THE PLAYERS Championship, held annually at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, is one of the toughest tests of the year on the PGA Tour.
The difficulty of the Pete Dye design has prevented any single player in history from winning the event in consecutive years.
But, bettors at the BetMGM online sportsbook predict that to change this year with Scottie Scheffler.
As of Wednesday, Scheffler (+550 odds to win) is drawing a massive 23.7% of the handle on 15.4% of the tickets. The next closest handle is Rory McIlroy at 8%.
Coming off a five-shot win at last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, it’s clear why Scheffler is so popular. Switching to a mallet putter, he had one of his best putting weeks in quite some time.
Scheffler had nine consecutive one-putts between the last seven holes of the third round and the first two holes of the final round to set a new career high for consecutive holes with a one-putt (9). Additionally, he made every putt inside 15 feet during the final round.
As one of the best ball strikers in the game, the 27-year-old is extremely tough to beat when his putter is working.
Scheffler also won the 2023 PLAYERS Championship by five shots.
McIlroy, who has +1600 odds to win this week, won the tournament in 2019, but has only one other top 20 finish (T-12 in 2016).
Scheffler, Justin Thomas (+2200) and Will Zalatoris (+2500) are BetMGM’s biggest liabilities.
Current Handle & Tickets
Handle
- Scottie Scheffler – 21.8%
- Rory McIlroy – 8%
- Justin Thomas – 7.4%
- Will Zalatoris – 6.9%
- Viktor Hovland – 5.1%
Tickets
- Scottie Scheffler – 15.4%
- Rory McIlroy – 6.9%
- Justin Thomas – 6.8%
- Will Zalatoris – 6.1%
- Viktor Hovland – 4.7%
Thomas, who won the event in 2022, is having a solid start to the season. In five starts this season, he has four top 12 finishes.
Zalatoris’ best finish at TPC Sawgrass is 21st, but he is one of the best ball strikers on Tour and has been playing extremely well of late. He’s coming off two straight top 5 finishes (Genesis Invitational and Arnold Palmer Invitational).
