Known as the “fifth major,” The Players Championship has been a long-shot-bettor’s delight in recent years.
If you’ve picked the winner of this tournament that is annually played on Pete Dye’s diabolic TPC Sawgrass, you’ve cashed some big tickets as the average price on the last eight winners has been a whopping 108-to-1.
Of course, much of that is due to the fact that last year’s winner, Siwoo Kim, cashed a 500-to-1 ticket, but even in the previous years there were some big payouts with the likes of Jason Day (12-to-1), Rickie Fowler (66-to-1), Martin Kaymer (90-to-1), Matt Kuchar (55-to-1) and KJ Choi (45-to-1).
In addition, course management and solid course form at the TPC Sawgrass are also important, as 20 of last 23 winners made the cut the previous year at The Players.
As for other stats from the actual course, the two key ones we look at when handicapping this event are scrambling and greens in regulation. Length off the tee is not imperative here. The course has some of the smallest greens on Tour, and that’s why 12 of the last 18 winners have been in the Top-10 of the greens hit category and six of them led the field in that category.
So, we took all of the above into consideration, spoke with some of our golf-writing friends and put it all together to come up with two players we will be “on” this week..
We’re also betting a 25-to-1 shot and a 50-to-1 shot to win this weekend. If you would like those two plays, call Harry Bondi today at 1-877-332-0077
Match-up Bets
For those of you not familiar with betting on golf, match-up bets provide the best chance of winning money on a weekly basis. Betting players to win are usually worth a half-unit or quarter-unit, but you can bet match-ups at your regular bet size, because you simply have a better chance to win the bet, particularly if you find some mismatches like we have below at BetOnline, one of the sources we recommend on our Approved Sport Books Page.
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Henrik Stenson
Stenson is not only a former winner here (2009), but he also has six top 16 finishes on this course in 12 starts. What’s more, he ranks No. 1 on the PGA TOUR this season in Greens in Regulation and Driving Accuracy and fourth in Scrambling. But what really caught our attention was when the Big Swede finished a career-best 5th at the Masters. That’s not a course he’s excelled at, so for him to score a Top 5 there just goes to show how sharp his game is right now, in addition to the fact that he’s got a total of four Top 10s this season.
Let’s play a half-unit on Stenson to win The Players at 30-to-1 and play a full unit on him on in a match-up bet (-115) over Jon Rahm.
Bet on Henrik Stenson right now at BetOnline
Patrick Cantlay
Here’s another player in great form. Cantlay, who can be maddening to watch because he’s so slow, is super talented and we think he’s on the verge for a break-through win here, after securing four Top 10s this season. He ranks 19th in Greens in Regulation and proved he likes TPC Sawgrass last year when he finished 22nd. Even more impressive is the fact that after three rounds last year he was in seventh place, before struggling on Sunday. We think he learns from that Round 4 meltdown last year and is in contention this weekend.
Let’s play a half-unit on Cantlay to win The Players at 50-to-1 and play a full unit on him on in a match-up bet (-125) over Bryson DeChambeau, who is making his first-career start at The Players.