Action Report: Tiger Woods popular pick, but Justin Thomas favored for The Genesis Invitational

It is a special week on the PGA TOUR with The Genesis Invitational being played at The Riviera Country Club just outside of Los Angeles and the return of Tiger Woods, the tournament host.

Woods is playing in his first PGA TOUR event since last year’s Masters. It is also a PGA TOUR Signature Event, which means all the best players are in the field.

And as is the case whenever Woods tees it up, he’s a popular play at the BetMGM online sportsbook.

As of Wednesday, Woods is pulling in 8% of the tickets (most in the field) but only 4.2% of the handle. Justin Thomas is the favorite among bettors, as he is drawing the most handle (15.5%) on the second-most tickets (5.7%).

Woods has +12500 odds to win, while Thomas is +1600.

For reference, only four players have better odds to win than Thomas – Scottie Scheffler (+650), Rory McIlroy (+1000), Viktor Hovland (+1400) and Xander Schauffele (+1400).

Woods will have plenty of rust to brush off, but he is familiar with Riviera. It is where he made his PGA TOUR debut in 1992, but he’s yet to win there. In 14 appearances, he has three top 10 finishes.

Meanwhile, Thomas enters in terrific form. In his last seven events worldwide, his worst finish is T12, including four top fives.

Specific to Riviera, he has three top 10 finishes in his last seven appearances, with his best being a runner-up finish in 2019.

Woods, Thomas and Sahith Theegala (+2800) are BetMGM’s biggest liabilities.

Current Handle & Tickets

Handle

• Justin Thomas – 15.5%
• Sahith Theegala – 12.1%
• Max Homa – 7.9%
• Scottie Scheffler – 7%
• Ludvig Åberg – 7%

Tickets

• Tiger Woods – 8%
• Justin Thomas – 5.7%
• Scottie Scheffler – 5.7%
• Adam Scott – 5.1%
• Patrick Cantlay – 4.7%

Theegala is coming off a fifth-place finish at the WM Phoenix Open and finished T6 at this event last year.

A bettor has wagered $8,000 to win $224,000 on the 26-year-old.

Homa (+2000) has dominated this tournament of late. In the last four years, he has a win, a runner-up finish and two other top 10s. But he’s struggled lately, including coming off a missed cut last week.

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