There are four rounds left in the PGA Tour season and the first of them takes place on Thursday when the Tour Championship begins out in Atlanta, with some of the richest prizes in golf up for grabs for the 30 runners on show.
Unlike a normal tournament, the field begin on different scores this week which brings a different dynamic to the opening 18 holes. It will be interesting to see how many players push too soon and how many are a little too cautious. I’m sure we’ll see plenty of both.
First Round Leader
Usually in these big events we would look at getting stuck into the first round leader market but when you think this time round someone holds a two shot advantage, which is a five shot lead on all but three men, you wonder if there is a point in betting on it.
If you take someone from Rory McIlroy on five under, five back at the start, or lower down the field you’re really only playing for a place, while if you take someone ahead of McIlroy the prices are skinny as you would expect. I wouldn’t be completely surprised if Patrick Cantlay catches Justin Thomas at some point in the round but we saw on Sunday that when challenged the former USPGA winner can go again. It isn’t a market I want to get involved in so I’ll head to the two balls.
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Thursday 2 Balls
There are a couple of beautiful things about betting on this tournament. The first of them is that there is no cut so everyone teeing off will know they will have four rounds and the other thing is that the entire tournament is played out in two balls which means we can get stuck into proceedings with a lot more confidence that we normally would.
The field goes out in the first round in their positions in the FedEx Cup rankings which means that the final pair off are Justin Thomas and Patrick Cantlay. They set off at 19.05 BST with Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed out 10 minutes before then. There are only 15 groups on the golf course and it might be that the pick of them is the one between Adam Scott and Dustin Johnson at 18.05 BST. I’ll go with one bet.
Matt Kuchar vs Xander Schauffele
Match tees off at 18.35 BST
The fourth to last group out onto the golf course sees a man who has won twice this season in Matt Kuchar going up against a former winner here in Xander Schauffele with both men beginning their week on four under par, six shots off the lead held by Justin Thomas.
You would think Kuchar would have a decent record round here given that he is one of the best ball strikers on the PGA Tour but for some reason he doesn’t and I’ve got to think he is worth opposing with Xander Schauffele. Schauffele is a former winner round here and should be inspired by a return to a place that he has already won at. He hasn’t been completely convincing in recent times but to be fair he does set up well to this place. Their respective records here makes Schauffele the bet in this two ball.
Tips
WON – Back X.Schauffele to beat M.Kuchar for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with William Hill
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