The PGA Tour’s Florida Swing comes to an end with a trip to Copperhead for the 2026 Valspar Championship.
This year’s journey through the Sunshine State has certainly delivered. All three tournaments on the famously chaotic Florida Swing have featured Sunday collapses, with Ludvig Aberg becoming the latest victim.
The Swede had a two-shot lead as he stood on the 11th fairway at last week’s PLAYERS Championship. He finished T5, allowing Cameron Young to storm from behind to collect the biggest win of his career.
The chaos should only continue this week as we head to the Snake Pit.
Xander Schauffele is a lukewarm 11/1 favorite at FanDuel Sportsbook, with last week’s runner-up, Matt Fitzpatrick (13/1), and defending champion Viktor Hovland (17/1) also inside 20/1.
This tournament does tend to produce surprising winners, most recently Peter Malnati as a 350/1 long shot in 2024, so we’ll bypass the top of the board and try to catch lightning in a bottle at a course that is made for it.
Wyndham Clark (60/1, FanDuel)
It’s been a quiet season for Wyndham Clark, but his resume stands out in this range.
The 32-year-old is a three-time PGA Tour champion, with one of his wins coming at the 2023 U.S. Open and the other two at signature events. He won’t be intimidated by a tough course or a decent field, and he’s also proven to be a terrific closer, which is vital in these conditions.
This will be Clark’s fifth trip to Copperhead as a pro, and while the results are a mixed bag, he did finish T5 in his last start here in 2023.
John Parry (110/1, bet365)
It’s fair to be hesitant to back a debutant on a treacherous course like Copperhead, but John Parry is off to a flying start as a PGA Tour rookie.
The Yorkshireman has yet to miss a cut (8-for-8) and just turned some heads with a T8 finish at THE PLAYERS, also on debut.
The numbers suggest that Parry’s start is legit. Although he’s had some issues putting, the two-time European Tour winner currently leads the varsity circuit in greens in regulation. If he can bring that accuracy with him to Innisbrook, he’ll have a chance to hang around the leaderboard at a terrific price.
Billy Horschel (110/1, bet365)
We finally got a glimpse at the good version of Billy Horschel two weeks ago.
The eight-time PGA Tour winner had a pretty sluggish start to 2026 with two missed cuts and one top-30 finish in his first six starts, but he put things together at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, finishing T13 on a tough track, and now heads to a course that has been kind to him in recent years.
Horschel finished fourth at last year’s Valspar and was 12th in 2024, so Copperhead clearly jives with the 39-year-old’s game. That shouldn’t be a shock considering Horschel is a Florida native, went to college in Gainesville, and currently resides in Ponte Vedra Beach.
Mackenzie Hughes (120/1, bet365)
Having a short game that can get you out of trouble is imperative at Copperhead, and Mackenzie Hughes has that in spades.
The Canadian won’t blow you away off the tee, and he’s certainly not the type to drop a pin from the fairway, but his short game is magical.
His volatility off the tee makes him a boom-or-bust player, but Hughes seems to have taken a liking to Florida golf. He’s had some strong showings in recent years during the Florida Swing, most notably a third-place finish at this event in 2024.
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Michael Leboff is a long-suffering Islanders fan, but a long-profiting sports bettor with 10 years of experience in the gambling industry. He loves using game theory to help punters win bracket pools, find long shots, and learn how to beat the market in mainstream and niche sports.
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