Golf Betting: The Tour Championship
Betting on golf doesn’t get much simpler than this. Only 30 men are competing at the 2009 Tour Championship, and only one of those men is Tiger Woods.
The Tour Championship is the last stop on the FedExCup trail; the list of participants has been whittled down to the Top 30 players in the points standings, and the points have been reset going into Thursday’s opening round at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Ga.
Here is your new Top 5 list:
1. Tiger Woods 2,500
2. Steve Stricker 2,250
3. Jim Furyk 2,000
4. Zach Johnson 1,800
5. Heath Slocum 1,600
PGA Tour organizers have been fiddling with this NASCAR-like format since its inception in 2007. This year, all 30 golfers involved have a mathematical chance of winning the FedExCup and a fat $10 million in bonus cash. Anyone in the Top 5 can clinch the Cup with a victory at East Lake and the 2,500 points that go with it. The No. 30 golfer on the list, John Senden (210 points), will take home the silverware if Woods finishes last and the other golfers in the Top 5 have suitably poor results.
The “Chase” for the Cup gives this week’s event an extra boost in visibility, but because of the complexities of the point distribution, the golf lines at press time were focused on who’ll win the tournament itself. As usual, Woods is the heavy favorite, this time at even money. Padraig Harrington and Jim Furyk are next on the list at 14-1. Only Woods has won the Tour Championship before; Harrington and Furyk haven’t won anything in 2009.
Tiger Woods
Tour Championship victories: 1999, 2007
2009 victories: 6 (Arnold Palmer Invitational, Memorial, AT&T National, Buick Open, WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, BMW Championship)
2009 PGA Tour Money Ranking: No. 1 ($9.698 million)
2009 average score: 68.9
Padraig Harrington
Tour Championship victories: none
2009 victories: none
2009 European Tour Money Ranking: No. 22 (0.840 million)
2009 average score: 70.9
Jim Furyk
Tour Championship victories: none
2009 victories: none
2009 PGA Tour Money Ranking: No. 8 ($3.514 million)
2009 average score: 70.2
It’s hard to ignore Woods in any betting scenario. He may not have won any majors this year, but he won six other Tour events, including four of his last eight. Narrowing the field to 30 golfers (even if they are allegedly the best 30) protects Woods from getting surprised by a long shot or a European Tour specialist like Henrik Stenson, who finished seven strokes ahead of Woods in taking the Players Championship back in May.
As for the course itself, it looked like one giant water hazard on Monday after some 20 inches of rain fell on Atlanta over the weekend. The rain stopped Tuesday, and the drainage system at East Lake did its job to perfection, rendering the course playable once again. There’s an increasing chance of continued rain and thunderstorms between Thursday (20 percent) and Saturday (50 percent) before things clear up. Soft greens should make for excellent target practice for Woods and the other greens-in-regulation gods on the Tour.
Golfers will be paired up in tandem at the Tour Championship, so there’s no 3-ball betting this week, but we do have 2-ball and head-to-head betting options available. Woods is a –400 chalk to finish the Tour Championship with a better score than Harrington (+300). The 2-ball odds for Woods vs. Steve Stricker in the first round were pending at press time.
One reply on “2009 Tour Championship Gambling”
The obvious choice on this list is Tiger Woods as just when you think he is going to let down a bit he gets his game back to the point where he is almost unbeatable.
There may be a slight opening for Harrington to get his first win of the year, but I’m not sure I would bet on it.