Valspar Championship 2026: Model forecasts shocking leaderboard, Cantlay fade

SportsLine’s projection model simulated the 2026 Valspar Championship at Innisbrook 10,000 times and yields a surprising leaderboard: Cantlay, despite being among the favorites, barely cracks the top 10 and is a fade, while Jacob Bridgeman pops up as a +2000 longshot and two other +3000+ players are forecast to surge. Xander Schauffele is the +1100 favorite with Matt Fitzpatrick (+1300), Viktor Hovland (+1700), and Akshay Bhatia (+1900) also listed. The piece notes the model’s history of Major success and urges readers to join SportsLine to see the full model-generated leaderboard and picks.