Tour Championship Odds: Big Money On The Line In Atlanta

The top-30 players in the FedExCup Standings will tee off at East Lake Golf Club this week and eight of them will pocket at least $1 million. The winner will capture the Tour Championship and earn an astounding $15 million and the runner-up $5 million. Third ($4 million), fourth ($3 million) and fifth place ($2.5 million) also earn more than any regular PGA Tour event.

East Lake has been the home of the Tour Championship every year since 2004. It also held the 1998, 2000 and 2002 Tour Championships. Starting in 2007, it became the final event of the FedExCup Playoffs.

The 30 golfers in the Tour Championship

There is no cut again this week, and even finishing last in 30^th place is worth nearly $400,000. Last year Justin Thomas started the Tour Championship as the leader and 10-under par, but he finished fifth while Rory McIlroy won after starting the event at 5-under par.

• Dustin Johnson
• Jon Rahm
• Justin Thomas
• Webb Simpson
• Collin Morikawa
• Daniel Berger
• Harris English
• Bryson DeChambeau
• Sungjae Im
• Hideki Matsuyama
• Brendon Todd
• Rory McIlroy
• Patrick Reed
• Xander Schauffele
• Sebastian Munoz
• Lanto Griffin
• Scottie Scheffler
• Joaquin Niemann
• Tyrrell Hatton
• Tony Finau
• Kevin Kisner
• Abraham Ancer
• Ryan Palmer
• Kevin Na
• Marc Leishman
• Cameron Smith
• Viktor Hovland
• Mackenzie Hughes
• Cameron Champ
• Billy Horschel

Tour Championship odds

It’s important to note that the above odds are for the outright winner without the FedEx Cup starting bonus applied. The player with the lowest 72-hole score over the four days will cash betting tickets.

However, you can also bet on the winner of the Tour Championship with the bonus strokes applied (more on the structure below). Heading into the FedExCup Playoffs and the Northern Trust, Dustin Johnson was 20/1 to win the FedExCup Championship. He is now at the top of the odds board (+188 at DraftKings) to win it. Jon Rahm (+300), Justin Thomas (+500) and Webb Simpson (+900) are his closest competitors.

View all Tour Championship odds at DraftKings, FanDuel and BetMGM.

The new scoring system with a staggered, stroke-adjusted start will surely favor the top 5-6 players at the top of the leaderboard.

Last year Justin Thomas started as the leader at 10-under par and was +225 to win. He finished tied for third. Rory McIlroy won the Tour Championship and $15 million after starting the tournament in fifth place 5-under par and 8/1 odds. He shot 13-under at East Lake and finished 18-under in the modified scoring format to win by four shots over Xander Schauffele and five shots better than Brooks Koepka and Thomas.

Koepka started the event 7-under par at odds of 9/2 to win. Schauffele started 4-under par at 25/1 odds and shot the lowest opening round score of 64 to get him into a tie for the lead at that point. Patrick Cantlay started -8 in second place but finish tied for 21st and never broke par in four rounds. Patrick Reed was +1600 when he started at -6 in fourth place and finished tied for ninth. Rahm has also +1600 when he started at -4 and finished tied for 12th place.  

Of the five players that started at the bottom at even par, Bryson DeChambeau finished the best and tied for 12th place. Paul Casey made the biggest move from the players that started in the bottom 15. Casey shot 9-under par. He started at 2-under par and finished tied for fifth place to cash in for $2.5 million. Casey’s odds to win were 80/1 to start the tournament, but he didn’t qualify for this year’s Tour Championship.

In the 2018 Tour Championship at East Lake prior to the modified scoring format, Dustin Johnson (8/1), Rory McIlroy (9/1) and Justin Thomas (10/1) were the favorites to win and their scoring and history playing at East Lake is excellent.

Tour Championship structure

The player who finishes the four rounds at Atlanta’s East Lake Golf Club with the lowest score in relation to par (included their staggered start) will win the FedExCup and be credited with a win at the Tour Championship.

So, the player who shoots the lowest gross score over four days at the season finale might not win the FedEx Cup.

With the new format, the leader in the FedExCup Standings will begin the week at 10 under par with the player in second at 8 under par, third at 7 under, fourth at 6 under and fifth at 5 under par. The next five will begin at 4-under, regressing by one stroke per five players until those ranked Nos. 26-30 start at even par.

This is not a great week to be betting the outright market to win with significantly reduced odds on the players given more strokes. But there are other ways to wager and tournament match-ups will be popular bets along with heavy interest in in-play betting.

Course and tournament information

• Course: East Lake Golf Club
• Location: Atlanta, GA
• Date: Sept. 4-7, 2020
• Par: 70 / Yardage 7,346
• Purse: $60 million (FedExCup Bonus) / Winner $15 Million
• Fairways/Rough: Zoysiagrass / Bermudagrass
• Greens: Bermudagrass (MiniVerde Ultra Dwarf)
• TV: Golf Channel and NBC (Sat-Sun)
• Live Streaming: NBCSports.com/live, NBC Sports App and PGA Tour Live
• Twitter: @playofffinale

East Lake Golf Club is an original Tom Bendelow design reworked by Donald Ross. The course was renovated in 1994 with a total rebuild by Rees Jones. There are 74 sand bunkers and five water hazards at East Lake, and the club was the home course of legendary golfer Bobby Jones.

East Lake is a classic tree-lined course that favors golfers that are precise with their irons and strong ball strikers. Hitting fairway’s is a premium and of significance, as the fairways at East Lake are among the 10 tightest on tour in average width. Over the course of time in the Tour Championship at East Lake, players have hit approximately 54% of fairways. From the fairways or rough, the lies are often uneven. When players miss a fairway, they hit just less than 50% of greens, and often scramble for par with fast and more undulating greens and putting surfaces. Scrambling stats are therefore worth reviewing.

The winning score in each of the last 12 Tour Championship events at East Lake has been between 7-under par and 13-under par.

The signature hole at East Lake is the Par 3, 15^th at 211 yards, but a downhill tee shot shortens some of the distance into a peninsula green surrounded by water to the front, right and left.

During the 2018 Tour Championship, many players commented that the greens were the best they had ever played.

Key stats and best performers at 2019 Tour Championship

In using some key Strokes Gained stats from the 2019 event at East Lake, here are the players that performed best that will be playing in the 2020 event.

Strokes Gained: Ball Striking

• Rory McIlroy (1)
• Xander Schauffele (2)
• Jon Rahm (7)
• Adam Scott (9)
• Bryson DeChambeau (12)
• Daniel Berger (14)
• Justin Thomas (16)

Strokes Gained: Approach

• Xander Schauffele (1)
• Jon Rahm (2)
• Adam Scott (5)
• Rory McIlroy (9)
• Hideki Matsuyama (10)
• Bryson DeChambeau (15)

Strokes Gained: Around the Green

• Justin Thomas (1)
• Rory McIlroy (3)
• Hideki Matsuyama (6)
• Patrick Reed (10)

Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green

• Rory McIlroy (1)
• Xander Schauffele (2)
• Justin Thomas (5)
• Adam Scott (12)
• Jon Rahm (13)
• Daniel Berger (14)

Also, in their last 12 rounds at East Lake, these players rank top-15 in SG: Off-the-Tee:

McIlroy (1), Thomas (4), Berger (7), Schauffele (8), Johnson (10), DeChambeau (11), Rahm (12).

FedEx Cup bonus structure

1. $15 million
2. $5 million
3. $4 million
4. $3 million
5. $2.5 million
6. $1.9 million
7. $1.3 million
8. $1.1 million
9. $950,000
10. $830,000