The latest golf betting odds favor Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth equally to win the 2018 Sentry Tournament of Champions – the one event in the PGA Tour whose official theme song should be Queen’s We Are The Champions. Spieth (+605) and Thomas (+605) are of course the two most recent winners of this competition. Spieth won the last edition of the event to be known as the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in 2016, while Thomas prevailed in the only iteration under the SBS Tournament of Champions banner last year.
Sentry Tournament of Champions
- Date: January 4th-7th
- Location: Kapalua, Hawaii
- Established: 1953
- Course: Kapalua Resort Plantation Course (1999–present)
- Par: 73
- Length: 7,452 yards (6,814 m)
- Organized by: PGA Tour
- Tour: PGA Tour
- Format: Stroke play
Winning the 2017 Tournament of Champions automatically qualified Thomas for the 2018 edition. Just to make sure, though, JT won four other tournaments last year, including one major championship; the Sony Open in Hawaii, the PGA Championship, the Dell Technologies Championship, and The CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges. That’s what people betting on golf tournaments call a banner year – and what pedantic people like yours truly call annus mirabilis. Thomas’s most recent outing was an 11th place finish at the unofficial Hero World Challenge in December.
And now on to the other favorite to win the SToC, according to the latest golf betting odds. World No. 2 Spieth has won three Tour events in the previous calendar year; the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the Travelers Championship, and most noteworthy, the 146th Open Championship. Spieth has also had six straight top 10 finishes, including solo seconds in The Northern Trust, and the Dell Technologies Championship, and a T3 in the Hero World Challenge. In addition to winning the 2016 edition of the tourney, Spieth was the runner-up in 2014.
Other candidates to win the 2018 Sentry Tournament of Champions include…
Dustin Johnson (+705). DJ opened his 2018 PGA Tour on a strong note with a T2 finish in the WGC – HSBC Champions, and followed that up with a T14 at the Hero World Challenge. The World No. 1 won the 2013 Tournament of Champions.
Rickie Fowler (+705). Fowler also came out swinging with a 1-2, or rather, 2-1 punch, placing 2nd in the OHL Classic at Mayakoba, and winning the Hero World Challenge. Fowler has had 11 top 5 finishes in his last 12 starts.
Hideki Matsuyama (+1015). The Japanese golfer was the runner-up to Thomas in 2017, to whom he lost by three strokes. Five seems to be Matsuyama’s favorite number as of late. He had a solo 5th at the Dunlop Phoenix Tournament, two T5’s in the CIMB Classic and the Hero World Challenge, and a T50 at the WGC – HSBC Champions.
Jon Rahm (+1150). The Spaniard finished T36 in the WGC – HSBC Champions but did win the DP World Tour Championship on the European Tour, so he does have a fair amount of momentum entering the Sentry Tournament of Champions, even if the latest golf betting odds don’t exactly favor him.