Tiger Woods has not won yet this year but he is still the favorite at sports betting companies for this week’s AT&T National. Woods is the defending champion but he is not the player he was last year. It doesn’t seem to matter to the sportsbetting oddsmakers though as they still have Tiger as a heavy favorite.
Sports betting companies list Jim Furyk as the second choice and Furyk has far better number this year than Woods. Justin Rose and Sean O’Hair are the co-third choices while Ben Crane, Robert Allenby and Rickey Fowler are the co-fifth choices. Also in the mix this week should be Dustin Johnson, Bo Van Pelt, Scott Verplank, Ricky Barnes and Hunter Mahan.
Woods is still the top ranked player in the world but those rankings are based on what he did last year. In the FedExCup standings, Woods is not even in the Top 10. Of the players in the field this week, Furyk is ranked third, Crane is ranked 5th while Allenby is ranked 10th.
Furyk probably should be the favorite but Woods still has the reputation so Furyk is relegated to the second choice. Furyk has already won twice this season. He is seventh in accuracy off the tee and 10th in scrambling. Based on the numbers, Ryan Moore should be right up there on the sportsbetting odds as well. He is second in total driving and eighth in ball striking. Verplank lost last week in a playoff at the Travelers so he could be an interesting choice this week. He has three top five finishes in four starts. This week will be a chance for Dustin Johnson to put behind him the unbelievable collapse he had in the U.S. Open.
The AT&T National is a tune-up for many of the top golfers in the world as they look forward to the British Open. It is a course that doesn’t demand length so many players who can hit the fairway and hit greens in regulation should be in the mix. A number of top players in addition to the ones already mentioned are in the field including Paul Goydos, Charley Hoffman, Charles Howell III, Ryuji Imada, Fredrik Jacobson, Jerry Kelly, Davis Love III, Rod Pampling, Brandt Snedeker Boo Weekley and YE Yang.