PGA Tour Betting Is Back As Live Golf Returns To Colonial

Bookmakers, Picks and Betting on Longshots at Colonial

The PGA Tour returns to action this week at Colonial Country Club following a three month hiatus due to the COVID-19 health crises. And while there will be no fans in the stands for the event, there will be a strong field competing on the course with 16 of the top 20 players in the World Golf Rankings. Not included is Tiger Woods or Adam Scott, who will not be playing during June due to coronavirus concerns and the PGA’s safety plan.

Fans and bettors will be tuning in, and watching and betting on golf again. That includes in-game betting as odds adjust and player performances change shot by shot and hole by hole. William Hill and the Westgate Superbook, sportsbook leaders in Las Vegas and Nevada, answered some of my inquiries about the return of golf and the PGA Tour.

“My expectation is very high for this tournament,” William Hill Director of Trading Nick Bogdanovich told me.

• Date: June 14-17, 2020
• Event: Charles Schwab Challenge
• Course: Colonial Country Club
• Location: Fort Worth, Texas
• Scorecard: Par 70 and approx. 7,200 yards
• Purse: $7.5 Million ($1.35 Million to winner)
• Watch: TV on CBS and Golf Channel with online streaming on PGA Tour Live, CBS and NBC
• Twitter: @CSChallengeFW

⛳ Updated trends for the Charles Schwab Challenge ⛳

McIlroy still tops total dollars wagered at 9% while Spieth has kept his lead for total number of tickets at 6%.

For the updated odds and to check out all the recently added first-round score props click ⬇️

— William Hill US (@WilliamHillUS) June 10, 2020

My tournament preview with information you can bet on is provided at Forbes. Included are odds on longshots and favorites to win and top 5 finishing position, along with player performances, tournament match-ups of interest and insight from bookmakers and pro bettors and handicappers. Added insight and GolfStats provided performance charts and more.

Featured groups Thursday and Friday.

• McIlroy, Rahm, Koepka
• Fowler, Thomas, Spieth
• DeChambeau, Johnson, Rose
• Mickelson, Na, Woodland

Odds to Win and Top 5 finish from FanDuel Sportsbook.

Player	Odds to Win	Top 5	Player	Odds to Win	Top 5
R. Mcilroy	800	185	S. Scheffler	4000	850
J. Rahm	1200	300	T. Finau	4000	750
J. Thomas	1600	380	M. Leishman	4200	750
B. Dechambeau	2200	550	C. Morikawa	4500	750
B. Koepka	2500	650	J. Rose	4500	900
W. Simpson	2500	500	J. Day	4500	1100
D. Johnson	2800	650	M. Kuchar	4500	1000
P. Reed	2800	650	M. Fitzpatrick	4500	1000
J. Spieth	3200	900	S. Garcia	4500	1400
S. Im	3300	650	G. Woodland	5000	1100
X. Schauffele	3300	650	S. Lowry	5500	1100
R. Fowler	3500	750	K. Na	5500	750

Betting is expected to be brisk according to Jay Kornegay, Vice President of Race and Sports at the Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas.

“The tournament at Colonial has a lot of big names and I’ll be disappointed if we don’t see action pick up,” Kornegay told me.

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I add additional tournament info, odds and betting activity in my article at TheLines. That includes where the money is going on players including longshot Jordan Spieth (+5000), who has been bet down as a popular player in the outright market this week. He from Texas, lives in Dallas and is a past champion in 2016 who was also runner-up in 2015 and 2017.  Spieth was a featured player at the media press conference Tuesday before the event and shared information on the course and changes in golf and the environment with the COVID-19 crisis.

“Being in the fairway is very key, just to be able to control your distances into the greens. But a lot of it is picking apart the golf course, as Colonial forces you to hit to certain areas and play from there,” Spieth said.

Fairway’s Foursome: Favorites – Rahm, Schauffele, Finau, Spieth

Fairway’s Foursome: Longshots – English (+7000), Hadwin (+12500), Hoge (+15000), Lee (+15000)

Tournament Match-ups: Simpson (-130) over DeChambeau – Fowler (+110) over Reed – Na (-120) over Horschel

Winning Score: under 265.5 (-16 or better)

Number of times Social Distancing is said on CBS broadcast: O/U 9.5