The golfing season rolls on this week as the PGA Tour returns to Utah for the first time since 1963 with the inaugural Black Desert Championship taking centre stage. Check out our full preview and betting tips for the event below.
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PGA Tour: Black Desert Championship
Black Desert Resort, Utah - Thursday 10th - Sunday 13th October
The FedEx Cup fall continues this week as players on the cusp of earning their full PGA Tour card look to solidify their case. The Black Desert Championship marks the third in the eight series event. As such, a lot of the top line players in the world are still opting to sit out these events, which presents plenty of unknown and opportunity in the betting markets.
The Field
The favourite for the event, Keith Mitchell, is currently sitting at around 22/1 to win, highlighting just how wide open this tournament is. Other top names in the field include Seamus Power, Kurt Kitayama, Patrick Fishburn, Ryan Fox, Harrish English and Beau Hossler, who was unlucky to miss out on a win last week after going down in a playoff to Kevin Yu.
Given this is the inaugural hosting of the Black Desert Championship, there are no past winners who can draw on their experience this week, but there are some players with Utah ties in the field. Zac Blair and Patrick Fishburn both hail from the Beehive State, and will be looking to salute for the home crowd this week.
In other field notes, Jay Don Blake has earned a sponsors exemption to tee it up on the PGA Tour for the 500th time, becoming just the 152nd player to accomplish the feat.
The Course
Black Desert Resort, while unknown to the PGA Tour, has a lot of known characteristics that suggests that it will play as one of the easier courses on the circuit this season. The course has some of the widest fairways on tour and has just two water hazards in play throughout the 18 holes.
It will play as a Par 71 at just over 7,350 yards, but distance shouldn't be an issue for the pros here given the increased width of the fairways. The Tom Weiskopf/Phil Smith design was fully opened in 2023, so this is the first real look that us as fans/punters will get at professionals playing here.
Betting Tips
Erik Van Rooyen ($38/Top 20 $2.37)
The South African has been in some shaky and streaky form of late, pairing some stellar outings with some missed cuts. However, I think he is a class above the majority of this largely limited field, and is coming off a T12 at the Irish Open a few weeks ago. Combined with a T33 at the St. Jude and a T6 at the Rocket Mortgage in recent events, I think he is the best bet of the week in Utah.
Ryan Fox ($36/Top 20 $2.30)
Another one that just plots around for made cuts in stronger fields that I think could really elevate against this competition. Has only missed the cut twice in his last 14 events and has made the cut at his last eight major starts in a row, further prooving he can match it in much stronger fields.
