Valspar Relief: It’s Like Spring Break Compared To The Players Torture

After last week’s Purgatory At The Players — the PGA Tour members who showed up at Innisbrook Resort this week needed a break — they needed some good weather for the Valspar Championship.

They didn’t get good weather for Thursday’s first round — they got GREAT weather and as a result, most of the field was having more fun than college students on spring break at the beach.

Snake Pit?  This Copperhead track was extremely user friendly on day one.  Temperatures started in the low 70s for the early wave and got into the low 80s by afternoon.  There wasn’t a stitch of wind and you could tell these guys were grateful.  They responded by playing REALLY well — the scoring average was under 70 on this par 71 layout.  Greens were shot-friendly thanks to a roaring storm that watered the place down Tuesday night.

This one’s a home-game for NBC analyst Gary Koch, who’s probably played this track at least a hundred times.  “I can’t ever recall the greens being this receptive,” Koch pointed out as he watched birdies, and in some cases, eagles flying.

This course is a Florida anomaly.  It has rolling terrain.  The woods are guarded by fox squirrels.  Even you haven’t seen one, just imagine a regular squirrel on steroids.  These guys can basically steal any type of food out of resort golfers’ carts — sandwiches, packs of cheese crackers — they’re astute at heavy lifting.  Osprey and eagles make their homes around the resort — tall pine trees dot the landscape.

It typically makes for a great challenge — double-digits under par typically gets the job done.  Sam Burns had an amazing week last year — he went 17-under and he could be headed there again by the way he started on Thursday.  Sam’s at the top of the leaderboard with an impressive 64.  He had company in the form of Jhonny Vegas and two other outliers — David Lipsky and Adam Hadwin.  But if you had to bet who will be in the hunt come Sunday afternoon — you’d take Burns over Vegas, Hadwin and Lipsky in a heartbeat.

Burns is trending up like a hot stock.  Vegas hasn’t had a top 10 this season, Lipsky is the new guy from the DP World Tour and Hadwin hasn’t done much lately.

It was great to see five of the top 10 show up at Innisbrook.  Good tracks attract good players.

World No. 8 Justin Thomas showed up, tired and as he put it “pissed off” that he’s basically fallen out of the top five in the world rankings and hasn’t won in a year now.  Well, J.T. did something about it.  After sleep-walking his way around the front nine, he came to life on the back.  He rolled in a 64-foot eagle putt at the tough par five 15th — third longest of his career.  At the par three 15th he stuck his tee shot to seven feet and made that.  At the tough 16th, he hit a perfect drive and from 150, stuck one inside a foot to get to five-under.  He finished there and posted 66, grateful for his afternoon tee time:  “I was very tired this morning.  I felt like a zombie,” he said after his round.   But he sure perked for those final nine holes.  “I just love the golf course.  I wish it wasn’t quite as soft,” Thomas said, referring to those ultra-receptive greens.

The rest of the guys from the world’s top 10 didn’t fare too badly.  After missing the cut last week, No. 2 Collin Morikawa shot 68.  No. 3 Viktor Hovland carded a 69.  No. 9 Xander Schauffele’s 67 was pretty good and Dustin Johnson actually sounded excited after he shot his own 67.  “Starting to strike it better.  That 63 last Sunday, that was mostly the putter and good management.  Today I started hitting it better with the driver and the irons.  I haven’t played that much this year and now I’ll be getting into the meat of the schedule.”

Yes, the weather was spectacular.  You see it on television and perhaps you can understand why the Tampa Bay area is the hottest real estate market in the country.

Who wouldn’t want to get in a round in this kind of weather?  Expect more of the same for the final 54 holes.

Yeah, the guys had a good time on day one — a really good time considering they feel like they just spent a month in Jacksonville.

Valspar Scoreboard:

Justin Thomas Friday Morning Birdie Alert:  J.T. got out early Friday morning — perfect weather, no wind and he went right to work as he started on the back nine.  He took care of business with birdies on all three par threes and both par fives and was five-under for that nine (30).  He made easy birdie at the first, which plays like a par four for most of the field.  He’s 11-under for the tournament, looking quite solid through 28 holes.