“With the PGA Tour returning ahead of many major sports, they have been put in a prime position to show a leading example. I would imagine they are taking this very seriously. And the golfers have to take it very seriously as well,” says Fowler. Texas reported a third straight day of record coronavirus hospitalizations, and while the PGA Tour is doing their best to create a bubble surrounding the players and caddies, a positive test for COVID-19 would not only force a player to withdraw from the tournament but also raise alarm bells for other sports intent on resuming their seasons. Whatever narratives bettors choose to follow when picking a winner or rostering a daily fantasy team, a sudden injury can deep six an entry, and now there is a new wrinkle on that front. This has the feeling of a WGC or a major. Jordan Spieth now sees all these players-Rose, Woodland, Xander, Brooks, Webb, Bryson, JT, Rickie-does he have the same type of feeling as he did when the fields weren’t as deep?”įowler cites Kevin Na, last year’s winner, and Kevin Tway as two more examples of golfers who fit the same mold of looking pretty made in the shade through the lens of past performance yet their shine fades considerably when you consider the strength of the field. Jon Rahm has played in this tournament and got really close to winning. Brooks Koepka was second in 2018, in his first time, and he beat Justin Rose. “Rory McIlroy, in his debut tournaments last year, the four or five he competed in for the first time, never went outside the top five. He explains that on the one hand Spieth had all this time off to recalibrate his game and iron out the kinks that have prevented him from winning tournaments these last few years, but on the other hand, even if you can buy into that narrative, you also have to factor in that this is the strongest field that this tournament has ever seen. This is why it so much fun talking about golf betting, you talk about narrative and try to play golf-star sports psychologist and data scientist,” says Fowler. “Jordan is such an interesting test case. Jordan Spieth’s game tends to shine at Colonial where he’s had only one finish outside the top 15 in seven starts. Tournament odds-on favorites include Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, and Justin Thomas but after such a long layoff golf may not pick up right where it left off and names who have not made much noise as of late could suddenly return to action in top playing form. In the NFL and NBA we have Tiers so DFS players who routinely played in those game types look at golf and say ‘hey I have a similar strategy around this, let’s see if it works here,’ as opposed to looking at the field which is 150+ golfers,” explains DraftKings golf analyst Reid Fowler. “You are putting these golfers into compartments. Partly in an effort to capture these more casual fans, DraftKings is reintroducing a new to golf DFS format initially piloted at the cancelled Players Championship called “Tiers.” Unlike their traditional games where players draft a fantasy team while staying under a $50,000 salary cap, in Tiers players are simply selected from pulldown menus offering a shortlist of favorites, longshots, short gamers, bombers, ballstrikers, and birdie makers. Open.Ĭoming on the heels of the TaylorMade Driving Relief event and with a still very limited live sports slate, viewers who might not otherwise pay any attention to a PGA Tour event may find themselves giving golf a shot. For a time the Arizona based Outlaw Tour was one of the only games going on and two weeks ago live betting during the soggy TaylorMade Driving Relief charity golf event saw 95% of the handle DraftKings Sportsbook took in during live wagering across all four of last year's golf majors combined. The Match sequel pitting Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning against Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady also generated double the handle of the previous most bet on golf tourney, the 2019 U.S. Golf is currently the fourth most bet on sport on DraftKings and bettors’ interest has been piqued during the pandemic. The Charles Schwab Challenge kicks off a compacted 14-tournament schedule which culminates in the TOUR Championship the first weekend in September. Their daily fantasy sports vertical is serving up a tournament pool with $3 million in prizes including a $1 million pay day for nabbing the top spot on the leaderboard which makes it the richest DraftKings payout for a non-major championship. As of this morning, Draftkings’ (NASDAQ:DKNG) Sportsbook had already taken in more than double the handle on the entire tournament made last year.