Valspar Championship 2015: Tee times, pairings for Thursday’s round at Innisbrook

The Masters is less than a month away! In just four weeks, players will actually tee it up in a competitive round at Augusta National.

While there are still four events until the season’s first major, the rapidly approaching Masters is already top-of-mind across golf. So what do we do with the intervening tournaments? Well, most players started their Masters prep work a couple weeks ago at the Honda Classic. The Florida swing is the stretch of the schedule where players try to tune-up or maintain whatever they think they need to get around Augusta. It’s the most coveted championship in the game.

The Valspar Championship, the third of four Florida swing events, is another good opportunity for many in the Masters field to get some reps. The Copperhead Course at Innisbrook, just outside Tampa, is generally considered a player’s course. It’s one they enjoy visiting each year and it’s reportedly in perfect condition this week.

The annual stop in Tampa gets far less hype than the other three Florida swing events. It doesn’t have the location advantage of being in Palm Beach like the Honda Classic, where several elite players live down the road. It doesn’t have the free money and world rankings points of the WGC event at Doral. And it doesn’t have the imprimatur of Arnold Palmer that draws the biggest names to Bay Hill for a week.

But despite it’s unfortunate spot on the schedule, the field is still solid enough to pay attention this week. The headliner is probably Adam Scott, who just this week called Copperhead the best course they play in Florida.

That quote is a far cry from some of the fire players, caddies, and media were spitting about the design flaws and playing conditions of Doral last week.

Scott will play with Jordan Spieth and Padraig Harrington, the winner at the Honda two weeks ago. This is no doubt prime Masters prep season for those three, especially Scott and Spieth. They start their week in the morning draw, going off No. 10 at 8:15 a.m. ET.

Spieth and Scott are two who will get lots of love from the cameras all week, but they will be done with their opening round well before Golf Channel goes live with its broadcast at 3 p.m. on Thursday. The big names on the afternoon side of the tee sheet are Justin Rose, Jim Furyk, Luke Donald, Ian Poulter, Matt Kuchar, and Brandt Snedeker, That cluster of tee times should be the focus of the first round coverage on Golf Channel. They tee off in a stretch of groups a little after 1 p.m. ET, so their entire second nine should fall within the coverage window. Here’s the full tee sheet for the first round: