Butterfield Bermuda Championship
Erik van Rooyen, at an average opening price of 90-1, eagled the 72nd hole on Sunday to earn his second PGA Tour victory at the WWT Championship and win by two strokes over Camilo Villegas, who had his best finish in seven years, and Matt Kuchar. Van Rooyen dedicated his victory to his Jon Trasamar, a University of Minnesota teammate who is battling terminal cancer.
Rounding out the top 5 were Justin Suh in outright fourth while Ryan Palmer and Andrew Putnam finished T-5.
This week, the PGA Tour moves from Mexico to the North Atlantic for the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. Adam Scott (16-1) makes his debut in the event and is the shortest price on the board. Akshay Bhatia (18-1) was around 250-1 in this event last year but since won his first PGA Tour event at the Barracuda Championship earlier this summer. Brendon Todd (18-1) won this event in 2019.
Lucas Herbert (20-1) is another former champion in this field having won this event in 2021. Thomas Detry (20-1) was the runner-up last year while Ben Griffin (25-1) took third.
Lucas Glover (22-1), Alex Noren (25-1), Sanderson Farms winner Luke List (25-1) and Taylor Pendrith (25-1), fifth here in 2021 when he set the course record of 61, follow on the odds board.
Only 10 players in the OWGR Top 100 are in this week’s field.
Nick Hardy (35-1), Griffin, Alex Smalley (28-1), List and Detry are all ranked inside “The Next 10” on the FedExCup Fall standings and are all set to compete in Bermuda this week. Players ranked 51-60 in the standings (which will be finalized after the RSM Classic) will qualify for next year’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Invitational.
Numerous golfers this week are also around the Top 125 bubble, which determines playing status for 2024. Players near this bubble in this week’s field include Doug Ghim (35-1), C.T. Pan (60-1), Marty Dou (75-1), Jimmy Walker (125-1), Patton Kizzire (90-1) and Harry Higgs (180-1).
The Event
The Bermuda Championship made its debut in the 2019 PGA Tour schedule as an alternate event to the WGC-HSBC Champions in China. In 2020, the event was elevated to full FedEx Cup point status with 500 points going to the tournament winner. In 2021, it was going to return to alternate event status, but the WGC event in China was canceled due to COVID-19, so it is back to full event status. The Bermuda winner will receive a Masters invitation for 2024 and the full two-year PGA Tour exemption. The total purse began as a $3 million fund in 2019 and was upgraded to $4 million in 2020. The event prize pool has since increased to $6.5 million with Bermuda-based Butterfield Bank and the Bermuda Tourism Board signing on as co-title sponsors.
Motivation is high for players in this week’s field such as:
