By Richard Gardner - Bookmaker, Bodog.com
Special to VegasInsider.com
To the casual golf fan, the PGA Tour season basically ends on the 72nd hole of the PGA Championship, the year’s final Grand Slam tournament. But to the golf bettor, there is tremendous value in wagering on the FedEx Cup, which is the PGA Tour’s version of a playoff system.
The four-tournament FedEx Cup begins this week at The Barclays tournament in Jersey City, New Jersey. And the good news for the betting public is that Tiger Woods is in the field for the event. This is noteworthy because Tiger had not played in The Barclays since it became the first playoff event in 2007 – Tiger that year had such a big lead in the points standings that it didn’t matter that he skipped this event; in 2008, Woods was out injured. But this year, there is a week off before the finale of the FedEx Cup, the Tour Championship. So that means it’s quite possible that Tiger, once again the runaway points leader, does play in all four Cup events this year (he never plays four weeks in a row).
Woods will start the playoffs with a lead of 1,276 points, but a victory in any of the first three events of the FedEx Cup is worth 2,500 points. Thus anyone who wins The Barclays, Deutsche Bank Championship or BMW Championship is all but a lock to qualify for the 30-man-field at the Tour Championship. This year, the field also will see its points reset before the Tour Championship, which means any player who might win that tournament at East Lake in Atlanta could be crowned the FedEx Cup champion and be awarded the $10 million prize. Only the top five in points entering the Tour Championship are assured of winning the FedEx Cup with a victory at that tournament, however.
Here at Bodog, we see a 20 percent increase in betting volume when Tiger is in the field. Of course, Tiger also is always an overwhelming betting favorite, rendering him not great value. For example, at the PGA Championship two weeks ago Woods was +200 to win. The next-best priced guys were Padraig Harrington and Phil Mickelson at +2000, so backers of those two top players got excellent value. Mickelson disappointed at Hazeltine, but Harrington was in the hunt until Sunday. PGA Championship winner Y.E. Yang wasn’t even among the list of players available for a price – he was among the field bet.
Woods probably will be extra-motivated to win the FedEx Cup because he was 0-for-4 in the majors this year. Tiger won the inaugural playoffs in 2007, including taking the Tour Championship. Vijay Singh is the defending champ of the playoffs after winning the first two events of the Cup last year and holding such a commanding lead to where all he needed to do was tee it up and finish the Tour Championship to clinch; Singh began the playoffs No. 7 in points. Because the first two playoffs have lacked drama entering the Tour Championship, the PGA changed tweaked playoffs again and added that reset formula for the finale in 2009.
Don’t rule out Singh repeating this year. The Fijian started the season slow off knee surgery but has played much better of late. Singh hasn’t missed a cut since early June and was T16 at the PGA Championship. And of course he is the defending champ at the first two events of the FedEx Cup; Singh is +700 to win the opening Barclays tournament.
We at Bodog also believe Sergio Garcia will finish a disappointing year strongly. He missed the cut at the PGA Championship but finished fourth at the Wyndham Championship last week. Last year in the FedEx Cup events, Sergio had two runner-up finishes and never ended worse than 20th. We expect Garcia to draw the second-most betting volume behind Tiger.
By the way, if you are just a casual golf betting fan and lose interest in the sport once football is going, we already have specials on Tiger for the 2010 PGA Tour season. He is +2500 to win all four majors next year, a feat Woods has yet to accomplish in one calendar year. Tiger is +200 to go major-less again in 2010.
