Zach Thompson gets you set for the Valspar Championship with his top fantasy golf pivot plays and targets at Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead Course.
The PGA TOUR wraps up its four-week stay in Florida with a visit to the Snake Pit for this week’s Valspar Championship. The Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort is historically the toughest of the four courses in the rotation, and a solid field will take on the challenge this week. Most players are looking to build up to the Masters, less than a month away. DraftKings is ready to tee it up again this week with a wide variety of formats, including some GPP contests with large top prizes. My top three pivot plays for this week’s GPP contests are Jacob Bridgeman ($9,600), Bud Cauley ($7,500) and, Chandler Blanchet ($6,600).
Let’s be sure to define what we’re searching for in this post to be sure we’re all aiming at the same flagstick. A fantasy golf pivot play is a golfer with low expected ownership in tournament formats but high upside. These picks go against the grain and typically come with more risk compared to popular options with similar salaries. In large-field tournaments, it’s important to differentiate your lineup with low-ownership plays like these, even though they are NOT the safest options. These are “grip it and rip it,” boom-or-bust style options that could go off or flame out. Getting players at low ownership is critical for success in GPP tournament-style events with many entries, so making yours stand out is critical. Be sure to check out my companion post to this one that highlights my picks for cash lineups if you’re looking for safer options that raise the overall floor of your lineup.
Let’s break down why I like each of my top three pivot plays this week!
Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $750K Sand Trap [$200K to 1st]
Jacob Bridgeman ($9,600)
The top tier of talent in this tournament is all getting plenty of love with ownership gravitating toward defending champ Viktor Hovland ($10,400), Xander Schauffele ($10,900) and recent winner Akshay Bhatia ($10,000). Even Justin Thomas ($9,500) is getting plenty of buzz after his strong showing so soon after back surgery last week. Bridgeman is getting a little lost in the shuffle at just under $10,000, and he makes a strong option to consider for this tournament.
The 26-year-old Bridgeman has already captured a big win this season and established himself as one of the top emerging players in the next wave. He got that breakthrough win at a Signature Event at The Genesis Invitational. He continued to build on his success with a T18 at Bay Hill and a T5 at TPC Sawgrass the last two weeks.
Bridgeman has been extremely sharp all season, finishing in the top 20 in each of his seven events this season. With his big finish at THE PLAYERS, Bridgeman moved back to the top of the FedExCup Points standings.
Over the last three months, Bridgeman has led the field in Total Strokes Gained, doing most of his best work on the green. With his flat stick heating up on all surfaces, he leads the field in Strokes Gained: Putting over that span.
Even though his big win came in California, Bridgeman’s historic record has been even better in Florida. He finished third in last year’s Valspar Championship after missing the cut in his debut in 2024. Coming back with great momentum, Bridgeman has an extremely high ceiling and can be a solid leverage option if he’s in contention again this week.
Bud Cauley ($7,500)
Last year, Cauley finished just behind Bridgeman at the Valspar, placing T4. The 36-year-old Florida native has been on a solid roll coming back to Copperhead, and he is not getting much attention, despite his affordable salary. Pierceson Coody ($7,700), Austin Smotherman ($7,400) and Mac Meissner ($7,400) are getting much more hype as young players on the rise, but the veteran Cauley has the experience and form to be a solid pivot play this week.
Cauley was involved in a serious car accident in 2018 and has had a long climb back to the PGA TOUR. He had a strong 2025 with four top-10 finishes, including the Valspar. After finishing in the top 50 in the FedExCup playoffs in 2025, he has kept rolling in the early part of 2026. He is still searching for his first top-10 finish, but he posted a strong T18 at the Arnold Palmer and a T32 at THE PLAYERS.
Over the last three months, Cauley ranks in the top 30 in this field in Strokes Gained: Approach and Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green, and he also ranks in the top 20 in the field in Total Strokes Gained. While his putter has held him back, he has the rest of his game tuned up and ready to contend. If he can flip his putter, he could be right back in the mix.
Last year at this event, he finished T4, ranking second in the field in Strokes Gained: Approach for the week. He has the shotmaking to climb the leaderboard if his putter comes along for the ride.
Chandler Blanchet ($6,600)
Of the 133 players in the field, 80 have a salary of $7,000 or below. Almost all the cheap plays come with boom-or-bust upside, but one that stands out with a chance to charge is Chandler Blanchet. The PGA TOUR rookie is making his debut at the Valspar, but the 30-year-old should be familiar with the style of course, since he was born and played his college golf in the Sunshine State.
He missed the cut in each of his first five PGA TOUR events this season, but he got off to a good start in the fifth of those events with a 69, before a Round 2 74 took him just outside the cut at PGA National.
After that near-miss, Blanchet went to Puerto Rico two weeks ago and got off to a flying start with a 64 in Round 1. He led the event at the end of each of the first two rounds, before a rough 74 on Saturday dropped him out of the lead. He rallied on Sunday and posted a 67, finishing second, just one shot behind Ricky Castillo.
Blanchet earned his full-time membership on the PGA TOUR by finishing second in the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour Points List. He won the Price Cutter Charity Championship and the season-ending Korn Ferry Tour Championship. Those were just two of his six top-10 finishes and 14 top-25 finishes. He missed only three cuts, so he has the potential to build on his strong showing in Puerto Rico and put together a strong rookie season despite his slow start.
In Puerto Rico, he led the field in driving accuracy and total birdies, and finished T17 in GIR%. He showed that kind of approach game last year as well, ranking second in GIR% on the Korn Ferry Tour.
That kind of accuracy is needed to take on Copperhead, and Blanchet could vault himself to a strong finish if he can carry over the form he found at the Grand Reserve Golf Club to Innisbrook.