No winner of the Valspar Championship has ever successful defended his title since the tournament’s inception in 2000. It’s a fact that on its surface seems both surprising and yet not that outlandish. Winning a golf tournament on the PGA Tour is tricky business. So winning it in back-to-back is no small feat. Yet there are just two other official stroke-play stop on tour that’s been around for at least 20 years that hasn’t had a repeat winner (the Players and the Tour Championship).
This is the challenge that faces Paul Casey on Sunday at Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead Course outside of Tampa on Florida’s West Coast. The Englishman began the Sunday with a one-stroke lead on Dustin Johnson. It’s the sixth time he’s held a lead (or a share of it) entering the final round in his tour career, but he’s only closed things out once (2009 Shell Houston Open) . And despite winning 13 times on the European Tour, he’s got just two PGA Tour titles to his credit.
Should Casey pull out the win, he’ll be rewarded nicely. The purse this week is at the Valspar is $6.7 million, with the winner grabbing $1.206 million for his efforts.
Meanwhile, here’s how much money was each golfer who played all four round at the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort.
Win: $1,206,000
2: $723,600
3: $455,600
4: $321,600
5: $268,000
6: $241,200
7: $224,450
8: $207,700
9: $194,300
10: $180,900
11: $167,500
12: $154,100
13: $140,700
14: $127,300
15: $120,600
16: $113,900
17: $107,200
18: $100,500
19: $93,800
20: $87,100
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21: $80,400
22: $75,040
23: $69,680
24: $64,320
25: $58,960
26: $53,600
27: $51,590
28: $49,580
29: $47,570
30: $45,560
31: $43,559
32: $41,540
33: $39,530
34: $37,855
35: $36,180
36: $34,505
37: $32,830
38: $31,490
39: $30,150
40: $28,810
41: $27,470
42: $26,130
43: $24,790
44: $23,450
45: $22,110
46: $20,770
47: $19,430
48: $18,358
49: $17,420
50: $16,884
51: $16,482
52: $16,080
53: $15,812
54: $15,544
55: $15,410
56: $15,276
57: $15,142
58: $15,008
59: $14,874
60: $14,740
61: $14,606
62: $14,472
63: $14,338
64: $14,204
65: $14,070
66: $13,936
67: $13,802
68: $13,668
69: $13,534
70: $13,400