The 2021 Players Championship is the next event on the PGA calendar, just days after Bryson DeChambeau won this year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational. This will be the first Players Championship since 2019 when Rory McIlroy won it. The 2020 event was cancelled after the first round due to COVID-19 precautions.
However, despite his recent win, DeChambeau is not the favorite to win this week. Instead, those honors go to Dustin Johnson. BetOnline has Johnson at +1200 when it comes to winning the 2021 Players Championship. DeChambeau has the second-best odds at +1400.
The 2019 winner, McIlroy, is also at +1400.
This guide will help inform you about the Players Championship and the betting surrounding it.
2021 Players Championship Odds
Odds via BetOnline as of Monday, March 8
- Dustin Johnson +1200
- Bryson DeChambeau +1400
- Jon Rahm +1400
- Rory McIlroy +1400
- Xander Schauffele +1800
- Justin Thomas +2000
- Collin Morikawa +2200
- Patrick Cantlay +2200
- Webb Simpson +2200
- Viktor Hovland +2500
- Tony Finau +2800
- Jordan Spieth +3300
- 3Tyrrell Hatton +3300
- Tommy Fleetwood +3500
- Daniel Berger +4000
2021 Players Championship General Information
This year marks the 40th time that The PLAYERS will be held at the Stadium Course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. The field of 154 golfers will be composed of recent tournament winners, previous Players Championship winners and leaders of the FedEx Cup standings.
The multi-day tournament will begin on Thursday, March 11 and conclude on Sunday, March 14. The purse is $15 million, with the winner’s share being $2.7 million.
2021 Players Championship Preview: A Look at the Odds
As mentioned before, at +1200, Dustin Johnson has the best Players Championship odds. He’s been having a good 2021 PGA Season. In six events, he’s finished in the top-11 five times, including winning the Masters back in November. However, the last time Johnson competed was in February at the Workday Championship at The Concession. He wound up finishing 54th.
Johnson did compete in the 2019 Players Championship, finishing in fifth.
Despite not being the favorite, Bryson DeChambeau could also be a serious threat to Johnson’s odds. After winning the U.S. Open in September, the Arnold Palmer Invitational was the second tournament that DeChambeau has won this season. Whether or not he continues his momentum this week remains to be seen. DeChambeau has been relatively inconsistent this season. While he’s finished in the top-10 in four-out-of-seven golf tournaments this season, he’s finished in 22nd or worse in the other three.
On the other hand, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm are both listed at +1400, which is tied with DeChambeau for second-best 2021 Players Championship odds. Neither golfer has won a tournament this season. The best that McIlroy finished at was fifth in the Masters, while Rahm’s top finish was second at the Zozo Championship.
Like McIlroy, other former Players Championship winners will be invited to this event. Some of those former winners include Webb Simpson (+2200), Jason Day (+5000) and Kim Si-woo (+12500).
2021 Players Championship Betting Information
Now that you’re familiar with the event, you can sign up to a sportsbook of your choosing. However, some of the language might be new to you if this is your first time making any type of sports bet.
Here is a quick breakdown of some of the terms you’ll likely run into:
Futures
A future bet (also known as “futures”) is when you’re wagering on an event that’s days, weeks or months from happening. For example, you’ll be able to find 2021 Players Championship odds under “Golf futures” sections on various sportsbooks.
So, in this case, if you made a future bet on Johnson winning The PLAYERS at +1200, you win $1200 if you bet $100.
Moneyline
Betting on the moneyline is when you’re choosing the outright winner of a given matchup. Most sportsbooks will give you a pairing of golfers and you’ll be able to choose who you think will win.
Point Spread
A point spread bet is when you’re given a matchup between two golfers and you’ll have to choose who’ll win based on a number of given strokes. If McIlroy is favoured to win a matchup by 1.5 strokes, that means he’d need to win by two strokes to cover the spread. Anything less would result in you losing the wager.
Prop Bets
Prop bets are laid back wagers in the sense that they don’t necessarily have to do with the outright finish of an event. PGA-related prop bets can range from choosing whether or not you think that there will be a hole in one at the tournament to how many strokes it’ll take a golfer to finish at a certain hole.
Live Bets
Living betting can look a lot like the above examples of betting, except that it happens live during the event. Different sportsbooks can have different live betting options, however, they tend to follow the same format as regular sports betting.
