The first round of the 2026 Valspar Championship presented players with the kind of stern test that’s typical of the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort. Those who went out early had the advantage of playing before the wind started to swirl; among the top 15 on the leaderboard, only four came from the afternoon wave as the weather picked up and caused serious problems.
Among those who had to navigate the challenging conditions in the afternoon was Jordan Spieth, who looked like he would put himself in terrific position after the first round. Spieth came out of the gates blazing with an eagle on the first and added three more birdies in the first seven holes to tear up the front nine with a 5-under 31.
However, as the conditions got more challenging, Spieth cooled off some on the back nine. Still, he was able to remain at 5 under after a strong birdie on the par-3 15th. Unfortunately for Spieth, that was where the wheels started to come off as he made a brutal double bogey on the par-4 16th and then closed with a bogey after missing a 5-footer for par on the 18th.
Getting rounds all the way to the clubhouse when he’s got a chance to go low has been an issue for Spieth all season. That was the case in the second round of The Players — when he closed with a double bogey on the par-5 9th after getting red-hot in the middle of his round — and then again this Thursday when he put a 3 wood into the middle of the lake off the tee on No. 16 after getting back to 5 under.
Spieth is still searching for his first win on the PGA Tour since the 2022 RBC Heritage, and his game appears closer to that kind of breakthrough victory than it has been in a few years. However, his issues keeping big numbers off the card persist, and if he’s going to get that elusive 14th PGA Tour victory this week, he’ll have to figure out how to keep a cleaner card on a challenging golf course.
Leader
1. Sungjae Im (-7): After missing the start of the season with a wrist injury, Im fell below the cut at Bay Hill and The Players in his first two starts back on the PGA Tour. The third time appears to be the charm for Im, who caught fire on the Copperhead Course and got back to what he does best: striping irons and playing aggressively. Im led the field in strokes gained on approach on Thursday and paired that with the second-best putting performance in the field, which is always an excellent combination.
As was the case last week with Justin Thomas, the second step after finding your game again after injury is working out how to consistently produce your best. Thomas had a solid but unspectacular weekend after his hot start at The Players, and now it’s time to see whether Im can keep up this pace for the next three days. He probably won’t need to keep firing 64s to win, given winning scores at the Valspar have recently slotted between 10 under and 12 under, but he will need to keep posting solid scores and cannot afford any big steps back.
Contenders
2. Brandt Snedeker (-6)
3. Davis Thompson (-5)
T4. Billy Horschel, Pierceson Coody, Andrew Putnam (-4)
T7. Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick, Jacob Bridgeman and six others (-3)
T17. Jordan Spieth, Corey Conners, Tom Kim and 12 others (-2)
T37. Viktor Hovland, Patrick Cantlay, Wyndham Clark and 14 others (-1)
Snedeker, a nine-time PGA Tour winner, is the stunner of the group placed on the first page of the leaderboard. His last top 10 in a main-season PGA Tour event was of the backdoor variety at the Memorial last year; he hasn’t won on Tour since 2018 and has missed all four cuts to start 2026. And yet, at one of the most challenging courses on the Tour rotation, he fired an opening 65 to get into solo second. Will he follow up his best round of the season in the afternoon on Friday? Either way, it’s an incredible start for a beloved veteran.
Schauffele’s winless drought isn’t nearly as long as that of Spieth, but he also shot a 3-under 68 on Thursday to put himself in position to contend yet again after a top-five finish at The Players. So far this season, he’s looked much closer to the form that made him a two-time major winner in 2024 than he was last year when injuries derailed his progress and made for a lost campaign.
Schauffele’s ball-striking, which led him to a strong Players performance, seems to have carried over to the other Florida coast this week, as he was second in the field on Thursday in strokes gained on approach. He’s still trying to wake up the putter — 92nd in the first round — but the iron play and tee-to-green performance from Schauffele is encouraging.
Schauffele is tied with Fitzpatrick and Bridgeman at 3 under, as that group features some of the strongest threats going forward.
Conners had perhaps the strangest round of anyone, as he had back-to-back hole-out eagles as he made the turn on No. 18 and No. 1 to reach 5 under but then had his round come apart some and backed up to 2 under.
Anyone in red figures after the first day has to feel pretty solid about their performance, and that includes the defending champion at this event, Viktor Hovland. He got in at 1 under alongside Cantlay, Clark and a host of others, and he will be aiming for another big weekend in the Tampa area.
Updated 2026 Valspar Championship odds, picks
Odds via Caesars Sportsbook
- Sungjae Im (5-1)
- Xander Schauffele (15/2)
- Matt Fitzpatrick (19/2)
- Davis Thompson (12-1)
- Jacob Bridgeman (13-1)
- Jordan Spieth (22-1)
- Pierceson Coody (22-1)
- Billy Horschel (22-1)
It’s unlikely Schauffele or Fitzpatrick will go away over the weekend; both present a little value right now. Coody, an elite driver of the golf ball, is another strong option on a course that punishes misses so severely. If he can putt at all this week, he could find himself in serious contention for his first PGA Tour victory.