Seeking Status: Valspar packs a better-than-average PGA Tour field.

This week's Valspar Championship boasts a sneaky good field, with Jordan Spieth and Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas topping the reconizable banner, but with Shane Lowry, Tommy Fleetwood, Sahith Theegala, Sepp Straka, Will Zalatoris and Viktor Hovland to contend with, the winner is going have to bring some game.  

Amazing how small a purse professional golfers will play for when they don't have to travel.

We're going to give Xander Schauffele another week to get his golfing legs under him after he made the cut last week at the Players but did not beat another golfer who played four days, finishing The PGA Tour's biggest event with rounds of 77-81. 

And it still feels as if at any moment, even though he continues to struggle, Viktor Hovland could regain the form he displayed at the end of the 2023 season, when he was the best player in the world long enough to win that year's season-ending Tour Championship.  

A year ago, 92 of the 152 players in the Valspar field played in The Players the previous week, and at Valspar 20 of the top 25 finishers, 7 of the top 10, and 4 of the top 5 finishers, came out of that group. So, we move to the 13th event on the 2025 PGA schedule, concentrating on that group this year in hopes of identifying Valspar's 2025 champion.

Last week's scorecard:

Player to beat: Scottie Scheffler (T20).

Genuine contenders: Ludvig Aberg (Missed cut), Hideki Matsuyama (Missed cut), Rory McIlroy (WINNER), Justin Thomas (T33).

Have played well enough in 2025 a win would not surprise: Jason Day (Withdrew - illness), Sepp Straka (T14), Shane Lowry (T20).

Have been sneaky good: Si Woo Kim (T38), Tommy Fleetwood (T14).

Longshot: Bob MacIntyre (9th).

This Week's Player to Beat: Justin Thomas.

It feels as if it's just a matter of time before Justin Thomas wins again. He comes off a Players where he shot a 10-under-par, second-round 62 to make the cut by four shots after an opening-round 78 in which he played the first 16 holes in 8-over-par. Of course he was not happy with his 73-73 weekend finish, but playing 20 holes in 12-under-par over Pete Dye's TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course on Thursday-Friday tells the former No. 1 player in the world now ranked 10th can still do things on a golf course other players can not.

Expect to be contention: Tommy Fleetwood, Will Zalatoris, Shane Lowry. 

Tommy Fleetwood is an elite world-class golfer who has finished in the top-5 in a major championship seven times, but will he ever win a tournament on the PGA Tour? This week's Valspar will be his 150th try at raising a trophy having gone 0-for until this point. 

In 19 PGA Tour starts since last March - all Signature events or major championships, he's finished T26 or better 15 times, with a T3 in last year's Masters topping his efforts. In four Signature-event starts this year he has yet to finish worse than T22, and he comes off a T14 at The Players in which he carded just 10 bogeys and one double. 

Will Zalatoris has quietly played a nice 2025, and had reached the top of the leaderboard at The Players after 13 holes on Saturday only to until to come apart with a quadruple bogey - his first-ever in a PGA Tour event - followed by double bogeys on two of the next three holes. 

Zalatoris has made the cut in all six of his 2025 events, and had finished no worse than T26 before falling off to a T30 at The Players.

Shane Lowry arrives off a T20 at the Players, with a 7th-place finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and a 2nd-place finish to Rory McIlroy at Pebble Beach on his season's record. The 2019 Open Champion has reached a level of golf only a few players in this field has experienced.  

We'd be more enthusiastic about the 37-year-old Irish European Ryder Cupper who's currently ranked No. 15 in the world, however, he has just two PGA Tour wins aside from last year's Zurich Classic team win with Rory McIlroy. The first of those wins came in 2015, the second was his major championship in 2019. 

No surprise if one of these guys win: Jake Knapp, Aaron Rai, Corey Conners. 

Jake Knapp took another step forward in his brief PGA Tour career with a T12 at the Players featuring a 69-68 in the opening two rounds. He made only seven bogeys last week and it wasn't until a double on the 15th hole Sunday that he fell out of the top-10. 

Knapp finished T6 after an opening-round 59 at the Cognizant two weeks earlier, and has a T17 at the Genesis on his 2025 resume. A winner last year at the Mexico Open, Knapp gives off the feeling he will find a field soon that he will beat.  

Corey Conners has quietly posted three top-7 finishes in 2025, putting him eighth on the current FedExCup standings, and comes into Valspar off a T6 at the Players, also boasting a 3rd-place podium at the API and a T5 at The Sentry back in January. 

But Conners has only won twice in 192 PGA Tour starts, with both victories coming at the Valero Texas Open (2019, 2023). 

Don't forget about these guys: Sepp Straka, Sahith Theegala. 

Sepp Straka comes off another strong performance, finishing T14 at the Players. Sepp has played four non-Signature events in 2025, and has a win, two top-15s and a T30 finish to his credit. Adding a T5, a T7 and a T15 in four Signature-event starts makes him a strong contender here. 

Sahith Theegala has floated through the first three months of 2025, making 6 of 7 cuts, but with a T17 at the Genesis at Torrey Pines his best finish. Against this field he'd have to step up his recent game to contend on Sunday.

This week's longshot: Nicolai Hojgaard.

Nicolai Hojgaard missed the cut at the Players, but posted a T18 at the Cognizant Classic and an 8th-place finish in Mexico after opening his U.S. season with a T36 in Phoenix. The European Ryder Cupper who beat Rory McIlroy in the 2023 DP World Championship tournament can hang with this field. 

One Name still worth watching: Jordan Spieth

Jordan Spieth has played two non-Signature events in 2025, and has a T4 (in Phoenix) and a T9 (Cognizant) to show for it. His crazy 2-under 70 in the Players' first round featuring two eagles, three birdies, three bogies and a double is worth a look at the scorecard. In all, Spieth carded 14 bogeys and three doubles at TPC Sawgrass, so he'll need to sharpen things up in order to contend here.