2023 Tour Championship Expert Picks: Trust the chasing pack

We’ve reached the Tour Championship, the final tournament of the PGA Tour season.

The top 30 golfers in the FedEx Cup standings descend on the renowned East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. This tournament features the largest purse in golf, $70M, with the winner cashing $18M.

The Tour Championship features a starting strokes format, meaning the leader of the season-long FedEx Cup standings, Scottie Scheffler, begins the tournament at 10 under par, with those behind him starting with scores on a staggered scale. (No. 2, Viktor Hovland, starts at 8 under, No. 3, Rory McIlroy, at 7 under, etc., all the way down to the final five in the standings, who begin at even par, 10 shots behind Scheffler.)

The golfer who finishes the tournament with the lowest score, incorporating the starting strokes, will win both the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup.

The betting market is offering two options to bet; one is factoring in starting strokes and the other is betting on the winner without starting strokes. For this betting preview, the focus is on Winner Without Starting Strokes, and we’re targeting 3 players in Atlanta.

2023 Tour Championship: Picks and Best Bets for East Lake.

Note: All listed odds are courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook. Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change. For more betting content and insights for all sports check out Betsided.

(Tournament Winner Without Starting Strokes)

Sungjae Im (+3500)

The South Korean ace famously torched East Lake to end the 2022 season, nearly winning the tournament despite starting at 4 under, 6 shots back. The sun is starting to rise at the most critical point of the season (Finished 7th at the BMW, and 6th in Memphis).

Im lives in Atlanta too, so he’ll be comfortable. Sungjae has the ammo to track down the leaders.

Jordan Spieth (+3500)

When everyone jumps off the Jordan roller coaster, that’s when I like to ride it. Spieth will begin play at even par, so he’ll be playing loose and with house money, making him a danger man.

Spieth excels at East Lake, he won here in 2015, finished T2 in 2013, and T7 in 2017. With tons of Tour Championship experience, Spieth will climb up the board in Atlanta this weekend.

Tom Kim (+4000)

This will be Tom Kim’s maiden voyage to East Lake, so no course history to lean on, but that hasn’t stopped the young man in the past. Tom Kim has recorded wins at two properties he never played on before (Sedgefield at the Wyndham Championship in 2022, and TPC Summerlin at the 2022 Shriners Children’s Open).

Kim has been flashing lately, posting three top 10s in his last 4 starts, and he certainly has the moxie to navigate East Lake and the big stage.