, it’s a course that would fit Furyk’s profile in a similar fashion to Sawgrass.
I’ll also be keeping a keen eye on Patrick Reed and Webb Simpson. Reed (25/1) has yet to really get into his stride this year but it’s hard to discount finishes of second, seventh and second in three of the last four years in this championship.
Simpson (20/1), on the other hand, has really stepped up his game since winning The Players 10 months ago and put together a decent defence to finish just inside the top 20.
Eighth at Copperhead last year, and 10th and second further back in the past, there is plenty of course form to draw upon as he goes in search of his sixth PGA Tour title.
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Tom Jacobs
Tom is a golf betting expert and provides weekly tips for NCG on the DP World Tour and PGA Tour. He works as an affiliate operations specialist for odds comparison site Oddschecker, and also co-hosts the Lost Fore Words podcast.
