Confidence Factor: Fantasy golf tips for The Open Championship

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Scottie Scheffler might have earned top spot in the FedExCup standings heading into the TOUR Championship in Atlanta but fans of Max Homa and Cameron Smith have one big reason to suggest their men brought more joy in 2022. The cream of the 2022 PGA TOUR season descends on East Lake Golf Club this week chasing the prestigious FedExCup and the $18 million bonus that comes with it. All 30 players in the field will have dreams of hoisting the Cup even if they are starting various distances behind points leader Scottie Scheffler. If you had placed a $100 bet with BetMGM Sportsbook when the markets opened for every PGA TOUR event the top 30 played in this season it wouldn’t be Scheffler who profited you the most money. Even with his TOUR leading four wins from 24 starts Scheffler’s return for those bets would have profited $7,800, a mark that falls behind Smith and Homa. Of the 30 players in the field, 22 of them had at least one win this season. Scheffler started at +2800 for his first career win at WM Phoenix Open, +1600 for his Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard triumph and +1800 for his World Golf Championships – Dell Technologies Match Play dominance. He opened at +4000 for the Masters although by tournament week he’d tightened in to +1600. Had you waited till then your profit above would’ve dropped from $7,800 to $5,400. But if you jumped on the mullet toting Australian Smith you would’ve collected at +2000 for his Sentry Tournament of Champions win, +3300 for his PLAYERS Championship efforts and +5000 for his historic Open Championship win at St. Andrews. To be fair, much like Scheffler at the Masters, Smith’s odds had been slashed by tournament week to +2500 so profit for those bettors would drop from the $8,600 to $6,100. And then there is Homa. The very popular TOUR pro opened at a very juicy +6600 for his season opening win at the Fortinet Championship and then helped his fans out at +4000 for his Wells Fargo Championship. As such Homa’s wins would’ve turned a $8,300 profit from his 23 starts. For the record Scheffler starts at +250 at East Lake this week, mainly due to the fact he starts the tournament 10-under as the top seed so his return for a win won’t put him over the others. Smith is +2500 starting six shots back while Homa would bring a hefty +12500 payday but he is starting eight shots off the pace. Interestingly the next three best returns over the year come from players in Atlanta off the back of just one win this season. Sepp Straka’s win at The Honda Classic came at +10000 but his TOUR Championship leading 32 starts this season mean the profit drops to $6,800 for those Straka lovers out there. K.H. Lee was a very generous +8000 leading into his title defense at the AT&T Byron Nelson but his second straight win at the event means his profit line sits at $5,300. And Billy Horschel had an incredible ball-striking week to win the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday at +6600 leaving a profit this season of $4,500 for his fans. Three-time winner Sam Burns collects came at +1600, +2000 and +2500 leaving profit after his 23 starts at $3,800 while U.S. Open winner Matt Fitzpatrick opened at +5000 to bring a $3,100 profit if his fans backed him every week. Last week’s BMW Championship winner and current FedExCup reigning champion Patrick Cantlay would have represented a loss for his betting fans prior to the triumph at Wilmington Country Club. But his salute from +1600, combined with his +800 collect in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans brings a $500 profit for the Patty Ice crew. Cantlay’s teammate in New Orleans, Xander Schauffele, would have provided a $2,600 profit from his three wins. The +800 at the Zurich Classic, combined with wins at +2000 for the Travelers Championship and +2500 for the Scottish Open helped his followers. Despite sporting victories this season fans of Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas and Viktor Hovland would still be facing a loss on their seasons. Rahm’s win at the Mexico Open came when he was a heavy favorite at +450 so his 18 starts means a loss at -$1350. Thomas was as high as +25000 during the final round of the PGA Championship but he opened at +1200 so unless you connected on live odds it’s a loss of -$800 over the season. And Hovland’s win at Mayakoba came at +1600 leaving a season loss of -$400. Of the eight players without wins, the biggest loss would be with rookie Sahith Theegala at -$3,100 from his 31 starts.

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AUGUSTA, Ga. — Even without spectators in November, the Masters Tournament promised to deliver more drama with 10 players separated by a single shot going into a weekend filled with possibilities. And then Dustin Johnson turned it into a one-man show. RELATED: Leaderboard | Rory finding his stride | DeChambeau battles dizziness to make cut The reigning FedExCup champion looked every bit the part Saturday, racing away from a five-way share of the lead with an explosive start — 4 under through four holes — and never letting his foot off the gas until he had a 7-under 65 and matched the 54-hole Masters record. More importantly, Johnson had a four-shot lead. Sunday will be the third time Johnson takes a solo lead into the final round of a major, along with two other majors where he was tied for the lead. His only major was the 2016 U.S. Open when he came from behind. Most recently, he had a one-shot lead at Harding Park in the PGA Championship this summer, closed with a 68 and lost to a 64 by Collin Morikawa. This effort was master class. Johnson used putter from above a slope to the right of the 18th green to 5 feet and holed that for a par to cap off another bogey-free round and reach 16-under 200. That ties the record set by Jordan Spieth in 2015, when he went on to a four-shot victory over Justin Rose and Phil Mickelson. Not all the players chasing Johnson are as familiar. Two of them are Masters rookies. Sungjae Im, the supreme ball-striker from South Korea who won his first PGA TOUR title two weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down golf in the spring, birdied the last hole for 68. Abraham Ancer of Mexico saved par on the 18th for a 69. They were at 12-under 204, along with Cameron Smith of Australia. Smith opened with 12 pars before running off three straight birdies and scrambling his way home to a 69. Justin Thomas and Jon Rahm had their chances only to make untimely mistakes. Rahm nearly topped his second shot on the par-5 eighth and hit his next one off a tree and into the bushes on his way to a double bogey. Thomas sailed his second shot over the 15th green and into the water, making bogey on a par 5 where he was hoping to make up ground. Both bogeyed the 18th hole. Thomas shot 71, Rahm had a 72. Asked to describe his day, Rahm didn’t mince words. "Seriously? How would I describe? Pretty awful," he said. Defending champion Tiger Woods will stick around Sunday to present the green jacket, and he’ll have to leave his at Augusta National until he returns. Woods was 4 under through 10 holes to start the Masters, and he picked up only one more shot over the next 44 holes. He finished off a 71 in the second round, had a 72 in the third round and was 11 shots behind. It likely didn’t help the 44-year-old Woods to go 26 holes on soft turf of a hilly course, "It’s just part of the deal," he said. "If you have long days like this, I’m going to get a little bit sore, which I definitely am." U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau was more dizzy than sore. He felt so odd on Thursday night that he had another COVID-19 test to be sure — it came back negative — and the betting favorite of this Masters was in the middle of the pack. The scoring has been low all week. The 36-hole cut Saturday morning was at even-par 144, the lowest in Masters history, another update to the club’s record book. Still in front of Johnson is a chance to set the 72-hole record. All he cares about is a green jacket, and given his past experience, he knows better than to look ahead. "I feel like I’m swinging well and I’ve got a lot of confidence in what I’m doing. Everything is going well," he said. "There’s a lot of really good players right around me. I’m going to have play aggressive when I can and play smart when I can’t.” He was aggressive at the start. First, he drilled a 5-iron he nearly holed for an albatross on the par-5 second, leaving him a tap-in eagle. He followed that with a lofted pitch to 5 feet for birdie on No. 3, and a 40-foot birdie putt up the slope on the par-3 fourth hole as the lead began to grow. Thomas was within two shots until he made mistakes and Johnson kept going. Johnson had two-putt birdies on the par 5s on the back nine, and he hasn’t made a bogey since the sixth hole of his second round.

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