Morning Coffee: Scheffler a popular pick to win Open Championship at FanDuel
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Paul Skenes made his first MLB All-Star Game appearance a short visit as the starting pitcher for the National League.
Livvy loved it, but not as much as all of us that bet the NRFI.
Skenes didn’t record a strikeout, but he did top 100+ miles per hour twice in one scoreless inning.
The 22-year-old rookie joined Justin Verlander and Chris Sale as the only starting pitchers in the pitch-tracking era to throw multiple pitches at 100+ miles per hour in an MLB All-Star Game.
The NRFI cashed for the fifth time in six years as the FanDuel Best Bet from Tuesday’s Morning Coffee column.
Meanwhile, the American League would eventually secure a 5-3 win over the National League to improve to 10-1 in the last 11 editions of the Midsummer Classic.
Boston Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran won MLB All-Star Game MVP at +4000 after he hit a two-run home run in the fifth inning that was the difference in the win.
Skenes will enter the second half of the MLB season as the favourite to win the NL Rookie of the Year and the third choice to win the NL Cy Young award at FanDuel.
With no CFL Thursday Night Football for the first time this season and no baseball until Friday afternoon, there isn’t much to preview in terms of live sports events tonight.
It’s a good thing the final major golf tournament of the season is set to get underway on TSN early Thursday morning.
This is the Morning Coffee for Wednesday, July 17th, 2024.
Scheffler A Popular Pick To Win Open Championship At FanDuel
Is Tiger Woods still relevant to young golf fans?
That question popped up in a discussion I had on Tuesday looking ahead to the Open Championship.
For me, the answer is an easy one.
Tiger is as relevant as the betting market demands.
On Tuesday, I advised a close friend to resist the urge to follow the crowd and bet on Skenes for All-Star Game MVP at FanDuel.
Per the FanDuel traders, Skenes was the most popular pick in terms of handle in that market.
Fortunately, that friend took my advice and tailed by FanDuel Best Bet with the NRFI instead.
Today, I’ll offer similar council with Tiger.
Don’t bet on Tiger to win the Open Championship.
For the first time in his career, Tiger will compete in all four majors without making a single worldwide start in between any of them.
The problem is that Tiger hasn’t finished in the top-20 in any major tournament since winning the 2019 Masters.
Woods has completed just nine rounds in his four starts this season.
He will tee it up at the Open Championship for just the fifth time since 2015 and he’s missed the cut in three of his last four appearances at this tournament.
Tiger is 270-to-1 to win the Open Championship at FanDuel this morning.
The 15-time major champion is +850 to finish top-10 and +440 to finish top-20.
It’s always great to see Tiger in the field for a major tournament.
Placing a bet on him to win a major?
Not so much.
Scottie Scheffler is the favourite to win the Open Championship at +450 at FanDuel.
Scheffler has already won half of the PGA TOUR’s “signature events” this year.
A victory this week would give Scheffler seven wins this season – something that hasn’t been done since Tiger Woods did it back in 2007.
Per the FanDuel traders, 11 per cent of the handle in the outright winner market is on Scheffler to win.
Rory McIlroy is the second choice at +850.
This week’s tournament will be McIlroy’s 38th start since he won his fourth and most recent major title at the PGA Championship back in 2014.
Despite the notable drought, McIlroy to win the Open Championship accounts for eight percent of the handle in the outright winner market.
Xander Schauffele (+1100) is the only other player in the field with shorter than 16-to-1 odds to win outright.
Interestingly, Schauffele isn’t even among the top-10 most popular choices to win the Open Championship in terms of the betting handle.
Meanwhile, Bryson DeChambeau is a popular pick to win the tournament as the fifth choice at +1800.
DeChambeau is tied with Scheffler for the highest percentage of bets in the outright winner market and third in handle behind only Scheffler and McIlroy.
He’s looking to become the first player to win The Open and the US Open in the same year since – you guessed it – Tiger did it back in 2000.
Collin Morikawa at +1400 and Ludvig Aberg at +1800 account round out the top-five most popular picks in terms of betting handle in the outright winner market.
In terms of a FanDuel Best Bet, I’m going with Jon Rahm to finish in the top-20 at -115.
While Scheffler has been dominant at majors dating back to 2020, Rahm has also excelled in some of the biggest tournaments over that span.
Only Scheffler, Mcilroy, Schauffele, and Collin Morikawa have posted a better cumulative score at majors dating back to 2020.
A missed cut at last month’s U.S. Open snapped a streak of 18 consecutive made cuts in majors.
Rahm hasn’t finished outside of the top-10 in any LIV event this season.
He is currently No. 2 in the LIV standings.
Rahm has recorded top-three finishes in two of his last three appearances at the Open Championship, including finished tied for second at last year’s tournament.
I took a flyer on Rahm to win the Open Championship at +2500 this week.
I also tailed our guy Luke Bellus with a play on Louis Oosthuizen at +7500 to win outright and +175 to finish top-20 after reading his First Clicks article.
In case you missed it, you could find his full breakdown below.
For my FanDuel Best Bet, I’m going with Rahm to finish in the top-20 at -115.
After betting on Spain to win Euro 2024 and Carlos Alcaraz to win Wimbledon, it will be fun to cheer on another Spaniard at the Open Championship this week.
Have a great day, everyone!