The 2020 PGA Championship tees off on Thursday at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco. Let’s take a look at the first golf major of the year from a betting and daily fantasy perspective.
DraftKings offering $1 million jackpot contest
DraftKings is offering $3 million in prizes ($1 million to first place) in its “$3M Fantasy Golf Millionaire” contest. For a $20 entry fee, players can choose six golfers within a $50,000 budget. As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 50,000 people have signed up. Here is the prize payout breakdown:
- 1st: $1,000,000
- 2nd: $150,000
- 3rd: $75,000
- 4th: $50,000
- 5th: $30,000
- 6th: $20,000
- 7th-8th: $15,000
- 9th-10th: $10,000
Any user who finishes in the top 39,750 will win at least $30.
Justin Thomas, fresh off of a PGA Tour win last weekend, carries the heftiest price tag of any player at $11,300. DraftKings is also offering a “PGA $500K Drive the Green” contest, where $100,000 goes to first place. That game is $5 to enter.
2020 PGA Championship odds
Here’s a look at the full odds board for the event:
| Player | DraftKings | FanDuel | BetMGM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Justin Thomas | +800 | +1100 | +900 |
| Brooks Koepka | +1000 | +1100 | +1000 |
| Bryson Dechambeau | +1100 | +1200 | +1400 |
| Rory McIlroy | +1100 | +1200 | +1200 |
| Jon Rahm | +1200 | +1300 | +1200 |
| Dustin Johnson | +1800 | +2200 | +2200 |
| Patrick Cantlay | +2000 | +2800 | +3000 |
| Webb Simpson | +2000 | +2300 | +2500 |
| Tiger Woods | +2000 | +2800 | +2500 |
| Xander Schauffele | +2200 | +2200 | +2200 |
| Rickie Fowler | +2500 | +3300 | +3300 |
| Collin Morikawa | +2800 | +3000 | +3300 |
| Hideki Matsuyama | +3300 | +4000 | +3300 |
| Patrick Reed | +3300 | +4000 | +4000 |
| Viktor Hovland | +3300 | +4000 | +3300 |
| Jason Day | +4000 | +4000 | +4000 |
| Tony Finau | +4000 | +3500 | +3300 |
| Matthew Fitzpatrick | +4000 | +4200 | +5000 |
| Tommy Fleetwood | +4000 | +4500 | +4000 |
| Tyrrell Hatton | +4000 | +4000 | +4500 |
| Justin Rose | +4000 | +5000 | +5000 |
| Adam Scott | +4000 | +5000 | +5000 |
| Jordan Spieth | +4500 | +4000 | +5000 |
| Sungjae Im | +5000 | +7000 | +8000 |
| Gary Woodland | +5000 | +4500 | +4000 |
| Daniel Berger | +5000 | +4700 | +6000 |
If you’re looking to play the DraftKings contest mentioned above, it’s worth looking at the betting odds to find value and potential pricing discrepancies.
Rickie Fowler stands out there. At $8,300, he’s the 15th-most expensive player at DraftKings — but he’s 11th on their odds board.
Some others who may be undervalued for daily using that logic: Bryson DeChambeau, Tony Finau and Dustin Johnson.
And on the flip side of that: Daniel Berger, Jason Day and Xander Schauffele.
It’s easy to see why Thomas is the consensus favorite, as he’s the No. 1 player in the world right now and won last weekend. Thomas also won the PGA Championship in 2017, but sat out 2019 due to a wrist injury.
Any faith in Tiger?
Tiger Woods enjoyed a massive bounceback season in 2019, but he’s only played in one Tour event since March. He finished 40th at The Memorial.
And yet, Woods is tied for the seventh-shortest odds at DraftKings and is in a similar spot at FanDuel and BetMGM. His resume obviously speaks for itself, but the spot on the odds board feels a bit high considering that most of his competition has been playing far more regularly than he has.
Woods’ DFS price tag is $9,200, which ranks ninth.
Accuracy off tee will be paramount
As noted over at our sister site The Lines, the rough at TPC Harding is unusually long and high. Fairways are also relatively close to bunkers, so accuracy off the tee will be especially crucial.
It looks like the weather will be in the mid-60s with winds reaching up to 15 mph. There are six par 4s at the course, with one of those over 500 yards. With that in mind, here are the Tour’s top five players in par 4 scoring:
- Tyrrell Hatton
- Webb Simpson
- Bryson DeChambeau
- Justin Thomas
- Xander Schauffele
The usual suspects are there for the most part, but Hatton may be worth a look as a bit of a longshot. The 2020 PGA Championship tees off at 7 a.m. PT on Thursday.
