It’s been a well-deserved break for PGA Tour professionals over the Christmas period but the action resumes this week in Hawaii with the annual Sentry Tournament of Champions taking centre stage! As usual, we have you covered with a full preview and betting tips for the upcoming event below.
PGA Tour: Tournament of Champions Betting Tips
It’s an interesting tournament that resumes the PGA Tour schedule this week and kicks off what is set to be a monster 2021 in golf. The Tournament of Champions is an annual tournament in Kapalua, Hawaii that brings together all of the tournament winners from the previous calendar year. The action gets underway on Friday morning (Australian time) and continues throughout the weekend.
The Course
The Plantation Course at Kapalua Resort in Hawaii is the annual host of the Sentry Tournament of Champions and this year it will play as a Par 73 at just under 7,600 yards. It is one of the longest courses on the PGA Tour schedule and with high winds off the ocean; players really need to be dialled in off the tee to play well at the Plantation Course.
The course was the first to be designed by the team of Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore, a duo that have become one of the most highly sought-after design teams in all of golf. After the 2018 tournament, $10 million was pumped into the course to make it more playable for PGA Tour professionals, this included lengthening a portion of holes as well as regressing all tees and rough with Celebration Bermuda.
Generally, a score in the high teens or low twenties under par wins this event, although Justin Thomas took out the Tournament of Champions with a score of -14 in tough conditions last year.
The Field
45 players qualified for the Sentry Tournament of Champions this year by winning a tournament last season. Of those 45 players, 42 will be teeing it up this week, with only Rory McIlroy, Tyrrell Hatton and Jim Herman to miss the event. A full list of the field and starting odds can be found below:
Betting Tips
How hard is it to look past Dustin Johnson here. The No.1 ranked player in the world had one of the all-time great seasons last year, winning the Travelers Championship, the Northern Trust, the Tour Championship (and Fed Ex Cup) and capping it all off with his first green jacket at Augusta in November. With the 2021 Masters only a few months away, he will be keen to carry on the momentum of his stellar 2020 calendar year in Hawaii, where he has already won two times in 2013 and 2018.
Dustin Johnson to win
$7.00
If you’re hunting a bit more value, we love the look of Daniel Berger this week. Granted, Berger is still one of the favourites and in a 42 strong field, you won’t see the type of value you would in a standard 140+ player golf tournament. Berger was fantastic in the PGA Tour season last year, winning the Charles Schwab Challenge, his third PGA Tour victory and climbing the world rankings to No.12. Berger has played in the Tournament of Champions on two occasions, resulting in a 14th place finish in 2017 and an 11th in 2018.
