The best in the world have made the trip to Atlanta, Georgia and the East Lake Golf Club for the final event of the PGA Tour season in the TOUR Championship this week. The field has been narrowed down to the top 30 players in FedEx Cup standings with the absolute best competing for their piece of the $8.5 million prize. With so much talent in one place, it could be an unpredictable week as the best in the world vie for a chance to be called tour champion. As they say in sports, this one is for all of the marbles (or at least a very significant portion of them).
Event Details
Event: TOUR Championship
Category: PGA
Date: September 22-25
Location: East Lake Golf Club, Atlanta, Georgia
There will be no cuts this week with all 30 golfers qualified to play the full four rounds, but anybody that is far enough out of the lead to be considered worthy of a cut likely won’t have enough time to turn things around anyways. Jordan Spieth won this tournament a year ago at nine-under, but it might take a better score than that to get the job done this season.
Past Five Winners
2015: Jordan Spieth
2014: Billy Horschel
2013: Henrik Stenson
2012: Brandt Snedeker
2011: Bill Haas
What To Know about The Course
While the last two events suited longer hitters, this week’s tournament will be that much more about Driving Accuracy and making sure you find the fairways on a consistent basis. Jordan Spieth finished outside of the top-10 in Driving Distance a year ago and still won, becoming the fifth winner over the last six years to win despite ranking outside of the top-10 in that department. Meanwhile, Spieth ranked seventh for Driving Accuracy and six of the last seven winners here have ranked inside the top-eight for that stat. Seven of the last 11 winners here have ranked first, second or third in Putting Average so keep that statistic in mind as well heading in to the final event of the season.
The Field
Spieth is the defending champion at this tournament but he won’t be the favorite as he is listed at +800 odds. Dustin Johnson will be the sports betting favorite at +400 odds followed by Rory McIlroy at +600 and then Spieth. Meanwhile, Jason Day and Adam Scott will round out the top-five options on the board in terms of the sports betting odds at +900 and +1000 respectively. With just 30 entrants in the field, there will be those that put some money down on William McGirt or Sean O’Hair as long shots to win at +10000 odds.
A Good Matchup To Bet: Hideki Matsuyama over Patrick Reed
Reed finished 19th here in his debut in 2014 and then finished 27th at this tournament a year ago so his form at this event isn’t exactly off the charts. He is still considered a top-10 pick in terms of the sports betting odds to win this event outright so there is excellent value betting against him with Matsuyama. The 24-year-old Matsuyama finished fourth at the PGA Championship and then third in the Wyndham Championship and while he hasn’t been outstanding in his last two starts he has been extremely consistent throughout this season. We are banking on a bounce back effort this week with Matsuyama beating Reed in the head-to-head sports betting matchup.
Top-Five Pick: Jordan Spieth
Spieth has struggled with consistency throughout this season and that is the biggest reason why he is somewhat flying under the radar heading in to this week’s tournament. Spieth has been considered a disappointment by most but he still has two wins, a runner-up, a third-place finish and eight top-10’s, and he won this event last season. Spieth is still one of the best putters in the world and he is usually extremely accurate off the tee. He might not win this tournament outright for the second year in a row, but Spieth should be a good top-five pick.
The Top 10 Odds To Win The Tour Championship
Dustin Johnson +405
Rory McIlroy +550
Jason Day +905
Jordan Spieth +905
Adam Scott +1015
Paul Casey +1550
Patrick Reed +1650
Bubba Watson +2550
Hideki Matsuyama +2550
Phil Mickelson +2850
