Tiger Woods Betting Odds: Masters, Bay Hill Wins Considered More Likely by Vegas After Golfer's Comeback Performance at Valspar
Has everyone calmed down a bit? No? Fine—let's all just yell it one more time: Tiger's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack, baby!
If you have any interest in golf, you're likely aware that after a couple years, myriad injury setbacks and other personal struggles, Tiger Woods had a stunning performance last weekend at the Valspar Championship, finishing second and nearly walking away with the trophy. And with that performance, the latest betting odds for Woods's upcoming tournaments have shifted. In short: The gambling public seems to be placing their bets on the 14-time major-winner.
The next tournament on the schedule for Woods is the 2018 Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, which is scheduled to begin on Thursday. Woods has won the event a stunning eight times.
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Considering his history at the tournament and his recent performance at the Valspar Championship, Woods is actually the favorite to win at Bay Hill. According to Odds Shark, the latest figures from online bookmaker Bovada has Woods odds at Arnold Palmer Invitational set at +600. That means a $100 bet would net $600 in profit should Woods win this weekend. The rest of the top 10 at Bay Hill consisted of Jason Day (+1200), Justin Rose (+1600), Rory McIlroy (+1800), Rickie Fowler (+1800), Tommy Fleetwood (+2200), Hideki Matsuyama (+2500), Alex Norén (+2800), Tyrrell Hatton (+3000) and Henrik Stenson (+3300).
Looking past Bay Hill, the giant looming in early April is, of course, The Masters, which is the first major of the year. Almost immediately after Woods's second place finish last weekend, his odds at the Masters dropped all the way to 10/1 at the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook, according to ESPN. Woods has attracted the most bets at the Westgate and co-favorites Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas were the only golfers with lower odds at 8/1. Over the weekend, when Woods's odds to win the Masters were still at 12/1, a gambler placed a $4,000 wager that he would win at Augusta National. That would result in a cool $48,000 win, should Tiger take home the trophy.
"We've always seen that Tiger commands the larger-sized wagers," Westgate SuperBook manager Jeff Sherman told ESPN.
As we learned last weekend—when a relatively meaningless tournament earned the highest non-major TV ratings of any golf broadcast in five years—when Tiger is back, everything changes.