HP 🍑 for the 2024 Valspar Championship

First Look: Copperhead Course @ Innisbrook Resort, Palm Harbor, Florida

Check out DB’s full Course Breakdown for everything you need to know about this week’s venue including in-depth stats and data from Bet The Number.

If the rest of the PGA TOUR wasn’t already worried, they sure are now. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is in a league of his own after back-to-back wins (in signature events no less) as he becomes the first-ever repeat champion at the PLAYERS. The rest of the TOUR can catch a break this week with Scottie sitting out the action at Innisbrook, but Xander Schauffele and Brian Harman headline the field as they look to bounce back after runner-up finishes last week. Without further ado, here’s everything you need to know ahead of the 2024 Valspar Championship.

Let’s get into it!

Welcome to the Show:
Get to Know the 2024 PGA Tour Rookies

Thanks to recent eligibility changes from the PGA Tour, 45 newly minted Tour Cards were handed out ahead of the 2024 season. Each week, we’ll spotlight a few up-and-comers whose names will be important to know as the year progresses.

• Ben Kohles - Dallas, TX

  The 34-year-old is a bit of a known quantity at this point heading into his second full season on the PGA TOUR in three years. Kohles is back in the big leagues after making the most of last year on the Korn Ferry Tour where he finished atop the season-long points list thanks to two wins and an incredible run of form last fall that featured five top 10s in six starts including a T5 in November’s RSM Classic. For all of his experience, Kohles has so far failed to maintain exemption on TOUR for more than one year as he’s dropped back down to the KFT after each of his two tries. It looked like he would be heading that way again in 2024, but a T6 at the alternate-field Puerto Rico Open has him back in the fight headed into the thick of the golf season.

• Chan Kim - Honolulu, HI

  With 10 worldwide victories to his name, Chan Kim is far from the average PGA TOUR rookie. The 33-year-old earned his very first PGA TOUR card last year thanks in part to back-to-back wins on the Korn Ferry Tour in August. The former Arizona State Sun Devil turned pro in 2010 and has spent the majority of his career thus far on the Japan tour. It was through that circuit that he earned a total of nine starts in majors with a career-best finish of T11 in the 2017 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. Born in South Korea but raised in Honolulu, Kim started 2024 with a missed cut in his backyard at the Sony Open, but he has since gotten things on track making 5/6 cuts with two top-15 finishes at the AMEX and the Mexico Open.

• Rico Hoey - Philippines

  Rico Hoey reeled off seven top-10 finishes and a win on the Korn Ferry Tour last season en route to his first-career PGA TOUR card. The 28-year-old played college golf at the University of Oregon where he finished runner-up in the 2016 NCAA Championship to Aaron Wise. Hoey turned pro in 2017 and won his first professional event on PGA TOUR Canada that same year, but it took another six years before he bagged his next professional win at the Visit Knoxville Open last year. He’s struggled a bit to adjust to the level of competition on the PGA TOUR so far this season with just two made cuts in six starts, but both came in his two most recent starts at the Cognizant Classic and the Puerto Rico Open.

1. SG: Off the Tee Leaders last 24 rounds: 1. Campos  2. Mitchell  3. Hoey 4. Tosti 5. Champ 6. Garnett 7. Dougherty  8. Fishburn 9. Springer 10. Schauffele

2. SG: Approach Leaders last 24 rounds: 1. Finau  2. Young, Cam 3. Coody, Parker 4. Gotterup 5. Ghim  6. Thomas 7. Taylor, Nick  8. Hoey 9. Glover 10. Mitchell

3. SG: ARG Leaders on Overseed chipping areas last 24 rounds:  1. Griffin, Ben 2. Blair 3. Im 4. MacIntyre  5. Skinns 6. McNealy 7. Baddeley 8. Kuchar  9. Shelton 10. Schauffele

4. SG: Putting last 24 rounds on Overseed greens:  1. Taylor, Nick 2. Schauffele 3. Griffin, Ben  4. Suh  5. Todd 6. Burns 7. Montgomery  8. Baddeley  9. Novak 10. Fox

5. Top 10 in Driving Accuracy % last 24 rounds: 1. Moore, Ryan 2. Rai 3. Bjork 4. Garnett  5. Palmer, Ryan 6. Blair 7. Silverman 8. Buckey 9. Merritt 10. Ghim

6. Top 10 in GIR % last 24 rounds: 1. Tway 2. Horschel 3. Mitchell  4. Garnett  5. Roy  6. Lindheim 7. Whitney 8. Hoey  9. Johnson, Zach 10. Rai

7. SG: APP from 150-225 last 24 rounds: 1. Smalley  2. Bridgeman  3. Finau 4. Bhatia  5. Bradley  6. Lindheim 7. Rai 8. Martin, Ben  9. Mitchell 10. Dahmen

8. SG: Putting from 4’-10’ last 24 rounds: 1. Fishburn 2. Baddeley  3. Montgomery 4. Ghim  5. Hossler 6. Furr 7. Echavarria  8. Cauley  9. Crowe 10. Schenk

9. Top 10 in Data Golf Positive Course History vs. Expectation: 1. Kohles 2. Burns  3. Riley, Davis 4. NeSmith  5. Wallace 6. Straka 7. Skinns 8. Donald 9. Barjon 10. Schenk

10. SG: Total (Per Rd vs Field) at Innisbrook last 12 rounds: 1. Burns 2. Riley, Davis 3. NeSmith  4. Thomas  5. Spieth 6. Im 7. Stallings 8. Moore, Taylor 9. Bradley 10. Wallace

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