Welcome to Virtual Insanity for OTB, where we spend virtual money to try and win virtual money on golf betting. It's that simple!
It's going to be a successful 2022 for Virtual Insanity!
After a week in which headline tip Patrick Cantlay won the BMW Championship at 16/1, to follow the previous week's headline success of Will Zalatoris at 25/1 in the St. Jude Invitational, it all means that the virtual pot is at €1220 from €1000 for 2022.
That's a profit of 22% for the year with 10 tournaments remaining, so with staking at approximately €20 per week, we cannot be caught! It will be guaranteed profit for the year, to add to last year's final profit tally of 46.5% for 2021.
It's been a year of ups and downs and no joy in the major championships, but in addition to Cantlay and Zalatoris in recent weeks, we recommended Scottie Scheffler to win the Phoenix Open at 25/1, Ryan Brehm to take the Puerto Rico Open at 66/1 and Luke List to claim the Farmers Insurance Open at 80/1. Keep the faith! It's a long term game! And staking is so important.
This week's tournament of focus is the Tour Championship on the PGA Tour in Atlanta.
With only 29 players, this is the final event of the regular 2021-2022 PGA Tour season, with the FedEx Cup up for grabs.
East Lake is the host venue, a long par 70 which demands accurate driving. Rory McIlroy, a past winner, is in the field. Water comes into play, the Bermuda rough is thick and the greens are also Bermuda grass.
There are various ways to look at this, because the leaderboard is already set by Thursday based on a player's existing ranking coming into this week. So world number one Scottie Scheffler will start from 10 under par, Patrick Cantlay will begin from 8 under par, Xander Schauffele will commence his challenge from 6 under par, while Rory McIlroy and Cameron Smith start from 4 under par. So, McIlroy has six shots to make up on Scheffler over 72 holes. It sets up Scheffler as a clear 9/4 favourite.
The event starts at 4.45pm Thursday, Irish time.
Be sure to shop around, with bookmakers such as Paddy Power, Boyle Sports, William Hill, Betfred, Ladbrokes, Coral, Betway and Betfair offering 1/5 the odds for your pick to get into the top five places.
Our headline and only selection is Xander Schauffele for €10 each way at 13/2. (1/5 the odds the first 5 places, Paddy Power, Befair, Ladbrokes, Coral, William Hill, Betway).
American Ryder Cup star and Olympic champion Xander Schauffele is the horse for the course at East Lake this week. The 28 year old has a brilliant record at the venue - he won the Tour Championship as a rookie in 2017. With the starting strokes format coming into being in 2019, he was second that year, tied for second in 2020 and tied for fifth last year. He has the best scoring average in the field this week with 67.3 strokes of those players who have posted more than 12 rounds at East Lake. Schauffele returned to the winner's circle this summer at the Travelers Championship and Scottish Open, and was tied for third last week in Delaware. Like his good friend Cantlay, he doesn't have many weaknesses - he ranks 12th in strokes gained tee to green, 25th in putting and sixth in strokes gained overall this season. On the starting leaderboard he only has two players ahead of him in Scheffler and Cantlay and his East Lake record is better than theirs. He rates as a confident each way selection to finish in the top five. Schauffele appears like an each way bet to nothing for me and he's the headline pick.
So that's €20 wagered virtually on this week's golf. Make sure you bet less at home!
Please gamble responsibly, never bet more than you can afford, and good luck!
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