This will be the inaugural staging of the Bermuda Championship and the first time that the PGA Tour has staged a regulation event on the island of Bermuda. It will give many Korn Ferry Tour graduates and languishing pros the chance to pick up curial FedEx Cup points.
2020 PGA Tour- Alternate Field Event | Bermuda Championship
Port Royal Golf Course, Southampton, Bermuda
Thursday 31 October 2019 – Sunday 3 November 2019
You are going to have to bear with me on this one, because this is the worst field I have seen on the PGA Tour in some time, even given the opposite event status. Obviously many of the tour’s top players will be on duty at this week’s WGC HSBC event in China. But looking at this field I’m almost struggling to see the point. Be that as it may, this will be the inaugural staging of the Bermuda Championship. This will be the first time that the PGA Tour has staged a regulation event on the island of Bermuda. It will give many Korn Ferry Tour graduates and languishing pros the chance to pick up curial FedEx Cup points.
Port Royal Golf Course is a short, exposed design from Robert Trent Jones Sr. There are a number of holes that are precariously located on the fringes of the Atlantic Ocean, offering some vistas reminiscent of Pebble Beach. The 235 yard par 3 16th is the signature hole and is widely regarded as one of the most iconic par 3’s in golf. This course hosted the Grand Slam of Golf between 2009 and 2014, which was essentially an exhibition style event staged over 36 holes. Looking back at those results, it’s clear that links specialists are always likely to thrive at a course this exposed. I don’t know exactly how many in the field have true links credentials, but those able to withstand coastal gusts should do well this week.
Just to give you a taste of the relative strength of this field, World Number 143 Denny McCarthy is the world’s top ranked player in the field this week. He is yet to register a top three finish on the PGA Tour. Elsewhere there are more illustrious names, with recent PGA Tour winner Lanto Griffin jumping off the page. Aaron Wise has proved really competitive on tour while the likes of Scottie Scheffler and Beau Hossler have experienced intermittent success.
Outright Betting (To Win)
Alex Noren (14/1)
Lanto Griffin (14/1)
Aaron Wise (16/1)
Scottie Scheffler (16/1)
Denny McCarthy (16/1)
Value Bets
Dominic Bozzeli
To Win (70/1), To Place (15/1)
Operating within the spirit of absolute randomness offered by this week’s field, I have gone with the offbeat selection of Dominic Bozzeli. Having said that, Bozzeli has alternate-field credentials in capturing the 2018 Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship. That already gives him a leg up on the field in my opinion. He also has some recent form, finishing 6th at last months’ Safeway Open, which was a far stronger field than this one.
Doug Ghim
To Win (80/1), To Place (17/1)
This is a purely speculative option- which to be honest is true for most bets this week. Doug Ghim was named the best male college golfer in 2018. College golf in the States has a long, storied history of producing talent and that title should not be sniffed at. But his time on the tour thus far has been less than stellar, as he currently sits 351st in the Official World Golf Rankings. His best results thus far include a T20 at last year’s Farmers Insurance Open and a T12 at the AT&T Byron Nelson. But if there was ever a week for a college star to break out, this is the one.
The Man to Beat
Lanto Griffin
To Win (14/1), To Place (3/1)
This is an absolute no-brainer and should represent great value at 14/1. Lanto Griffin is not only the form player in the field, but perhaps one of the most bin-form players on the PGA Tour. He has made the top 20 in five consecutive starts, including that breakthrough victory at the Houston Open. Of his 20 rounds on the PGA Tour this year, he has only shot three rounds of 70 or more. His previous victory on the Korn Ferry Tour came on a Robert Trent Jones course in Alabama, which should bode well for this week’s event. This is a substantially less decorated field than the ones he has been tearing up thus far. He has to be worth a shot at 14/1.
Written by Damien Kayat for Hollywoodbets
