The first round of the 2025 Valspar Championship was an absolute grind as players had to battle inclement weather, heavy winds and the always difficult Copperhead course at Innisbrook Resort. The combination of steady 15-20 mph winds (gusting up to 30 mph) and the small greens at Innisbrook made for a challenging day as evidenced by the leaders sitting at 4-under — the second-highest first round leading score in tournament history.
The morning wave seemed to get the better of the weather draw Thursday as four of the five co-leaders came from the early set of tee times. The afternoon wave got rocked by a pop-up shower that combined with the heavy winds to give players fits for a few holes before it ultimately passed through.
The lowest any player got Thursday was Keith Mitchell, who pushed his score to 6under going into No. 8 (his 17th hole). After finding the front of the green on the tough par 3, Mitchell left his first putt woefully short and ended up with a three-putt bogey. Another bogey followed for a 67 that felt like it should have been even better.
“It’s crazy to say you left some out there when it’s windy, but I mean, I don’t want to say that because you’re going to make mistakes, you’re going to hit shots that you wish you could have over or putts that you had over,” Mitchell said. “All in all, I kept it together. No. 8 was playing really hard today, and 9, the wind just off left I couldn’t get it started far enough left and made bogey there. But you take those two out of the round and sprinkle them somewhere else, I’m feeling good.”
The lone player to join the group at 4 under from the afternoon wave was Sami Valimaki, who handled the rain better than most with three pars on Nos. 2-4.
“Yeah, it wasn’t the best time to be on the golf course,” Valimaki said of battling sideways rain in the middle of his round. “But [I] just managed to make it especially we had the rain 2nd, 3rd and 4th, it was tough in that time but managed to make a couple pars.”
The first round was called due to darkness at 7:39 p.m. ET with four groups still on the course. They will return to finish their rounds at 9 a.m. with the second round beginning as scheduled at 7:35 a.m.
The leaders
1. Keith Mitchell, Jacob Bridgeman, Stephen Jaeger, Ricky Castillo, Sami Valimaki (-4)
Mitchell’s bogey-bogey finish took some of the wind out of his sails, but he seems confident in his game and comfortable on the course. Bridgeman had the inverse of Mitchell’s round as he got hot on his second nine, shooting a 32 that included an eagle at the first to get into that lead group.
Jaeger and Castillo had to contend with the Snake Pit to close their round with each dropping a shot at the 16th but bouncing back with birdies on 18 — Jaeger also made birdie on the 17th. It’s the second time in three years that Jaeger has held a share of the first-round lead at the Valspar, but he’ll hope for a stronger finish compared to his T27 in 2023.
Valimaki had a mostly clean card in the tougher afternoon wave, with the exception of a double bogey on 14, as he is in the mix early yet again after being T2 at the Cognizant after the first round two weeks ago. His 2-under run through the Snake Pit was the best of anyone on Thursday.
With the leaderboard bunched, there figures to be plenty of movement ahead Friday. Mitchell, Bridgeman, Jaeger and Castillo will all know whether there are low scores to be found or it’ll be another day of trying to avoid big numbers by the time they tee off in the afternoon.
Other contenders
T6. Ryan Fox, Nico Echavarria, Nick Hardy (-3)
T9. Davis Riley, Harry Hall, Billy Horschel, Andrew Putnam, Victor Perez, Jeremy Paul, Nate Lashley, Sam Stevens, Luke List, Sahith Theegala, Andrew Novak, Justin Lower, Rasmuss Neergaard-Petersen, Kevin Velo (-2)
There are an astonishing 22 players within two shots of the lead going into Friday, which provides a lot of opportunities to move up or down the leaderboard before the weekend. Fox was with the group at 4 under until a rough three-putt bogey (his only one of the day) on the 18th dropped him back. Echavarria successfully posted a clean card with a bogey-free 68, and Hardy had the second-best round of the afternoon wave.
Behind that trio is a group of 14 players all at 2-under, with Kevin Velo still waiting to complete his round as he has to play the 18th on Friday morning before starting his second round. Both Velo and Theegala had it to 4 under on Thursday before backing up late in their first rounds.
Big names battling to make the cut
Friday will be an interesting day at Innisbrook as a lot of the marquee names in the field have work to do if they’re going to see the weekend. The Jordan Spieth rollercoaster was in full effect on Thursday as he opened with an eagle but promptly gave that back with bogeys on the next two holes on his way to a 3-over 74, putting him in a tie for 103rd. He was playing with Justin Thomas, one of the three betting co-favorites before the tournament, who didn’t fare much better. Thomas shot a 73 to sit just outside the cut line after the first round as the overall vibes in the Spieth-Thomas featured group were rough.
They weren’t alone in struggling with some tough conditions out at the Copperhead course as a bunch of the players that sat at the top of the pre-tournament odds sheet find themselves well off the pace after Round 1. Tommy Fleetwood had an oddly dreadful ball-striking round (120th in strokes gained approach) and missed a few short putts on Thursday; he’s just inside the cut line at 1 over going to Friday. Xander Schauffele, seeking his 60th straight made cut on the PGA Tour, scratched his way to a 1-under 70 (good for T23), but he was clearly not happy with his ball-striking throughout the round. Schauffele went straight to the range after his round with caddie Austin Kaiser taking videos of his swing to figure out what wasn’t synced up. That figures to be worth monitoring when he gets back on the course Friday afternoon.
Past champion Sam Burns also carded a 1-over 72, while Tom Kim and Adam Scott each posted 74s to give themselves some serious work to do on Friday to make it to the weekend. The good news for all of those players? With the leaders only at 4 under, there’s an opportunity to make up serious ground on Friday … if they can show a different gear than they had Thursday.
Punt-putt course
A tough year for Patton Kizzire continued Thursday as he got off to a 3-over start through eight holes before withdrawing from the tournament, citing a back injury. Prior to that withdrawal, Kizzire’s frustrations with his play boiled over after a short missed putt as he punted his putter to the moon, breaking the shaft in the process. Kizzire hadn’t made a cut in his last six starts coming into this week, but does at least now lead the PGA Tour in putter hang time,
2025 Valspar Championship updated odds, picks
Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook
- Keith Mitchell +1000
- Stephan Jaeger +1100
- Jacob Bridgeman +1200
- Xander Schauffele +1200
- Sepp Straka +1600
- Tommy Fleetwood +2500
- Sahith Theegala +2800
Mitchell is, without a doubt, the most accomplished of the players atop the leaderboard, but in his two most recent appearances at the Valspar he’s had nightmare final rounds. Schauffele, as mentioned, doesn’t look comfortable with his swing at the moment, but the fact he was able to grind out a 70 without anything close to his A-game means if things click soon he could make a quick move up this leaderboard.
I personally like Straka at 16-1 as he’s been playing great on the Florida swing, and I feel more confident in him sticking around the top of the leaderboard than most of the guys he’s chasing. Theegala at 28-1 has some value given he was tied for the lead before a couple rough closing holes. Further down the odds sheet, I was impressed with Valimaki’s round given the conditions he faced in the afternoon. At 65-1 and tied for the lead, I wouldn’t hate a little nibble going into Friday.
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