Tiger Woods hasn’t won a PGA Tour-sanctioned event since October 2019. The legendary golfer hasn’t even played in an official event since the 2023 Masters, where he withdrew early with a foot injury.
A long layoff doesn’t matter to bettors. If Woods is to continue adding to his historic resume, fans want to be on the winning side as well.
The sport’s icon holds 8% of the betting slips to outright win the Genesis Invitational this week over at BetMGM, the highest of any golfer in the field.
At +12,500, it’s just too good a number for some bettors to pass on, even though Woods is far from his winning form.
“Tiger Woods is by far the biggest liability and not just in winning The Genesis Invitational, but also in making the cut and finishing top 5/10/20,” BetMGM golf trading lead Matthew Wall told Covers. “We’re expecting the action on Tiger to double over the weekend as well. The book needs anyone except for Tiger raising the trophy on Sunday evening.”
Call it a comeback
Wall says this is not an uncommon situation for sportsbooks. The public loves Woods so much that he holds the largest liability in most golf events.
Still, Woods has two times the number of bets as the next golfer when including all Genesis Invitational markets, and the only time since last spring the public has seen him swing a club was at the Hero World Challenge in December.
Woods needed fusion surgery after the Masters last year and plenty of time to recover. He hopes his health will allow at least one tournament per month this season. He’ll be a popular bet at the Players Championship as well as the four Major golf tournaments.
“Tiger has the most bets on the main outright market (singles only), but given the odds, there’s less overall money on him to win compared to others,” a bet365 spokesperson told Covers. “At this stage, though, he’s our biggest liability on that market by a fair amount. We don’t have anything on whether he’s ever been such a big price before, but I’d imagine it’s pretty unlikely.”
Tiger the longshot
What's not common are the odds Woods faces, which has turned some golf bettors off.
At +13,000 to win the event on DraftKings, the online sportsbook told Covers that these are the longest odds it has ever offered on Woods, who’s listed at +2200 to finish top 5 and +900 for the top 10.
To put that in perspective, there are more than 40 golfers with better odds to win the Genesis Invitational. Woods holds the same odds as Rickie Fowler, who won on the PGA Tour in 2023 for the first time in over four years.
Woods ranks ninth in the highest handle and sixth in the number of bets on DraftKings as of Wednesday afternoon. He has 3% of the handle and 5% of the total bets at DraftKings to win the Genesis outright.
The 15-time Major winner who’s won a record 82 golf tournaments tees off at 12:25 p.m. ET on Thursday at Riviera Golf Course in Los Angeles, Calif.
Woods is paired with Gary Woodland and Justin Thomas. Scottie Scheffler is the favorite to win at Riviera, followed by Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland.
“It’s always exciting to see Tiger on the course,” Caesars golf lead trader Anthony Salleroli told Covers. “He's our current ticket count leader, with Scheffler and Justin Thomas following. It’s especially nice to see him paired with JT in the first found as I think that ups his game. We also have Make Cut and Round 1 score markets available for betting, along with his Round 1 matchups.”
