Day Far Ahead of the Field on Deutsche Bank Championship Odds Board

OddsSharkAug 30, 2016, 9:36 PM EDT
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Although he has never won the Deutsche Bank Championship, Jason Day rates top odds for this weekend’s second FedEx Cup playoff event since he has been a consistent top-20 finisher at TPC Boston over the years.

Day, who is coming off a fourth-place result at The Barclays, is listed at +650 to win the tournament at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. The 28-year-old Day has placed in the top 20 six times in eight starts at TPC Boston, including 12th in 2015 when he shot less than 70 in all but one round.

The tournament starts Friday due to the Labor Day holiday. Dustin Johnson (+1000), Jordan Spieth (+1200), Rory McIlroy (+1200), Henrik Stenson (+1600), Rickie Fowler (+2000), Patrick Reed (+2200) and Adam Scott (+2200) are also pegged as contenders on the golf betting lines. Interestingly, from 2013 through 2015, only four players have had successive top-10 finishes at the first two playoff events.

Johnson has a PGA Tour-most 12 top-10 finishes, and that run might override his lack of success at TPC Boston. Spieth coming in with nearly double Day’s price makes the 23-year-old a tempting pick. The TPC Boston course offers plenty of potential for birdies, and a good putting week would give Spieth a strong chance.

Fowler is the defending Deutsche Bank champion and contended at The Barclays before a tough final round.

Winning The Barclays vaulted Reed into first in the FedEx Cup standings. Another point in Reed’s favor is a fourth-place finish at this event in 2015, although he was well back in the field during the two years prior. Scott has one of the best swings in the game and held his form throughout most of The Barclays, before a breakdown on Sunday led to him finishing fourth.

McIlroy has not had a Top-10 finish in more than three months, and needs to display some sign of a turnaround in order to be a wise play in tournament winner props. Stenson is battling a persistent right knee ailment, and ultimately wants to stay healthy for the Ryder Cup next month. That makes backing the Swedish star a touch-and-go proposition, at best.

Farther down the board, Billy Horschel (+5000) is in search of a strong result that will secure a place on the U.S. Ryder Cup team. Horschel, who won the FedEx Cup in 2014, has been 13th and fifth in his past two events, which could be a harbinger of him once again peaking at the right time. This is the second-to-last event before American captain Davis Love III will make his first three captain’s picks for the Ryder Cup.

Russell Knox (+8000) has quietly played his way to seventh in the FedEx Cup ranking, and was also in contention through 54 holes of the 2015 tournament before shooting a closing 75.

PGA Tour, DP World Tour to merge with Saudis and end LIV Golf litigation

By Jun 6, 2023, 11:18 AM EDT
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The most disruptive year in golf ended Tuesday when the PGA Tour and DP World Tour agreed to a merger with Saudi Arabia’s golf interests, creating a commercial operation designed to unify professional golf around the world.

As part of the deal, the sides are dropping all lawsuits involving LIV Golf against each other effective immediately.

Still to be determined is how players like Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson, who defected to Saudi-funded LIV Golf for nine-figure bonuses, can rejoin the PGA Tour after this year.

Also unclear was what form the LIV Golf League would take in 2024. Commissioner Jay Monahan said in a memo to players that a thorough evaluation would determine how to integrate team golf into the game.

The agreement combines the Public Investment Fund’s golf-related commercial businesses and rights — including LIV Golf — with those of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. The new entity has not been named.

“They were going down their path, we were going down ours, and after a lot of introspection you realize all this tension in the game is not a good thing,” Monahan said in a phone interview with The Associated Press.

“We have a responsibility to our tour and to the game, and we felt like the time was right to have that conversation.”

Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, will join the board of the PGA Tour, which continues to operate its tournaments. Al-Rumayyan will be chairman of the new commercial group, with Monahan as the CEO and the PGA Tour having a majority stake in the new venture.

The PIF will invest in the commercial venture.

Monahan said the decision came together over the last seven weeks.

Brooks Koepka wins third Wanamaker Trophy, fifth major title at PGA Championship

By May 21, 2023, 6:39 PM EDT
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Brooks Koepka promised Sunday at Oak Hill would not be a reprise of Sunday at Augusta National.

Koepka held true to his word, shooting 3-under 67 to win the PGA Championship, finishing at 9 under, two in front of Scottie Scheffler (65) and Viktor Hovland (68).

Koepka and Hovland, playing together in the final pairing, were separated by one stroke at the par-4 16th, when Hovland hit his tee shot into a fairway bunker on the right. The previous day, leader Corey Conners was in the same spot and drilled his approach into the face of the bunker. He had to take an unplayable lie and made double bogey, losing the lead for good.

Incredibly, Hovland did the same thing on Sunday, losing any chance he had at his first major title.

Koepka, for his part, birdied the 16th and led by four shots with two to play. He closed with an innocuous bogey at the 17th and a par at the 18th.

This was Kopeka’s fifth major championship win and his third Wanamaker Trophy (2018, ’19). He joined James Braid, John Henry Taylor, Byron Nelson, Peter Thomson and Seve Ballesteros at 15th on the all-time major-victory list.

It marked his ninth career PGA Tour title and first since February 2021.

It was in that same month, a year later, that Koepka made clear his intention to remain on the PGA Tour, saying of the fledgling Saudi-led rival league, “They’ll get their guys. Somebody will sell out and go to it.”

Four months later, Koepka was one of those guys.

Koepka claimed his first of two LIV titles in October and the second in April, the week before the Masters Tournament. It was in the season’s first major where Koepka led by two shots entering the final round (after completing a delayed Round 3 early that Sunday) but closed in 75 to finish T-2 behind Jon Rahm.

This Saturday, once again with a lead through 54 holes of a major, Koepka was confident – though, coy with his reasons why – that this championship would end differently.

Or, similarly, to that of Bellerive and Bethpage Black.

It appeared that the 105th edition of the PGA was over 45 minutes after the final group teed off in the final round.

Koepka birdied three of his first four holes and led by three shots.

He was perfection personified, expertly positioning his tee shots and precisely hitting his irons. But a sliced drive off the sixth tee led to bogey and he made another at the seventh. By the turn, he was at 7 under par, one clear of Hovland with Scheffler at 4 under through 11 holes.

Scheffler managed to reach 7 under par for the championship, but never got closer than within two strokes.

It was ultimately a battle between the final two men on the course, with Koepka consistently managed to stay out front. He went birdie-bogey-birdie to start the inward half as Hovland strung together a trio of pars. The Norwegian birdied the par-5 13th and could have drawn even, but Koepka converted a slick, downhill, 10-footer for par to remain one up.

Both men made birdie at the drivable, 320-yard, par-4 14th and both men parred 15.

Then came the 16th, where Hovland thinned his second shot from the fairway sand into the bottom portion of the bunker lip. His ball embedded, Hovland took a penalty stroke and a drop. His double bogey, combined with Koepka’s birdie, ended all of the drama.

But Oak Hill was not devoid of cheers Sunday evening. Club pro Michael Block, playing alongside Rory McIlroy, had a slam-dunk hole-in-one at the par-3 15th and then made an incredible par save from well left of the 18th green. His closing 1-over 71 placed him in a tie for 15th and earned him a spot in next year’s field at Valhalla.

The last time the Louisville, Kentucky course hosted a PGA, McIlroy claimed his second Wanamaker Trophy and his fourth – and most recent – major. The Northern Irishman energized the western New York crowd this Sunday by sticking his approach shot at the first hole to a foot. The birdie got him within four of the lead, but he short-sided himself – from the fairway – at No. 2 and immediately gave the shot back. McIlroy shot 1-under 69 and tied for seventh.

While his major wait will extend to Los Angeles Country Club in June, Koepka will arrive looking for a third U.S. Open title.

And after his performances in the first two majors of the season, he will likely be the favorite.