How To Bet On Pga Tour

The interest in golf betting on the PGA Tour continues to grow. And for the bigger events like this week’s THE PLAYERS Championship, and majors – starting with next months Masters – wagering action reaches peak levels as the stakes intensify.

THE PLAYERS Championship was canceled last year after one round due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hideki Matsuyama had been the leader after tying the course record with a 63. In 2019, RoryMcIlroy took the title and the $2.25 million top prize. The purse has increased since then to the highest on tour, other than the Tour Championship finale in the FedExCup.

The iconic TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida has hosted the event since 1982, and is also the home of the PGA Tour headquarters.

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THE PLAYERS Championship odds

Dustin Johnson unsurprisingly opened the week as the favorite at top US sportsbooks. DJ was +1200 at DraftKings as of Monday morning. He was followed on the odds board by Bryson DeChambeau (+1500), Rory McIlroy (1600), Jon Rahm (+1600) and Xander Schauffele (+2000).

How To Bet On Pga Tour Tickets

View all the odds for The PLAYERS Championship at top US Sportsbooks like DraftKings Sportsbook, FanDuel Sportsbook and PointsBet.

Notable players in the field

A total of 154 players representing 25 countries and territories will compete for the huge $15 million purse and $2.75 million first place prize.

How strong is the 2021 field? There will be 113 PGA Tour winners teeing it up at TPC Sawgrass. That’s tied for most of any tournament since the 2000 RBC Heritage. In total, 49 of the top 50 players in the Official World Golf Rankings, and 29 of the top 30 in the current FedExCup Standings will shoot for THE PLAYERS Championship title at TPC Sawgrass.

Top golfers in THE PLAYERS Championship

• Dustin Johnson (No. 1)
• Jon Rahm (2)
• Justin Thomas (3)
• Collin Morikawa (4)
• Xander Schauffele (5)
• Tyrrell Hatton (6)
• Patrick Cantlay (7)
• Rory McIlroy (8)
• Patrick Reed (9)
• Webb Simpson (10)
• Bryson DeChambeau (11)
• Viktor Hovland (13)
• Tony Finau (14)
• Daniel Berger (15)
• Matthew Fitzpatrick (16)
• Sungjae Im (17)
• Paul Casey (18)
• Harris English (19)
• Tommy Fleetwood (21)
• Louis Oosthuizen (22)
• Hideki Matsuyama (23)
• Adam Scott (24)
• Kevin Na (25)
• Ryan Palmer (26)
• Cameron Smith (27)
• Abraham Ancer (28)
• Joaquin Niemann (29)
• Scottie Scheffler (30)
• Jason Kokrak (31)
• Billy Horschel (32)
• Victor Perez (33)
• Kevin Kisner (34)
• Marc Leishman (35)
• Justin Rose (36)
• Christiaan Bezuidenhout (37)
• Max Homa (38)
• Lee Westwood (39)
• Shane Lowry (40)
• Sergio Garcia (41)
• Bernd Wiesberger (42)
• Robert MacIntyre (43)
• Carlos Ortiz (44)
• Gary Woodland (45)
• Jason Day (46)
• Will Zalatoris (47)
• Brendon Todd (48)
• Matt Kuchar (49)
• Lanto Griffin (50)

Other notable players include world No. 51 Mackenzie Hughes, 2017 PLAYERS Championship winner Si Woo Kim, 2015 PLAYERS Championship winner Rickie Fowler, Bubba Watson, Russell Henley, Jordan Spieth, Henrik Stenson, 2007 PLAYERS Championship winner Phil Mickelson, and other players moving up in the current FedExCup Standings: Stewart Cink, Sam Burns, Peter Malnati, Hudson Swafford, Martin Laird, Brian Gay, Branden Grace and Wyndham Clark.

No Englishman has ever won The PLAYERS Championship. The top English players that will shoot to end that streak in 2021 include: Tyrrell Hatton, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Paul Casey, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, IanPoulter and last week’s third round leader at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, 47-year-old LeeWestwood.

Recent THE PLAYERS Championship winners and runner-ups:

• 2019 – Rory McIlroy (-16), Jim Furyk
• 2018 – Webb Simpson (-18), Xander Schauffele, Jimmy Walker, Charl Schwartzel
• 2017 – Si Woo Kim (-10), Louis Oosthuizen, Ian Poulter
• 2016 – Jason Day (-15), Kevin Chappell
• 2015 – Rickie Fowler (-12), Sergio Garcia, Kevin Kisner

In the last event in 2019, Rory McIlroy won by 1-stroke, and 19 players shot 10-under par or better.

Top finishers from 2019 returning in 2021:

• Rory McIlroy (Win)
• Jhonattan Vegas (T3)
• Dustin Johnson (T5)
• Tommy Fleetwood (T5)
• Brandt Snedeker (T5)
• Hideki Matsuyama (T8)
• Jason Day (T8)
• Justin Rose (T8)
• Brian Harman (T8)
• Jon Rahm (T12)
• Abraham Ancer (T12)
• Adam Scott (T12)
• Joel Dahmen (T12)

Tommy Fleetwood and Jason Day also finished top 10 in the 2018 event.

Course and tournament information

• Course: TPC Sawgrass (Stadium)
• Location: Ponte Vedra Beach, FL
• Date: March 11-14
• Par: 72 / Yardage 7,189
• Purse: $15 Million / Winner $2.5 M
• Fairways/Rough: Bermudagrass
• Greens: : Bermudagrass
• TV/Online: Golf Channel, NBC (Sat/Sun), PGA Tour Live
• Twitter & Hashtag: @THEPLAYERSChamp
• Defending Champion: Rory McIlroy (2019)

The Stadium Course at Sawgrass is one of the most mentally challenging in the world. So many superlatives are bestowed upon TPC Sawgrass, and the Pete Dye design challenges all players without favoring a single style of play. The course was redesigned in 2017 and now features pure TifEagle Bermudagrass on the putting surfaces. Moving the event to March provides softer conditions and more lush rough. Water looms and becomes a hazard on no less than 12 holes with the short signature hole and world famous island par 3 at the 17th one of the most recognized in the world. The closing stretch concludes with three of the toughest par 4 scoring holes at 14, 15 and the finishing hole at 18 – which is annually the most difficult with water lining the entire left side.

The big bombers hold little advantage on the Stadium Course at Sawgrass, where accuracy off the tee and precision iron play is required. Controlled power and placement is advantageous however, as a variety of shots are needed to navigate the 7,189 yard Par 72 layout. Small greens by PGA Tour standards require placement on approach and are now even more pure for putting.

Harbour Town and TPC River Highlands are two other Pete Dye designed courses to navigate in your research of player performances.

Key stats

Course management is critical, as is precision Ball Striking and Approach play with the ability to chip, scramble and score all part of the process when researching strokes gained stats. Arriving with your golf game in good shape is particularly important this week.

In 2019, THE PLAYERS Championship winner Rory McIlroy led the field in strokes-gained off-the-tee. Yet short-hitting but accurate runner-up Jim Furyk outscored McIlroy across the 16 par-5s. Those two players are most diametrically opposed, yet Sawgrass allows golfers with different styles to showcase their skills against the strongest, world class field.

Strokes Gained: Approach leaders in this field over their last 24 rounds, according to research and stats from Fantasy National:

1. Hideki Matsuyama
2. Justin Thomas
3. Jason Kokrak
4. Sergio Garcia
5. Keegan Bradley
6. Talor Gooch
7. Gary Woodland
8. Webb Simpson
9. Dustin Johnson
10. Paul Casey

How To Bet On Pga Tour Packages

Next: Cameron Smith, Henrik Stenson, Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy, Sungjae Im, Patrick Cantlay

Strokes Gained – Ball Striking:

1. Rory McIlroy
2. Hideki Matsuyama
3. Jason Kokrak
4. Justin Thomas
5. Gary Woodland
6. Dustin Johnson
7. Keegan Bradley
8. Patrick Cantlay
9. Keith Mitchell
10. Sergio Garcia

Next: Paul Casey, Luke List, Xander Schauffele, Sungjae Im

Other stats to evaluate include Bogey Avoidance and SG: Tee-to-Green, which over the last 24 rounds is led by McIlroy, Matsuyama, Thomas, Kokrak and world No. 1 Dustin Johnson.

Following THE PLAYERS Championship, the PGA Tour heads down the South coast on I-95 to PGA National for the Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

The PGA Tour is here, and with it an array of betting opportunities as wide as the Golden Gate Bridge. With 156 players in the field and four days of competition over 18 holes at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, your options for laying down a wager or two run the gamut from near-certainty to longest of long shots. Whether you’ve been gambling since the days of Arnie and Jack, or you just want to dip your toe in the world of golf betting, we’ve got you covered.

What are the best tips for betting on golf?

We’re not in the days of Tiger Woods circa 2000 anymore. Picking a winner from a field as crowded as this one is incredibly difficult. There’s a reason even the favorites are 10/1 odds — at this point in golf history, there are a good two dozen players who could step up and win a major and it wouldn’t be too much of a shock.

Odds for players to win are expressed in a moneyline: Brooks Koepka and Justin Thomas are co-favorites at +1000, meaning you’d bet $100 to win $1,000. Other favorites include Rory McIlroy (+1400), Jon Rahm (+1500), and the Golf Hulk, Bryson DeChambeau, at +1800. (All lines via BetMGM.)

With odds like that, it’s obvious that picking a winner before the tournament even tees off is a bit of a dart toss. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to improve your odds of winning.

“If you’re just going to bet on someone to win the tournament, it’s really hard to do that on Thursday,” says Christian Cipollini, a sports trader with BetMGM. “If you wait until past Friday, your odds will be much better. It’s better to look at who makes the cut, head-to-head matchups, the leader after Day 1, bets like that.”

What are the different options available for bets?

In golf, unlike head-to-head sports, winning isn’t the only thing. You can find some much more reasonable odds if you start looking at whether a given player will finish in the Top 5, rather than win outright. JT (+225) and Koepka (+240), among others, come in with odds four times better than their winning chances here. Your money gets even safer if you give the players a top-20 cushion; you’d have to bet $200 to win $100 on the prospect of Justin Thomas (-200) finishing in the top 20.

Head-to-head bets are a quick and easy way of sizing up two players against one another. Want to see who really owns the Koepka-DeChambeau rivalry? Like to take another crack at Tiger Woods vs. Phil Mickelson? Head-to-head matchups, particularly when the two players are in a featured group, lock you into the action on a shot-by-shot basis, and it’s even more fun when the pairing is grouped together or in one of the featured groups for television.

What can you bet on Tiger Woods?

Tiger Woods has played only one true tournament since the quarantine lockdown; The Match 2.0 with Phil Mickelson, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady doesn’t count. He finished tied for 40th at the Memorial, a finish that doesn’t inspire much confidence. He claims to be ready to go, but then he always says that. He comes in at +3000, but his true odds are worse than that.

“People always bet on Tiger,” Cipollini says. “Realistically, he’s more middle-of-the-pack. With bigger names, people bet on them no matter if they’re playing well.”

That said, BetMGM has an entire slate of Tiger Woods specials if you want to bet on Big Cat to do something other than win. For instance, you can gamble on Tiger to have a bogey-free round (+500), to card a hole-in-one (+8000), or make an eagle (+300), in addition to the standard Top 5/Top 10/Top 20 bets. And if you’re feeling especially bold, gamble on Tiger leading all four rounds and winning (+15000). It won’t happen, but if it does, you’ll be even happier than Tiger himself.

Who are the sleepers?

When no one’s a favorite, everyone’s a sleeper. “We haven’t taken too many big bets on long shots,” Cipollini says.

That said, he recommends you take a look at players who have won on the big stage in the past. He points to past major winners like Justin Rose, Jason Day and Bubba Watson as players who don’t carry quite the same cachet they did a few years back, but could still step up to win. As for first-time major winners, Cipollini has his eye on Ian Poulter, well known for Ryder Cup heroics, and Matthew Fitzpatrick, who’s coming in hot with two top-six finishes, as good options.

And then there’s Phil Mickelson. “Phil’s a great example [of a sleeper bet],” Cipollini says. “We all know Phil could easily take it on and win. He’s done it in the past.”

What are some other special bets?

Think this tournament’s going to be a blowout? Go for a winning margin of four strokes or more (+450). Go the other way and bet on a playoff at +350. Think the fog of TPC Harding Park will tamp down scores? Gamble that the winning score will be 270 (10 under par) or higher, a straight 1:1 bet at 100.

You can also bet on whether the winner will be American (-200), whether the winner will birdie the final hole (+600), and whether we’ll have a wire-to-wire winner (+1400). The options are limited only by your imagination … and your bankroll, of course.

There won’t be a gallery. What effect will that have on players?

We’re in uncharted territory here with the lack of fans. There won’t be the traditional Tiger Roar on Sunday afternoon; players won’t be able to ride the wave of a gallery’s cheers, or tighten up trying to make a crucial 6-foot putt with thousands of eyes on them. Will that have an effect on odds?

“So far we haven’t noticed much of an effect,” Cipollini says. “We can attribute bad play to bad golf right now. Maybe with a little more info, we can say that a certain player is better without a crowd, or way worse without a crowd.”

It’s something of an irony, then, that the sport where fans can get the closest sees less of an impact without those fans in attendance. “It’s a little different in golf than in basketball or football,” Cipollini says. “Momentum and the energy of the crowd can have an impact on the odds in those sports, not as much in golf.”

How To Get On Pga Tour

The PGA Championship tees off Thursday. Get out there and get your piece of the action!

How To Bet On Pga Tour 2019

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter at @jaybusbee or contact him with tips and story ideas at jay.busbee@yahoo.com.

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