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When the Charles Schwab Challenge begins
Thursday at the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, it
will have been 91 days since The Players Championship was
canceled due to the coronavirus. The return of the UFC followed
by NASCAR gave eager bettors live sports to wager on, but
sportsbooks are anticipating potential record action around the
return of the PGA Tour.
"Golf is really popular with our bettors, as we saw with The
Match 2 being the highest handle event outside a major in the
U.S.," said Mattias Stetz, the COO of Rush Street Interactive,
which operates BetRivers.com and PlaySugarHouse.com. "We are
looking forward to this weekend's event and expect the four days
to beat the handle of any previous golf event, including any of
the majors."
World No. 1 Rory McIlroy is the moneyline favorite at +800 at
PlaySugarHouse and +850 at DraftKings. Some books are offering
him as low as +750. It comes as no surprise, with the Northern
Irishman posting seven consecutive top-five finishes and 10 in
his previous 11 events before the hiatus.
He'll be paired for the first two rounds with No. 2 Jon Rahm and
No. 3 Brooks Koepka. Rahm has a pair of top-five finishes in
three previous starts at Colonial to go along with two wins, two
runner-up results and three other top-10 finishes in his past
eight worldwide starts. The Spaniard is +1100 at PlaySugarHouse
and +1150 at DraftKings and is the second moneyline favorite at
most books.
Koepka is far more polarizing, which has captured the attention
of bettors.
The four-time major winner has yet to regain his form following
knee surgery last fall. He has a lone top-20 finish since last
year's Tour Championship, and that was a tie for 17th in Saudi
Arabia.
Koepka is +2200 at PlaySugarHouse and +2500 at DraftKings.
Bettors have flocked to take a flier on those odds, with Koepka
surging ahead of McIlroy on Wednesday with 9 percent of the
outright-winner handle at DraftKings. McIlroy still led the way
with 7 percent of the total bets, but Koepka was right behind at
6 percent.
So, too, were Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth. Thomas (+1600 and
+1650) is ranked fourth in the world, second in the FedEx Cup
standings and has a pair of victories this season.
Spieth?
The three-time major champion hasn't won since 2017, has fallen
to 56th in the world rankings and has only two more top 10
finishes (11) than missed cuts (nine) since the start of 2018.
However, Spieth, the 2016 champion at Colonial, is a Texas
native -- and he is being offered at +4300 by DraftKings, which
led to him being responsible for 7 percent of the handle as of
Wednesday. He also led the field with 10 percent of the handle
and 6 percent of the bets on who will lead after the first
round. DraftKings is offering Spieth at +5000 on the prop bet,
with the second most popular being Ryan Palmer (+6000), one of
only two players to post four rounds in the 60s at Colonial last
year.
Rahm had drawn only 4 percent of the moneyline bets, but he's
popular on the prop market.
DraftKings is offering him at +105 to finish ahead of McIlroy
(-110). The book also boosted odds of Rahm, Koepka and Rickie
Fowler each hitting the first fairway from +500 to +545.
Not to be forgotten is Sungjae Im. The South Korean earned his
first PGA Tour win earlier this year and backed it up with a
solo third before the hiatus. Im, the reigning Rookie of the
Year and FedEx Cup leader, is +3300 at PlaySugarHouse and +3500
at DraftKings.
--Field Level Media
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