Tournament of Champions: Matsuyama and Reed the men to back in Hawaii
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It’s the PGA Tour’s calendar-year season opener, and as the name suggests, only 2016’s victors are invited to the Tournament of Champions. But with so much quality in the line-up, who will kick off 2017 in style?
A total of 32 men will take to the picturesque Plantation Course at Maui’s Kapalula Resort, and among them feature some of the game’s biggest names.
Jordan Spieth won last year’s event by eight strokes, and with many tipping the American for a big year, is a popular joint-favourite at 5/1.
The 23-year-old sits alongside Dustin Johnson and Hideki Matsuyama at the top of the betting.
Johnson finally got the Major monkey off his back last year by landing the US Open.
The 32-year-old heads into the New Year with a stunning seven top-10s in his last ten Majors, and now freed from that nearly-man tag, could be in sensational form this year.
DJ is also a winner here, back in 2013.
But though Matsuyama is the only one of the three not to have won this event before, the Japanese ace is the form man.
After finishing fourth at the PGA Championships, Matsuyama rounded off the year with second at the CIMB Classic and victory at the HSBC Champions.
The 24-year-old then went on to claim the Hero World Challenge last month.
Meanwhile, behind them plenty will fancy Patrick Reed at 12s.
The American carded a fine T12 and T13 at last year’s Open and PGA Championships, before taking the starring role in the Ryder Cup.
Only Thomas Pieters bagged more than Reed’s 3.5 points, as the Texan proved instrumental in Team USA’s victory.
And having finished 2nd and first in the Tournament of Champions across the last two years, Reed could prove excellent value.
As for an Each-Way punt, you shouldn’t be going too far wrong with reigning PGA Championship king Jimmy Walker. The 37-year-old is 25/1 to go one better than his runner-up spot in 2015.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing
