PGA FedExCup Playoffs: The Barclays Golf Odds, Betting Picks

The PGA Tour’s 2015-16 regular season has concluded and the four-event FedExCup playoffs begin this week at the Barclays, held at one of the most notable public courses in the United States, Bethpage State Park’s Black Course in New York. World No. 1 Jason Day of Australia, also the FedExCup points leader, is the +735 favourite to win on Sports Interaction’s golf odds.

PGA FedExCup Playoffs

Here’s a quick primer if you aren’t sure how the FedExCup playoffs work.

The Top 125 in points qualified for golf’s postseason. Those in the Top 100 after this week advance to the next event, the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston. The Top 70 after that go to the BMW Championship and then the Top 30 following the BMW qualify for the season-ending Tour Championship, where every player would have a mathematical chance to win the FedExCup and its $10 million prize.

Last week at the Wyndham Championship, two players who were outside the Top 125 in points jumped into the field this week: Shawn Stefani (from No. 133) and Kyle Stanley (from No. 127). That of course meant two players in the Top 125 fell out and they were Matt Jones and Whee Kim, who both missed the cut last week. The current player at No. 125 is Seung-Yul Noh and the guy at No. 100 is Jonas Blixt. The better you finish in the tournament, the more points you get. The winner of this tournament will earn 2,000 points.

This event rotates among a few courses in the New York/New Jersey area. It was last held at Bethpage Black — which also hosted the 2009 and 2002 U.S. Opens — in 2012 and Nick Watney won that day at 10-under 274, beating Brandt Snedeker by three shots. Snedeker won the FedExCup that year, however.

Day is the defending champion of this tournament. Last year at Plainfield Country Club, Day shot a final-round 62 to finish at 19-under 261 and beat out second-place Henrik Stenson by six shots. Since the advent of the playoffs, no player has won this tournament twice. Day last competed at the PGA Championship and was a runner-up. He was one of a few big names to skip the Rio Olympics.

American Dustin Johnson is the +900 second-favourite on The Barclays odds. He won this tournament in 2011, also at Plainfield, and was ninth last year. He also last played at the PGA Championship and missed the cut.

Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy is +1100 with Sweden’s Stenson at +1300 and reigning FedExCup champion Jordan Spieth of the USA at +1300 on PGA golf odds. McIlroy also missed the cut at the PGA Championship in his last event. He hasn’t won on the PGA Tour this season. Stenson won the silver medal in Rio and also the British Open last month. Spieth missed the cut at the 2015 Barclays and was 14th at the PGA Championship in his last tournament. No player has repeated as FedExCup champion and just one even reached the Tour Championship the following year: Snedeker in 2013.

Canadians set as Longshots In Barclays Odds

Adam Hadwin has the most FedExCup points of any Canadian as he’s 84th on the list, so it’s very likely he will advance regardless of how he plays this week. Hadwin is +28300 on golf odds to take his first PGA Tour title. Hadwin was 33rd at last week’s tournament and missed the cut in the Barclays last year.

David Hearn is also +28300 and he’s 91st in the points. He missed the cut last week after finishing T30 in Rio. If history is any indication, Hearn also is in good shape to advance regardless of his result. But with work to do is Graham DeLaet (+15600), who is 119th in the points. He also missed the cut last week and was 20th in Rio. No Canadian player has won this tournament, which began in 1967 as the Westchester Classic. DeLaet did finish co-runner-up in the 2013 Barclays at Liberty National Golf Club.