Dustin Johnson and Jon Rahm put on quite a show last weekend in a playoff at the BMW Championship, so it is no surprise to see the pair atop the betting board as the favorites for this week’s TOUR Championship at East Lake Golf Course in Atlanta at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
Johnson may have lost the playoff to Rahm in dramatic fashion, but the 36-year-old American is listed as a slight +200 favorite at sports betting sites over the 25-year-old Spaniard (+300).
Rahm sank an improbable 66-foot putt to win it after Johnson’s 45-footer for a birdie forced the playoff. However, Johnson still leads the FedExCup standings thanks to a win at the Northern Trust Open the week before, giving him more than $2.7 million in earnings in the last two events combined. Rahm trails Johnson in second place in the FedExCup standings, with Justin Thomas, Webb Simpson, and Collin Morikawa rounding out the top five heading into the final event. Johnson therefore starts the TOUR Championship with a score of minus-10, with Rahm at minus-8, Thomas at minus-7, Simpson at minus-6, and Morikawa at minus-5.
With only 30 golfers making the cut for the TOUR Championship, and a staggered starting leaderboard, the betting odds are understandably top-heavy. Thomas is right behind Johnson and Rahm at +600 followed by Simpson (+1200), Morikawa (+2000) and Rory McIlroy (+2000). Daniel Berger looks to have some value further down the board at +2800 behind Bryson DeChambeau (+2200) and Xander Schauffele (+2500). Hideki Matsuyama joins Berger at +2800 before a big drop.
Arguably the best value on the board looks to be Harris English at +5000 on the golf odds for the week. English ranked seventh in the FedExCup standings with 1,805 points, which is 123 more than DeChambeau (1,682). Matsuyama also made one of the biggest moves in the standings, going from 18th to 10th last week. Tony Finau made an even larger leap, going from 29th to 20th, and he is also +5000 to win the TOUR Championship.
Other notable positive moves in the FedExCup standings include Rahm going from ninth to second and Mackenzie Hughes (+40000) from 36th to 28th. But the golfer with the most significant jump was Joaquin Niemann (+15000), who went from 31st to 18th following a third-place finish at the BMW Championship after missing the cut in two of his previous three events. Niemann and Matsuyama both finished two strokes back.
