Viktor Hovland has been a professional golfer for less than a month, is ranked 237th in the world and does not have a top 15 PGA Tour finish on his resume.
He’s also the betting favorite entering this week’s John Deere Classic.
With most all of the world’s elite golfers in Europe ahead of next week’s Open Championship in Northern Ireland, sportsbooks are leaning heavily on the PGA Tour’s young guns descending upon Silvis, Ill.
PointsBet, FanDuel and William Hill each listed Hovland as the +1600 moneyline favorite on Tuesday, just ahead of fellow rookies Collin Morikawa (+1800 by PointsBet) and Im-Sung Jae (+2000), who dominated the Web.com Tour last season. Matthew Wolff, the 20-year-old coming off his first PGA Tour victory on Sunday, is tied for the fourth-lowest odds at +2200 along with Joaquin Niemann – a grizzled Tour veteran having turned pro all the way back in 2018.
Hovland was a heralded star at Oklahoma State, and the Norwegian broke Jack Nicklaus’ amateur U.S. Open scoring record at Pebble Beach last month. He turned pro after that event and hustled cross-country to Connecticut, where he tied for 54th at the Travelers Championship. Playing on sponsor exemptions, he has posted a pair of T13s with strong Sunday finishes the past two weeks.
Hovland is playing on his fourth consecutive sponsors exemption. Morikawa was riding the same train until his T2 last week secure temporary Tour member status.
According to SportsBetting.ag, it’s the first time two non-members with rookie eligibility are the top two favorites in a Tour-sanctioned event.
To put it in some context, defending champion Michael Kim – who won the event by eight strokes last year – is listed at +30000. Then again, Kim has missed 17 consecutive cuts – a streak broken only by finishing last in a no-cut field to “kick off” a miserable 2019 to date.
Each of the top five betting favorites as of Tuesday are under 23 years old.
Brian Harman, coming off a T7 at the 3M Open, is the top Tour veteran on the board at +2500. Kevin Streelman, who learned this week that he secured a spot in The Open, is also +2500. Zach Johnson has posted 41 consecutive rounds at TPC Deere Run at par or better and is on the event’s board of directors, but is only +2800 by PointsBet.
Sportsbooks aren’t being shy about riding the interest in the youth movement.
PointsBet is offering a “Top 5” finish prop, with Hovland at +425, followed by Morikawa (+450), Jae (+475), Niemann (+475) and Wolff (+525). If you’re feeling extremely bullish on the youngsters, the book is also offering a +1500 moneyline on Hovland and Niemann both finishing in the top five (including ties).
FanDuel list Wolff as the +1400 favorite to be the top American finisher, followed by Morikawa (+1600) and Harman (+1800). Hovland (+135) is the top bet to finish highest among European players, followed by Martin Laird (+470) and Sepp Straka (+600).
PointsBet JDC Winner Odds:
Viktor Hovland: +1600 Collin Morikawa: +1800 Im-Sung Jae: +2000 Joaquin Niemann: +2200 Matthew Wolff: +2200 Brian Harman: +2500 Charles Howell III: +2500 Lucas Glover: +2500 Kevin Streelman: +2500 Zach Johnson: +2800 Daniel Berger: +2800 Ryan Moore: +3000 Kyle Stanley: +4000 Sam Burns: +4000 Wyndham Clark: +4000 Ryan Palmer: +5000 Kevin Tway: +5000 Scott Brown: +5000 Bud Cauley: +5000 Joel Dahmen: +5000 Vaughn Taylor: +6000 Jhonattan Vegas: +6000 Jason Dufner: +6000 Martin Laird: +6000 Cameron Tringale: +6000 Bronson Burgoon: +6000 Nate Lashley: +6000 Sam Ryder: +6000 Denny McCarthy: +6000 JT Poston: +6000 Cameron Champ: +6000 Troy Merritt: +6600 Peter Malnati: +6600 Mackenzie Hughes: +6600 Talor Gooch: +6600 Danny Lee: +7000 Brian Stuard: +7000 Dylan Frittelli: +7000 Harold Varner III: +7000 Pat Perez: +8000 Nick Watney: +8000 Nick Taylor: +8000 Beau Hossler: +8000 Carlos Ortiz: +8000 Sepp Straka: +8000 Johnson Wagner: +9000 Brice Garnett: +9000 Austin Cook: +9000 Joey Garber: +9000 Doc Redman: +9000 Ryan Armour: +10000 Michael Thompson: +10000 Matt Jones: +10000 Shawn Stefani: +10000 Russell Henley: +10000 Roger Sloan: +10000 Kyoung-Hoon Lee: +10000 Hank Lebioda: +10000 Luke Donald: +12500 Matt Every: +12500 Scott Stallings: +12500 Peter Uihlein: +12500 Adam Long: +12500 Andrew Landry: +12500 Kramer Hickok: +12500 David Hearn: +15000 Andrés Romero: +15000 Jonathan Byrd: +15000 Bill Haas: +15000 Fabian Gomez: +15000 Josh Teater: +15000 Alex Prugh: +15000 Zack Sucher: +15000 Sam Saunders: +15000 Roberto Castro: +15000 Robert Streb: +15000 Wes Roach: +15000 Roberto Diaz: +15000 Stephan Jaeger: +15000 Chase Wright: +15000 Seamus Power: +15000 Adam Svensson: +15000 Tyler Duncan: +15000 Trey Mullinax: +15000 Sebastian Munoz: +15000 Adam Schenk: +15000 Stewart Cink: +20000 Chad Campbell: +20000 Ryan Blaum: +20000 Anirban Lahiri: +20000 Ted Potter Jr: +20000 Justin Suh: +20000 Tom Hoge: +20000 Brandon Harkins: +20000 Dominic Bozzelli: +20000 Oliver Schniederjans: +20000 Richy Werenski: +20000 Curtis Luck: +20000 John Catlin: +20000 Ben Crane: +25000 Robert Garrigus: +25000 D.J. Trahan: +25000 Sang-Moon Bae: +25000 Chris Stroud: +25000 Scott Langley: +25000 David Lingmerth: +25000 Kelly Kraft: +25000 Jim Knous: +25000 Benjamin Silverman: +25000 Cody Gribble: +25000 Cameron Davis: +25000 J.J. Henry: +30000 Alex Cejka: +30000 Boo Weekley: +30000 Martin Piller: +30000 Tyrone van Aswegen: +30000 Brendon Todd: +30000 Jose de Jesus Rodriguez: +30000 Julian Etulain: +30000 Satoshi Kodaira: +30000 Michael Kim: +30000 Anders Albertson: +30000 Ricky Barnes: +35000 Hunter Mahan: +35000 Derek Fathauer: +35000 Brady Schnell: +35000 Whee Kim: +35000 Nicholas Lindheim: +35000 Seth Reeves: +35000 Arjun Atwal: +35000 Austin Connelly: +35000 Freddie Jacobson: +40000 John Senden: +40000 George McNeill: +40000 Billy Hurley III: +40000 Chris Thompson: +40000 Martin Trainer: +40000 Kyle Jones: +40000 Jim Herman: +40000 Tim Herron: +50000 Dicky Pride: +50000 Chad Collins: +50000 Parker McLachlin: +50000 Daniel Chopra: +50000 Ho-Sung Choi: +50000 Kris Blanks: +50000 John Chin: +50000 Will Claxton: +50000 Don Fisher: +50000 Smylie Kaufman: +50000 Tom Lovelady: +50000 Ryan Vermeer: +50000 Steve Allan: +50000 Austen Truslow: +50000 Dylan Meyer: +50000
–Field Level Media (@FieldLevelMedia)
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