The Color and Love for the VALSPAR CHAMPIONSHIP – The Most Colorful Tournament on the PGA TOUR… or the World for that matter.
Reporting and Photos by: Pat Eastman
Innisbrook Resort’s – Copperhead Course was designed by Larry Packard in 1974. Larry’s specialty on all his course designs was the double dog-leg par 5, shaped like the letter S. Packard’s personal favorite was Copperhead’s Hole 14, which plays over the crest of a hill off the tee then bends around a lagoon to a green perched on a ledge with an enormous bunker on the left. In 2015 a renovation restored the course to its original Packard design.
Fun fact:
The name Copperhead actually comes from the numerous copper pennies the crew found while building the course.
Justin Thomas
“I love this place. I hope that it is a, you know, it’s a tournament that works in my schedule every year. I love coming here. I think it’s one of the most underrated courses that we have, that we play. It’s very in friendly of you, and I think it’s not necessarily something that looks visually intimidating or difficult, but if you’re not sharp or if you’re not managing your game or emotions well, you can just make bogeys so fast. Yeah, it’s a place that I enjoy playing because I think it’s an old school kind of design. The guys are hitting it in a lot of the same places in the doglegs, and the fairways are very, very narrow and the greens are very difficult. So you just have to control your ball and be smart around here.”
Matt Fitzpatrick
“I like this golf course a lot. I think it’s a great test. It’s a great one to follow the Florida Swing, Bay Hill, Sawgrass, and here is a great run, as well as Cognizant, it’s four great golf courses. Yeah, happy to be here.”
Viktor Hovland
Defending Champion
“ I love this golf course and I think it’s a really good test. It’s one of those courses, especially with all the ball rollback stuff I think this is a golf course that will, that has stood the test of time and I think it will continue to, just because of the trees, there’s some water around there, very narrow fairways, thick rough, small greens. I think it’s a great golf course.”
“It’s a very narrow golf course off the tee. You have trees on both sides, so it really favors accuracy off the tee. If the wind starts blowing and they tuck the pins on each side, and the greens get very firm, it’s very difficult to get close to the pins. So middle of the green is often very good, and, yeah, it’s just really is a ball-strikers course, but if you short side yourself and you end up missing the green, which everyone is bound to do, you have to rely on some intricate short game shots around the green as well. So it really tests every single part of your game.”
The Caddie Shack
Welcome to “THE CADDIE SHACK”
A relaxing, refreshing place for the hardest working people in the game
Courtesy of Valspar
Never know who you might meet at the PGA Tours Most Colorful Tournament.
Greg and Beverly Wise and I met Brian and Mika Kleinschmidt, from the HGTV Show 100 Day Dream Home in the Color Zone of the Valspar Championship.
Pat Eastman
Clearwater, FL resident likes to walk 9 holes daily. Except on Friday, I work as Hospice volunteer. Enjoy my summers in Hyannis, MA.
Retired MA elementary school teacher. Starting in 1981 spent summers covering PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, Champion Tour, Legends of the LPGA Tour, and USGA tournaments. Some of my favorite photos were of Sam Sneed, Jan Stephenson, Tiger Woods, and Kenny Perry.
