– The Valspar Championship couldn’t be more up in the air after three rounds, and it’s well known that uncertainty in high-level sports is often synonymous with entertainment and even spectacle. Three players lead the board, Viktor Hovland (-7), Jacob Bridgeman (-7), and Nico Echavarría (-7), but we have ten players within a narrow margin of two strokes, sixteen within three strokes, and thirty within five strokes. Given the situation, we shouldn’t rule out any of these thirty, because the Copperhead course at Innisbrook Golf Resort negates advantages and catapults the enlightened in a flash.
– Just ask Echavarría, who has climbed to the lead coming from far behind with a card of 66 strokes. Or Justin Thomas (-5), who has given himself a precious chance of victory when he was no longer counted on after signing the best card of the day, a 65, which is a small miracle on this course. Today, it’s true, better scores have been seen because the wind hasn’t been an ally of the course, but the Copperhead doesn’t need much help to mess with those who lose focus. The Korean An (-4), for example, who was playing brilliantly today and had reached the tournament lead, finished with five bogeys in his last six holes…
– Hovland has taken another step forward in his rehabilitation. The Norwegian has been reliable from the tee and only made one bogey, which came after missing a very short putt. He hasn’t won for more than a year and a half, just the time he has spent reviewing his swing from top to bottom, a task he started right after winning the 2023 FedEx Cup and the Ryder in Rome a few weeks later. One starts by looking for the key to open the room of the world throne and ends up retracing steps in search of the lost path. That’s where the Nordic is. He needs to finish on Sunday, the most complicated part, without a doubt.
– Who is not going to fully rehabilitate is Xander Schauffele (PAR), who today went out with more than real chances of getting into the last matches, even reaching the lead, but has lost 35 places on the board after delivering an ugly 75. The Californian lost the thread at the start of the round and never managed to find it.
– The matter is about rehabilitations. Jordan Spieth (-3) hasn’t won for almost three years (the same time as Thomas, by the way, give or take a week) and this week he’s going back and forth, alternating wonders with some major errors. But the fact is that tomorrow he goes out four strokes behind and this guy is unpredictable. It doesn’t seem like a good idea to bet on a victory for the Texan, to be honest, but someday he will return, and it might happen when we least expect it…
– Jacob Bridgeman, one of the co-leaders, doesn’t have much experience (25 years old and 39 tournaments on the PGA Tour), but it’s not the first time in recent times that he’s been seen doing things very well (he was second in the Cognizant). Today he saved the day and the lead by sinking a huge number of short but delicate putts to save pars here and there. Tomorrow he’s going to need something more because Murphy’s law dictates that two consecutive rounds like this don’t happen, especially not on Sundays when you’re playing for your first victory on the world’s most important circuit.
