WGC Bridgestone Invitational Odds and Betting Picks

Brooks Koepka might not be near the top of the odds board, but he might be the best value bet in the field at Firestone Country Club this weekend.

The World Golf Championships events on the PGA Tour are invite-only so they always have smaller fields than a normal Tour event would. But there are just 61 players in the field for this week’s WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. Forty of those 61 are ranked in the Top 50 of the world rankings. The betting favorite on Sports Interaction’s golf odds is world No. 1 Jason Day of Australia at +609.

WGC Bridgestone Invitational Betting Odds

Some Europeans Staying Away

A handful of top European golfers opted to stay overseas and play in France this week. The WGC-Bridgestone is being played earlier in the year than normal because of golf returning to the Olympics next month in Rio. The European Tour wasn’t too happy with the schedule shift so it told its players they could only earn Ryder Cup points by playing in the French Open, which celebrates its 100th year this week. So several European pros who would normally play at Firestone, including Rory McIlroy, are in France. Two other top Euros, Henrik Stenson and Sergio Garcia, aren’t playing anywhere this week.

Another guy who won’t tee it up is Tiger Woods, who has won this tournament a record eight times. He still hasn’t played this year off back surgery and admitted this past weekend at the Quicken Loans National, a tournament he hosts, that he’s not certain he will be able to play in 2016.

Hard to argue with Day being favoured. He has seven wins since July 26 of last year and no other player in the world has more than three. Day last won at the Players Championship in mid-May. He finished tied for eighth at the U.S. Open two weeks ago. Day was 12th at this tournament in 2015 and hasn’t had a Top-10 finish in it since a fourth in 2011.

My pick here at Sports Interaction to win the U.S. Open was American Dustin Johnson, and he finally got the major championship monkey off his back. He’s the +800 second-favourite in Akron. I question how focused Johnson might be after that career-altering victory at Oakmont. Johnson was 53rd here a year ago and hasn’t had a Top-10 result this decade. It should be noted that after Johnson’s past two victories, he followed it up with a Top 10 in his next event.

Jordan Spieth is +900 this week. Spieth has played here twice with a best result of T10 last  year. Spieth hasn’t contended in his past two events this season after winning at Colonial in his native Texas.

The defending champion is Ireland’s Shane Lowry and he’s +2400 to repeat. In 2015, Lowry shot a final-round 66 to finish at 11-under 269, two shots ahead of Bubba Watson. It was Lowry’s first PGA Tour victory and he hasn’t had a victory since. He did tie for second at the U.S. Open, but I give Lowry little chance of winning again this week. He’s +301 on golf odds to be the top European finisher. The only other former champion in this year’s field is Adam Scott (+1700). He won in 2011.

There are 14 countries represented in the field but no Canadian players at the Bridgestone Invitational. Graham DeLaet is playing the opposite-field Barracuda Championship in Reno, Nevada, and is +2600 on golf odds. Nick Taylor is +6300.

WGC-Bridgestone Invitational Odds And Prediction

With the watered-down field of Europeans, certainly take an American to win at -175 (rest of world at +125). And I believe the best value is Brooks Koepka at +1400. He was sixth here a year ago and has runner-up finishes in two of his past three events in 2016. He’s due a second career Tour win. I do believe Spieth (-152)and Day (-227) will have Top-10 finishes but not Johnson (-164). Jim Furyk (+200) also likely for a Top 10 — he has nine of them in this event without a win.