PGA Power Rankings: The 2019 Valspar Championship

We do a lot of DFS site specific coverage here at FantasyCPR, so in an effort to bring in new golf fans, and look at Fantasy Golf as a whole, I am excited to bring you my PGA Power Rankings for this weeks Valspar Championship.

This PGA Power Rankings article will cover the top 20 golfers for this event, and with each golfer will come a short blurb with some justification to their respective rankings. Before we do that, let’s touch a bit on the history of the Valspar Championship.

PGA Power Rankings: Valspar Championship – Course and History

What a finish it was last week at the Players Championship as Rory McIlroy finally got it done, holding off a surging Jim Furyk by one stroke. The month-long Florida swing will wrap up this weekend in Palm Harbor, on the outskirts of Tampa, with the Valspar Championship.

Formerly known as the Transistions Championship among other names and sponsors, the Valspar Championship has existed since the year 2000, and while it hasn’t always been this time of year, it has been played every year in March since 2007. This event takes place on the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort, which is a long par-71, spanning 7340 yards.

The biggest challenge of the Copperhead Course is the three-hole finish known as “The Snake Pit.” Like most sporting events, the drama is likely to happen at the end. Usually in golf, this means a tough few finishing holes more often than not.

The Snake Pit is a long par four 16th hole approaching 500 yards, followed by a 200+ yard par three, and subsequently followed with another difficult par four to finish.

The Valspar Championship will not have that Major “feel” we had last week with the Players Championship, but there are still some very solid names in the field this week, including world number one Dustin Johnson. Past winners in this years field include last years winner Paul Casey, and the 2010 Champion and red-hot, ageless Jim Furyk.

PGA Power Rankings: The 2019 Valspar Championship

***The following golfers are my top 20 overall. Each golfer will be followed by their official golf world ranking (OGWR) in parenthesis.***

20. Branden Grace – (42)

The field is not very deep this week, although there is some prime talent at the top. With the bottom half of the rankings this week, we will see quite a different array of golfers for various reasons, and cracking the top-20 this week by a nose over golfers such as Sungjae Im and JT Poston, is South African Branden Grace.

Grace struggled with Sawgrass on Sunday finishing five over. After just sneaking by the cut-line, he ended up T-72nd for the Players Championship. He has missed just one cut in his last five, with his best finish in that span being his solo second the Waste Management Phoenix Open over a month ago.

At Copperhead, Grace has made three appearances, improving on each finish, and skipping a year in between each. He missed the cut in 2014, then posted a T-37 in 2016. His best finish was last year, when he cracked the top-10 with a T-8 finish at 5-under par.

19. Louis Oosthuizen – (27)

Oosthuizen was on fire over on the European Tour to end 2018 and to start 2019, but has really cooled off on this side of the pond. He kind of has the label of not being able to play here in the United States, but after missing the cut at the Genesis Open and the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Oosthuizen snuck through last week, but struggled on the weekend and finished T-56.

Copperhead has been a mixed bag for Oosty over the years, but he has posted two top-20’s here in the last few years, including a T-7 in 2016. He grabbed another top-20 in 2012, so he has fared well here multiple times, but he has also missed three cuts as well. All of those came in consecutive years from 2013 to 2015, so I think the recent success is more relevant.

18. Jason Kokrak – (90)

This weeks number 18 golfer Jason Kokrak also cooled off a bit last week at the Players Championship, after posting back-to-back top-10’s at the Honda Classic and the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

A 74 on Saturday made it look like Kokrak would finish among the bottom of those that made the cut. However, he carded a 70 on Sunday, and finished T-47. Kokrak has still not missed a cut in 2019, and he has five top-20 finishes in seven events played.

Another golfer with a mixed bag of results at the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook, Kokrak found his best finish here in 2015 when he T-7. More recently, he notched another top-10 here last year as well, with his T-8. Overall, he has missed four cuts in eight tries over the last eight years, with the last MC coming in 2016.

17. Lucas Glover – (84)

Glover was unable to make the cut last week at the Players Championship, and that was just his second missed cut in his last 10 events since the Safeway Open. His last missed cut was at the WMPO, and he bounced back incredibly well, notching three straight top-10’s before last week.

Other than the two missed cuts, his worst finish is still a T-17, so the 39-year-old has certainly done enough to stay inside the top-20, despite last week.

A regular here at Copperhead, Glover has played this event for at least 10 straight years with the data I am looking at. He has missed the cut four times, with the last coming in 2016. He does have four top-25’s, but his best finish is the T-18 in 2017. It will be interesting to see how he bounces back from a missed cut this time around.

16. Kevin Kisner – (50)

A true model of consistency, Kisner finished somewhere in the 20’s for the fifth straight time, as he T-22nd at the Players Championship last week. That isn’t even a joke. Kisner’s last five look like this, T-26, T-28, T-27, T-23, T-22, so while stays this steady, he stays in the top-20. Surprisingly, he has not played this weeks Valspar Championship very much over the years.

His last trip here was in 2015, where he struggled to a T-60 finish at four over par. Prior to that he missed the cut in 2014, but other than that, his experience at Copperhead looks to be limited to those two years.

PGA Power Rankings: The 2019 Valspar Championship

15. Tyrell Hatton – (37)

Hatton will remain stateside at least another week, as he will tee it up at the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort for the Valspar Championship for the first time in his career. He dropped a spot in the OWGR last week after missing the cut at the Players Championship, but he does have two top-20’s in his last six events.

14. Jim Furyk – (57)

What a stretch for the 48-year-old, as he notched a solo second last week at the Players Championship, giving him back-to-back top-10’s, and three top-15’s in his last four events.

The big finish last week which brought him to 15-under, and a waiting game that eventually saw McIlroy prevail, brought his OWGR ranking up a whopping 110 spots from 167 to 57. Wherever Furyk has found this fountain of youth, I need to know so I can spend some quality time there.

As far as Copperhead goes, this is a snake pit that Furyk has been able to tame over the last 10 years. He was the champ here in 2010 as I mentioned in the event history section of this article, but he also has three additional top-10’s, including a T-2 in 2012.

Furyk has not missed a cut here at the Valspar Championship in that span as well, and one of his top-10’s was last year, when he T-7.

13. Keegan Bradley – (33)

Now that Bradley has finally cracked my top-20 rankings, this will likely be the week he either turns it all around and gets a win, or completely goes the other way. Looking at his history here at the Valspar, my gut is telling me I have Bradley ranked way too high, but his recent play simply suggests otherwise.

Bradley has played the last three years at Copperhead, but has never really made any noise. He missed the cut in 2016, T-58 in 2017, and improved again last year with a T-31.

It is that gradual improvement and his recent play, combined with the fact that we don’t really have a strong field that has vaulted him up this high in the rankings. He has now made 21 straight cuts, and is coming off of a T-16 last week at the Players Championship.

12. Adam Hadwin – (68)

When you take a good look at this field and past results here at the Valspar over the last two years, there is only one golfer who has two top-15 finishes in both 2017 and 2018. That golfer is Canadian Adam Hadwin, who after winning in 2017, finished T-12 last year.

Considering this seems like a place Hadwin likes to tee it up, his history here bumps him up to 12 this week, despite missing the cut at the Players Championship last week.

In fact, missing last weeks cut, in an essence, gave him two extra days to prepare for an event he has had some success at, and that was his first MC since the Safeway Open. I fully expect Hadwin to contend here at Copperhead once again, but you just never know what to expect after a rough couple of rounds.

11. Rafa Cabrera-Bello – (31)

Speaking of a rough couple of rounds, RCB shot 77 and 76 at the Players Championship and missed the cut last week. However, he will stay in Florida, and play in his first Valspar Championship since 2015. Cabrera-Bello finished +1 and T-44 that year at Copperhead, as he struggled with the flat stick a bit, losing almost a stroke putting.

Prior to the missed cut last week, it seemed as though Rafa was knocking on the door, and about to make some serious noise.

A T-3 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational two weeks ago gave him his fourth straight top-25 finish, however, two rough rounds at Sawgrass is enough to cast some doubt on Cabrera-Bello a bit this week. Considering the strength of the field, Cabrera-Bello sits just outside of the top-10 this week.

PGA Power Rankings: The 2019 Valspar Championship

 10. Brandt Snedeker – (46)

Kicking off the top ten this week for the 2019 Valspar Championship, is the 46th ranked Snedeker, who is coming in off of his best performance since his T-2 at the 2018 Safeway Open. Sneds T-5 last week at the Players Championship, and it moved him up nine spots in the OWGR. He is now 6-for-7 making cuts in 2019, and has three top-25 finishes.

After a 58th place finish and a 53rd place in 2014 and 2015, Snedeker passed on the Valspar in 2016 and 2017. However, he did return to Copperhead last year, and finished T-31. His best finish in this event was in 2011, when he grabbed a solo fourth place.

9. Bubba Watson – (17)

Watson enters the top-ten this week, and this is solely based on his overall ranking, in respect to the field. Don’t get me wrong, Bubba certainly deserves the ninth ranking this week, but even though he has been solid and steady for months, he hasn’t played in this event much, and he is coming off of his worst finish since his lone 2019 missed cut at the Sony Open.

Watson T-56 at the Players Championship, and while he wasn’t bad with his worst round being a 73, his best round was just a 70. In between the missed cut last week and the Sony Open, Watson’s worst finish in four events was a T-27 at the WGC-Mexico, with his best being his T-4 in Phoenix.

Bubba has played just once here since his T-28 in 2011, missing the cut in 2017. On the bright side, he was able to grab a solo third place finish here at Copperhead in 2010, but that was quite some time ago.

8. Webb Simpson – (20)

Simpson T-16 last week at the Players Championship, moving him up a spot in the OWGR. It was his third top-20 in five events in 2019, and you have to go all the way back to the 2018 Travelers Championship to find his last missed cut.

He carded a 2-under par 70 in each of the first three rounds, and finished with a 68 on Sunday, to finish at 10-under par, and six strokes back from the championship.

In the last ten years, Simpson has played here at Copperhead nine times, missing just three cuts. His best finish was his solo 2nd in 2011, but he also has four additional top-20’s including his T-8 last year.

7. Patrick Reed – (16)

I briefly touched on the history here the last couple of years with Hadwin, but looking at a four-year sample, despite not pulling off a victory, nobody has been better overall than Patrick Reed.

He T-2 last year with Tiger Woods and a stroke behind Paul Casey, and notched an additional T-2 in 2015 with Sean O’Hair, losing in a playoff to eventual champion Jordan Spieth. Reed added another top-10 here at the Valspar Championship in 2016 with a T-7 finish.

Reed has teed it up in eight events now in 2019, and is yet to miss a cut. He hasn’t cracked the top-10 yet, but he does have five top-25’s in those eight events. Always consistent, and with two runner-up finishes in this event, Reed narrowly misses a top five ranking this week.

6. Gary Woodland – (23)

There are so many great golfers on tour at the moment, but I had to kind of do a double take when I noticed that the 23rd ranked golfer in the world Gary Woodland has not missed a cut in over a year now. Usually you will see a guy have a bad week over the course of a year, but Woodland’s last real hiccup was at the 2018 Players Championship.

Even though he missed that cut last year at Sawgrass, he finished T-30 in the 2019 version of the Players last week, and he recently had a stretch of three straight top-20’s. In seven events so far in 2019, Woodland’s best finish was a solo second at the Sentry TOC, and he has a total of three top-10’s.

PGA Power Rankings: The 2019 Valspar Championship

5. Paul Casey – (15)

After skipping the Valspar Championship for three years following missed cuts in 2012 and 2014, Casey returned to the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort last year, and was able to capture his first PGA Tour victory since 2009.

There have been other wins for the 41-year-old Englishman who has also played plenty on the European Tour over the course of his career, but no matter where he plays, Casey is always in consideration to contend.

He comes into Palm Harbor with some extra rest after a rare missed cut last week at the Players, but was on a streak of four straight top-25’s prior to that, which included three top-5’s.

Casey tied for second at the Singapore Open on the Asian and Japanese Tour, then grabbed a solo second at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am in his return to U.S. soil. More recently, Casey T-3 in the rough conditions at the WGC-Mexico.

4. Sergio Garcia – (26)

Garcia closed 2018 on fire playing primarily on the European Tour circuit, winning the Valderrama Masters which he hosts, which sparked a stretch of six straight top-10’s. With his T-22 last week at the Players, Garcia now has three straight top-25’s. He followed up his T-6 at the WGC-Mexico with a T-9 at the Honda Classic, and a third round 74 last week hampered his chances at a third consecutive top ten.

While he has only played the Valspar once since 2014, that once was last year when he finished alone in fourth place. However, if you go all the way back to 2011 through 2013, Garcia was able to grab three consecutive top-20’s here at Copperhead as well. He should easily be a top five favorite in every facet this week.

3. Jon Rahm – (10)

It was a big Sunday swing for the young Spaniard, but after playing lights out on Saturday to grab the 54-hole lead after three days and earning a spot in the final group with Tommy Fleetwood, Rahm just fell apart on Sunday.

It was only slightly windier than the previous day, so the complete collapse has to be a slight cause for concern, but wasn’t quite enough to push him too far down the rankings this week.

Rahm shot a 64 on Saturday, and it was a 12 stroke swing with a 76 on Sunday, as he fell from first place down to a T-12 finish. This will be his first trip to Copperhead, and his first Valspar Championship.

2. Jason Day – (12)

The 31-year-old Australian is another top golfer making a long awaited return to Copperhead, as Day has not teed it up at the Valspar since 2013. His best finish was 2012 when he T-20th, but he had made four cuts in a row from 2010 to 2013 before ultimately skipping this event ever since.

Day sat at 12-under par through three rounds at the Players Championship, and was among many that had a shot at bringing it home on Sunday. However, the best Day could do was finish even par, which was good for a T-8 finish.

More importantly, Day showed he was healthy again, after withdrawing from the Arnold Palmer Invitational the previous week. He has three top-10’s in his last four events, with the only hiccup being the WD two weeks ago.

1. Dustin Johnson – (1)

Johnson is shaping up to be a heavy favorite, as he is set to tee it up for the first time at the Valspar Championship since his missed cut way back in 2010.

With the realignment of events in March with the movement of the Players last weekend, this four week Florida swing proved to be effective, in a sense that we saw some huge names playing in events they normally skip. DJ in this one is of course the most notable.

DJ shot all four rounds in the 60’s last week at the Players Championship, but the WGC-Mexico Champion had to settle for a T-5 finish at 13-under par. Johnson now has four top-fives in 2019, along with two victories. He is number one in this field with a bullet this week.

Thanks for stopping by FantasyCPR and checking out our ever-expanding PGA coverage. Be sure to keep an eye out for my FanDuel article coming soon, along with some Fantasy Draft once again as well.

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