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Valspar Championship predictions
- Doug Ghim to win Valspar Championship - 50/1 each-way Betway
- Nick Taylor top-20 finish - 2/1 BetMGM
- Keegan Bradley first-round leader - 50/1 each-way bet365
The PGA Tour’s Florida Swing concludes with the Valspar Championship in Palm Harbor a week after Scottie Scheffler overcame a neck injury to become the first player to retain the Players Championship.
The world No 1 will sit out this week's event with the injury he sustained early in round two at Sawgrass, which will be a relief to a decent field appearing at the Innisbrook Resort which includes 15/2 favourite and Sawgrass runner-up Xander Schauffele, two-time champion Sam Burns, 2015 winner Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas.
Copperhead is a testing par 71, tree-lined parkland course with tight fairways, water on half of the holes, multiple dog-legs and a tough closing stretch from 16 to 18 known as the ‘Snake Pit’, but which player will top the leaderboard on Sunday night?
We’ve surfed UK betting sites and picked out three Valspar Championship predictions as the build-up to next month’s US Masters gathers pace.
Valspar Championship tip: Ghim a good prospect for for Copperhead coup
Taylor Moore is bidding to make it a hat-trick of back-to-back winners at the Valspar Championship, after Paul Casey and Sam Burns' triumphs, and having made the cut in every tournament since last year’s Open, there is every chance he could win his second PGA Tour title.
But the American falls down in a couple of key skill sets that have been prevalent amongst winners in the last few years - namely the strokes gained: tee to green and putting metrics.
Moore was second in the first measure 12 months ago and also ranked high on the greens, but his numbers have not been at the same level in the first quarter of 2024 which leads us to Doug Ghim as a potential first-time winner this week.
Ghim has finished inside the top 20 in his last five tournaments and although he can be backed at 9/4 with Unibet in that market, his form suggests he can do even better.
The last seven winners of this tournament have fared no worse than sixth for SG: tee-to-green and encouragingly the American is just outside the top 10 in that department.
Additionally, Burns was in the top 10 for SG: putting for both victories in 2021 and 2022, as was Moore, so it’s a bonus that Ghim stands just outside the top 30 in this area and should mount a strong challenge in Florida.
Ghim was well placed for a big finish at Sawgrass after a third-round 66, which included a 63-feet chip-in from the back of the famous island green, left him in a share of 12th heading into Sunday where he started well with two birdies in his first three holes but dropped back to 16th.
Still, Ghim will have been encouraged by another fine display and the hope is he can produce a strong showing at a course where he finished inside the top 30 last season.
Betway are the pick of the gambling sites on Ghim, paying seven places at 50/1 for the first of this week’s Valspar Championship tips.
Valspar Championship Tip 1: Doug Ghim to win Valspar Championship - 50/1 each-way Betway
Taylor made for windy test
Nick Taylor has won three times in the last five years, including last month’s Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale whose greens are also laid with Bermuda grass, just like Copperhead.
Players can occasionally go through a dip on the back of a title success, but the Canadian has remained solid with three top-40 finishes, including 12th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
His putting and approach to the green stats have been excellent since the turn of the year and what also makes him an attractive prospect is that he is one of the best players of wind which is expected to blow from Friday onwards.
Taylor shot a final-round 70 in windy conditions to win the Pebble Beach Pro-Am four years ago and bad weather disrupted last month’s success in Arizona, so he has form when the elements are challenging.
It my be too much to expect two wins in a matter of weeks, but Taylor is now a major force on the PGA Tour and stands at a career-high 24th in the world rankings.
A scan of the golf betting sites shows that Taylor can be backed at 2/1 with BetMGM for a top-20 finish as our next selection.
Valspar Championship Tip 2: Nick Taylor top-20 finish - 2/1 BetMGM
Bold start expected by Bradley
We enjoyed a 33/1 winner on Patrick Cantlay for first-round leader at Riviera in February and we’re returning to the same market for our final selection.
Keegan Bradley is experiencing a bit of a wobble after missing the cut in two of his last three tournaments, but his tee-to-green numbers remain strong and he was runner-up here in 2021, so he has some good memories to draw upon this week.
Even better for our purposes is that Bradley has topped the Valspar first-round leaderboard twice in the last seven years, was fifth in 2018 and sixth a year later, so this course is clearly a place where he likes to burst out of the blocks.
Betting apps point towards bet365 at 50/1 as an each-way bet on Bradley heading the field on a Thursday for a third time at this demanding course.
Valspar Championship Tip 3: Keegan Bradley first-round leader - 50/1 each-way bet365
Valspar Championship tips
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Last Updated: 21st March 2024, 09:24 AM
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