With the end of the holidays comes the resumption of the 2018-19 PGA Tour season — and the return of the Tour’s top players to regular participation. The Plantation Course at Kapalua will host the tournament, and 33 of the 37 pro golfers who are eligible for the Tournament of Champions are taking part, giving this weekend one of the toughest fields in several years. Two-time Tournament of Champions winner (and defending champ) Dustin Johnson is participating as well. Let’s take a look at some of the contender odds as well as our golf betting thoughts on some of the golfers you should put on your wager card.

2019 Sentry Tournament of Champions Odds & Preview

Contender Odds for the 2019 Sentry Tournament of Champions

• Dustin Johnson                                                                                                        +485
• Jon Rahm                                                                                                                  +675
• Justin Thomas                                                                                                          +829
• Brooks Koepka                                                                                                         +958
• Rory McIlroy                                                                                                              +1058
• Bryson DeChambeau                                                                                               +1263
• Jason Day                                                                                                                  +1464
• Patrick Reed                                                                                                              +1573
• Cameron Champ                                                                                                       +1950
• Webb Simpson, Xander Schauffele                                                                        +2079
• Marc Leishman                                                                                                          +2289
• Gary Woodland                                                                                                         +2599
• Bubba Watson                                                                                                          +3112
• Francesco Molinari                                                                                                   +4011
• Paul Casey                                                                                                                 +4375
• Aaron Wise                                                                                                                +4525
• Billy Horschel                                                                                                            +5500
• Keegan Bradley                                                                                                        +6040
• Patton Kizzire                                                                                                           +6500
• Brandt Snedeker                                                                                                       +7000
• Matt Kuchar                                                                                                               +7500
• Charles Howell III, Scott Piercy                                                                               +9000
• Kevin Na                                                                                                                    +10000
• Andrew Putnam, Kevin Tway, Ian Poulter                                                             +11500
• Michael Kim                                                                                                               +12500
• Brice Garnett, Andrew Landry, Satoshi Kodaira, Troy Merritt                            +13500
• Ted Potter Jr                                                                                                             +15000

Brooks Koepka had built a reputation for being a golfer who just gets up for the majors, but then he picked up a win at the CJ Cup. He came in dead last here in 2018, but then he worked his way through some injuries and had a dominant second half of the year. The motivation for him to come back from that 2018 result may well be what brought him here and could propel him to a win. Bryson DeChambeau has won three times in his last six tournaments, and in this field he ranks in the top five in strokes gained off the tee, strokes gained (short game) strokes gained on approach, strokes gained on par 5s, strokes gained on par 4s and in strokes gained through ball-striking….in the last 24 rounds. He is also at the top of this field for landing on the green or fringes in regulation within 15 feet of the pin, a metric called Opportunities Gained by FantasyNational.com. Kapaula has huge greens, so DeChambeau’s prowess is more likely to help him here than people with high greens in regulation percentage. Webb Simpson makes his first appearance here in five years — in 2014, he came in third. He is tops in this field in strokes gained on par 4s over the last 36 rounds, and his putting on this surface (Bermuda grass) is elite as well. Francesco Molinari has terrific value given that he is the seventh-ranked player in the world. His putter has gotten soft since he terrorized opponents at the Ryder Cup. There are only 34 players in this tournament, and the greens are likely to be slow, and so a wedge (Molinari’s best short game club) becomes a lot more important. Andrew Putnam is way down the odds list but makes a smart dark horse pick. He came in eighth at the Canadian Open and then won the next week. He also finished fourth in Shanghai, a windy track that took a lot of toughness even to make it to Sunday. He’s picking up some notice on the PGA Tour, so it’s time for bettors to take some notice as well. Satoshi Kodaira has never managed to play as well in the PGA Tour as he has in Asia. He won at the Heritage, but then the best he finished in a full field in the United States was 41st in October in Las Vegas. He did won last month in Japan, but I’m not sure he makes sense even as a value pick for this tournament.