PGA Tour Picks: BMW Championship Odds and Expert Betting Predictions
Patrick Reed won the Northern Trust outside New York City on Sunday for his first victory since the 2018 Masters. It vaulted him all the way from No. 50 in the FedEx Cup points to No. 2, thus ensuring him a spot in next week's season-ending Tour Championship in Atlanta.
Yet no one is really talking about Reed's victory. There were two trending items coming out of the Northern Trust: Tiger Woods is breaking down physically again, and no one wants to play in the same group as Bryson DeChambeau. Woods didn't look physically right last Thursday at Liberty National in firing a first-round 75. He was thus probably going to miss the cut but took the chicken way out by withdrawing before the second round, claiming an oblique injury. Hey, I'm sure Woods is hurt, but he couldn't try and play through it so all those fans who bought tickets to Friday's round could see him in person? That's weak. It is the 10th withdrawal of his career and first since the 2017 Omega Dubai Desert Classic.
Woods is going to try and play this week at the BMW Championship, and he pretty much has to. That's because Tiger slipped to 36th in the points and only the Top 30 after the BMW qualify for the Tour Championship and the chance to win the FedEx Cup's $15 million prize. Woods is a +4000 longer shot at Bovada to win this week. He won the PGA Championship twice at this week's course, Medinah Country Club outside Chicago.
As for DeChambeau, watching him play golf is like watching paint dry at times because he plays so slowly. For example, in the second round last week he took 140 seconds to read a short putt. That led to several players criticizing him on Twitter. There's supposed to be a 40-second rule to hit a shot. First offense is a warning and a second is a shot penalty. You never see the latter, and DeChambeau said he has gotten just one warning all year.
The PGA Tour did address the issue, saying that players are only punished for taking over 40 seconds to hit a shot when they're out of position from where they're supposed to be on the course. Officials said that could change, though: "The Tour's current pace-of-play policy only addresses players whose groups have fallen out of position. The Tour is now exploring whether to expand its policy to also address players whose groups are in position, but who take an excessive amount of time to hit a shot."
The Top 70 in points qualified for this week's BMW Championship. If you are wondering, No. 70 is Joaquin Niemann, while Adam Schenk was the unlucky No. 71. As noted, the Top 30 move on to next week. Andrew Putnam is the current No. 30, while Ryan Palmer is 31st. Some other guys outside the Top 30 right now: Hideki Matsuyama (33rd), Billy Horschel (39th), Jordan Spieth (44th), Phil Mickelson (46 th), Jim Furyk (48th) and Jason Day (50th ).
This is the first time Medinah's No. 3 course hosts this event. It has largely been held in the Chicago area since it debuted in 2007 but elsewhere. Medinah is one of America's top courses and hosted the U.S. Open three times, the PGA Championship twice and the 2012 Ryder Cup. It's a monster at around 7,660 yards and a par 72. Tiger is one of two players to have won the BMW Championship twice but those were elsewhere. The defending champion is Keegan Bradley. He and Justin Rose finished 72 holes last year at Aronimink outside Philadelphia at 20 under and Bradley won the playoff. No player has repeated in this tournament.
Golf Odds: BMW Championship Favorites
World No. 1 and points leader Brooks Koepka is +800 as is Rory McIlroy. Rory won this tournament in 2012 at Crooked Stick in Indiana. He comes off a T6 last week. McIlroy and some other big-name guys will at least be familiar with Medinah from the 2012 Ryder Cup. Koepka was 30th last week.
Jon Rahm is +1000, with Dustin Johnson at +1400, and Justin Rose and Justin Thomas both +1600. DJ is the other two-time winner of this tournament, in 2016 (Crooked Stick) and 2010 (Cog Hill). He's not playing all that well right now. Rahm was third last week. Rose won this event in 2011 (Cog Hill) and has been runner-up twice. Thomas comes off a T12 at the Northern Trust, his third straight Top 15.
Golf Odds: BMW Championship Picks
Obviously a bit tougher to handicap this week with not much course history to go on. Like Rose (+125), McIlroy (-155) and surging Ian Poulter (+375) for Top 10s. We'll take Adam Scott at +2500 to win. He was third in the 2006 PGA Championship at Medinah and comes off a T5 last week.
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