World no. 1 Jason Day stole the spotlight at The Players Championship a week ago with a wire-to-wire victory in which he didn’t allow a single golfer to pull within two strokes of the lead throughout the weekend. Day’s dominance captured the headlines but one of the subplots from the tournament was the struggle of Jordan Spieth, who failed to make the cut at TPC Sawgrass. Spieth is back in action this week looking for a measure of redemption as the PGA Tour shifts to the TPC Four Seasons Resort in Irving, Texas for the AT&T Byron Nelson.
Event Details
Event: AT&T Byron Nelson
Category: PGA
Date: May 19-22
Location: TPC Four Seasons Resort Las Colinas, Irving, Texas
Originally known as the Dallas Open, the tournament’s history dates back to 1944 when the first edition of the event was won by Byron Nelson. The venue for this tournament is far from popular with the majority of the players and that is a big reason why only two of the top-10 in the world will compete in this year’s event. Stephen Bowditch returns as the defending champion after he dominated the final three rounds of last year’s tournament and finished with a ridiculous 18-under score.
Past Five Winners
2015: Steven Bowditch -18
2014: Brendon Todd -14
2013: Sang-Moon Bae -13
2012: Jason Dufner -11
2011: Keegan Bradley -13 (Playoff)
What To Know About The Course
This event is hard to break down with no clear statistical map to figure out how things will play out but we can lean on a couple of numbers to help us figure out how things will play out this weekend. Each of the last three winners have ranked first or second in Putting Average while four of the last five winners have ranked inside the top-15 in Driving Distance. Accuracy off the tee will be important as well with conditions expected to be clear for this week’s tournament.
The Field
The defending champion Bowditch is listed as a ridiculous long shot at +350000 odds and there is no doubt there will be some fans that take a chance on him to surprise the world again and deliver another victory. At the other end of the spectrum is Spieth, who is the betting favorite to win this event outright at +700 odds. Johnson is the only other top-10 player entered in this year’s Byron Nelson at +900 odds followd by Matt Kuchar at +1800, Charley Hoffman at +2000 and Sergio Garcia at +2200 odds.
A Good Matchup To Bet: Dustin Johnson over Zach Johnson
Dustin Johnson has a solid record at TPC Four Seasons with made cuts in each of his six starts here including four top-10 finishes. That includes a T-8th here last year and a T-7th the year before so it only makes sense to think he will be in the mix again this weekend. Meanwhile, Zach Johnson has only played this event once before since it moved to this course and he is coming off a poor finish at The Players Championship where he finished T-54th after a brutal Saturday. Zach Johnson should bounce back with a better performance in a relatively weak field this week but we like D.J. to finish with the better score out of the two at the Byron Nelson.
Top Five Pick: Jordan Spieth
Spieth hadn’t played in a month when he teed up at The Players Championship last week so we can forgive his missed cut as an aberration rather than an indication of what to expect in the Lone Star state this week. Spieth is still the no. 2 player in the world and he delivered a runner-up finish at The Masters in his previous start. He couldn’t get his game on track at TPC Sawgrass but he has made the cut at all five trips to this event and he will be motivated to deliver a better finish than the tournament-best T-16th he posted here in 2010. Spieth will obviously have a lot of eyes on him this week but we expect him to deliver under pressure with a strong performance at his hometown event.
Top 10 Odds To Win AT&T Byron Nelson Championship
Jordan Spieth +705
Dustin Johnson +905
Sergio Garcia +1650
Matt Kuchar +1850
Charley Hoffman +2050
Chal Schwartzel +2550
Louis Oosthuizen +2550
Zach Johnson +2550
Marc Leishman +2850
Brooks Koepka +3250
