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Golf best bets: Long shots to target for the Valspar Championship
When the putter shows up, Scott Stallings can pop up on the first page of the leaderboard. Ray Acevedo-USA TODAY Sports

Golf best bets: Long shots to target for the Valspar Championship

We had another strong week with our long-shot selections, as Doug Ghim cashed his top-40 (+100) and top-20 (+330) props at The Players Championship. With Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy not in the field for the Valspar Championship, this should be a good week to target underdogs at the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Golf Resort.

Here are the two long shots we're targeting with outright and finishing position bets at the Valspar Championship.

Sam Ryder (+10000 FanDuel)

Sam Ryder is a sneaky good fit for this golf course. Copperhead is a narrow, tree-lined track with small greens, so you need to be accurate off the tee and on approach to avoid dropped shots. Well, Ryder ranks 11th on the PGA Tour this season in driving accuracy and 22nd in proximity to the hole. His best approach distance this year has been 150-200 yards, which is where a majority of iron shots will come from this week. 

It also helps to have a great short game around here, and Ryder has gained strokes around the greens and from putting in back-to-back starts. Ryder is coming off a T16 at The Players Championship in which he set the record for birdies made (27) at TPC Sawgrass, so we're riding the hot hand. 

Top-20 finish: +330
Top-40 finish: +110

Scott Stallings (+30000 FD)

If you center your golf betting on recent form, this won't be the bet for you. Scott Stallings is on a string of four straight missed cuts, and he's lost multiple strokes on the greens in all four events. Through seven starts this season, the American ranks 160th out of 178 players in strokes gained from putting.

When the putter shows up, though, Stallings can pop up on the first page of the leaderboard. The 38-year-old has gained strokes from putting twice in his last 10 starts, and he finished T2 and T25 in those events. We're targeting him this week because he's gained strokes on the greens in three straight starts at Innisbrook, leading to finishes of T9, T26 and T16. 

Stallings is still a solid iron player, so we're expecting a bounce-back performance on these Bermuda greens he loves so much. 

Top-20 finish: +650
Top-40 finish: +210

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