2019 British Open Action Report: Tiger Woods Still Commanding Bettors’ Attention

In his pre-tournament press conference for this week’s Open Championship, Tiger spoke about how much winning the Masters took out of him and how he’s needed to do his homework around Royal Portrush, a course he’d never seen before.

Even so, none of that has deterred bettors from placing wagers on him to win a 16th career major championship this week.

“Tiger is our largest liability,” said Jeff Sherman, VP of risk management for SuperBookUSA. “He still commands money.”

Sherman revealed they’ve received one sizable bet of $5,000 on Woods at 20-1.

“That was pretty much the price we started selling some Tiger money,” he explained. “Lower than that, there wasn’t too much.”

Others they have liability on include Dustin Johnson, who received a $6,000 play at 12-1 and $3,400 at 14-1; Louis Oosthuizen, with a $1,000 bet at 40-1; and Graeme McDowell, who is receive support due to his close ties to Royal Portrush.

“The odds are already accounted for 50-1 to 60-1,” Sherman said. “If this wasn’t his home course, the odds would be 100-1 to 125-1.”

Another player with a local connection who’s garnering the most support is Northern Ireland’s own Rory McIlroy, the pre-tournament favorite, who leads both the SuperBookUSA ticket count and money wagered lists.

After McIlroy, the most wagers have been placed on Brooks Koepka, Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood, Xander Schauffele and Woods. Following Rory on the money list is Johnson, Woods, Koepka, Oosthuizen and defending champion Francesco Molinari.

Overall, though, unlike at some majors, tickets and money have been spread across the board, with so many potential candidates to win the Claret Jug.

“There’s average-size tickets on a lot of different golfers,” said Sherman. “It’s just really open, there are a lot of guys who have support.”