There’s a lot of intrigue and excitement surrounding Tiger Woods and his return to competitive golf this weekend. This will be the first time we’ve seen Woods in a competitive setting since he withdrew before the third round of the 2023 Masters (plantar fasciitis).
Seven months later, Tiger will be back on the world stage in his own tournament, the Hero World Challenge, held at Albany Golf Course in the Bahamas. The 15-time major champion is one of 20 golfers competing this weekend. Joining Tiger in the no-cut event will be many of the biggest names in the sport, including two-time defending champion Viktor Hovland, world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and Max Homa. . Everyone will compete for the top prize of $1 million.
(read more: How to watch Hero World Challenge)
Let’s take a look at the event betting market.
No wonder Viktor Hovland (+400), the hottest golfer on the planet, is the favorite to win the tournament. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler (+450) is his No. 2 on the DraftKings odds board, followed by Collin Morikawa (+800) and Max Home (+850).
Currently, the biggest odds movers in this field are Cam Young (+2500 to +1800) and Justin Thomas (+1600 to +1400). Tiger’s odds have changed significantly, but in the wrong direction (from +4000 to +6600).
It should come as no surprise that DraftKings has some interesting options for bettors in addition to the tournament winners market, including the standard first-round leader and the traditional 1.cent Head-to-head rounds, Round 1 Six Shooter, Round 1 Tournament 3-Ball, and 2-Ball (3-way) matchups. Additional bets include bets on the player’s specific score for the selected hole.
(read more: Hero World Challenge Round 1 Tea time for everyone including Tiger)
It’s an interesting event to handicap because the players haven’t played many competitive rounds since the Ryder Cup and Tour Championship.
After being ignored by the Ryder Cup leadership, Keegan Bradley enjoyed a career resurgence last season with two wins and six top-10 finishes. At DraftKings, he will face Rickie Fowler, another golfer who is returning to the winner’s circle after a long drought.
The no-shot Bradley entered the year unscathed after being left off the Ryder Cup team, presumably to make room for Fowler. Consider Bradley (+110) in that Round 1 matchup.
If you believe Justin Thomas’ game showed signs of life at the Ryder Cup and will build on it this week, pick him up at +550 on DraftKings to get Hovland (+300), Scheffler (+330) Can win a group that includes, Homa (+400), Morikawa (+400), Fowler (+600). However, he only has 20 golfers in the full field, so if you want Thomas to win that group, choose a better value of +1400 to win the entire tournament.
There were signs of life for Rome in Justin Thomas’ game, but there was no life in Jordan Spieth’s game. His tournament trio opponents are Rickie Fowler and Sam Barnes. Their matchup odds are Spieth (+180), Fowler (+160), and Burns (+180). Spieth and Barnes both competed in the event last year, with Barnes leading Spieth by three points. I don’t know how relevant it is, but what’s at least hard to ignore is the eye test the last time I saw each. That was at Roma, but if there was anything close to a positive impression among the three, it was Barnes. Join Sam as he takes on Fowler and Spieth in the Bahamas.
Regardless of where you place your bets, enjoy Tiger’s return because there’s no telling how often we’ll get to enjoy him in competitive environments in the future.
*Odds provided by DraftKings