Welcome to our weekly PGA Tour gambling-tips column, featuring picks from GOLF.com’s expert prognosticator, Brady Kannon. A seasoned golf bettor and commentator, Kannon is a host and regular guest on SportsGrid, a syndicated audio network devoted to sports and sports betting, and is a golf betting analyst for CBS Sportsline. You can follow Brady on Twitter at @LasVegasGolfer, and you can read his picks below for the 2025 Butterfield Bermuda Championship, which gets underway Thursday in Southampton, Bermuda. Along with Kannon’s recommended plays, you’ll also see data from Chirp Golf, a mobile app that features both free-to-play and daily fantasy golf contests where you can win cash and prizes with each round and tournament.
Welcome to the Butterfield Bermuda Championship at Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton, Bermuda. This windswept, par 71, Robert Trent Jones Sr. design sits along the shores of the Atlantic Ocean and is relatively short at less than 6,900 yards. This will be the seventh edition of this tournament at this golf course and it is the sixth of seven FedEx Cup Fall events with only the RSM Classic left, back stateside in Georgia next week.
As was the case last week in Los Cabos, Mexico, there are 120 players in the field and there is a 36-hole cut. The window narrows as only two events remain now for players to make their way into, or avoid falling out of, the top 100 in FedEx Cup standings. One must find themselves there at the conclusion of the FedEx Cup Fall in order to receive full PGA Tour status in 2026.
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As one can easily conclude, the greens here are Bermudagrass. They are large putting surfaces and will run very slow because of the wind. The fairways are of average width with very little rough bordering but there are a number of bunkers to negotiate, putting an emphasis on accuracy, especially in high winds. This is not a bombers course necessarily but having some length off the tee will be an asset in the windy conditions.
In the past six editions of the Bermuda Championship, we haven’t always seen wind but it appears that we will this week. The forecast is calling for anything between 15-30 mph on each for the four days.
I looked at Strokes Gained: Off the Tee and on approach. I looked at Good Drives Gained, Scrambling, and Strokes Gained: Putting (Bermudagrass). I also used Hole Proximity from 100-150 yards. Ideally, we want a good driver of the golf ball who is sharp with the wedges and the short game. Furthermore, did we mention the wind yet? Yes, this also has me leaning toward players with a lower ball flight and those who have shown an ability to separate themselves in such conditions.
It is a bit of a mixed bag for me this week as far as the correlated courses. I looked at Pebble Beach, Waialae Country Club (Sony Open), Sea Island (RSM Classic), PGA National (Cognizant Classic), and TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas. What we are featuring here are Bermudagrass in most cases, coastal location and/or windy conditions, a lean toward accuracy, shorter courses, and also courses where scrambling is paramount.
Matt Wallace (35-1)
The Englishman has done well at coastal locations in the past, winning at Corales Puntacana in 2023 and also faring well in a number of other tournaments that historically present windy conditions around the world. He has been playing a lot on Tour recently in an effort to maintain his status inside the top 100 in the rankings, so he has motivation to keep it going well. He is one of the best in the field on approach, from 125-150 yards, and ranks fifth in this field over the last 24 rounds in Scrambling.
Vince Whaley (36-1)
Whaley currently sits at 101st in the FedEx Cup standings, so he has plenty of reason to maintain his current form and his streak of cuts made that has now lasted seven months. He’s finished fifth and eighth here in the past and has a top-10 finish at Sea Island along with top-20 finishes at the Sony and at TPC Summerlin. These results are quite possible related to Whaley having one of the lower ball flights on Tour. Over the last 24 rounds, he ranks 10th in this field for Scrambling and is ninth in SG: Putting (Bermudagrass).
Eric Cole (40-1)
We know Cole has an excellent short game, is one of the best in this field on approach and with the wedges, and famously, he lost in a playoff at the Cognizant Classic in 2023. In that same season, he finished third at both the RSM Classic and at the Shriners in Las Vegas. He finished fifth earlier this year at the Sony Open at Waialae. His current form is right there with two top-10 finishes in his last three starts.
Victor Perez (45-1)
The Frenchman currently sits at 109th in the FedEx Cup standings. He is coming off a 21st place finish last week in which he ranked top 20 in the field for Driving Distance, Greens in Regulation, and Scrambling. He’s twice finished top 20 at PGA National and over the last 24 rounds, he ranks 16th in this field for SG: Approach and 24th for SG: Putting (Bermudagrass). It is also worth noting that Perez has one of the lower ball flights on Tour and has won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, an event that is no stranger to high winds.
Takumi Kanaya (60-1)
Kanaya is one of the higher-ranking players in my stats crunch this week as he is 11th in Scrambling, sixth in Hole Proximity from 100-125 yards, and is No. 1 in Good Drives Gained over the last 24 rounds. Kanaya finished top 5 four weeks ago as he tries to make his way full-time onto the PGA Tour. He has 10 international wins in his career.
Ben Kohles (110-1)
I’m going back to the Ben Kohles well once again this week at triple-digit odds as in my eyes, he continues to make sense. Over the last 24 rounds, he is No. 1 in this field for SG: Approach. He’s top 10 for Good Drives Gained and in Hole Proximity from 100-125 yards. He’s never missed a cut here in Bermuda or at the Sony in Hawaii and finished fifth at the RSM Classic in 2023. Like Whaley, Perez, and Kanaya, Kohles too has an especially low ball flight.
Who Chirp Golf players are picking this week
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