Field Level Media's Golf Glance provides weekly news and storylines from each of the major North American golf tours.
PGA TOUR
LAST TOURNAMENT: The Players Championship (Cameron Smith)
THIS WEEK: Valspar Championship, Palm Harbor, Fla., March 17-20
Course: Innisbrook Resort, Copperhead (Par 71, 7,340 yards)
Purse: $7.8 (Winner: $1.404M)
Defending Champion: Sam Burns
FedExCup Leader: Scottie Scheffler
HOW TO FOLLOW
TV: Thursday-Friday, 2-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday, 1-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3-6 p.m. (NBC)
PGA Tour Live: Four live feeds per day on ESPN+
Social Media: @ValsparChamp (Twitter)
NOTES: The Valspar returns to its traditional March date after being played in May last year. … The is the final event of the four-tournament stretch of the “Florida Swing.” The only players in the field to have made the cut at each of the previous three Florida stops this season are Denny McCarthy and Sam Ryder. … The field features half of the top 10 players in the world: #2 Collin Morikawa, #3 Viktor Hovland, #8 Justin Thomas, #9 Xander Schauffele and #10 Dustin Johnson. Johnson will be making his 300th career start on tour. … Two-time Valspar winner Paul Casey withdrew on Tuesday after finishing third at The Players the previous day, as did Doug Ghim and Sebastian Munoz. They were replaced by Bronson Burgoon, Austin Cook and Dylan Wu. … College stars Alex Fitzpatrick (Wake Forest) and Jackson Suber (Ole Miss) will make their PGA Tour debuts on sponsors exemptions. Fitzpatrick is the younger brother of world #26 Matt Fitzpatrick, who is also playing this week.
BEST BETS: Hovland (+1000 at DraftKings) finished T3 in his event debut last year, is coming off a T9 last year and has seven top-10s in his past nine worldwide starts. … Thomas' (+1000) best finish in four previous starts at the Valspar was a T10 in 2015. After eight consecutive top-20s, he finished T33 last week. … Morikawa (+1400) is coming off a missed cut at The Players but has a pair of runner-up finishes this season. He is making his Valspar debut. … Burns (+1800) is defending his maiden tour title. He was in contention at The Players before shooting a final-round 76. … Shane Lowry (+3000) is coming off a runner-up at the Honda Classic and a T13 at The Players. … Abraham Ancer (+3500) has only one top-10 in his past nine starts but finished fifth last year.
NEXT TOURNAMENT: World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play, Austin, Texas, March 23-27
LPGA Tour
LAST TOURNAMENT: Honda LPGA Thailand (Nanna Koerstz Madsen)
THIS WEEK: Off.
Race to the CME Globe leader: Danielle Kang
HOW TO FOLLOW
NEXT TOURNAMENT: JTBC Classic, Carlsbad, Calif., March 24-27
Champions Tour
LAST TOURNAMENT: Hoag Classic (Retief Goosen)
THIS WEEK: Off.
Charles Schwab Cup leader: Miguel Angel Jimenez
NEXT TOURNAMENT: Rapiscan Systems Classic, Biloxi, Miss., April 1-3