Scottie Scheffler will try to beat the odds this week and become the first player to successfully defend his title at the Tour Championship.
No one else has done it. Not Tiger. Not Phil. Not even Bill Haas.
The bettors have noticed, too, and that definitely affected the odds. Scheffler is currently dominating the sportsbook, just as he has dominated the PGA Tour for a second consecutive season.
There’s a good reason to pick Scheffler, who has continued his hot play in the postseason. He tied for third at the FedEx St. Jude Championship and won the BMW Championship last week.
Scheffler has won five times, including the PGA Championship and The Open Championship, and has finished in the top 10 in 15 of 18 events. He’s done no worse than eighth place since March 30.
“It’s been a nice stretch the last few years, and I’ve done some really good things,” Scheffler said after Sunday’s victory. “That’s not something I think about day-to-day. I try to approach everything week-by-week, and when really boil down it, just day-to-day.”
The Tour Championship begins Thursday at Atlanta’s East Lake Golf Club. This year, the PGA Tour has done away with the “starting strokes” advantage that offered a weighted advantage to the leaders of the FedEx Cup points lists. This year, all 30 players in the field will start at ground level, with the lowest score winning the FedEx Cup and the $10 million prize.
But it won’t be easy to win money by betting on the PGA Tour’s version of Secretariat. The Fan Duel Sportsbook had the Texan listed as plus-150 on Monday morning. That means a $100 wager on Scheffler will pay $150 if he wins.
By contrast, the No. 2 man on the board is Rory McIlroy at +850. The hottest guy moving up the board is Tommy Fleetwood at +1,400, even though he has yet to win a PGA Tour event.
McIlroy, who won the Masters this spring to complete the career Grand Slam, skipped the first playoff event and did not show great form last week when tied for 12th at the BMW Championship. McIlroy said afterward that he was hopeful the familiarity at East Lake would play to his advantage.
“It’s obviously a little different than the three times I won there,” McIlroy said, referring to last year’s redesign. “I felt like the course did play a bit differently, so a bit of work on the course the next few days and hopefully feel a little more comfortable with everything on Thursday afternoon.”
U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun opened at +2,700. Spaun lost in a playoff at the FedEx Cup playoff event in Memphis, his third runner-up finish this season. Spaun finished third in the FedEx Cup points race.
There are four Georgia Bulldogs in the field: Russell Henley (+2,000), Sepp Straka (+3,300), Harris English (+5,000) and Brian Harman (+8,000).
The biggest long shots in the 30-player field are Andrew Novak and Jacob Bridgeman, both at +12,500. Akshay Bhatia, who out-pointed Michael Kim and Rickie Fowler to secure the final spot and make the field for the first time, is on the board at +6,000.
Neil Parker, an analyst at the Covers betting site, admitted Scheffler is the clear favorite. But he listed three solid sleeper picks as Sam Burns (+3,000), two-time major champion Collin Morikawa (+3,000) and Ben Griffin (+4,000).
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