The PGA Tour’s flagship event, the 2023 Players Championship, goes down this week at TPC Sawgrass, and we’ve identified one veteran Canadian pro as the best long-shot bet to win. Here’s our pick, the betting favorites and everything else you need to know for the week.
Players Championship odds: Long-shot bet
The Players is another designated event, which means once again all of the best players in the world will be competing for the title and its $3.6 million winner’s prize. That makes it another tough week for long shots, who will have to overcome the likes of Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler to win.
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But there is one player who fits that bill very nicely, and his name is Corey Conners. Conners, 31, first rose to fame when he won the 2019 Valero Texas Open as a Monday Qualifier. Conners has odds-to-win this week of +6600, but we think his chances are slightly better than that.
Conners has been playing well so far this season, missing only one cut in eight starts. His best finish was a T12 at the Sony Open. At last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, he was in contention at the halfway point after a stellar second-round 66, before falling back with scores of 75 and 72 on the weekend to finish T21.
Most intriguingly, Conners’ performances at past Players Championship are very promising. Conners recorded a T26 last year at TPC Sawgrass, and in 2021 he fired a final-round 66 to finish seventh.
Should you put $10 on Conners to win this week and he pulls it off, you’ll walk away with $660.
How last week’s long shot fared
At the Arnold Palmer Invitational, we picked Billy Horschel as our long shot. At +10000, the veteran Tour pro with seven wins to his name seemed like a great choice. Unfortunately, that didn’t turn out to be the case.
Horschel stayed in the mix with a 73 on Day 1 at Bay Hill, but a 75 in the second round doomed him to a missed cut, which equates to a big ‘ol strikeout for our purposes. One silver lining, though, is our long-shot pick for the Sony Open, Kurt Kitayama, finally broke through for his first PGA Tour victory.
PAST RESULTS
2023 Arnold Palmer Invitational: Billy Horschel (Odds: +10000; Finish: MC)
2023 Honda Classic: Sepp Straka (Odds: +5000; Finish: T5)
2023 Genesis Invitational: Adam Scott (Odds: +5500; Finish: 65)
2023 WM Phoenix Open: Rickie Fowler (Odds: +8000; Finish: T10)
2023 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am: Beau Hossler (Odds +8000; Finish: T11)
2023 Farmers Insurance Open: Rickie Fowler (Odds: +10000; Finish: T11)
2023 Sony Open in Hawaii: Kurt Kitayama (Odds: +5000; Finish: T73)
2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions: Ryan Brehm (Odds: +75000; Finish: T35)
Players Championship odds: The favorites
With the Players being such a big tournament, the favorites are familiar names who’ve been dominating the PGA Tour so far this year. Jon Rahm tops the list at +800, with Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler coming in at +900 and +1100, respectively, after both experienced near-misses at Bay Hill.
You can see the top 15 in Players Championship betting odds as of Monday morning at the bottom of this post, or head over to BetMGM to see the full list of odds and bets for this week.
2023 Players Championship betting odds (Top 15 and ties)
Jon Rahm (+800)
Rory McIlroy (+900)
Scottie Scheffler (+1100)
Justin Thomas (+1800)
Patrick Cantlay (+1800)
Max Homa (+2000)
Xander Schauffele (+2200)
Tony Finau (+2500)
Viktor Hovland (+2500)
Collin Morikawa (+2500)
Will Zalatoris (+2800)
Cameron Young (+3300)
Jason Day (+3300)
Jordan Spieth (+3300)
Matt Fitzpatrick (+3300)
Sungjae Im (+3300)
Tyrrell Hatton (+3300)
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