Woods benefiting from ‘subtle tweaks’ after taking share of Valspar lead

Just behind Woods are Jordan Spieth and Jon Rahm at 12-1, Jason Day at 14-1, Rory McIlroy at 16-1 and last week’s WGC-Mexico Championship victor Phil Mickelson at 18-1. Here’s how to watch, and who to back at Innesbrook this week.

Marcellus has been to multiple Valspar Championships. However, Sharma came home in 32 to finish one over par and carried on where he left off on Friday with nine birdies and a solitary bogey, including an 11-shot improvement on the back nine.

After contending in both the Abu Dhabi Championship and the Dubai Desert Classic in his season-opening foray in the Gulf, McIlroy’s endeavours on the PGA Tour have proven to be rather less inspiring and his travails continued in his debut appearance at the Copperhead course at Innisbrook resort in Florida.

Tiger Woods insists golf’s old guard can take huge encouragement from Phil Mickelson’s win at last week’s World Golf Championship. Hadwin also heads into this event in great form, finishing in the top-10 in the Genesis Open and World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship. He also hit nine greens and needed just 25 putts.

After making a lot of unwelcome noise early in his career, the field’s other Rory has been quietly going about his business, with a couple of top 20s among his last four outings.

McIlroy carded three over, seven shots behind Canadian leader Corey Conners.

At the age of 47, Mickelson is playing some of the best golf of his career, with four consecutive top-six finishes. Next week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational is one of the regular season’s most celebrated stops, and The Masters looms as players hope to get their games in shape.

Woods said: “Today was tough”. “Into the wind it felt like you just hit walls and downwind it was you couldn’t pick an angle”.

Mickelson claimed his first title since 2013 when he overcame compatriot and reigning PGA Tour Player of the Year Justin Thomas in a play-off last week. The real reason to consider Streelman this week is his experience at the Copperhead Course, as he won this event back in 2013 and had a top-20 finish previous year. But at this price, Rose is the best bargain among the board’s top tier. Yeah, not anymore. Just 12 rounds into his 2017-18 campaign, Woods is now a 10-1 favorite to win the first major of 2018.

Webb Simpson, a fellow Wake Forest alum, is among those who reached out to him. Ranked 14th for strokes gained total, 6th for strokes gained putting, 8th for scoring average. Very competitive. Have had great years.

Simpson lost his father late previous year and remembers how much it helped to get back inside the ropes.