Tokyo 2020 Olympics: Men’s Golf Betting Odds
Collin Morikawa is favoured on the golf odds.
Like a typical PGA Tour event, the 59-player golf competition will be held Thursday-Sunday local time (tees off 6:30 p.m. ET Wednesday), regular 72-hole stroke play, and there are players from 35 countries represented (the women’s event is Aug. 4-7 and features competitors from 36 countries).
No country can have more than four players; it goes by world ranking. Some big names, like American and world No. 2 Dustin Johnson, opted not to play. The USA has the most competitors with four: Morikawa, Justin Thomas, Bryson DeChambeau and Xander Schauffele. Only DeChambeau would not have qualified if Johnson had opted to compete and it turned out not to matter as DeChambeau tested positive for COVID over the weekend and was replaced by Patrick Reed. He was T11 in the 2016 Games.
World No. 1 Jon Rahm was going to play for Spain, but he tested positive for the virus as well – his second time testing positive in the past couple of months. Apparently, he will not be replaced in the field, which is why it’s 59 players instead of 60. Rahm had been the betting favourite.
The two Canadian men’s competitors are Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes (Brooke Henderson and Alena Sharp for the women).
Both the men’s and women’s competition will be held at Kasumigaseki Country Club’s East Course in Kasahata, Saitama, Japan, about 35 miles northwest of downtown Tokyo. The 1957 Canada Cup (which eventually became the World Cup of Golf) was played there. It’s a par 71 at around 7,440 yards.
Golf returned to the Olympics five years ago in Rio de Janeiro after a more than 100-year absence. England’s Justin Rose won the gold but he will not be in Tokyo to defend his crown as he didn’t qualify. Neither did silver medalist Henrik Stenson of Sweden or bronze medalist Matt Kuchar of the USA.
Olympic Golf Odds
Collin Morikawa (+700 favourite) is the highest-ranked player in the world in the field at No. 3 and comes off winning the British Open for his second career major championship. He won that in his first time playing the event and also won the 2020 PGA Championship in his first time playing that. He probably will lock up PGA Tour Player of the Year with a gold medal this week.
Xander Schauffele (+900) hasn’t won this year on Tour but has three second-place finishes. Schauffele’s mother was raised in Japan and he has been to the country a handful of times, so maybe that’s a slight edge. Justin Thomas (+800) clearly likes Asia as four of his 14 career PGA Tour wins are there.
Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy (+1100) withdrew from the 2016 Games because of another virus concern: Zika. He could have chosen to represent Great Britain because Northern Ireland is part of that. Hideki Matsuyama became arguably the biggest star athlete in his native Japan by winning this year’s Masters and is +1100.
Canada’s Corey Conners is +2200 and Mackenzie Hughes is +5500 – they also played together collegiately at Kent State in Ohio. Conners was T15 last time out at the British Open, while Hughes was T6 at the Open. Canadian George Lyon won the gold in the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis and then golf wasn’t part of the Games again until 2016.
Olympic Golf Predictions
Justin Thomas wins gold.