By: Field Level Media
PGA Odds, The Memorial Odds and the Return of Tiger
Tiger Woods makes his long-awaited return to the PGA Tour this week at The Memorial Tournament, an event he has won five times.
Even if he isn’t among the pre-tournament favorites after a five-month layoff from the tour, bettors have plenty of interesting Tiger-related bets to chew on.
Woods hasn’t competed in a Tour event since finishing last among those to make the cut at the Genesis Invitational in February. He opted out of the next several events due to back issues and then decided to continue to quarantine during the PGA’s first five events back to competition.
He returns to one of his most successful venues, Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio, although his last victory at the Memorial came eight years ago.
Woods is being offered at +2200 by PlaySugarHouse and +3300 by BetMGM.
By Tuesday, he was responsible for 16 percent of the tournament split handle at DraftKings — double that of any other player. At +2600 by the book, he was responsible for 12 percent of the total bets, with Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka and Abraham Ancer the next closest at 5 percent each.
Woods’ moneyline odds put him well behind the three pre-tournament favorites: DeChambeau, Justin Thomas and Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy.
Thomas (+900 at PlaySugarHouse, +1100 at BetMGM) is coming off a playoff loss to Collin Morikawa at Muirfield Village on Sunday, so he’s well-versed in how the course is playing during the Memorial’s rescheduled spot on the calendar this year.
The Memorial Odds that DeCahmbeau Keeps Up His Stellar Play
DeChambeau (+1000 at PlaySugarHouse and BetMGM) flew to Denver to work on physical and mental training last week following his victory at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. He hasn’t finished outside of the top eight in the seven tournaments he has entered since we last saw Woods on Tour, including the Genesis Invitational.
McIlroy was favored in the first few events coming off the Tour’s hiatus but struggled to find his pre-pandemic four. He posted a T32, T41 and T11 before taking the past two weeks off. McIlroy is +1200 at PlaySugarHouse and +1400 at BetMGM.
Defending Memorial champion Patrick Cantlay is +1400 at BetMGM and PlaySugarHouse. Dustin Johnson (+1600) and Morikawa (+2000) are also favored ahead of Woods as they come off victories in their most recent starts.
Morikawa is in an interesting situation. While many players take a week off following a victory, he’s teeing it up after securing his second Tour win. It helps that he’s 23 years old and playing on the same course he just triumphed on.
“That’s something that guys that have won many times have figured out if they are playing the next week, how to kind of manage the next week to prep enough to where they’re ready but not kill themselves by Thursday,” he said. “When I played 75 holes last week, that was a grind. Those last three (playoff holes) really took a lot out of me.
“I think it’s just a lot of sleep, a lot of stretching. But for the most part my body already is fully recovered, and I feel ready for this week.”
All the Tiger Woods Odds and Tiger Woods Prop Bets on the Market
Woods, 44, also said he feels much better this week.
Of course, he’s in a far different boat as his only competition since February was in a charity match play event. Woods has spent his time focused on training and “getting back up to speed.”
Woods is being offered at -304 by BetMGM to make the cut at the Memorial and +200 to miss the cut.
While Woods said he’s feeling much better, he has never competed at Muirfield Village in July, and he’s the only marquee player in the field yet to experience playing a PGA Tour event minus fans.
That figures to be a massive adjustment for the sport’s biggest star.
“I’m going to have to just put my head down and play,” Woods said. “But it’s going to be different, there’s no doubt about it.
“For most of my career, pretty much almost every competitive playing round that I’ve been involved in, I’ve had people around me, spectators yelling, a lot of movement inside the gallery with camera crews and media.
“For some of the younger guys, it’s probably not particularly different. They’re not too far removed from college or they’ve only been out here for a year or two, but for some of the older guys, it’s very eye-opening really.”
FoxBet is one of several books looking to take advantage of the interest in Woods’ return.
Leveraging his pairing with McIlroy and Koepka, Woods is being offered at +200 in a “triple your money” prop on hitting the fairway with his first tee shot.
Among other Woods-related props at the book:
–Tournament driving distance accuracy: Over/Under 70.5 percent (-110)
–Tournament driving distance average: Over/Under 295.5 yards (-110)
–Tournament average greens in regulation: Over/Under 65.5 percent (-120/+100)
–Tournament total birdies: Over/Under 15.5 (-125/+100)
–Lead after Round 1 (including ties): +2200
Woods didn’t decide on the softest landing spot for his return.
The Memorial field includes nine of the top 10 players in the world and other surging players including rising stars such as Morikawa and Norway’s Viktor Hovland.
Hovland (+2000 by PlaySugarHouse, +2200 by BetMGM) is up to No. 33 in the world coming off a third-place finish behind Morikawa and Thomas last week.
Morikawa has vaulted all the way to No. 13 — one spot ahead of Woods.
“From the moment I stepped on this course, I kind of fell in love,” Morikawa said of Muirfield Village. “I thought a lot of tee shots fit my eye, everything, approach shots, so I knew it was going to be a really good course.
“The course looks fantastic, greens are getting a little faster, so it should be a good week.”
–Field Level Media
