Field Level Media’s Golf Glance provides weekly news and storylines from each of the major North American golf tours.
PGA TOUR
LAST TOURNAMENT: The Players Championship (Rory McIlroy)
THIS WEEK: Valspar Championship, March 21-24
Innisbrook Resort (Copperhead), Palm Harbor, Fla. (Par 71, 7,340 yards)
Purse: $6.7 million (Winner: $1.206 million and 500 FedEx Cup points)
Defending champion: Paul Casey
FedEx Cup leader: McIlroy
Television: Thursday-Friday, 2-6 p.m. (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday, 1-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3-6 p.m. (NBC).
This event is the anchor leg of the Florida Swing, with 87 of the 144 players from The Players Championship scheduled to be in the field. … Copperhead has ranked as one of the two toughest par-71 courses among non-majors each of the past six years. … Jim Furyk has made the cut in all nine attempts, with a win in 2010 among five top-15 finishes. … Patrick Reed has made 15 consecutive cuts worldwide and has a 69.625 scoring average on Copperhead over the past four years. … World No. 1 Dustin Johnson, the only player to post four sub-70 rounds at The Players, makes his first appearance since 2010. He missed the cut in both previous attempts. … The three-hole closing stretch is known as “The Snake Pit,” with none of the holes averaging under par since the tournament debuted in ’10.
NEXT WEEK: WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, Austin, Texas; Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship, Dominican Republic
LPGA TOUR
LAST TOURNAMENT: HSBC Women’s World Championship (Sung Hyun Park)
THIS WEEK: Bank of Hope Founders Cup, March 21-24
Wildfire Golf Club, Phoenix (Par 72, 6,656 yards)
Purse: $1.5 million (Winner: $225,000)
Defending champion: Inbee Park
CME Globe leader: Nelly Korda
Television: Thursday-Sunday, 6-9 p.m. ET (Golf Channel)
South Koreans have won three of the first five tournaments of 2019 (Eun-Hee Ji, Amy Yang, Sung Hyun Park). … Korda leads the Tour with four top-10 finishes. She also leads the official money list ($380,493) as well as the U.S. Solheim Cup Team Standings with 347 points. … The average age of winners this year is 26.2. … Inbee Park is one of six former event champions in the field. … South Korea’s Sei Young Kim holds the tournament scoring record of 261 set in 2016.
NEXT WEEK: Kia Classic, Carlsbad, Calif.
CHAMPIONS TOUR
LAST TOURNAMENT: Hoag Classic (Kirk Triplett)
THIS WEEK: OFF.
NEXT TOURNAMENT: Rapiscan Systems Classic, Biloxi, Miss., March 29-31
–Derek Harper (@DerekAHarper), Field Level Media
