Action Report: Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy popular ahead of THE PLAYERS Championship

THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass is one of the hardest of the year when it comes to golf betting.

Since there’s water on 17 of the 18 holes and high scores can be made in a hurry, players can drop multiple spots on the leaderboard very quickly. The volatile nature of the event makes it hard to predict.

But, there is one trend of late: the last three champions have all been inside the top 10 of the Official World Golf Rankings going into the tournament.

And bettors at the BetMGM online sportsbook expect that to continue this year. In fact, the top three ranked players are generating the most action — Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy.

As of Wednesday, McIlroy has the highest handle (11.8%) on the second-most tickets (7.9%). Scheffler has the most tickets (8.6%) and second-most handle (9.9%). Rahm is third in both, with 7.8% of the tickets and 8.5% of the handle.

McIlroy has the best odds to win at +900. Rahm and Scheffler closely follow at +1000.

Of the three, Rahm has been the most consistent at TPC Sawgrass. He’s made the cut in all five of his appearances, including two top-15 finishes.

Meanwhile, while McIlroy won in 2019, he’s missed the cut in two of his last five appearances, and his win was his only top-30 finish in that span. Scheffler has played in the event only twice. He missed the cut in 2021 and finished T-55 a year ago.

While McIlroy and Scheffler both finished inside the top five last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Rahm enters the event as the hottest player in the game.

Even though he finished T-39 last week, he’s won three times this year, including two designated events. Prior to last week, he had 10 straight top-eight finishes worldwide.

Homa and Thomas each have +1800 odds and would continue the trend of winners of late as both are ranked inside the top 10 in the world.

In the last 11 editions of the tournament, the winning score has been between 10 under and 18 under. Players can post good rounds; it just won’t be a birdie-fest.

The winner will take home $4.5 million.

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