Valspar Championship at Innisbrook Resort – 2025 Preview

After a Rory McIlroy victory in a Monday finish at THE PLAYERS Championship, the Florida Swing concludes with the Valspar Championship. While Innisbrook has four courses available to golfers, the Copperhead course is the one that has hosted this tournament since its inception on Tour in 2000. Located just outside of Tampa in Palm Harbor, Florida, Innisbrook is one of the most underrated courses on the PGA Tour and encompasses one of the most complete tests of golf that players will face all year. Featuring narrow pine tree-lined fairways and rolling terrain combined with the surrounding lakes, proper positioning off the tee is paramount. 2023’s champion, Taylor Moore remarked, “This place is a ball-striker’s kind of paradise – fairway and green it to death.”

Players will be challenged as they navigate numerous tight doglegs, elevation changes, 74 well-positioned bunkers, six holes with water danger, rough approaching four inches, and difficult pin positions. The course has consistently played over par and ranks as the tenth most challenging annual course on Tour. The number of trees and elevation changes make it feel as if one is in the hill country of North Carolina. As course architect, Larry Packard, said himself back in 2012, “When you play Copperhead you don’t even feel like you are in Florida. When you stand on the first hole and look down the fairway you are on an elevated tee and looking down the fairway lined with pine trees on both sides. It feels more like the Carolinas than Florida.”The makeup of the par-71 course is also far from traditional as there are five par-3s along with four par-5s. The course culminates at the infamous “Snake Pit” with two difficult par-4s sandwiched between the challenging par-3 17th.

Similar to TPC Sawgrass, positional golf is once again the name of the game as Innisbrook mitigates almost any advantage that bombers have off the tee. But this is not your typical “short” course. With 53% of approach shots coming from over 175 yards, players will need to be sharp with their long-distance approach game.

2013 winner, Kevin Streelman summed up the course quite well. “On this golf course, you’ll make some bogies pretty quickly. A lot of players would say it’s their favorite course in Florida that we play. They love it because of shot playability. You hit everything from 4-iron to driver off the tees, and shape them in both directions. You have par 5s you can go for and some you lay back. You have to be so exact where you leave it. There’s no let-up out there but it’s very fair at the same time. You got to man up and hit golf shots.”

The Field

The Valspar Championship kicks off the final three-event stretch leading up to the Masters. Coming off consecutive “Signature” events, many of the highest-ranked players typically rest this week and begin private preparation for the year’s first major. But this week’s Valspar might be one of the best ever as 23 of the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking are in the field including Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Tommy Fleetwood, Sam Burns, Sepp Straka, and Shane Lowry. Past Valspar champions in the field include last year’s longshot winner Peter Malnati along with Taylor Moore, Adam Hadwin, Jordan Spieth, Luke Donald, and Gary Woodland.

Innisbrook Resort (Copperhead) – History

Businessman, Harvey Jones had always dreamed of founding a golf course in Florida. In the late 1960s, he decided the time was right and began working with realtors throughout the state to find the perfect plot of land. On one specific visit to the Tampa area, Jones was out walking one of the recommended properties when he spotted some land to the south on the other side of a barbed wire fence. Jumping the fence for a closer look, Jones knew this was the spot. Although the land was not for sale, Jones eventually acquired the property and they broke ground in 1969.

The Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club officially opened for play in 1970 with the Island Course which was designed by architect Larry Packard. Three more courses would eventually be built by Packard on the property with the Copperhead Course becoming the most famous. Completed in 1974, the Copperhead Course first hosted a PGA Tour event in 2000 named the Tampa Bay Classic. With the exception of 2001 (September 11 attacks) and 2020 (COVID-19), the event has been held annually at Innisbrook ever since.

It underwent a slight renovation in 1999, followed by a moderate restoration in 2015. In the most recent one, the course’s fairways and rough were replaced and each green was rebuilt. The bunkering was also reshaped to stay true to Packard’s original design. Greens were restored to their original size to allow for additional pin placements.

Finish Position and Strokes Gained History at Innisbrook Resort (2016-2024)

This includes the average finish position and Strokes Gained per round since 2016 for each of the categories. Players are sorted by SG: Total. Innisbrook is the 21st-most (out of 44) predictive annual course on Tour.