The PGA Tour is back in the state of South Carolina for a third time this season for the playing of the Palmetto Championship. This week’s tournament is filling in for the canceled RBC Canadian Open that was shelved until 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Palmetto Championship will take place at the Congaree Golf Club that opened up in 2017. The winner will gain 500 coveted FedEx Cup points and a piece of the $7.3 million purse. This is the final tournament before the U.S. Open.
Course Information
We get to see a new track on the PGA Tour for the Palmetto Championship, adding to the list of new venues this season. Designed by the famed Tom Fazio, the course is 7,685 in length and built on 3,200 acres of South Carolina low country.
Located approximately 30 miles north of Savannah, GA., the Congaree Golf Club is a par-71 track with expansive fairways and penal, natural surrounds. While the fairways are friendly, players will be tested with its length that includes a 625 par-5 and two par-4s that run over 520 yards.
Brooks Koepka (+800) returns to action for the first time since a strong showing at the PGA Championship last month.
Field Information
We return to the standard 156-man lineup this weekend with one of the weaker fields as players take the week off to prepare for next week’s major. But, even with the weak showing, we get nine of the top 50 players in the world teeing it up, including South Carolina native and world #1 Dustin Johnson.
Brooks Koepka returns to action for the first time since a strong showing at the PGA Championship last month, getting a warmup in before trying to win his third U.S. Open. Koepka underwent knee surgery in March, but that didn’t slow him down from a T2 at the PGA Championship.
Fans also get to see Davis Thompson, the former top amateur in the world, make his first professional start, along with the top collegiate star John Pak logging his first start as a pro. Both players recently wrapped up their collegiate careers.
Other notable pros teeing it up this weekend include Tyrrell Hatton, Matt Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood, and Sungjae Im. Hatton is currently the 11th ranked player in the world.
Betting Odds at Congaree
When you have a new venue hosting a PGA tournament, it is always hard to cap, given the lack of historical information to pull from to make your picks. However, it’s always safe in this instance to key on guys whose recent play is trending in the right direction.
The top five favorites are no surprise in Johnson (+750), Koepka (+800), Hatton (+1100), Fitzpatrick (+1200), and Im (+1600). However, given the recent track record of players winning for the first or second time in their careers, do not be surprised if it is one of the unheralded pros walking off 18 on Sunday with a career-changing victory.
Some of the players outside of the top targets to look at include Harold Varner III (+3300), Brandt Snedeker (+5000), Doc Redman (+6600), Martin Laird (+8000), and Hudson Swafford (+25000).
