If you’re a PGA Tour player looking to make his mark or looking to kickstart a comeback, congratulations, you’ve come to the right tournament.
Welcome to the 2023 Barbasol Championship. The tournament will be played at Champions at Keene Trace Golf Club, an Arthur Hills designed layout, in Nicholasville, Kentucky.
You’ll see some unusual names among our Barbasol Championship odds and predictions ahead of next week’s Open Championship, the final major of the season.
Look Ahead: Open Championship Odds 2023 & Futures Betting Guide
This is one of those tournaments where no one wants to be playing until they need to be playing to keep the hopes of having a job alive. The big names are all across the pond at this week’s Scottish Open in preparation for the Open Championship.
In fact, there are no players in the top 100 in the world rankings here this week.
Lucas Glover, at No. 112 in the world, is the highest-ranked player. What that means is if players finally want to be in contention come Sunday–or get back into contention after having fallen off the world-ranking map–this is the place to be.
The purse this week is just $3.8 million, and there are just 300 FedEx Cup points awarded to the winner. But when you’ve had little or no success on the Tour and you’d rather not contemplate an upcoming career change, it’s an event like this that can launch a career or get one back on track.
Dollars and points, no matter how few, are important especially as the season winds down.
Odds to Win Barbasol Championship
| Player | BetMGM |
|---|---|
| Taylor Pendrith | +1600 |
| Lucas Glover | +2000 |
| Vincent Norrman | +2000 |
| Peter Kuest | +2500 |
| Akshay Bhatia | +2800 |
| Kevin Streelman | +3000 |
| Cameron Champ | +4000 |
| Carl Yuan | +4000 |
| Chad Ramey | +4000 |
| Grayson Murray | +4000 |
| Justin Lower | +4000 |
| MJ Daffue | +4000 |
| Niklas Moller | +4000 |
| Patton Kizzire | +4000 |
| Ryo Hisatsune | +4000 |
| Marcus Helligkilde | +5000 |
| Peter Malnati | +5000 |
| Vince Whaley | +5000 |
| Zecheng Dou | +5000 |
We list odds from BetMGM, but shop around at other top-rated sportsbooks to find the best prices on your plays.
Household Names are Absent This Week
Previous winners of this tournament are names of players that are–or were–on the periphery of becoming every-day PGA Tour players.
Some have gone on to solid careers, but some of them wind up being one-hit wonders. Some of the winners’ names are recognizable and some are not.
Seamus Power won two years ago to launch his career. He also won in this wraparound season, and can be found now climbing leaderboards regularly.
Others, like last year’s winner Trey Mullinax, cashed out big-time in this event, but haven’t contended before or since. The one thing they all have in common is that a tournament win puts them in rarified air of being a champion on the PGA Tour.
This week’s field is full of players looking to add their name to the list, and possibly start their climb up to PGA Tour stardom.
Let’s see who fits the bill and might just might get in the winner’s circle, perhaps for the first time or maybe after a long drought.
Keep an Eye on Kevin Streelman
One name that stands out on the entry list this week is Kevin Streelman. At +3000 this week, he’s great value for us. He’s one of those players who always seems to get his share of air time on the weekend but not when it counts–when they are handing out the winner’s trophy.
Going by the numbers, there’s no way we should be looking at Streelman. He’s been a PGA Tour pro for 22 years with just two victories to his name, the 2013 Tampa Bay Championship and the 2014 Travelers Championship.
Streelman has had his share of solid finishes as he’s got 51 top-25s. So, while he’s struggled to pick up wins, he’s been more than successful as he’s earned almost $26 million on Tour.
He’s getting closer to PGA Tour Champions age (he’s 44) and his rankings are slipping. He’s 116th in the FedEx Cup rankings and 147th in the world rankings.
Streelman’s only got one top-10 finish in this wraparound season, so he’s got a lot of work to do and a victory here would certainly jump-start his game.
Oh, and did we forget to mention that he was solo second here last year? Just another little tidbit before bettors head to the window.
Backing Sean O’Hair Could Pay Off
Sean O’Hair, at +9000 this week, is one of those names where people say:
“Hmm, I remember Sean O’Hair from a few years ago. Whatever happened to him?”
The fact they have said that many times lets you know how often O’Hair bursts onto the golf scene with a solid stretch of play only to slip away for a long stretch. He had a stretch earlier in 2023 where he made five of six cuts and had a T-7 as his best finish.
That’s the positive part of the year.
The negative news is he’s coming off back-to-back missed cuts. So the dilemma is: Which O’Hair will tee it up this week?
He’s won four times on the PGA Tour, but the most recent victory came at the RBC Canadian Open back in 2011.
With a field this light when it comes to superstars, it might be the perfect time for him to put it all together and get back in the winner’s circle.
One Favorite to Consider
Backing chalk doesn’t pay off nearly as well as when a longshot hits, but sometimes you’ve got to take what the field has to offer.
That chalk bet we like is Glover at +2000. Yes, Lucas Glover. The same guy who is ranked 110th in the FedEx Cup points race and 112th in the world rankings.
But, this is also the same guy who is coming off back-to-back top-10 finishes. Glover was T-4 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and then T-6 last week at the John Deere Classic.
He hasn’t been on anyone’s radar in awhile even though he won the John Deere in 2021. It was his fourth PGA Tour title.
Can this week, with all of his momentum and solid play over the last two events, be the fifth win on his resume?
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