Another Designated event on the PGA Tour, the Wells Fargo Championship will be played this week at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. This means that most of the top players will be competing there.
The fact that bettors are focusing on players who have had success on major championship golf courses is not surprising given that the course has hosted both the 2017 PGA Championship and the 2022 Presidents Cup.
Young is drawing the most stake on the second-most tickets, while McIlroy, the clear favorite in the betting, is drawing the second-most stake on the third-most tickets.
Young, who is 25 years old, hasn’t yet achieved victory on the PGA Tour but has gone extremely close, finishing second in the Wells Fargo Championship last year when it was held at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm.
This season, he has three top-10 finishes, including a second-place showing at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. He finished in the top five six times last year, including at the PGA Championship and the Open Championship.
Young’s 1-2-1 Presidents Cup performance at Quail Hollow was disappointing, but he gained some experience with the course that would be helpful this week.
In the meanwhile, McIlroy has grown to adore Quail Hollow over the years.
He has achieved three victories there and twice broken the course record(61).
He won the Wells Fargo Championship by seven strokes in 2010 for the first PGA TOUR victory of his career, and he is the most recent winner at Quail Hollow (2021). During the Wells Fargo championship of 2010, Rory McIlroy aged 20 at the time, almost didn’t make the weekend cut at the tournament before making a spectacular comeback. On the day of the event, with a 10-under 62, McIlroy broke the previous course record and defeated Phil Mickelson by four strokes.
Although this will be McIlroy’s first competition since the Masters, it seems like he is refreshed and prepared to take the field once more.
Viktor Hovland (+1800) is another betting favorite this week. The 25-year-old’s stake, which is 12.3%, is the third-highest on the most tickets (9.3%). Hovland only competed once, finishing T-3 at the 2021 event.
Hovland recently placed T-7 at the Masters, so he is entering the Wells Fargo Championship with some momentum. The three biggest liabilities for most bookmakers this week are Young, McIlroy, and Hovland.
Below is a list of the handle and ticket leaders before the event kick-started.
Tickets
- Viktor Hovland – 9.3%
- Cameron Young – 8.9%
- Rory Mcllroy – 7.2%
- Jordan Speith – 6.9%
- Max Homa – 5.2%
Handle
1. Cameron Young – 16.9%
2. Rory Mcllroy – 16.6%
3. Viktor Hovland – 12.3%
4. Jordan Spieth – 5.4%
5. Patrick Cantlay – 4.6%
Homa not only won the 2019 competition in Quail Hollow, but he is also the reigning champion. After missing his last two cuts, he is favored by +2500 but only draws 5.2% of tickets and 3.9% of the stake.
Spieth (+1800) only played at Quail Hollow once before, winning the Presidents Cup in the fall. However, he enters the tournament after two straight top-five finishes at the Masters and RBC Heritage, which he lost in a playoff.
