The Tour Championship Odds and Preview – Golf Betting September 11-14

Scott to put the cat among the pigeons at East Lake

Sports Betting

Four-putting is normally the domain of the 24-plus handicapper and a few who have been unlucky enough to get on the wrong side of Amen Corner at Augusta. But even the best have their disasters on the putting green, as Rory McIlroy proved in the BMW Championship at Denver last week. McIlroy’s faux pas didn’t cost him the tournament, won by Florida’s Billy Horschel, but shows that the Ulsterman is human after all despite this year’s heroics.

Horschel’s victory in Denver has nicely set up the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta this week, the final round of the FedEx Cup play-offs. Thirty players are qualified for the final of the $10 million competition but Dustin Johnson won’t be taking part. Theoretically, all are still in with a chance of taking the overall prize but, realistically, those outside the top five need snookers with 28th-ranked Hideki Matsuyama, for example, needing to win at East Lake this week (for which he is a general 45/1) and effectively hope that none of the top six in the current rankings finish in the first six place in the final itself.

Chris Kirk is leading the race at present having won the Deutsche Bank Championship last month. But he’s 50/1 with Boylesports in Atlanta having only made the top 20 once in his last nine tournaments apart from that victory in Massachusetts. Horschel tied for second in the Deutsche Bank last before winning the BMW Championship so is obviously targeting the huge bonus. He’s 25/1 with BetVictor, Coral and Paddy Power and that looks quite generous given the form he’s in. McIlroy will fancy his chances at East Lake. A top-two finish would mean one of those just above or just below in the FedEx rankings would probably have to win to deny him the purse. McIlroy thrives on pressure situations like this and is 4/1 with Unibet and 888sport for the Tour Championship but I can’t understand why Hunter Mahan should be a general 33/1.

Winner of the Barclays, the first of the FedEx Cup ranking tournaments, Mahan had arrived at that tournament in good shape having finished fifth in the Bridgestone Invitational and fifth in the PGA Championship in the previous weeks. He’s not been so good since but maybe the very large carrot dangling at the end of this week will help him re-concentrate his efforts and he likes playing among these small, select fields – he’s a previous winner of both the Accenture World Matchplay and the Bridgestone Invitational.

But my top selection this week is Adam Scott at the general 10/1. The Australian is one of those who would need an unlikely set of results to win the FedEx Cup but how can you ignore the world number two given the form he’s been in over the last three months? McIlroy may have stolen a bit of his thunder this year but Scott hasn’t finished out of the top 16 in any tournament since May. Third, first and eighth in the last three invitational events he’s contested, the world number two may not have been suited by the FedEx Cup being decided in a short space of time but can win at East Lake and leave who takes the bonus to the mathematicians.