Dates: March 10-16, 2014
Where: Tampa Bay, Fla.
Course: Innisbrook, A Salamander Golf & Spa Resort (Copperhead)
36-35—par 71/7,340 yards
Field size: 156
2013 champion: Kevin Streelman
Purse: $5,700,000 ($1,026,000/winner)
FedExCup: 500 points to the winner
Format: 72-hole stroke play
Twitter: @valsparchamp
How Kevin Streelman won the 2013 Valspar Championship
- Kevin Streelman came into last year’s Valspar Championship 0-152 in the victory department on the PGA TOUR.
- Following an opening-round, 2-over 73, it appeared he would be 0-153. In the final 36 holes, however, Streelman played bogey-free, posting scores of 65-67 to win by two strokes over Boo Weekley, who posted a closing-round, 8-under 63 earlier in the day. With Streelman’s win, he joined Carl Pettersson (2005) and Gary Woodland (2011) as players who made the Valspar Championship their first win on the PGA TOUR.More on Kevin Streelman
- Following his win in Palm Harbor last year, Streelman went on to claim three more top-10 finishes, consecutively at the RBC Heritage (T3), Wells Fargo Championship (T6) and PLAYERS Championship (T2). He would make it through all four FedExCup Playoffs events and end the season ranked 25th in the standings.
- In seven stroke-play starts so far this season, Streelman has yet to miss a cut, and finished a season best T3 at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in January.
- On December 26, 2013, Streelman’s wife Courtney, gave birth to the couple’s first child, Sophia.
- Notes on the field
- 16 of the top 30 in the current FedExCup standings led by No. 5 Harris English:
- English, one of four former Georgia Bulldogs to win in 2013-14, leads the PGA TOUR with six top-10 finishes, including a title at the OHL Classic at Mayakoba.
- Eleven of the 12 Valspar Championship’s past winners, with the exception of John Huston (2000), are in the field.
- Newly crowned PGA TOUR champion Chesson Hadley, who won the Puerto Rico Open presented by seepuertorico.com last week, is one of four 2013-14 winners in the field this week, joining Webb Simpson, Harris English and Scott Stallings. All four of those players are in their 20s.
- Two major champions from the 2013 season, Justin Rose and Jason Dufner:
- In Rose’s seven previous starts, the defending U.S. Open champion’s best result was T5 in 2011. In order to continue the rehab process on his right shoulder, Rose withdrew prior to the start of The Honda Classic two weeks ago, but returned to Doral last week for the World Golf
Championships-Cadillac Championship, where he finished T34. - Dufner, the 2013 PGA Champion, has top-10 finishes at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions (T5), the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship (T9) and the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship (T9) so far in 2013-14.
- Other notables include former reigning PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year Jordan Spieth, 2012 champion Luke Donald, 2012 U.S. Open Champion Webb Simpson, the latest “Mr. 59” Jim Furyk and World Golf Hall of Fame member Ernie Els.
- The 20-year-old Spieth returns to the event which last year opened many doors for him. By virtue of his T7 finish at the 2013 Valspar Championship, Spieth earned Temporary Membership for the remainder of the season. Spieth went on to became the youngest winner on TOUR since 1931 with his victory at the John Deere Classic, tied for tops on TOUR in top 10s with nine, played in all four FedExCup Playoff events, was a captain’s selection for the U.S. Presidents Cup Team and was voted PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year. So far in 2013-14, Spieth has three
top-10 finishes in eight starts, including a runner-up at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions. - Els is scheduled to make fifth start in this year’s Valspar Championship, having a near-miss (T5 in 2012) on his resume in his four previous starts. A 19-time winner on the PGA TOUR, Els is looking for his first victory since hoisting his second Claret Jug at the 2012 Open Championship.
- Furyk joined an elite group at last year’s BMW Championship when he posted a second-round, 12-under 59. The only others to post the elusive score on the PGA TOUR are Al Geiberger, Chip Beck, David Duval, Paul Goydos and Stuart Appleby. Furyk, who won the 2010 Valspar
Championship en route to taking the title of FedExCup champion that year, will be making his seventh start in the event, and sixth consecutive. - In addition to his 2010 win on the Copperhead Course, Furyk also finished T7 last year and T2 in 2012.
- European Tour members Brooks Koepka and Peter Uihlein are among the sponsor exemptions.
- The former Florida State All-America Koepka has won four times on the Challenge Tour and plays full-time on the European Tour.
- Uihlein, the former U.S. Amateur winner while playing at Oklahoma State, won the Madeira Islands Open in 2013.
- Other sponsor exemptions include 20-year-old Matteo Manassero of Italy and England’s Paul Casey. Casey has had limited starts the last several years on TOUR due to various injuries.Tournament Notes
2014 marks the beginning of a new era for the tournament, with the title sponsorship role of Valspar.
Based in Minneapolis, the Valspar Corporation is an international manufacturer of paint and coatings.
With upwards of 10,000 employees in 25 countries, the Valspar Corporation is the sixth-largest paint and coating distributer in the world.
The last five winners of the Valspar Championship have all finished the season of their win inside the top 30 in FedExCup standings, highlighted by Jim Furyk winning the FedExCup title in 2010, the year of his win at Innisbrook Resort.
Brian Gay is the only player to compete in all previous 13 Valspar Championships. His best finish is a T4 in 2007. Gay will vie for this year’s title for a 14th consecutive time.
K.J. Choi (2002 and 2006) and Retief Goosen (2003 and 2009) are the only multiple winners of the Valspar Championship and both are in this year’s field. Choi nearly won for a third time, finishing runner up to Jim Furyk in 2010. No player has yet to successfully defend his title at the Valspar Championship.
Year Defending Champion Finish 2013 Luke Donald T4 2012 Gary Woodland T29 2011 Jim Furyk T13 2010 Retief Goosen 5th 2009 Sean O’Hair MC 2008 Mark Calcavecchia T14 2007 K.J. Choi T6 2006 Carl Pettersson MC 2005 Vijay Singh MC 2004 Retief Goosen T20 2003 K.J. Choi T40 2002 John Huston (won 2000 event) T13 Random Notes
- Through the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship, 16 of the 17 PGA TOUR winners have been
U.S.-born players.
- Just five months ago, Jimmy Walker began his eighth season on the PGA Tour with no wins in 187 attempts.
- With three victories in his first eight starts of 2013-14 at the Frys.com Open, Sony Open in Hawaii and AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, Walker became just the fourth different player in the last 20 years to win three times in his first eight starts, joining Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and David Duval. Walker has cooled as of late, but still holds a 538-point first-place lead over Dustin Johnson in the FedExCup standings.
- Jimmy Walker and Chesson Hadley are the only first-time PGA TOUR winners through 17 events (Walker now
owns three titles).
- Low final rounds for winners this year have included a 63 (Jimmy Walker/Sony Open in Hawaii), a 64 (Bubba Watson/Northern Trust Open) and a 65 (Harris English/OHL Classic at Mayakoba). Walker, incidentally, also posted a 2-over-par 74 in the final round to win the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, the highest finalround score for a winner since Martin Laird’s 75 at the 2012 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by
MasterCard.Youth Movement - Nine of the 14 different winners in 2013-14 have been under the age of 30: Webb Simpson/Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, Dustin Johnson/WGC-HSBC Champions, Chris Kirk/The McGladrey Classic, Harris English/ OHL Classic at Mayakoba, Patrick Reed/Humana Challenge in partnership with the Clinton Foundation (and Cadillac Championship), Scott Stallings/Farmers Insurance Open, Jason Day/World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship, Russell Henley/The Honda Classic, Chesson Hadley/Puerto Rico Open presented by seepuertorico.com.
- Seven players currently under the age of 30 have at least three PGA TOUR wins: Dustin Johnson (8), Rory McIlroy (6), Webb Simpson (4), Keegan Bradley (3), Anthony Kim (3), Scott Stallings (3) and Patrick Reed (3).Source: PGA TOUR
