19th Hole
Players Championship Odds: Who’s the smart money on?
As a complement to Gianni Magliocco’s Players Championship fantasy preview, we’re happy to present the GolfWRX community a few thoughts on the fifth major from the sharps at Top Market Sports.
The Players is a notoriously difficult tournament to handicap. An extremely strong field, a course that can get penal in a hurry–and one that’s designed to avoid favoring any one type of golfer–can lead to some surprising ejections…and surprising winners.
Here are some thoughts on where to spend your money this week, courtesy of Top Market Sports.
Betting prop to consider
Mickelson Won’t Make Cut +310 – We’re going to sell Lefty here. He hasn’t missed a cut since the CareerBuilder and the performance in Mexico was sick. There’s no doubt about it…he’s firing on all cylinders right now. But Phil is a certified magnet for public money. That phenomenon will only be enhanced the first two days because he’s playing alongside Tiger. We just think that with some of the changes to the setup, he’s going to have his creative juices flowing. And that could make it an all-or-nothing week for him. At better than 3/1 it’s worth fading him for a couple bucks. Our in-house handicapping number has it in the +275 area.
Two futures to consider
Luke List 80/1 – If he misses the cut and we end up burning this ticket Friday afternoon, we’re ok with that. With as “big” as this tournament is, Vegas could be undervaluing guys who don’t have a PGA Tour win. A price like this says that an event with as much cache as The Players won’t be a place someone breaks through. We’ll take the other side of that. All due respect to this amazing tournament, it’s not a major. And until the golf futures markets start expecting the unexpected, we’re of the core belief that spots like these offer value. Banging an 80/1 ticket can provide a life changing boost to your bankroll. (*note List is 66-1 at Bovada below, other books have him higher)
Rickie Fowler 18/1 – The video of his 4-putt from 19 feet at Quail went viral on social media. That doesn’t change the fact that he’s got the hands-down purest putting stroke in the world. Never rattled, we’d be surprised if the World No. 6 doesn’t have one of the later tee times on Sunday. Of the favorites, Fowler’s your best bet. He’s the sixth favorite behind Day 13/1, Thomas 13/1, Spieth 14/1, McIlroy 15/1, and DJ 15/1. We’d be happy to back Fowler heads-up at plus money versus any of those guys this week…and we most likely will be in daily matchups. Even if he doesn’t close, it’s tough to envision a situation where he doesn’t at least threaten to win at some point. So an added benefit of this ticket is the opportunity to hedge out of some of it as the tournament progresses.
Check out Top Market Sports for more insight and round-by-round matchup bets.
Full 2018 Players Championship odds below, c/o Bovada
Odds as of May 8
- Rory McIlroy +1400
- Jason Day +1400
- Justin Thomas +1400
- Jordan Spieth +1400
- Dustin Johnson +1800
- Rickie Fowler +1800
- Jon Rahm +2200
- Henrik Stenson +2800
- Justin Rose +3000
- Paul Casey +3300
- Phil Mickelson +3300
- Tiger Woods +3300
- Sergio Garcia +3500
- Patrick Reed +3500
- Hideki Matsuyama +4000
- Bryson DeChambeau +4000
- Tommy Fleetwood +5000
- Alex Noren +5000
- Patrick Cantlay +5000
- Bubba Watson +6600
- Kevin Kisner +6600
- Marc Leishman +6600
- Matt Kuchar +6600
- Francesco Molinari +6600
- Cameron Smith +6600
- Ian Poulter +6600
- Tony Finau +6600
- Emiliano Grillo +6600
- Billy Horschel +6600
- Luke List +6600
- Zach Johnson +6600
- Louis Oosthuizen +7500
- Si Woo Kim +7500
- Brooks Koepka +8000
- Branden Grace +8000
- Chesson Hadley +8000
- Webb Simpson +8000
- Adam Hadwin +8000
- Daniel Berger +10000
- Rafael Cabrera Bello +10000
- Tyrrell Hatton +10000
- Kyle Stanley +10000
- Russell Henley +10000
- Charl Schwartzel +10000
- Adam Scott +12500
- Brian Harman +12500
- Brandt Snedeker +12500
- Xander Schauffele +12500
- Kevin Chappell +12500
- Brendan Steele +12500
- Charley Hoffman +12500
- Nick Watney +12500
- Kevin Streelman +12500
- Byeong Hun An +15000
- Jimmy Walker +15000
- Pat Perez +15000
- Ryan Moore +15000
- Matthew Fitzpatrick +15000
- Chris Kirk +15000
- Gary Woodland +15000
- Beau Hossler +15000
- Russell Knox +15000
- Scott Piercy +17500
- Kevin Na +20000
- Sean O’Hair +20000
- Jason Dufner +20000
- J.B. Holmes +20000
- Kiradech Aphibarnrat +20000
- Martin Kaymer +20000
- Martin Laird +20000
- Ollie Schniederjans +20000
- Shane Lowry +20000
- Charles Howell III +20000
- Austin Cook +20000
- Chez Reavie +20000
- David Lingmerth +20000
- Harris English +20000
- Patrick Rodgers +20000
- Patton Kizzire +20000
- Ryan Palmer +20000
- Trey Mullinax +20000
- William McGirt +20000
- James Hahn +22500
- Steve Stricker +25000
- Bill Haas +25000
- Bud Cauley +25000
- Hao Tong Li +25000
- Keegan Bradley +25000
- Lucas Glover +25000
- Ross Fisher +25000
- Satoshi Kodaira +25000
- Alexander Levy +25000
- Ben Martin +25000
- Brice Garnett +25000
- Chris Stroud +25000
- Jason Kokrak +25000
- Jhonattan Vegas +25000
- John Huh +25000
- Grayson Murray +30000
- Jamie Lovemark +30000
- Rory Sabbatini +30000
- Andrew Landry +30000
- Anirban Lahiri +30000
- Blayne Barber +30000
- C.T. Pan +30000
- Danny Lee +30000
- Geoff Ogilvy +30000
- Hudson Swafford +30000
- J.J. Spaun +30000
- Kelly Kraft +30000
- Scott Brown +30000
- Scott Stallings +30000
- Jonas Blixt +35000
- Kevin Tway +35000
- Tom Hoge +35000
- Brian Gay +40000
- Chad Campbell +40000
- Michael Kim +40000
- Michael Thompson +40000
- Ryan Armour +40000
- Stewart Cink +40000
- Ted Potter Jr. +40000
- Wesley Bryan +40000
- Brandon Harkins +50000
- Martin Flores +50000
- D.A. Points +50000
- Danny Willett +50000
- Derek Fathauer +50000
- Dominic Bozzelli +50000
- Harold Varner III +50000
- J.J. Henry +50000
- Mackenzie Hughes +50000
- Nick Taylor +50000
- Richy Werenski +50000
- Robert Garrigus +50000
- Robert Streb +50000
- Rod Pampling +50000
- Ryan Blaum +50000
- Scott McCarron +50000
- Sung Kang +50000
- Tyrone Van Aswegen +50000
- Vaughn Taylor +50000
- Whee Kim +50000
- Cody Gribble +75000
19th Hole
‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish
An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.
However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.
Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.
Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”
Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish
— Jenny Shin (@JennyShin_LPGA) August 3, 2025
Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.
Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.
Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.
Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.
Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.
Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.
Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.
“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course. Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”
According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.
“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”
Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.
Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.
Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.
Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.
The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.
Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”
“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”
Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.
However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.
“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”
Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.
‘Why would anybody want to change that swing?’ – Brandel Chamblee says PGA Tour star was wrong to change his swing
‘The stupidest freaking thing I’ve ever heard’ – Billy Horschel slams Open idea suggested by Padraig Harrington
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Peter Malnati WITB 2025 (August)
Peter Malnati what’s in the bag accurate as of the Wyndham Championship. More photos from the event here. Driver: Titleist...
Cameron Young’s winning WITB: 2025 Wyndham Championship
Driver: Titleist GT2 (9 degrees, A1 SureFit setting) Buy here. Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Pro Orange 70 TX 3-wood: Titleist...
Camilo Villegas WITB 2025 (July)
Camilo Villegas WITB accurate as of the Wyndham Championship. Villegas was undecided on a 3-wood when we shot his bag. ...
WITB Time Machine: Brandt Snedeker’s winning WITB, 2018 Wyndham Championship
Brandt Snedeker fired a final-round 65 at the 2018 Wyndham Championship to outlast Webb Simpson and C.T. Pan. His 5-under...
