2023 Tour Championship: PGA Golf Betting Picks This Week
This week, Joe Cistaro delivers Tour Championship golf betting picks as golfers prepare for East Lake Golf Club.
- Thirty players will tee it up at East Lake Golf Club with scores ranging from -10 to even par.
- Scottie Scheffler leads the field in tee-to-green statistics and will look to hold a lead.
- Rory McIlroy has chased down the lead twice at this event in 2019 and 2022 from way back.
- Find out where you can test out Fanatics Sportsbook before the golf tournament begins.
- More Tour Championship details and tips below!
With a unique format, the FedEx Cup Playoffs culminate in Atlanta at East Lake Golf Club. Scottie Scheffler enters the week at -10 with the rest of the field carrying worse scores as a result of their points standings. In the brief history of this format, the leader is 50/50 while Rory McIlroy has come from way back to win the tour championship twice.
With a massive $18,000,000 at the top of the prize pool, golfers will be taking aim early in an attempt to catch up to the leaders. After looking over this week’s course preview, read on for my very concise betting card.
2023 Tour Championship at BetMGM Sportsbook
At the time of this writing – August 22nd – you can find these odds at BetMGM Sportsbook. The odds listed are with starting strokes, odds with those strokes, and odds without.
| Golfer | Strokes | Odds With | Odds Without |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scottie Scheffler | -10 | +140 | +550 |
| Viktor Hovland | -8 | +450 | +1000 |
| Rory McIlroy | -7 | +350 | +550 |
| Jon Rahm | -6 | +800 | +1000 |
| Lucas Glover | -5 | +4000 | +4000 |
| Max Homa | -4 | +2800 | +1400 |
| Patrick Cantlay | -4 | +2000 | +1100 |
| Brian Harman | -4 | +5000 | +3300 |
| Wyndham Clark | -4 | +5000 | +3300 |
| Matt Fitzpatrick | -4 | +4000 | +2800 |
| Tommy Fleetwood | -3 | +6600 | +2200 |
| Russell Henley | -3 | +8000 | +2200 |
| Keegan Bradley | -3 | +12500 | +5000 |
| Rickie Fowler | -3 | +6600 | +2500 |
| Xander Schauffele | -3 | +2800 | +1200 |
| Tom Kim | -2 | +15000 | +2800 |
| Sungjae Im | -2 | +12500 | +2200 |
| Tony Finau | -2 | +15000 | +4000 |
| Corey Conners | -2 | +15000 | +3300 |
| Si Woo Kim | -2 | +20000 | +5500 |
| Taylor Moore | -1 | +50000 | +10000 |
| Nick Taylor | -1 | +75000 | +20000 |
| Adam Schenk | -1 | +75000 | +15000 |
| Collin Morikawa | -1 | +12500 | +2200 |
| Jason Day | -1 | +25000 | +5000 |
| Sam Burns | E | +40000 | +4000 |
| Emiliano Grillo | E | +50000 | +8000 |
| Tyrrell Hatton | E | +25000 | +2800 |
| Jordan Spieth | E | +25000 | +2800 |
| Sepp Straka | E | +60000 | +8000 |
2023 Tour Championship Betting Preview
- Course: East Lake Golf Club
- Date: August 24 – 27
- Par: 70
- Yardage: 7,346
- Greens: Bermuda
Key Statistics
- SG: Approach
- SG: T2G
- Fairways
- SG: Putting
- Proximity: 200+ yards
- Par 4: 450-500
Unless mentioned otherwise, all strokes gained statistics will be referenced over the player’s previous 24 rounds on the PGA Tour.
Tour Championship Picks and Predictions
Lucas Glover – Best Odds +4000 (BetMGM)
For our first play, I am going to ride the Glover wave without strokes this weekend at East Lake Golf Club. I don’t think Lucas will have the firepower to catch the leaders. That will likely be more of an indictment of how the leaders play versus how Glover will take on the course.
Glover is likely on the Ryder Cup bubble for Zach Johnson. Besides being very lucrative, closing the season with a big weekend might make Johnson’s decision pretty easy. Glover has been lighting up golf courses from tee to green and simply struggled some with his putter last weekend at the BMW Championship. Sports betting sites do not have a very strong feeling about Glover finishing with the lowest score given the studs in the field. That said, Glover is just close enough to the lead to play very aggressively for a few days.
Since this is the last event, we are keeping it to a minimum. I will sprinkle a half-unit on Glover to win without strokes.
Wyndham Clark – Best Odds +7000 (FanDuel)
With only one event left, I cannot resist one last bet on Wyndham Clark. Clark has struggled a bit over the last couple of weeks but still possesses the prowess off the tee and excellence around the greens to pull off a big win.
We need one huge day for Clark to rejoin the leaders. We saw Rory McIlroy overcome a similar deficit twice. If I am chasing, I want to use a golfer who has a skillset befitting a big scorer. If Clark is going to make a run at this, he will be firing from the opening tee. At 70/1, I think I enjoy picking on long shots at this event instead of trying to find the chalky leader I like the most for an enormous bet.
Wyndham won’t cost us much and has the short game to get really, really hot if he provides himself with enough opportunities. At 70/1, we can get some of Clark for only 0.3 units. FanDuel is offering this number with strokes.
Russell Henley – Best Odds +9000 (PointsBet)
If we are going to find someone coming back from the pack, that golfer needs to be in serious form. Henley comes into the Tour Championship with three consecutive top tens — coming in second at the Wyndham before making the top 10 in both playoff events. Henley is being rewarded for playing great golf when it matters the most.
Henley ranks 7th in the field in total strokes gained over his last 24 rounds. His ball striking is currently ridiculous, ranking 3rd in approach and 5th in T2G. With Russell, the putter is always the question mark. This week, having to overcome such a massive deficit might free Henley up to be a bit more aggressive. For this price, I like having something to sweat for four days at a very cheap price.
We add Russell Henley to our ridiculously compact card for 0.25 units with the strokes at PointsBet.
2023 Tour Championship Betting Card
| Golfer | Odds | Units | Payout |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lucas Glover (w/o) | +4000 | 0.5 | 20 |
| Wyndham Clark (w) | +7000 | 0.3 | 21 |
| Russell Henley (w) | +9000 | 0.25 | 22.5 |
Tour Championship Total Units in Play – 1.05
2023 Net Units: +5.1
This wraps up the golf season for me. We are guaranteed a minuscule profit with the hopes of getting really lucky to come out way ahead. With the NFL season approaching, the article will take a bit of a break until the fall swing. Thanks for reading this season and we look forward to being back in full swing when the Hawaii swing opens up the PGA Tour season in January.
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Follow me on Twitter at @JoeCistaro to follow along with any additions, matchups, or top finishers I add to my outright betting card. Good luck with all of your wagers this week, and thanks for reading.