If you bet on golf regularly you’ll know that Dustin Johnson is the golf betting favourite to win the 2017 Players Championship to be held May 11th-14th at TPC Sawgrass (Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass, if you’re not into the whole brevity thing) in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. However, DJ is far from being a shoe-in to win as there’ll be 24 of the top 25 in the world rankings and 55 of the top 60 – so competition will be tight.
Dustin Johnson
The World No. 1 had his three-tournament-winning momentum screech to a halt after falling down some stairs. Perhaps he was reenacting the Odessa Stairs scene in The Battleship Potemkin? Johnson had to pull out of the Masters but nonetheless returned as the golf betting favourite to win the Wells Fargo Championship, where he was along with Pat Perez the runner up to Brian Harman by one stroke. Historically, DJ only managed to break the top 30 at TPC last year after seven starts.
Rory McIlroy
Wee Mac had his second best finish in the Masters Tournament, tying with Kevin Chappell in seventh place. People who bet on golf have spotted McIlroy with a new TaylorMade driver in his bag, in lieu of Callaway’s Epic Sub Zero driver he had been using before taking some time off to marry his now-wife – to whom he will hopefully be more faithful than to his clubs. Though to be fair it was Nike Golf who left Rory and not the other way around, so he’s free to play the field without feeling guilty.
Jordan Spieth
Spieth was left out of the top 10 in the Masters and had previously missed the cut at the Shell Houston Open. Spieth also participated in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans where he tag teamed with Ryan Palmer, but that was only because he lost a bet.
Jason Day
The Australian is the most recent winner of the Players Championship – though he didn’t so much just win it as he crushed it. JD tied the course record with an opening 63 in 2016 and became only the fifth wire-to-wire winner in the history of the competition in a four-stroke triumph. Day’s total of 15-under-par 273 was the lowest score at TPC Sawgrass in 10 years. This would be the perfect golf betting opportunity for the World No. 3 to bounce back for a T22 finish at the Masters, but then he would have to become the first ever back-to-back winner of the Players Championship.
The Spanish Contingent
Jon Rahm and Sergio Garcia have each won a PGA Tour event this season, with Garcia notoriously winning the Masters Tournament, as people who bet on golf no doubt remember. The Players Championship will be Garcia’s first start since winning his first major, but unlike the Masters, golf betting favourite Johnson will be out on the field this time. Rahm won the Farmers Insurance Open in January and finished fourth at the Wells Fargo Championship behind Johnson and Perez.