Scheffler, Clear Favorite at the Tour Championship
Scottie Scheffler emerges as the top favorite to win this week’s Tour Championship in Atlanta, according to the latest odds. Scheffler presents the shortest odds of his PGA career, at +160, surpassing his competitors. Rory McIlroy, a three-time FedEx Cup champion, is positioned as the second with the lowest odds, although significantly more distant than Scheffler’s, with +850. No other player has odds lower than 12-1 in the betting houses. Scheffler’s odds of +160 are the shortest he’s had in his PGA career, even against a reduced field of 30 players. These are also the shortest odds for any player in a PGA Tour event (excluding opening strokes) since Tiger Woods had the same chances of winning the 2009 Tour Championship. Despite the low odds, bettors are leaning towards Scheffler, who, as of Tuesday, had attracted 33% of the total money bet on the tournament winner at DraftKings. This figure is almost as high as the combined total of the next three main contenders (McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, and Russell Henley). The tournament at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta will begin without the opening shots used in previous years, and the winner will be crowned FedEx Cup champion.Jeff Sherman, a respected golf oddsmaker in Las Vegas with three decades of experience, estimated that Scheffler would be around +350 against a full field this week, with the season championship on the line. Scheffler has finished in the top 10 in each of his last 13 appearances on the PGA Tour, the second-longest streak in history, behind Jack Nicklaus, who had 14 consecutive top 10s in 1977. Scheffler has won five times on the tour this season. Fleetwood is 12-1, followed by Ludvig Åberg and Henley, both at 16-1.The best we’ve seen since the great Tiger Woods.
Jeff Sherman
