TOUR Championship Picks, Predictions, Odds
The 2021-22 PGA Tour season will conclude on Sunday when the 30 best golfers on the PGA Tour compete in the TOUR Championship. This will not be a normal PGA Tour event though, as the TOUR Championship will use Starting Strokes in order to give the top performing players this season an advantage heading into the last tournament.
For the fourth straight season, the format will have the No. 1 ranked golfer (in this case, Scottie Scheffler) start at 10-under. The No. 2 ranked golfer (Patrick Cantlay) will start at 8-under, while No. 3 ranked Will Zalatoris will be seven-under when he tees off. No. 4 Xander Schauffele has the privilege of being six-under before he swings a club on Thursday, and No. 5 Sam Burns starts at five-under.
From there, the advantages are divided into groups. Golfers that are ranked 6-10 will be four-under, and golfers 11-15 will be three-under. Those ranked 16-20 will start two-under, the competitors ranked 21-25 will start one-under, and the final five entrants will start at even par.
The 2022 TOUR Championship takes place at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia. This is a par 70 course that is over 7,300 yards, and it is where the PGA Tour has concluded its season since 2004.
TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP BEST BETS
- Patrick Cantlay to win the TOUR Championship (+430)
- Rory McIlroy Top 5 Finish (+130)
- Rory McIlroy to Lead After the 1st Round (+3300)
PATRICK CANTLAY TO WIN THE EVENT (+430)
We saw Patrick Cantlay win the FedEx Cup last season, and the 30-year-old has a great chance to win this competition for the second straight year. Cantlay will start the TOUR Championship at eight-under, meaning the only person he will be trailing is Scottie Scheffler.
Cantlay turned it on at this time last year, winning the BMW Championship with a jaw dropping 27-under to enter the TOUR Championship ranked No. 1. He needed all 10 of those strokes to hold off a hard-charging Jon Rahm, and he is in great position once again. After a poor performance at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, he won the BMW Championship last week and has now finished T8 in four of his last five tournaments.
RORY MCILROY TOP 5 FINISH (+130)
After going against Rory McIlroy last week, this is a good spot to back the two-time FedEx Cup champion. McIlroy hasn’t won an event since the RBC Canadian Open in June, but he has two T5 finishes and a T8 in his last five tournaments. As the 7th ranked golfer in the FedEx Cup Rankings, McIlroy will start this tournament four-under, and he leads the PGA Tour in scoring average and sits second in driving distance.
McIlroy only managed to finish 14th last year, but he won his event in 2016 and 2019, and he finished T8 in 2018 and 2020.
RORY MCILROY TO LEAD AFTER ROUND 1 (+3300)
Along those lines, it’s worth a shot to bet on McIlroy to lead this tournament after the first round at 33-1. He will be six shots behind Scottie Scheffler and four shots behind Patrick Cantlay to start this event, but McIlroy leads the PGA Tour in first round scoring. Additionally, he has always finished the first round under par in his eight previous appearances at the TOUR Championship.
