Valspar Championship Recap: Hadwin’s First Tour Win

Adam Hadwin is a terrific golfer but not exactly a bolt of lightning on the course or off it. He's a Canadian who's more into baseball than hockey. When David Feherty asked him what his favorite drink was, he said "water." And when he proposed to his girlfriend, he did it via a game of Hangman. Wacky stuff, right?

Hadwin does have the perfect temperament for the treacherous Copperhead golf course, however. The soon-to-be married native of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, played steady, near-flawless golf there all week to win the Valspar Championship by one stroke on Sunday for his first career PGA Tour title.

On a course where trouble lurks at almost every turn, Hadwin bogeyed only six holes in four rounds for a 14-under 280 score. That steadiness, plus being one of the top putters on Tour, is why we tagged Hadwin as a long-shot pick in the RotoWire value picks. At the bargain-basement DraftKings price of $6,800, he broke the recent string of big-name champions.

Hadwin played pretty much as we expected – with boring consistency. He was fifth in greens in regulation, fifth in proximity to the hole, seventh in scrambling and fourth in strokes gained putting. He's now third on Tour in SGP for the season.

Even after there was a momentary lapse of that consistency at the most inopportune time – Hadwin doubled the 16th hole to slip into a tie with Patrick Cantlay – he righted himself with two closing pars. Cantlay couldn't keep up, bogeying 18 to end it.

Copperhead is always among the toughest tracks on the PGA Tour and this year was no different, currently the third hardest played this season. It was a far cry from earlier this year when Hadwin put himself on the map, shooting a 59 at the CareerBuilder birdie-fest.

The victory moved Hadwin to No. 51 in the world and qualified him for a boatload of big-name tournaments, including the Masters. Hadwin had planned to be on his honeymoon in Tahiti that week, not expecting to make it to Augusta this year. He also just qualified for the WGC-Match Play in two weeks, but that's when he's getting married, so he bagged it.

But first, Hadwin will play this week at Bay Hill and, while we think he's a good fit for the course, he'll probably be answering congratulatory texts for days, and it will be tough to come back to earth so quickly after a life-altering moment. We'll avoid Hadwin this week.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Patrick Cantlay

Cantlay was almost as big a winner as Hadwin, even though he didn't feel like one. Once the top amateur in the world, Cantlay was playing in just his second event since missing more than two years with a career-threatening back injury. He earned enough to secure his card for the rest of the season, and it sure seems as if Cantlay is primed for big things. The former UCLA star combined driving distance (15th in the field) with accuracy (ninth), plus he was first in GIR.

Jim Herman

Herman opened with a 9-under 62 but he could shave only three more strokes from par all week to leave him tied for third. Herman is a golfer in the mold of Hadwin and Cantlay in that he doesn't make many mistakes, plus he finished the week sixth in SGP. That adds up to Herman often being a good DraftKings play at a very affordable price.

Dominic Bozzelli

After the rookie came out of nowhere for a solo fifth at the CareerBuilder, he returned to nowhere with three straight missed cuts. But he tied Herman for third at Copperhead, showing that he's not a one-hit wonder but more likely a young golfer who will experience his share of ups and downs. The fact that Bozzelli did well on a hard course after success on an easy one bodes well.

Tony Finau

A solo fifth moved Finau from 77th in the world to 70th, not quite good enough to get him into the Match Play in two weeks. So he'll proudly return to defend his title at the opposite-field Puerto Rico Open. This was Finau's third top-10 in 2017 alone, and he continues to make strides. One of the game's longest hitters, he was also first in accuracy off the tee, second in GIR and sixth in proximity. If he could've cobbled together any sort of putting game (48th in the field), well, he would've been heading to the Match Play. Heck, he could've won the tournament. On a course where putting doesn't count for as much as it does at Copperhead, Finau will get his second win.

Henrik Stenson

In a pretty weak field, Stenson was the highest-ranked golfer. He had what Gary Koch on NBC called an "off week" with his irons, and he still tied for seventh thanks to being ninth in SGP. Stenson now he heads to Bay Hill, where he has finished top-5 the past three years. There's a good chance Stenson finds his iron game and, if he can hold onto even some of his strong putting, will be a factor on the back nine come Sunday.

Keith Mitchell

Hmmm, who is this guy who tied for 11th and in his first PGA Tour event? Mitchell is in his second year on the Web.com Tour, had two top-10s last year and one already this year. He reached the Valspar field via Monday qualifying. While it was a great accomplishment for Mitchell, yet another golfer out of the University of Georgia, he has no playing privileges so who knows when we'll see him again.

Kyle Stanley

We've liked Stanley all season and he continues to pay dividends, tying for 27th. Normally in the $6,000s he was at $7,000 for the Valspar, and that's still an excellent return. His numbers are outstanding: fourth on Tour in strokes gained off the tee, sixth in both greens in regulation and proximity to the hole and 19th in scoring average. There's a real good chance we'll be repeating those numbers when we list Stanley as a DraftKings value pick for Bay Hill.

Justin Thomas

Thomas is No. 7 in the rankings and of course among the world's best. It's just a question of how many golfers you want to include in "among." We haven't been as high on Thomas as others, and in last week's value picks we said to steer clear of him at Copperhead. He missed the cut. It's our take that Thomas won three times by doing well on easier courses with weaker fields. Winning three times in a matter of months surely is a remarkable accomplishment. We just think there are more than six golfers better than the No. 7-ranked guy.

Martin Laird

Laird was 8-for-8 in cuts on the season with a number of good finishes at the Valspar so, naturally, he trunk-slammed, missing the weekend by three strokes. It happens, it's golf. He was $7,400 and a good play at that price. We aren't down on Laird and will be looking at him closely for this week at Bay Hill.

RotoWire value picks

Last week: Winner (Johnson), four top-10s, seven top-25s, one WD.

This week: Winner (Hadwin), three top-10s, seven top-25s, six missed cuts.

We said this was a great week to go with a balanced lineup and avoid the high-priced guys. If only we took our own advice a bit better. In Tier 1, Stenson's T7 worked out well. Ryan Moore was a so-so T18 while Charles Howell (T49) and Bill Haas (T41) were disappointments. In Tier 2, Jason Dufner's T11 was the highlight and Graham DeLaet rallied for a backdoor top-25. But Kevin Na and Luke Donald missed the cut. In Tier 3, Wesley Bryan keeps on keeping on, tying Stenson for seventh, his third straight top-10. Nick Watney, another favorite of ours, tied for 14th. But Laird and Ollie Schniederjans couldn't reach the weekend. Among the long shots, there was of course Hadwin. And also Kyle Stanley. Two terrific results to go with MCs for Chris Kirk and Scott Brown.

We cashed in our DraftKings cash game by finishing 17th out of 57, with a lineup of Howell, Haas, DeLaet, Dufner, Bryan and Laird totaling 362.5 points.