Tiger Woods remains betting favorite at Hero World Challenge despite not competing since April
Tiger Woods is the betting favorite for this week's Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, despite not having played a competitive golf tournament in nearly eight months. You have to thank the so-called "gamblers" - a slew of golf fans who bet every time the 15-time major champion hits a shot - Tiger mentioned in 2018 .
The tournament will be held at the Albany Golf Course in New Providence and will benefit the Tiger Woods Foundation, which supports programs that improve the health, education and well-being of children.
17 players in the 20-person group are ranked among the top 30 in the world. The exceptions are Woods, Justin Rose and Lucas Glover, who all received special invitations.
Woods has not played in a tournament since withdrawing from the third round of the Masters on April 9 due to injury. Tiger then underwent ankle fusion surgery.
Tiger said his ankle pain has gone away and he's looking forward to competing. Asked if he believed he could still win, the 82-time PGA Tour champion replied: "Absolutely."
Hero World Challenge Odds
On Wednesday, BetMGM declared Woods the biggest liability at the Hero World Challenge. Woods is responsible for about 16 percent of betting slips and 8 percent of tournament bets.
The book doesn't discuss Woods' possible victory much, however. In an effort to get as much action on Woods as possible, the book boosted Woods' odds even though there was a huge amount of betting focused on the 47-year-old.
Woods odds increase from 40/1 at start to 66/1. At current odds, a winning bet of $100 would return $6,600.
Woods never won in Albany, but Viktor Hovland did. The two-time defending champions have the lowest overall odds this week at just 4/1.
Hovland, the fourth-ranked player in the world, is involved in nearly 9% of the bets placed on BetMGM and is responsible for 22% of the bets placed.
Bettors also like Cameron Young. According to BetMGM, Young is the second-biggest liability behind Woods. Young accounts for more than 24% of Hero World Challenge transaction volume. As a result of this action, his lineup was shortened from 25/1 to 18/1.
After Hovland, the best player in the world Scotty Scheffler has the second-lowest odds at 9/2 (+450). Scheffler finished second in each of the previous two editions of the Hero World Challenge. Scheffler owns 5.4% of the BetMGM lottery but is responsible for only 3.5% of the money wagered.
Rounding out the top five for shortest odds are Collin Morikawa (15/2), Max Homa (8/1) and Justin Thomas (14/1).
The best-case scenario for BetMGM is Keegan Bradley, Jason Day, Brian Harman, Justin Rose or Sepp Straka winning. Each of these players generated less than 1% of the handles.
Rusty Forest
Woods said he "loves playing" and is excited to be back.
“What drives me is I love competition,” Woods said. "There comes a time when I haven't reached the point where I can't win anymore. When that day comes, I'm gone."
For this week, Woods lived up to his expectations.
"My game feels rusty. I haven't played in a while," Woods admitted. "I'm excited to play and compete, and I'm just as curious as all of you to see what's going to happen because I haven't played in a while. This was done. "
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Source: www.casino.org
