PGA Quicken Loans National: Golf Odds And Predictions

The PGA Tour makes its annual stop in the Washington, D.C., area this week, for the Tiger Woods-hosted Quicken Loans National, but Tiger won’t be in attendance as he continues to work through his off-course issues. Frankly, his presence would have been a distraction and overshadowed the event. Here’s a look at the Sports Interaction favourites as well as odds on the Canadians in the field.

Quicken Loans National Favourites

Tiger’s foundation took over hosting duties of this tournament in 2007. He is one of two players to win the event twice (2009 & ’12) along with England’s Justin Rose (2010 & ’14). According to Woods’ publicist, Rick Singer, Tiger will not attend this year as he continues treatment for how he manages his pain medication. Last week, in the wake of a recent DUI arrest in Florida, Woods revealed that he was seeking professional help to manage his medications following another back surgery.

It’s going to be a challenge to handicap this tournament because it’s being held at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm, which hasn’t hosted a Tour event since the 2006 Booz Allen Classic back when the course was called TPC Avenel. Last year, the Quicken Loans National was held at Congressional, but that’s one of the marquee tracks in the D.C. area and the members aren’t keen on hosting the tournament every year because it forces the course to shut down for weeks. For now, it’s scheduled to be held at Congressional in even-numbered years.

TPC Potomac is a par 70 measuring 7,139 yards. The field features 16 winners from this season, but not last week’s champion outside Hartford, Jordan Spieth, who holed a bunker shot on the first hole of a playoff with Daniel Berger for the exciting victory. There are five former tournament champions in the field: K.J. Choi, Nick Watney, Troy Merritt, Bill Haas and Billy Hurley, a 2004 graduate of the nearby Naval Academy. Hurley won by three shots last year at 17-under 267, one shy of Merritt’s tournament record.

World No. 9 Rickie Fowler is the highest-ranked player in the field and is the +706 Sports Interaction golf betting favourite. Fowler comes off a fifth-place finish at the U.S. Open. He finished second in this event three shots behind Merritt in 2015 at yet another course, Robert Trent Jones Golf Club.

Patrick Reed (+800) comes off a T5 last week at the Travelers Championship, three shots behind Spieth. Reed closed with a 66 on Sunday. He was 39th at this event in 2016. Justin Thomas (+1100) is the only other player under +2500. He missed the cut last week but has finished in the Top 12 of this tournament each of the past two years. Hurley is an +8600 long shot to repeat.

Canadian Golfers

Graham DeLaet is +4800. He had a good history at the Travelers Championship so I recommended him for a Top 10 last week. That looked likely after a first-round 65, but DeLaet would finish T26 at 5 under. He last played the Quicken Loans in 2013 and was eighth.

David Hearn (+7000) finished eighth last week after rounds of 67-60-66-69. That’s his best result of the season. He was 12th in the 2016 Quicken Loans. Adam Hadwin (+7600) remains the highest-ranked Canadian at 53rd in the world and was 57th last week. He hasn’t had a Top-25 finish since mid-April. He missed the cut in this tournament last year. Mackenzie Hughes (+10300) was 17th last week and plays here for the first time. Nick Taylor (+10700) missed the cut at the Travelers but was 12th at this event a year ago.
No Canadian has won the Quicken Loans National.

Quicken Loans National Predictions

Bit of a smaller field this week with 120 golfers entered instead of the typical 156 for a regular event. Unfortunately, I can’t rely on “Horse for the Course” statistics for this tournament. I like Fowler for a Top 10, but the winner is Haas as he fares well at this tournament no matter where it’s held. In addition to his win in 2011, he was third last year and fourth in 2015.