Muirfield Village Golf Club in Columbus, Ohio, is the site for the next two PGA tournaments. This week’s event is the Workday Charity Open, which will feature a number of top names who have not appeared in events for a while, such as Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka, as well as some other big names who have won at Muirfield Village in the past, such as Justin Rose, Hideki Matsuyama and Patrick Cantlay.
The setup at Muirfield Village will be slightly different than what will be on tap for next week’s Memorial Tournament. This week, the tee boxes are likely to be a bit up to make things play a little shorter, and the rough will be about three inches deep this week before undergoing a cut for next week. You want to look for golfers who do well on par-3 holes longer than 200 yards and par-4 holes between 450 and 500 yards. The bunkers greenside are challenging, which makes sand save percentage an important statistic. We have the PGA betting odds for you along with suggestions for your wagering cards.
PGA: 2020 Workday Charity Open Preview
Contender Odds (+10000 or less)
- Justin Thomas +1100
- Jon Rahm, Patrick Cantlay +1300
- Hideki Matsuyama, Brooks Koepka, Xander Schauffele +1700
- Viktor Hovland +2600
- Justin Rose +2700
- Rickie Fowler +2800
- Patrick Reed +3000
- Collin Morikawa, Gary Woodland +3500
- Sungjae Im +4150
- Matt Kuchar +4500
- Adam Hadwin, Marc Leishman, Joaquin Niemann, Jordan Spieth, Bubba Watson +5000
- Matthew Fitzpatrick +5500
- Jason Day, Byeong Hun An, Billy Horschel, Jason Kokrak, Kevin Streelman, Matthew Wolff +7000
- Louis Oosthuizen, Scottie Scheffler, Harold Varner III +7500
- Cameron Champ, Corey Conners, Phil Mickelson +8500
- Bud Cauley, Joel Dahmen, Shane Lowry, Ian Poulter, Jhonattan Vegas +10000
Hideki Matsuyama saw his putter go in and out on him last week, losing over two strokes to the field just on the green. However, he gained five strokes on the field using his irons at the Rocket Mortgage Challenge and has a nine-tournament streak in which he has not lost any strokes with his irons. Over his past 24 rounds, he is second against this field in strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green.
Viktor Hovland is gaining eight strokes on average going Tee-to-Green in comparison to the rest of this field since the PGA Tour came out of the COVID-19 shutdown. The putting, on the other hand, has been dicey, as he has dropped at least three strokes against the field in the last two weeks after getting on the green. This week will feature bentgrass greens, which have been kind to him. Could he be fatigued after five straight weeks of tournament play? Maybe, but he is one of the younger players.
Joaquin Niemann comes back from a rest week. He’s a strong iron player and putts well on bentgrass greens. He is one of the best ball strikers on Tour right now, and he can get quality scores. He is 23rd in this field in birdies or better gained over his last three tournaments. His putting cost him more than six strokes at the Travelers Championship, so hopefully bentgrass will treat him well, but his irons gained him more than seven strokes at Harbour Town.
Joel Dahmen is an interesting dark horse here. He is seventh in this field in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green and fourth in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green over the last 24 rounds. In his last three starts, he has cracked the top twenty twice. He made it into the top five at the Genesis Invitational and the Arnold Palmer Invitational as well.
Cameron Champ had a six-under round on Sunday at the Rocket Mortgage Challenge, and for the weekend he gained over three strokes tee-to-green. His short game is a bit of a mess, as is his putting on bentgrass green, but he does have two straight top-15 finishes, thanks to his ball-striking.
