please gamble responsibly<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe Banker: Chris Kirk\u00a0<\/p>\n
20\/1\u00a0e\/w (Betfred, BoyleSports 10 Places 1\/5 Odds)<\/p>\n
Chris Kirk is the most obvious winner for me this week in\u00a0Bermuda, and while\u00a0we know the weather can wreak havoc and ruin someone\u2019s week in the early rounds, I am committed to Kirk playing well here.<\/p>\n
Sure, if you want to wait for the tee times before biting the bullet on one of the favorites, I wouldn\u2019t blame\u00a0you, but\u00a0if Ben James gets a bad tee time and Kirk a good one, these odds could well shift quite dramatically, so for now, I will take him early and get what I think is the value, with so many places on offer.<\/p>\n
First of all, Kirk is in good form. He\u2019s made six cuts in a row, with two top-10 finishes at the Rocket Classic and the Biltmore Championship in that time. He was also inside the top 10 after rounds 2 and 3 in Utah, before falling away on Sunday.<\/p>\n
This is also a good event for veterans. The shorter course and testing conditions have seen the likes of Brian Gay, Seamus Power, Brendan Todd, and Camilo Villegas all put their superior experience to use here to win, while Alex Noren finished runner-up a couple of years ago as well.<\/p>\n
On top of that, while this is undoubtedly an event that\u2019s been kind to longshots, the class of the field\u00a0has\u00a0often\u00a0shown up and challenged\u00a0as well. Wyndham Clark, Patrick Reed, Thomas Detry, and Noren have all been runners-up\u00a0here, and with\u00a0Kirk being a 6-time winner on Tour, his class and experience could go a long way here over the weekend.<\/p>\n
This is also a course and event tailor-made to Kirk\u2019s game. Kirk has won wind-affected events, such as the McGladrey Classic (now the RSM), the Honda Classic (now the Cognizant Classic), and The Sentry. He\u2019s also a two-time runner-up at the Sony Open in Hawaii, where he has three top-3s\u00a0in total, a runner-up at Pebble Beach, and has further top-5 finishes across the RSM and the Sony to also lean on.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think there are many better course fits, if any, than Kirk this week, and given his run of form, which has been spearheaded by excellent Approach play, I have to have him onside here.<\/p>\n
Kirk has now gained significant strokes on Approach in six straight events, and in 7 of his last\u00a08, and he\u2019s nowhitting it better off the tee as well, gaining strokes off the tee in 3 of his last 4, despite a distance handicap. That level of accuracy will be a big plus this week, and given his coastal form and his ability to play in the wind, I cannot look past him when you couple all that with his recent form.<\/p>\n
As ever, the putter is the problem for Kirk, and his results live and die by that club, but\u00a0given\u00a04 of his 6 wins have come on Bermudagrass greens, there is hope in that department as well.<\/p>\n
There can\u2019t be a more solid case made for anyone in this field, even by Ben James, who is far shorter in the market, given his current form, so it will ultimately come down to whether you are comfortable taking Kirk at around\u00a020\/1, especially in an event that\u2019s been good to longshots. This is an event that suits certain players, though, of which Kirk is one, and that\u2019s what gives him the edge here.<\/p>\n
Sitting 116th in the FedEx Cup rankings, he has work to do to get into the top 100 and keep his card, and he can sew that up here at an ideal venue.<\/p>\n
The Outsider: Lee Hodges <\/p>\n
40\/1 e\/w (Coral, Ladbrokes 8 Places 1\/5 Odds)<\/p>\n
Course form figures of 61-71 suggest otherwise, but I truly believe Lee Hodges will eventually enjoy this test in Bermuda, given his correlative form and his style of play.<\/p>\n
Hodges relies on accuracy rather than distance, which plays well\u00a0here, and given\u00a0he has two top 5 finishes at the RSM Classic, two top 10 finishes at the Sony Open, and two top 15 finishes at the Honda\/Cognizant Classic, he fits the profile of player we are looking for.<\/p>\n
I like Hodges\u2019 upside, despite him only winning once so far on Tour. He\u2019s been in contention a lot; he\u2019s won a bigger event than this, and he is the consistent type that should revel in playing on this type of layout.<\/p>\n
Now for his current form. He\u2019s made 5 of his last 7 cuts, with three top 20 finishes in that time, including a 3rd place finish at the John Deere Classic, despite a disappointing week with his irons. He\u2019s improved that part of his game since then, gaining strokes in 3 of his last 4 measured events, and it\u2019s now six measured events in a row (not counting the Baycurrent Classic) where he\u2019s gained off the tee as well.<\/p>\n
He was 33rd in Japan, where he broke 70 twice, and that was a week after finishing 13th in Utah, where he opened with three rounds of 68 or better and then signed off with a fine 64. 20th at the 3M Open, where he was better placed after the 2nd and 3rd rounds, is another sign he\u2019s in good shape, and I do think he can go on and win this event, as a former PGA Tour winner who likes this sort of test.<\/p>\n
I am going to ignore the course form and look at how good of a fit he is instead this week, and at 40\/1 I think there is some value there, given the players above him on the odds board.<\/p>\n
The Long Shot: Davis Riley <\/p>\n
100\/1 e\/w (Coral, Ladbrokes 8 Places 1\/5 Odds)<\/p>\n
Davis Riley has the knack for popping up out of the blue and winning, as he nearly did at the Rocket Classic, where he led after 54 holes back in August. Now, he returns to Bermuda where 2\/2 for made cuts, and has a top-10 to his name.<\/p>\n
He finished 7th here on debut back in 2021 and two years later finished 45th, but he was far better placed\u00a0that time, through three rounds.\u00a0He opened up with a 64 and followed with a pair of 68s to go into Sunday in the hunt, and just had a poor final round, slipping down the leaderboard.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s two strong efforts at this\u00a0event, and with\u00a0a 3rd-place finish in his recent memory, and a made cut last time out in\u00a0Utah, where he was 24th after round 2 and 26th going into Sunday,\u00a0I am confident he can get in the mix again here.<\/p>\n
Riley finished 6th at the Sony Open earlier this season, has a 5th in Mexico, and has made a couple of good starts at PGA National as\u00a0well, so to\u00a0me, there are enough green shoots from a player that we know can win, as he has proven, once on his own, and once with a partner.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think there are many standout longshots this week, but Riley is one at triple-digits that I do like.<\/p>\n
The Bonus Bet: Mathieu Pavon <\/p>\n
80\/1 e\/w (Coral, Ladbokes 8 Places 1\/5 Odds)<\/p>\n
Finally, I will take a chance on Mathieu Pavon, who made a fruitful return to the DP World Tour recently, and could enjoy it here this week, now he\u2019s back on the PGA Tour.<\/p>\n
He missed the cut here 12 months ago, but the Frenchman looks in better form now, having finished 3rd at home two starts ago, before opening with a 66 and closing with a 63 in Utah.<\/p>\n
Before he finished 3rd at the Open de France, Pavon had been 24th at the wind-affected Nexo and 37th at the British Masters, so some consistency had been creeping in when playing in Europe. A missed cut at the Biltmore Championship means it\u2019s 4 cuts made from 5, rather than a streak of 5 in a row, but the signs are definitely there for a talented player who won at Torrey Pines, finished 3rd at Pebble Beach, 5th in the U.S. Open, and 12th at the Masters, in a wonderful rookie season on the PGA Tour two years ago.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s enough evidence now to suggest that was very much a purple patch, but there\u2019s also enough in his repertoire to suggest this could be a good event for him, reading between the lines of his form.<\/p>\n
Pavon has finished 2nd in Mauritius, 7th at the Sony Open, 6th at a Scottish Open, and twice inside the top 12 at the Dunhill Links.<\/p>\n
So, for those counting, that\u2019s a 3rd at Pebble, and a 7th at the Sony that we love, a lot of good wind form in Scotland and Mauritius, and he also finished inside the top 20 at the Cognizant Classic earlier this year, another positive result. I wouldn\u2019t discount a top 10 in Gran Canaria either, in the Lopesan Open, given its coastal location.<\/p>\n
Simply put, he\u2019s playing better, has won and contended on a far bigger stage, and has enjoyed a lot of wind-affected events in the past, even if he didn\u2019t show it here on debut a year ago. I like the price given his recent podium finish in France, and he looked very good for two of the four rounds in Utah last time out.<\/p>\n
2026 Butterfield Bermuda Championship tee times<\/p>\n
You can see the full Butterfield Bermuda Championship field and tee times on the PGA Tour website<\/a>.<\/p>\nMore golf betting tips this week:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Our resident expert Tom Jacobs has put together a Butterfield Bermuda Championship betting guide for you to mull…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":934138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-934137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=934137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/934138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=934137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=934137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=934137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}