PGA Tour Golf Odds and Predictions: 2012 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational
by Alan Matthews - 8/1/2012

For most casual golf fans and bettors, this week’s World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club in Akron begins about a two-month exciting stretch that essentially ends the PGA Tour season. Following this tournament, you have the PGA Championship next week, then a middling Tour stop before the four-event FedEx Cup playoffs and then the Ryder Cup. It’s like the stretch run of baseball season.

PGA Tour Golf Odds and Predictions: 2012 RBC Canadian Open
by Alan Matthews - 7/25/2012

Well, I would like to say that I nailed Ernie Els to win the Open Championship last week, but in all honestly Els didn’t win the tournament so much as Adam Scott lost it. I did think about picking Els as the best value at 33/1, mentioning in the preview that I did a double-take on the Big Easy because of his past success at Royal Lytham. Els’ victory, his fourth major championship, ended a streak of nine straight first-time major winners.

PGA Tour Golf Odds and Predictions: John Deere Classic
by Alan Matthews - 7/10/2012

First off, I want to defend myself for my selections last week for the Greenbrier Classic in West Virginia. It was a tough tournament to call because it was only the third annual event and the course changed radically after Year 1 to Year 2. I follow golf pretty intently, but I couldn’t pick Sunday’s Greenbrier winner Ted Potter Jr. out of a lineup. Ditto for runner-up Troy Kelly, third-place Charlie Beljan, fifth-place Daniel Summerhays … well, you get my drift. It was just one of those weeks on Tour.

PGA Tour Golf Odds and Predictions: The Greenbrier Classic
by Alan Matthews - 7/5/2012

While I didn’t have Tiger Woods winning his Tour-leading third PGA tournament of the season last week at his AT&T National event at Congressional, there were some good results in Top-10 picks. I had Woods (-250), Hunter Mahan (even-money) and Bo Van Pelt (+275) to all finish inside the Top 10 and they did. Van Pelt finished runner-up to Tiger by two shots. I also took Dustin Johnson (-175) to finish outside the Top 10 and he did. I did miss on Jim Furyk finishing in the Top 10 and Nick Watney and Adam Scott finishing outside it. My pick to win was Martin Laird, who was a solid 11th.

PGA Tour Golf Odds and Predictions: Travelers Championship
by Alan Matthews - 6/20/2012

Well, I didn’t pick Webb Simpson as the winner of last week’s US Open, but then again I’m guessing pretty much no one did. Otherwise, it was a pretty solid week. Tiger looked like he would be a lock to finish in the Top 10 after sharing the lead heading into Saturday, but he struggled on the weekend and finished outside of that group.

WagerWeb: PGA Tour Travelers Championship Prop Bets
by David Schwab - 6/20/2012

This week the PGA Tour heads to the TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn., for the Travelers Championship. While WagerWeb sportsbook has you covered with a complete set of odds for an expanded list of contenders to win this week’s event as well as odds for a number of head-to-head matchups, it also provides a couple of interesting prop bets to add a bit of extra action to this week’s tournament.

2012 US Open Golf Odds and Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 6/13/2012

In my opinion, the most interesting golf tournament of the year arrives on Thursday when the 2012 US Open, version No. 112, returns to the Olympic Club in San Francisco for the first time since 1998. While some golf fans don’t pay much attention until the weekend of big tournaments, if you are any sort of true fan, tune in Thursday and Friday simply because these are two of the threesomes going off together: Tiger Woods-Phil Mickelson-Bubba Watson and Luke Donald-Rory McIlroy-Lee Westwood.

2012 US Open Golf Props Odds and Betting Predictions
by Alan Matthews - 6/12/2012

You can look for an overall preview of this week’s US Open at Olympic in San Francisco here at Doc’s Sports on Wednesday, but today let’s take a look at some of the many prop options available at Bovada for the second major of the season.

PGA Tour Golf Odds and Predictions: FedEx St. Jude Classic
by Alan Matthews - 6/6/2012

Can we go ahead and just forget about last week’s Memorial Tournament? I not only didn’t like Tiger Woods to win last week, his second victory on Tour this year (yeah, he’s about back, although Tiger will never be the dominant force he was), but I thought he would finish outside the Top 10 after three below-average tournaments heading in. I liked Phil Mickelson to finish inside the Top 10 despite not often playing well at the Memorial, but he blew up with a first-round 79 and then took his clubs and went home (which is not cool to the fans who bought tickets to see him on Friday).

PGA Tour Golf Odds and Predictions: The Memorial Tournament
by Alan Matthews - 5/30/2012

It was hit-and-miss last week at the PGA Tour’s stop at Colonial. Zach Johnson was the 14/1 favorite at Bovada and won the tournament. I wrote that “Johnson should be the favorite as no one has played Colonial as well as Johnson the past three years. In that stretch, all 12 of his rounds have been in the 60s, including five of 65 or better, for an average of 66.58. He won in 2010, finished fourth last year and T9 in 2009. Colonial has narrow fairways, which suits the short but accurate Johnson off the tee.”

PGA Tour Golf Odds and Predictions: Byron Nelson Championship
by Alan Matthews - 5/16/2012

Can’t say I am sad in the least to see the 2012 Players Championship in the rear-view mirror. The Players is always a weird tournament to handicap because it seems to be all-or-nothing for many top players, some of whom simply don’t like the layout much -- Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods to name three. But it was a terrible week for my props and winner predictions.

PGA Tour Golf Odds and Predictions: The Players Championship
by Alan Matthews - 5/9/2012

Even though the Players Championship isn’t even half as old as any of golf’s true four major championships, pretty much everyone refers to this tournament as the “fifth major” on Tour. And The Players Championship has two things no other event has: the iconic 17th island green – probably the most famous hole in the world but one which actually most players hate because they think it’s a gimmick that penalizes even a slightly awry shot – and the richest purse on Tour.

PGA Tour Golf Odds and Predictions: The Players Championship Props
by Alan Matthews - 5/8/2012

It’s the PGA Tour’s “fifth major” this week as the pros visit TPC Sawgrass outside of Jacksonville, Fla., for the big-money Players Championship. I will have my usual weekly preview projecting the winner (and top American finisher) for readers on Wednesday, but because this is such a big tournament there are a near majors-level amount of props to bet. So let’s take a look at a handful that I like.

PGA Tour Golf Odds and Predictions: Wells Fargo Championship
by Alan Matthews - 5/2/2012

Sorry, I have pat myself on the back before I preview this week’s PGA Tour stop at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte for the Wells Fargo Championship. Last week at the Zurich Open of New Orleans, this is what I concluded with under my picks section: “My choice is (Jason) Dufner at 22/1. The guy has too much talent to not win sooner rather than later. Plus, he has finished in the Top 10 in the past three years here, including that T3 a year ago. Dufner is eighth in the all-around ranking this year.”

PGA Tour Golf Odds and Predictions: RBC Heritage Betting
by Alan Matthews - 4/11/2012

It’s always interesting to see which players compete in a PGA Tour event the week after a major – most times the very big names like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson don’t. And that’s mostly the case for this week’s tour stop at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head for the RBC Heritage.

PGA Tour Golf Odds and Predictions: Shell Houston Open
by Alan Matthews - 3/28/2012

I have to say I am rather sad to see the PGA Tour’s Florida Swing end. After not being able to pick a winner in the first three months of the season out west, I was able to get Rory McIlroy winning the Honda Classic at PGA National and then last week Tiger Woods winning Arnold Palmer’s tournament at Bay Hill. Not that I can exactly pat myself on the back for picking the two best players in the world to win an event!

PGA Tour Golf Odds and Predictions: Arnold Palmer Invitational
by Alan Matthews - 3/20/2012

Back before Thanksgiving 2009, it wasn’t uncommon for a betting favorite to win a PGA Tour event. That’s because any event in which Tiger Woods was entered, he was the favorite. And, of course, the pre-scandal Tiger was usually money in the bank.

PGA Tour Golf Odds and Predictions: Transitions Championship
by Alan Matthews - 3/14/2012

It goes without saying that if I pick a player to win a tournament, it’s always good to back up your bet by wagering on said player to at least finish in the Top 10. We all know how hard it is to win on the PGA Tour – just ask Tiger Woods. I mention this because I went with Matt Kuchar as my best “value” last week at the WGC-Cadillac at Doral. Kuchar didn’t win but certainly played well with a T8, so if you took him to finish in the Top 10 as a backup wager you still came out ahead. Consider that strategy going forward as most tournaments offer Top-10 props on the big-name players.

PGA Tour Golf Odds and Predictions: WGC-Cadillac Championship
by Alan Matthews - 3/7/2012

See, I told you that all it took was for the PGA Tour to get to the Sunshine State for me to pick my first winner of 2012! Last week at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Rory McIlroy won the Honda Classic, his first victory in the States since last year’s U.S. Open. It was a thrilling Sunday, and we have seen more than a few of those already this year. Tiger Woods went on a pre-2009 Tiger-like tear on the final 18, finishing birdie-eagle for a 62, the lowest final round of his career.

PGA Tour Golf Odds and Predictions: The Honda Classic
by Alan Matthews - 2/29/2012

For last week’s WGC-Match Play, I picked American Bubba Watson, the No. 5 seed in the Hogan Bracket. Unfortunately, he lost in the Round of 32 to Matt Kuchar, 4&3. So who won the event? American Hunter Mahan, the No. 6 seed in the Hogan Bracket. He bested Rory McIlroy in the final – I couldn’t tell you the difference between Watson and Mahan if they were standing together on the tee, but they feel like the same player, you know?