Tigers Woods Opens at 16 to 1 to Win PGA Championship
Scott Morris | July 25, 2018
For a few moments on Sunday Tigers Woods led golf’s third major of the year The Open. Woods was atop the leaderboard midway through the final round at Carnoustie, but ultimately ended in a tie for sixth three strokes behind his playing partner and winner Francesco Molinari.
Odds makers were nervous when Woods took over the top spot as they had a big liability. Odds makers had a great deal to worry about including standard pre-tournament betting, adjusted odds in-tournament betting, in-progress betting as well as props bets on if Woods would win a major in 2018 or if he would ever win another major.
In the end, golf fans were thrilled with a solid showing by Tiger and odds makers were relieved.
Following the tournament on Sunday, odds makers released their odds for the fourth and final major of the season the PGA Championship. The 100th PGA Championship will be played August 9-12 in Town and Country, Missouri at the Bellerive Country Club.
Woods opened with odds of 16 to 1, which are the fourth best odds tied with Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler. Three players Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy are co-favorites to win the PGA Championship at 12 to 1. Spieth, who led The Open after three rounds, was the favorite starting play Sunday to win, but shot a final round 5-over 76 and finished ninth.
Molinari, who became the first Italian golfer to ever win a major, opened with 25 to 1 odds to win the PGA.
While standing on the 11th tee during Sunday’s final round, Woods had odds of 3 to 2 during live wagering, after starting the round at 14 to 1 four strokes behind the leaders.
For sportsbooks, Molinari winning the Claret Jug was a positive since most of the wagering during the final round on Sunday was placed on the bigger names that were high on the leaderboard.
The bigger bets were placed on McIlroy, Woods and Xander Schauffele while Molinari was flying under the radar. McIlroy played well in his back nine on Sunday and ended the tournament tied with Justin Rose, Kevin Kisner and Schauffele at 6-under in second place.
For many sportsbooks the winner that would have been the best was Kevin Chappell. The American, who tied for sixth after a double-bogey on the 17th, was only on a few tickets in pre-tournament betting to win. Kisner was also a strong player for odds makers as he too was on very few tickets prior to the start of the tournament on Thursday.
