Monday Qualifiers: Valspar Championship

Former PGA TOUR winner Brendon Todd and former Illinois star Charlie Danielson shared medalist honors at the Monday qualifier for this week’s Valspar Championship. Todd and Danielson shot 66 at Southern Hills Plantation in Brooksville, Florida. They finished one shot ahead of Steve Wheatcroft and two shots ahead of Keith Mitchell, who grabbed the final spot in a 5-for-1 playoff. Todd won the 2014 AT&T Byron Nelson and finished 27th in that season’s FedExCup to qualify for his first TOUR Championship. He has missed 27 of his past 30 cuts on TOUR, though, and finished 212th in last season’s FedExCup. Danielson, 23, turned pro last year after being a four-time All-American at Illinois, where he was teammates with Thomas Pieters, who went 4-1-0 for Europe at last year’s Ryder Cup. Pieters, No. 29 in the Official World Golf Ranking, recently finished second at the Genesis Open and fifth at the WGC-Mexico Championship. Wheatcroft, 39, is the first player this season to qualify for multiple events. He missed the cut after qualifying for the Famers Insurance Open. He is 184th in the FedExCup after making the cut in two of three starts this season. His best finish in 137 TOUR starts is second at the 2015 CareerBuilder Challenge. Mitchell, 25, will be making his PGA TOUR debut. He is 21st on this season’s Web.com Tour money list after finishing T5 at the Panama Claro Championship. He finished 70th on the money list in 2016, his first season on the circuit. Will Mackenzie, who finished fourth at the 2014 Valspar Championship, Robby Shelton, Chase Seiffert and Jack Maguire also shot 68 on Monday, but lost to Mitchell in the playoff. 2016-17 Monday qualifiers Qualifiers: 39 Made cut: 9 (23.1%) Top-25s: 2 Top-10s: 0 Best finish: T13, Oscar Fraustro at OHL Classic at Mayakoba The Honda Classic qualifiers MC. Ryan Armour, 72-69 MC. Joey Garber, 67-77 MC. Brett Drewitt, 72-73 MC. Stephen Gangluff, 75-72

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