So far, the 2024 PGA Tour season has been the year of the long shot for golf betting.
Ahead of the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches, bettors at the BetMGM online sportsbook expect that to change.
As of Wednesday, the two players with the shortest odds in the field – Rory McIlroy (+800) and Cameron Young (+2200) – are the two most popular players.
McIlroy is pulling in the most handle (12.9%) on the most tickets (6.4%), and Young is drawing the third-most handle (5.3%) on the second-most tickets (4.7%).
The event is in its first year, but will be hosted on the same course that hosted the Honda Classic since 2007 in PGA National.
McIlroy hasn’t played at PGA National since 2018, but did win the Honda Classic in 2012 and lost in a playoff in 2014, so he has some solid course history to lean on.
The 34-year-old is coming off a disappointing few events on the West Coast, finishing T-66 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and T-24 at the Genesis Invitational, but did win in Dubai on the DP World Tour last month.
Meanwhile, Young doesn’t have much course history, finishing T-16 at the Honda Classic back in 2022. He does enter in solid form, finishing T-16 at the Genesis Invitational and T-8 at the WM Phoenix Open.
With plenty of water hazards coming into play, PGA National is one of the harder courses on the PGA Tour.
Chris Kirk won last year at 14-under, but in the previous 12 tournaments the winning score was never better than 12-under.
Adam Svensson (+4000), Christiaan Bezuidenhout (+5500) and McIlroy are BetMGM’s biggest liabilities.
Current Handle & Tickets
Handle
- Rory McIlroy – 12.9%
- Adam Svensson – 5.4%
- Cameron Young – 5.3%
- Daniel Berger – 4.9%
- Matt Fitzpatrick – 4.6%
Tickets
- Rory McIlroy – 6.4%
- Cameron Young – 4.7%
- Eric Cole – 4.1%
- Adam Svensson – 3.8%
- Matt Fitzpatrick – 3.6%
Svensson is coming off a T-10 at his last event (Genesis Invitational) and finished T-9 at the 2022 Honda Classic.
Fitzpatrick doesn’t have a great track record here, but is one of the most talented players in the field and finished T-15 at the WM Phoenix Open a few weeks back.
Kirk (+4000) is pulling in 2.3% of the tickets and 1.8% of the handle.
