The 9 best prop bets and odds ahead of The Challenge: Japan Skins

The Challenge: Japan Skins is shortly upon us, marking Tiger Woods’ return following minor knee surgery in an intriguing big-money match against Jason Day, Rory McIlroy and Hideki Matsuyama. My colleague Dylan Dethier has a brilliant breakdown of all the rules of the match, so give that a read. If you already have and decided you’re ready to throw around some money, then you’re in luck!

Here are the latest odds on the various bets on offer, according to Bovada, along with a bit of analysis from yours truly on each.

1. Overall Winner

Rory McIlroy +180
Hideki Matsuyama +275
Tiger Woods +300
Jason Day +330

Rory’s probably the obvious pick, but I like Hideki to win it all — mostly because of how good he looked on Sunday at the CJ Cup. He made seven birdies and no bogeys on Sunday (including three birdies on his final four holes) and finished T-3 in all. Besides, you have to think he’ll be slightly more comfortable on home turf than the other guys.

2. Most Money Won: Day v Matsuyama

Jason Day +110
Hideki Matsuyama -150

Considering I just picked Matsuyama you’d probably expect me to pick Hideki again here, but I’m not going to. Anything can happen in a skins match, so I’m going to hedge my headline bet by taking the odds on Jason Day here with a little side action. Day is going to surprise some people: He did make five birdies on Sunday at the CJ Cup, by the way, which is being overlooked because of his four bogeys (which won’t matter as much in skins).

3. Most Money Won – Day v Woods

Jason Day -110
Tiger Woods -125

Strange that Jason Day is the underdog here, considering we haven’t seen anything of Tiger since last season and he’s had surgery since then. Piling a bit more on Jason Day here, my dark horse of the group.

4. Most Money Won – Matsuyama v Woods

Hideki Matsuyama -137
Tiger Woods EVEN

I’m not bullish on Tiger Woods this week, which could backfire on me, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take. Give me Hideki!

5. Most Money Won – Mcllroy v Day

Rory McIlroy -175
Jason Day +125

This is a tough one. Rory’s going to win some skins, no doubt about that, but I guess I’ll go with Jason Day once again. I like the odds, mostly, and he’s a better putter — two things that you can value highly in the randomness of a skins match.

6. Most Money Won – Mcllroy v Matsuyama

Rory McIlroy -150
Hideki Matsuyama +110

Hideki, because I think ultimately he’s going to win it all, and I like that the odds are on his side here.

7. Most money Won – Mcllroy v Woods

Rory McIlroy -175
Tiger Woods +125

Rory all the way in this spot.

8. Player to win $0

Rory McIlroy +450
Jason Day +333
Hideki Matsuyama +400
Any Player -137
Tiger Woods +350

I’ll put a few on Tiger at +350 here. With everyone else, we have at least some idea of how they’re likely to perform. With Tiger, we have none. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to see him show up super rusty and play like he did at The Match last year.

9. To win Hole One

Rory McIlroy +900
Jason Day +1000
Hideki Matsuyama +1000
Tie -275
Tiger Woods +1000

If you don’t want to bet on a tie, which it’s probably going to be, just flip a coin on this one.

*flips coin*

Sure, Rory. Why not?