A drought-breaking victory has pushed Tiger Woods to the top line of betting for next year’s majors.
A drought-breaking victory has pushed Tiger Woods to the top line of betting for next year’s majors.
ONLINE bookmaker Bovada has installed Tiger Woods as outright favourite to win the 2019 Masters.
The 42-year-old star moves into +850 for the green jacket after his drought-breaking win at the Tour Championship.
Woods survived a tricky final round at East Lake to finish 11 under par, two shots clear of Billy Horschel.
The win was Tiger’s first on the PGA Tour since 2013 and the 80th of his career, putting him within two victories of Sam Snead’s all-time record.
Bovada also has the American among the contenders for the PGA Championship (+1000), the US Open (+1000) and the Open Championship (+1000).
While Woods could hardly have asked for a better hitout ahead of the 2019 Ryder Cup, the same cannot be said for some of his teammates.
Fellow captain’s pick Phil Mickelson wound up dead last in the Tour Championship, some 24 shots off the pace at 13 over par.
Bubba Watson fared little better, carding a 75 on Sunday to finish at 10 over – one shot behind Patrick Reed.
With Brooks Koepka (four over) scraping a tie for 26th, Team USA occupied the bottom four places at East Lake.
Conspicuous by his absence was Jordan Spieth, who missed an invitation to the season-closing event after slipping outside the top 30 in this year’s FedEx Cup rankings.
Justin Rose was again the pick of the European contenders, although he slipped out of the top few after shooting three over par in the final round in Atlanta.
Rory McIlroy was also in contention until Sunday, while Paul Casey, Tommy Fleetwood and Jon Rahm tied for 11th at three under the card.
The only straggler among the Euro contingent was Open champion Francesco Molinari, who saved some face with solid scores of 69 and 67 over the weekend.
Meanwhile, Sergio Garcia enjoyed a productive hitout at the Portugal Masters, finishing seven shots behind winner Tom Lewis to grab a share of seventh place.