PGA Tour: Bermuda Championship betting odds and preview

The second annual Bermuda Championship won’t supply the star power of last week’s Zozo Championship, but it will look and sound far more like a normal PGA Tour event because of one important facet.

For the first time since mid-March — when The Players Championship was cancelled after the first round, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic — the PGA Tour will permit fan attendance on site of a tournament.

A maximum of 500 spectators, required to follow strict health guidelines, are allowed each day on the scenic Port Royal Golf Course, a par-71, 6,828-yard layout.

Seeing fans line the course and cheer for the 132-player field in Bermuda will bring back a familiar element that has been missed from golf, and will enhance the excitement surrounding the tournament’s top player.

Up-and-comer Zalatoris could earn Tour status in Bermuda

Will Zalatoris has yet to earn his PGA Tour card, but he may be the best golfer in Bermuda. The +1100 co-favorite played exceptional golf on the Korn Ferry Tour last season and kicked off the 2020-21 season with a fifth-place finish at the Shriners Open and eighth at the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship, another coastal course similar to Bermuda’s.

The 24-year-old’s most notable performance on Tour came in late September, when he landed sixth at the U.S. Open at hostile Winged Foot Golf Club.

A 69th-place finish or better at Bermuda will earn Zalatoris enough non-member FedEx Cup points to gain special temporary membership on Tour, which would grant him unlimited sponsor’s exemptions for the rest of the 2020-21 PGA season.   

Zalatoris’ competition at Bermuda will include defending champion Brendon Todd, the other co-favorite of the tournament. After a slew of missed cuts to start the 2019-20 season, Todd shot 24-under at the inaugural Bermuda Championship, where he beat Harry Higgs by four strokes.

Todd went on to finish first at the Mayakoba Golf Classic and fourth at the RSM Classic the month after his Bermuda win. However, in 2020, his form is lacking once again, with 47th and 52nd–place finishes at the Zozo and CJ Cup, both no-cut, 78-player events.

Bermuda Championship course layout and related statistics

A look at Todd’s recent statistics don’t offer much confidence in the 35-year-old Pittsburgh native.

He is currently tied at 209th on Tour in strokes gained off the tee, tied for 223rd in bogey avoidance, and T173rd in birdie or better average.

The short Port Royal Golf Course features eight par 4s ranging from 350 to 458 yards, Bermuda greens, 88 bunkers, plus water that comes into play on five holes. Weather could also present a difficult challenge this weekend, with wind expected to reach 25 mph on Saturday.

Another young, rising star, Justin Suh (+4000), is a longshot who could see his name high on the leaderboard Sunday based on his recent performance on coastal courses.

While he missed the cut in all four of his PGA Tour appearances last season, he finished 14th at Corales in September. He also posted an eighth-place finish at the Shriners Open in October.   

Suh is 10th on Tour in birdie or better percentage, 23rd in bogey avoidance, 32nd in strokes gained off the tee, and is tied for ninth in greens in regulation, which makes him an enticing pick this weekend. 

The winner of the Bermuda Championship will receive full FedEx Cup points, $720,000 of the $4 million purse, and a trip to the Sentry Tournament of Champions, the 2021 Masters, and The Players Championship.

Last year, the Bermuda Championship was an alternate event to the WGC-HSBC Champions, which was cancelled in 2020.

You can watch the Bermuda Championship Thursday through Sunday, Oct. 29-Nov. 1, on the Golf Channel or stream on PGA Tour Live.

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