The PGA Tour will wrap up its 2021-22 season this week with the 2022 Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Ga. It’s the final leg of the FedExCup Playoffs with just 30 players vying to win the year-long chase for the title — and the $18 million 1st-place check.
Below, we look at the 2022 Tour Championship odds and make our PGA Tour picks and predictions.
The field is limited to only the top 30 players in the FedExCup standings, led by Scottie Scheffler at No. 1. Patrick Cantlay and Will Zalatoris, the winners of the first 2 legs of the playoffs, round out the top 3, with Xander Schauffele at 4 and Sam Burns at 5. Aaron Wise is the last player in the field, coming in at No. 30 in the standings.
This event features staggered scoring based on where players stand in the FedExCup standings. Scheffler will begin the week at 10-under par, followed by Cantlay (-8), Zalatoris (-7), Schauffele (-6) and Burns (-5). The next 5 players begin at 4-under, followed by 5 at 3-under and so on until the final 5 players start at even par.
East Lake is hosting the season finale once again, doing so every year since 2005. It’s a challenging course that’s just a par-70, but it’ll play at 7,346 yards. It features bermuda grass greens with likely shorter rough than the players saw at Wilmington CC last week. There are only 2 par-5s on the course, which players will need to take advantage of considering there are several par-4s that play over 450 yards.
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Tour Championship – Expert picks
Odds provided by Tipico Sportsbook; access USA TODAY Sports Scores and Sports Betting Odds hub for a full list. Lines last updated Monday at 1:58 p.m. ET.
Xander Schauffele (+700)
Schauffele is playing some great golf right now and he was in position to win last week at the BMW Championship. He came up just 2 shots shy of his buddy Cantlay, but he still has 3 wins in his last 10 starts – including the 2-man Zurich Classic. When considering betting value and positioning entering this week, Schauffele is a nice mix of both. Plus, he’s never finished worse than T-7 at the Tour Championship, winning in 2017.
Rory McIlroy (+1200)
McIlroy has a terrific track record at East Lake, winning twice and finishing in the top 10 another 4 times since 2012. What makes him an especially intriguing play this week is the aggressiveness he can play with. We saw him struggle at The Open Championship when he was playing with a lead, but now that he’s going to start the week trailing by 6 shots, he can attack pins and put the pedal to the floor.
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Tour Championship picks – Contenders
Sungjae Im (+3000)
Im has been on a tear, tying for 2nd in back-to-back starts at the 3M Open and Wyndham Championship before finishing solo 12th in the first round of the playoffs and T-15 last week. He’s a guy who can go really low when playing from behind and his ball-striking has been impressive all year, but specifically in the last month or so. He doesn’t have the best history here, never finishing better than 11th in 3 tries.
Cameron Smith (+2000)
Smith withdrew from the BMW Championship with hip discomfort, so it remains to be seen if he’ll tee it up this week – especially with LIV rumors looming. But assuming he does play, he’s a perfect play this week. Despite his poor course history, Smith knows how to chase down leaders, just as he did at the Open against McIlroy. His putter is red hot and there’s no reason to think it will cool off in Atlanta.
Tour Championship picks – Long shot
Hideki Matsuyama (+9000)
This isn’t really the week to bet on long shots, given the staggered start. It’s hard to imagine a player like K.H. Lee erasing a 10-shot deficit to Scheffler, especially with 4 other players already having at least a 5-shot lead on him, too. But Matsuyama will start 8 shots back and he could make things interesting with a strong start on Thursday. Of course, he’s +9000 to win, so bet accordingly, but there’s some value here.
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Golfweek:
- Who’s in, Who’s out of the FedEx Cup top 30 and the Tour Championship
- PGA Tour 2K23 sets release date, to feature playable professionals
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