Copperhead Course Key Fantasy Stats

Valspar Championship

March 21st – 24th, 2019

Innisbrook Resort (Copperhead Course)

Palm Harbor, FL

Par: 71 / Yardage: 7,340

Purse: $6.7 million

with $1,206,000 to the winner

Defending Champion:
Paul Casey

by Sal Johnson

Founder, Chief Data Officer, GOLFstats

E-mail me at:
sal@golfstats.com

This is based on the most important stats for Cooperhead Course, based on data from last years Valspar Championship, and using data from all the players in the field with stats from 2019. What we do is take their rank for each stat and then add up the four categories.
The scoring average of the field at Cooperhead in 2018 was 71.97, so with par being 71, that means the average score was just a shade under one shot per round, making Cooperhead the 6th hardest course to score on in 2018. One of the reasons the course played a half a shot harder than the 71.51 average in 2017 was due to it being windy all four days, with Thursday seeing gusts up to 30 mph. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday wind speeds were clocked at between 10 and 15 mph It’s also important to see how weather plays a factor, as the wind also blew in 2015 and the average was 72.88 (3rd hardest), in 2014 the average was 72.59 (10th hardest) and in 2013 it played at 71.91 making it the 12th hardest course on tour. So historically the Copperhead is a challenging course to start with, add some wind and it’s a brute. Now the good news for the week, winds will under 10 mph each day with temperatures in the mid-70 so look for scoring to be easier this year.

In looking at the stats for Cooperhead last year, Greens hit, Driving Accuracy and putting from 4 to 8 feet were important. So our first stat is Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green because of the fact that last year the course ranked 15th in driving accuracy and 3rd in greens hit. Last year’s champion Paul Casey was 6th in Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green as he was T-68th in Driving accuracy and T-30th in Greens hit. Showing how important greens hit is, of the players who finished in the top-four, 3 of them were in the top-ten of greens hit with 4th place finisher Sergio Garcia finishing 2nd in greens hit.
So with it important then it’s important to get it close to the hole from the fairway. Last year the Cooperhead course was T-11th in Proximity to the hole while Casey was T-22nd in our second stat.
Our third stat is Strokes Gained-Putting because of the importance of putting well at Innisbrook. The greens are average size and don’t have much undulation, so players can do well on the greens. Last year the field finished 44th in overall putting average meaning that only 7 courses on the PGA Tour had better putting numbers than the Cooperhead course. Last year’s winner Hadwin was T-1st in overall putting average but in Strokes Gained-Putting he was 15th.
Last we have Par Breakers as the course was the 3rd hardest course on the PGA Tour to get birdies and eagles. This is one of the reasons the scoring average is high, players just can’t make a lot of birdies or eagles. In looking at the comparison, there is 15.48 average in Par Breakers at Innisbrook, at the Plantation Course at Kapalua that average is 25.16 But that wasn’t a problem for Casey as he ranked T-3rd with 15 birdies so he was T-5th in Par Breakers.

SO HERE ARE OUR FOUR CHOICES FOR THE MOST CRITICAL STATS FROM PLAYERS TO DO WELL ON THE COOPERHEAD COURSE:

*Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green: This is a good indication on players that do the best at hitting it far, straight and then hitting lot’s of greens to pick up the most strokes by perfecting those combined stats.

*Proximity to the Hole: The average length that a player hits it to the hole from the fairway

*Strokes Gained-Putting: No matter how good your game is, you have to make these putts in order to win. This stat takes into effect everything that happens on the greens and calculates the number of shots either gained or lost.

*Par Breakers: The course is so demanding that making a lot of birdies and eagles aren’t possible. So players that are able to make a lot will do well on this course which ranked 6th in this stat on tour in 2015.

128 of the 144 players from this year’s field with stats from this year:

Click any column title in the table header to sort columns.