2020 Tour Championship Preview, Prediction & Odds

The year 2020 has been an unusual one, to say the least. This week will be the Finals of the FedEx Cup and it will take place before both the U.S. Open and the Masters. That is very odd, but it is what it is in this very strange year. The Championship will begin on Friday, instead of Thursday and it will include the top 30 players in the FedEx Cup Standings.

The Tour Championship has a bit of a different format as is uses a strokes-based system, called FedEx Starting Strokes. The player that is the top seed for this event (Dustin Johnson) will begin the tournament at -10. John Rahm is the second seed and he will start at -8, while third-seeded Justin Thomas will begin at -7. This is a new scoring system for his event, which was first used last year. It does give the advantage to those players that come in ranked well.

This is a course that the short hitters can win while the real challenge will be navigating some tough green with undulating surfaces. The putter will be key this week. That has to give Jon Rahm some confidence after sinking a 66-foot put to win the BMW Championship a week ago in a playoff over Dustin Johnson. We also note that DJ sank a 43-foot putt on the 18th to send it to the playoff. It should be fun watching those two on the putting surface this week. Ok, enough of the Chit-Chat, let’s get to some winners.

My Three Winners

As always, I will give out a group of three players, where I feel the winner of the event will come from.

Two weeks ago, I won with Dustin Johnson, and last week I had him in this group again. He finished 2nd after losing in a playoff. DJ has been red hot with two 2nd place finishes and a win in the last three weeks. Last week he sunk a 43-foot put to send the event into a playoff and he has been a solid putter this year, ranking 50th on tour in SG: Putting. He also ranks 17th in SG: Approach to the Green, 11th in SG: Tee-to-Green, 11th in driving distance, and 8th in scoring average. Johnson has some very solid numbers overall and he does have four Top-six finishes in his last six times here at East Lake. Add it all up, plus with the way he is playing at the moment and you can see why it is impossible to leave him off my list of winners, even at just +188.

Next, I will go with Jon Rahm at +300, who sunk a 66-foot putt last week to beat DJ in a playoff at the BMW Championship. Momentum is everything in the playoffs and Rahm has more than enough of it right now. He now has two wins in his last five events and has finished 13th or better in four of his last five. He has been on quite a roll and this is the right time of year for that to happen. Rahm has some strong rankings as well as he is 20th in SG: Putting, 29th in SG: Around the Green, 5th in SG Tee-to-Green, 18th in Greens in Regulation, 3rd in scoring average, and 22nd in driving distance. I know that taking the two favorites is a bit Cliche’ but these two players are hot and both have momentum heading into this one.

Lastly, I will take Bryson DeChambeau at +2200. I have used him plenty this year and I feel that he sets up well for this course. Last year here he was 2nd in greens in regulation and he led the field in putting inside 10 feet. He has struggled some of late but in the middle of the season, DeChambeau was one of the hottest golfers on the planet. Bryson is 5th on tour in SG: Putting, 17th in SG: Tee-to-Green, 1st in driving accuracy, 55th in GIR, and 2nd in scoring average. The putting is extremely key for this one and DeChambeau has finished 12th and 19th in his two career trips to East Lake. I will take him as one of my winners this week, despite the fact that he starts the tournament six strokes behind the leader.

Props

Tournament Matchup - Daniel Berger -120 over Hideki Matsuyama

Tournament Matchup - Webb Simpson +141 over Justin Thomas

Tournament Matchup - Sungjae Im -1.5 (-115) Strokes over Brendon Todd

Odds are Courtesy Of DraftKings.com & BetOnline.ag

Stats Are Courtesy Of PGATour.com