This is an interesting week of golf betting on the PGA Tour and the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village.
Jon Rahm has dominated the event the last few years.
He led by six shots after the third round last year but had to withdraw following testing positive for COVID-19. The year before that he won by three shots even with a final round 75.
Muirfield Village is a course where the same players usually play well year after year, so course history is a trend weighed higher for this week. And it places more of an emphasis on finding the fairway and hitting good iron shots over putting.
Rahm currently is No. 1 on the PGA Tour in Strokes Gained Off-the-Tee and is second in Strokes gained Tee-to-Green.
Because of this, and being ranked No. 2 in the world, it’s no surprise Rahm has the best golf odds to win this week at +1000.
So as a heavy favorite, how are bettors treating him?
At BetMGM as of Tuesday, Rahm is pulling in the most tickets at 6.3% but the fourth-most handle at 7.8%.
Regarding handle, Shane Lowry (+2500) and Hideki Matsuyama (+2800) are pulling in the most money, with Lowry at 12% while Matsuyama is right behind him at 10.3%.
Lowry enters in great form – three top-3 finishes in his last 11 worldwide tournaments as well as a T-6 finish at the tournament last year – while Matsuyama won the event in 2014 and has three finishes of T-13 or better since. He’s been up-and-down this year, though, which may scare away some bettors.
Current Handle & Tickets
Handle
- Shane Lowry – 12%
- Hideki Matsuyama – 10.3%
- Collin Morikawa – 8.8%
- Jon Rahm – 7.8%
- Patrick Cantlay – 7.3%
Tickets
- Jon Rahm – 6.3%
- Collin Morikawa – 5.6%
- Cameron Smith – 5.1%
- Jordan Spieth – 5.1%
- Patrick Cantlay – 4.6%
According to the odds, Rory McIlroy is the second favorite at +1100 but is only pulling in 3.8% of the tickets and 3.1% of the handle.
Morikawa (+2000) is BetMGM’s biggest liability, and he’s had some success at Muirfield Village. He was the runner-up last year and won the Workday Charity Open, which was held at the course in 2020.
Last year’s winner, Patrick Cantlay, saw his odds go from +1800 to +1600, but he’s coming off a missed cut at the PGA Championship.
