Valspar Championship: Round 1 Canceled as PGA Tour’s Misery Continues in Palm Harbor

The opening round of the Valspar Championship was postponed to Friday because of a lack of light. At the moment of suspension, Paul Barjon and Kevin Dougherty were yet to complete their rounds. PGA Tour Communications tweeted, “Paul Barjon and Kevin Dougherty are the only players left to complete the first round at the Valspar Championship and will resume at 9:20 a.m. ET. The second round will begin as scheduled at 7:35 a.m. ET.”

Barjon is tied for 72 through 17 holes. Whereas, Dougherty, has one hole left to play and is tied for the 28th spot at 2-under. Dougherty had a 43ft birdie putt ahead of him when the round was canceled. Kevin Streelman leads the first round with 7-under 64, taking a one-shot lead over Kevin Roy, who is playing this week on a sponsor exemption. 

The defending champion, Taylor Moore shot 2-under 69 tying at the 28th spot with Jordan Spieth, who also opened his round 2-under. Xander Schauffele, coming after a gut-wrenching defeat at THE PLAYERS Championship, carded 3-under 68 at the Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead Course and is currently tied at the 13th spot, as is Justin Thomas.

This year, the Valspar field has been expanded to 154 players to offer more spots for Korn Ferry Tour qualifiers, PGA Tour Q-School graduates, and European players, who earned their cards through last year’s Race to Dubai rankings. The 154-man field is also the highest for the Palm Harbor event, which pulled 129,000 spectators last year. It was expected that not everyone could complete their first round, as the Tour has struggled with postponement with a lesser field size in recent times.

Valspar Championship suspension is a repeat of what happened earlier

Bad weather and low light have played the spoilsport this year. The final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am was canceled because of a hailstorm, with Wyndham Clark crowned the champion after the third round. The recently concluded THE PLAYERS Championship, too, was faced with similar problems. The opening round of the ‘fifth major’ was postponed as was the second round. 

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Before that, both Cognizant Classic and Puerto Rico Open were met with similar fates. The former was suspended because of darkness. Whereas, the second round of the latter was pushed to the moving day because of darkness and heavy fog. The Valspar Championship was spared from inclement weather despite a 20% chance of rain in the first round. There is, however, a 72% chance of rain on Friday. Pack your umbrellas if you’re heading early to the Copperhead Course on the cut day.

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