Tour Championship Betting Tips
The PGA Tour season concludes at East Lake this week as the final 30 players compete for the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup.
There is no cut and, following the removal of the starting-strokes format in 2025, no advantage carried into the opening round. The equation is now straightforward: whoever records the lowest score over 72 holes will claim both titles and the $10 million first prize.
Scottie Scheffler leads the qualifiers and is the bookies’ favourite, with Rory McIlroy also prominent in the market. However, Wyndham Clark arrives with the strongest immediate credentials after winning last week’s BMW Championship by three shots, landing a
winner for this column.
East Lake has been the permanent home of the Tour Championship since 2004, although the version awaiting the players is very different from the one that staged much of the tournament’s recent history. Andrew Green completed a major restoration before the 2024 edition, drawing upon the principles of Donald Ross’s 1913 redesign.
The work altered almost every significant part of the course. Fairways were widened and reshaped, putting surfaces were enlarged and lowered, bunkers were moved and made more severe, and tree removal opened up new angles from the tee. The changes were designed to encourage players to consider positioning rather than simply hitting towards narrow targets.
This 7,440-yard par-70 layout contains only two par fives, while long par threes and a collection of demanding par fours place added importance on strong approach play. Missed greens can also leave awkward recoveries from deep bunkers or closely cut surrounds.
East Lake’s difficulty will ultimately depend on its firmness. Rain is forecast before and during the early part of the tournament, so receptive fairways and greens could allow this world-class field to attack and produce another low-scoring finish.
Golf tipster Ben Smith has picked out his best bets for the 2026 Tour Championship. The selections are with
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Winner - Wyndham Clark 15/1
It isn’t always wise to back a golfer immediately after a victory. The market tends to react sharply, the best of the price is often gone and it can be difficult for a player to reproduce the same emotional intensity seven days later. However, Clark may be an exception.
His BMW Championship success was his third victory of 2026 and continued a remarkable second half of the season.
Clark has repeatedly delivered in elite company this term, but his performance at Bellerive was especially persuasive. Having allowed a commanding overnight advantage to disappear during the final round, he responded to a direct challenge from McIlroy by making three successive closing birdies to complete a three-shot victory. That ability to recover when the pressure was at its greatest makes him particularly appealing ahead of another high-stakes event.
East Lake provides no obvious reason for his run to end. Clark has played all eight competitive rounds here in the 60s and ranked inside the top 10 for 72-hole scoring on both appearances. His precise approach play and excellent par-four scoring should also translate well to this demanding par 70.
Clark’s price is naturally shorter than it was last week, but his chance has improved too. In career-best form and thriving against elite opposition, he remains worth supporting.
Winner - Patrick Cantlay 16/1
Patrick Cantlay’s long game appears to have clicked at exactly the right time. He gained more strokes on approach than anyone else at Bellerive, with the frequency of his close-range birdie chances underlining how well he was controlling his irons.
That display continued Cantlay’s recent resurgence and lifted him from 43rd to 19th in the FedEx Cup standings. Having begun the week needing a strong result to reach East Lake, he secured his place in emphatic fashion.
Cantlay now returns to a venue where he has repeatedly shown his class. He won the FedEx Cup here in 2021 under the old staggered-start system, has ranked among the six best players over 72 holes in three of the past five editions and finished runner-up to Tommy Fleetwood last year.
With the pressure of qualification removed, Cantlay can take considerable confidence from the quality of his golf and the manner in which he finished. His long game is in excellent condition and his extensive knowledge of the greens gives him every chance of ending his wait for another title.
Winner - Collin Morikawa 17/1
Collin Morikawa’s outstanding iron play makes him an obvious candidate at East Lake. He leads the PGA Tour in strokes gained on approach and combines that with excellent driving accuracy, an ideal profile for the renovated layout.
His fourth-place finish at Bellerive provided further encouragement, with Morikawa ranking fifth for ball-striking and also gaining strokes with the putter. He has now produced positive putting numbers in six of his last seven events, and maintaining that improvement could prove decisive this week.
Morikawa has consistently excelled in Atlanta and produced the lowest 72-hole score here in 2024. Now competing without the disadvantage of starting strokes, he has every opportunity to secure the title.
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