Betting the 2020 Players Championship: Outright bets to fade

Analyzing the outright odds to win the 2020 Players Championship, and looking at some risky bets to avoid at TPC Sawgrass.

TPC Sawgrass once again welcomes the strongest field in golf for the 2020 Players Championship. Tiger Woods is one of just four members of the top 50 in the Golfweek/Sagarin world rankings taking this week off, as he makes his final preparations for next month’s Masters Tournament. Here at SportsbookWire, we’ve been analyzing the odds to win The Players Championship, and here we look at five popular bets to fade this week.

2020 Players Championship: Bets to fade

Odds provided by BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated Tuesday at 1 p.m. ET.

Patrick Cantlay (+2500)

Cantlay makes his return to competitive play this week following surgery for a deviated septum. While it’s not a knee, elbow or wrist injury likely to hinder his play going forward, jumping right back into competitive play against a strong field will be tough.

Cantlay is No. 4 in the world by the Golfweek rankings, but he’s eighth by BetMGM’s odds. This is typically a good indication of value as the odds don’t reflect a golfer’s pedigree, but I’m willing to trust the books here. Cantlay missed the cut last year and hasn’t finished better than T-22 (2017) at TPC Sawgrass.


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Rickie Fowler (+3500)

The 2015 Players champion is always a popular betting pick, especially at these inflated odds. Since his marquee win here, he has missed the cut twice with finishes of T-47 last year and T-60 in 2017. He has just one top-10 finish in a full-field event since the 2019 Open Championship.

Tyrrell Hatton (+4500)

Hatton broke through with his first PGA Tour win last week. He’ll now attempt the rare back-to-back win at an event in which he missed the cut each of the last two years. He’s in top form, but he’ll face a stronger field and he’ll have little confidence on TPC Sawgrass.


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Jordan Spieth (+8000)

Spieth, a former world No. 1, enters the week 46th in the Golfweek rankings. He had just five top-10 finishes in 2019 but claimed his first of 2020 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, but he has followed it up with a T-59 at The Genesis Invitational and a T-58 at the WGC-Mexico Championship. He has four missed cuts in his last five appearances at The Players, with a lone four-round finish of T-41.

Phil Mickelson (+10000)

Much like several of the names here, Mickelson would typically be an attractive bet at his posted odds, but certainly not at TPC Sawgrass and in this strong of a field. Lefty won here in 2007, but has four missed cuts in his last five visits and has also missed the cut in four of his six events to open 2020.

Also see:

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