2023 Fortinet Championship: PGA Tour Golf Betting Odds
Max Homa is favoured on the golf odds.
There had been a wraparound schedule on the Tour for years and normally this would kick that off, but now the fall events stand alone and the official new slate starts with the 2024-opening Tournament of Champions in Hawaii. This new schedule is basically a way for lower-ranked players to get FedExCup points and potentially play in more events next year and an extension of this past season.
Those ranked No. 51 and beyond in the FedExCup standings carry their points from the regular season and first 2023 playoff event into the FedExCup Fall, and this is when Top 125 eligibility is finalized for the following season. Players who finished in the Top 50 in the FedExCup can still compete in the FedExCup Fall just as Homa is doing this week.
A total of 10 players not previously eligible with the most season-long FedExCup points through the FedExCup Fall earn exemptions into the first two 2024 designated events that follow the Tournament of Champions.
This tournament has been in existence since 2007 and previously was known as the Frys.com Open and Safeway Open. Silverado Resort and Spa’s North Course in Napa, Calif., is the host for the eighth year in a row. It’s a par 72 at around 7,120 yards but the course routing has changed. Nos. 1-7 and No. 18 are the same but the rest have been re-routed, including No. 17, which is usually the 11th hole. It has taken at least 15 under to win every year at Silverado.
Two players have won the event twice: Brendan Steele in 2017 & ’18 and fellow American Max Homa in 2021 and last year.
Homa shot 19-under 269 two years ago to edge out Maverick McNealy by a shot and then fired a 16-under 272 last year to beat out former Masters champion Danny Willett by a shot. It looked like Willett was in control on the 72nd hole, but he three-putted from about 4 feet and Homa pitched in from 33 feet. It was definitely one of the most unusual endings of the season. The Englishman Willett still hasn’t won on the PGA Tour since his dramatic victory at the 2016 Masters.
Note that there will not be another regular PGA Tour event until Oct. 5 with the Sanderson Farms Championship. That’s because the Ryder Cup starts Sept. 29 from Italy.
Fortinet Championship Golf Odds
American Max Homa is +900 to win here a third straight time, which no player has done previously. The world’s No. 7 ranked player is the only member of the Top 20 teeing it up this week. Homa enters having not finished worse than T21 in his past six Tour events.
Struggling Justin Thomas (+1400) has dropped to No. 24 in the world but was chosen for the Team USA Ryder Cup team as a captain’s pick. He hasn’t played here in a few years but has been Top 10 his three previous visits. Sahith Theegala is +1900 with Cam Davis at +2500 and Stephan Jaeger +2600. Theegala was sixth last year and eyes his first Tour win. Davis missed the cut in 2022 and Jaeger was 43rd.
Canadian Mike Weir won the first staging of this tournament 16 years ago at a different course. It was Weir’s last PGA Tour victory. Adam Hadwin was a runner-up by a shot to Cameron Champ in 2019. Nick Taylor was the top finisher last year at T6. Adam Svensson was T12, Mackenzie Hughes T25 and Taylor Pendrith T67. Corey Conners and Michael Gligic missed the cut. Hughes is +6500 this week with Pendrith +6600 and Gligic +75000.
Fortinet Championship Golf Predictions
No price on the winning nationality yet, but we recommend American as a USA player has won the tournament seven straight years. We’ll lean Taylor Montgomery at +4100. He was T3 last year and played well all of fall 2022.
