{"id":552928,"date":"2026-03-22T09:07:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T09:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/552928\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T09:07:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T09:07:17","slug":"draws-and-fades-xander-schauffele-among-valuable-contenders-chasing-at-valspar-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/552928\/","title":{"rendered":"Draws and Fades: Xander Schauffele among valuable contenders chasing at Valspar Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

9H AGO<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

5 Min Read<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Draws and Fades<\/p>\n

<\/a>*:not(style){overflow:hidden;position:absolute;top:0px;right:0px;bottom:0px;left:0px;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;width:100%;height:100%;}.css-17ygvlf>img,.css-17ygvlf>video{object-fit:cover;}.css-17ygvlf::before{height:0px;content:””;display:block;padding-bottom:56.25%;}]]>\"Highlights<\/p>\n

Highlights | Round 3 | Valspar Championship | 2026<\/p>\n

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A<\/p>\n

Change Text Size<\/p>\n

Written by Brad Thomas<\/p>\n

After three rounds at the Valspar Championship, Sungjae Im (+115) holds a two-shot lead over Brandt Snedeker (+700) and David Lipsky (+700). This is just the second 54-hole lead of Im\u2019s career, and if he gets it done on Sunday, it will mark his third PGA TOUR victory\u2014and his first since the 2021 Shriners Children\u2019s Open.<\/p>\n

Im has been incredible on his way to this position. He\u2019s gaining strokes both on approach and with the putter, which is exactly the formula you want around Innisbrook Resort. What\u2019s been interesting is that his off-the-tee play hasn\u2019t been anything special, but it also hasn\u2019t hurt him. He hit just 7 of 13 fairways in Round 3 and still only made two bogeys while posting a two-under round. That\u2019s what\u2019s great about Im\u2019s tournament thus far. <\/p>\n

He\u2019s in control. When parts of his game are \u201coff\u201d it really hasn\u2019t cost him.<\/p>\n

*:not(style){overflow:hidden;position:absolute;top:0px;right:0px;bottom:0px;left:0px;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;width:100%;height:100%;}.css-17ygvlf>img,.css-17ygvlf>video{object-fit:cover;}.css-17ygvlf::before{height:0px;content:””;display:block;padding-bottom:56.25%;}]]>\"Sungjae<\/p>\n

Sungjae Im sinks 20-foot birdie putt on No. 8 at Valspar<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve followed this event over the years, it really shouldn\u2019t surprise you if Im closes this out. <\/p>\n

This tournament has consistently produced longshot winners. Four of the last five champions were priced north of +5000, and since 2010, the average winning odds sit around +7800. A lot of that comes down to the type of course Innisbrook is. It rewards great ball strikers, but it also introduces just enough variance where players who are dialed in for one week can absolutely pop.<\/p>\n

With good weather expected, it\u2019s hard to point to anything externally that would slow Im down. But at the same time, winning on the PGA TOUR is never easy. His live number is around +115, which tells you that. The books are essentially saying he wins this less than half the time, even with a two-shot lead.<\/p>\n

The tricky part about trying to fade him is that the guys behind him aren\u2019t exactly screaming value either.<\/p>\n

Matt Fitzpatrick (+350) is sitting there three shots back as the second favorite, but he hasn\u2019t won on TOUR since the 2023 RBC Heritage. Snedeker hasn\u2019t won since 2018. Lipsky is still looking for his first PGA TOUR win. Even guys a little further down the board fall into that same bucket. So no matter how you slice it, you\u2019re likely looking at someone who either hasn\u2019t won in a long time or hasn\u2019t won at all.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what makes the outright market feel a little uncomfortable. At these prices, it starts to feel more like a guessing game. So instead, I\u2019m shifting to the placement markets for the final round, where I think there\u2019s a bit more edge.<\/p>\n

Xander Schauffele, Top 20 (+100, FanDuel)<\/p>\n

There\u2019s just something about Schauffele\u2019s game right now that doesn\u2019t feel fully there. You\u2019ll see stretches where he looks like one of the best players in the world, and then suddenly there\u2019s a lapse\u2014usually with the putter. The amount of short putts he\u2019s missed lately feels high, and I\u2019m sure it feels even worse to him.<\/p>\n

That said, he\u2019s sitting T25 heading into Sunday, and this is where the value comes in for us.<\/p>\n

\"Xander<\/p>\n

Xander Schauffele hits 216-yard drive to 9 feet, sets up birdie on No. 15 at Valspar<\/p>\n

From a numbers standpoint, Schauffele has been one of the better final-round players in this field. Over his last 20 fourth rounds, he\u2019s gained 1.27 strokes on the field on average, with nearly all of that coming from his ball striking (+0.99). And if there\u2019s one thing you have to do well at Innisbrook, that\u2019s hit fairways and greens.<\/p>\n

The putter has been slightly negative over that stretch (-0.08), but interestingly enough, he\u2019s actually been positive on the greens this week (+0.18). Pair that with +1.00 strokes gained tee to green, and you can start to see why the placement bet makes sense.<\/p>\n

This is also the time of year when guys like Schauffele start to lock in. He knows his start to the season hasn\u2019t been up to his standards, and with majors around the corner, it\u2019s time to gain some momentum.<\/p>\n

History is on his side as well. He\u2019s finished no worse than 12th in his last three starts at Innisbrook. Even more telling, his final rounds here have been ridiculous, gaining 4.9 strokes in 2025 and 6.34 in 2024.<\/p>\n

At +100, you\u2019re basically asking him to be slightly better than a coin flip. Given everything we know, that feels like a number worth playing.<\/p>\n

Matt Fitzpatrick, Top European (-128, DraftKings)<\/p>\n

This is a market I don\u2019t tap into often, but it felt like the best way to back Fitzpatrick without forcing anything in the outright market.<\/p>\n

What he\u2019s doing tee-to-green this week has been elite. He\u2019s leading the entire field in that category, gaining 3.0 strokes. To put that into perspective, that\u2019s over a stroke better than Im and more than two strokes clear of Snedeker.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve also seen flashes of how good he\u2019s been lately. At THE PLAYERS Championship, he was five under in the final round, standing on the 18th tee with a real chance to win. It didn\u2019t work out, but that doesn\u2019t take away from how well he played.<\/p>\n

\"Matt<\/p>\n

Matt Fitzpatrick sinks 26-foot birdie putt on No. 12 at Valspar<\/p>\n

The problem is the outright price. Betting someone around +350 who is three shots back in a crowded leaderboard just isn\u2019t something I love.<\/p>\n

But when you shift to the Top European market, it simplifies things. His main competition is limited, and at that point, I\u2019m just trusting the numbers.<\/p>\n

If Fitzpatrick continues to hit it like this, it\u2019s hard to see him not separating over 18 holes. If the putter even cooperates a little bit, he should be in a great position to cash this and probably have a chance to win the tournament.<\/p>\n

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Mar 20, 2026<\/p>\n

Draws and Fades: Koepka lurking into weekend at Valspar<\/a>Draws and Fades<\/a>\"Image\"Image<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"9H AGO 5 Min Read Draws and Fades *:not(style){overflow:hidden;position:absolute;top:0px;right:0px;bottom:0px;left:0px;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;width:100%;height:100%;}.css-17ygvlf>img,.css-17ygvlf>video{object-fit:cover;}.css-17ygvlf::before{height:0px;content:””;display:block;padding-bottom:56.25%;}]]> Highlights | Round 3 | Valspar Championship | 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-552928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}