Updated ahead 2026 Valspar Championship ….
The Snake Pit! Three words that may quickly conjure up thoughts of horror, excruciating pain and possibly death.
Though for those enjoying the game of golf the Snake Pit is the famed final three-hole stretch on the Copperhead Course at the Innisbrook Resort that is again proudly playing host to the 2026 $9.1m Valspar Championship at Palm Harbor on the Florida west coast.
The PGA Tour’s Shot Link rate the 16th, 17th and 18th holes at Copperhead the third hardest behind the PGA National Bear Trap on the Tour.
The Bear Trap, and the 15th, 16th and 17th holes, is on the Florida course that hosts the Cognizant Classic (Former Honda Classic), and if you are uncertain how mean is the Bear Trap then politely ask Ireland’s Shane Lowry, who led this year’s tournament by two shots to play but then self-destructed at 16 and 17 to lose the tournament by two.
Bernie getting a real close-up look at the Copperhead snake at the 16th hole of the also named Copperhead course at the Innisbrook Resort. (Where did Bernie get that belt)
In terms of victory at the Valspar and involving the Snake Pit there was 2015 the sight of Jordan Spieth edging aside fellow Texan Patrick Reed as well as Sean O’Hair to gain a playoff victory. Spieth manufactured three incredible par-saves at 16, 17 and 18 to earn the playoff, then buried a 30-footer at 16, the third playoff hole, to seal the win.
Four-time major winning Ernie Els, sadly, authored the signature disaster at the Snake Pit, back in 2012. Els, who had stated a few years earlier that “Copperhead is the best course that the PGA Tour visits in Florida,” had the Valspar Championship in his grasp, until a missed 5-footer at 16, a shoved 4-iron at 17 and a missed par putt at 18 left him one shot shy of the playoff.
So, where does the Snake Pit rate a golfing menace
According to the Tour stat the Snake Pit is the third hardest, averaging at .596 over par with the Green Mile the hardest at around 1.01 over par and the Bear Trap at .803 over par with the Horrible Horseshoe .296 over, and Amen Corner, the 11th, 12th, and 13th at Augusta, supposedly the easiest at .167m.
While the championship course at Innisbrook is named the Copperhead Course, each hole of the Snake Pit is also named after a dangerous snake – the Mocassin is the par-4, 475-yard 16th, the Rattler is the par-3, 215-yard 17th, and finally the Copperhard, and the par-4, 445-yard 18th with menacing bunkers virtually down the entire right side of the hole.
What captures your immediate attention in arriving at the Snake Pit, and the 16th, is the sight of this enormous copperhead snake in a curled-up, ready to strike position, and very much as menacing looking as the snarling grizzly bear on its back feet that welcomes you as you arrive at the par-3 17th at PGA National.
Charles Schwartzel, the 2016 Valspar champion, spoke of the 16th at Copperhead. “The Snake Pit is ready to jump up and bite you right there at 16”, he said. “It’s about avoiding the water down the right, and the trees on the left, really. You can’t bailout. You hit left, and you make bogey anyway. You hit it in the water, you’re going to make probably double.”
In 2019, England’s Paul Casey successfully defended his title, and with the 16th, and the opening hole the Snake Pit played again playing the hardest of the trio.
US Open champ and now LIV Golf star Graeme McDowell first contested the Valspar Championship back in 2016 and took an instant liking to what he saw.
“Having played the Valspar a few times, I don’t think the Snake Pit has as much bite as say the Bear Trap”, said McDowell ahead of the 2016 tournament.
“I actually liked the golf course as the front nine is very much in front of you with big, flat greens whereas the back nine is a little quirkier and with smaller greens, so I liked the course.
“It’s a good track and really suits my eye well. I remember when I first came here a few years back and it was on a Monday following the Honda. I had not played it before but most of the lads out here were saying that I would really like the course and I did.
“So, pleased to be back again this year”.
And now as many of the world’s best get set to tee-up in the 2026 hosting of the Valspar Championship, who is going to tame the Snake Pit and emerge bite free?
