Butterfield Bermuda Championship:
Austin Eckroat carded 11 birdies during Sunday’s final round en route to a 63 and won his second PGA TOUR event of the season at the World Wide Technology Championship in Mexico and cashed a 45/1 pre-tournament outright victory for us in the process.
Eckroat’s 24-under mark was one ahead of Carson Young and Justin Lower, who tied for second.
This week, the PGA TOUR heads to the North Atlantic Ocean in Bermuda for the Butterfield Bermuda Championship.
Mackenzie Hughes and Seamus Power, the 2022 champion of this event, are co-favorites this week at 16/1.
Maverick McNealy (18/1) finished T-6 last week.
Ben Griffin finished T-3 behind Power here in 2022 and is 20/1 along with Doug Ghim, the runner-up at the Shriners four weeks ago.
At 25/1 are last week’s co-runner-up Lower and Patrick Rodgers, who finished 4th and 3rd here in 2021 and 2022 respectively.
Defending Bermuda champ Camilo Villegas is 350/1.
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 Tournament 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:
Official World Golf Ranking top 50 spots (invite for the 2024 Masters arriving pre-Christmas for those not already exempt).
“Next 10” FedEx Cup Fall Series spot (entry into the big money Sentry and AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am signature events next year).
FedEx Cup Fall Series top 125 (full playing privileges for 2025 for those not already exempt).
FedEx Cup Fall Series top 126 – 150 (conditional status for 2025 for those not already exempt).
The Field
There are 120 players in this week’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship field.
The Course
The Port Royal Golf Course, originally known as Southampton Golf Club, in Southampton, Bermuda will host the event for the fifth straight year and has hosted high-level professional golf before as it was the venue for the PGA Grand Slam of Golf, where all four major champions compete, from 2009-2014. Robert Trent Jones designed Port Royal in 1970 and Roger Rulewich, an RTJ protégé, renovated it in 2009.
The track, owned and operated by the Bermuda government, is the shortest course on the PGA TOUR at a Par 71 of 6,828 yards. Half of the holes (1-6, 11-13) are played away from the coast and the other half (7-10, 14-18) are played at the seaside. Port Royal is predominantly constructed of TifEagle Bermudagrass (it is in Bermuda after all) on the fairways (rough only about 2″) and greens (average 8,000 sq ft – 3rd largest on TOUR and a slow 10 on the stimpmeter). Players have mentioned El Camaleon (Mayakoba Golf Classic) and the Plantation Course at Kapalua (Sentry TofC) as similar courses mainly for the undulations.
Port Royal also features consistent elevation changes similar to the Plantation Course at Kapalua. And as should be expected by a RTJ design, heavy fairway bunkering is another part of the challenge.
The wind typically keeps the scoring relatively under control here. This is a course that players could absolutely destroy at barely over 6,800 yards with non-penal rough if it was not for the fact that winds can blow 30+ mph.
Here is the official scorecard for this week from PGATOUR.com:
Correlated courses to Port Royal include El Camaleon, Sea Island GC, Waialae CC, Pebble Beach, PGA National, Corales, Grand Reserve, and Cocoa Beach.
Recent History
2023: Camilo Villegas (-24/260); 150/1
2022: Seamus Power (-19/265); 22/1
2021: Lucas Herbert (-15/269); 80/1
2020: Brian Gay (-15/269); 200/1*
2019: Brendon Todd (-24/260); 100/1
Playoff win over Wyndham Clark – *
Statistical Analysis
The Bermuda Championship does not have ShotLink data available but does have the more basic statistics. Last year’s winner, Camilo Villegas, led the field for Greens In Regulation here last year, so approach play is especially important and even more so with the potentially windy conditions.
Strokes Gained: Approach – Strokes Gained Per Round – (2024 PGA TOUR season)
- Lucas Glover 0.723
- Doug Ghim 0.704
- Henrik Norlander 0.493
- Joel Dahmen 0.467
- Andrew Novak 0.463
- Greyson Sigg 0.434
- Jhonattan Vegas 0.433
- Chez Reavie 0.424
- Ryan Moore 0.409
- Kevin Yu 0.368
- Ben Griffin 0.328
- Michael Kim 0.302
- Mark Hubbard 0.295
At a little over 6,800 yards, Port Royal does not require bombing it off the tee for victory here, but you will have to be a bit more accurate and still be able to reach greens even when the wind blows tee shots off line.
Good Drive Percentage (2024 PGA TOUR season)
- Daniel Berger 87.74%
- Greyson Sigg 87.19
- Ryan Moore 86.95
- Carson Young 86.64
- Doug Ghim 86.29
- Rico Hoey 86.01
- Troy Merritt 85.73
- Chez Reavie 85.70
- Nate Lashley 85.67
- Jhonattan Vegas 85.50
- Ben Kohles 85.39
- Sam Ryder 85.28
- Tom Whitney 85.12
- Henrik Norlander 85.11
- Alex Smalley 85.10
- Joel Dahmen 85.07
Driving Accuracy Percentage (2024 PGA TOUR season)
- Daniel Berger 71.14%
- Ben Kohles 70.50
- Carson Young 70.04
- Ryan Moore 69.85
- Lucas Glover 69.78
- Chez Reavie 68.95
- Brendon Todd 68.47
- Henrik Norlander 68.11
- Doug Ghim 68.06
- Zac Blair 67.80
- Joel Dahmen 67.01
- Tyler Duncan 66.93
- Nate Lashley 66.80
- Mark Hubbard 66.67
The Bermuda greens at Port Royal will be very slow (10 stimpmeter) due to the wind gusts.
Strokes Gained: Putting – Total – Bermuda Greens (Last 36 Rounds)
- Ben Griffin 25.9
- Chad Ramey 24.2
- Justin Suh 20.5
- Mackenzie Hughes 19.3
- Kelly Kraft 18.4
- Brendon Todd 18.1
- Martin Trainer 18.1
- SH Kim 16.4
- Andrew Putnam 15.1
- Nick Taylor 14.5
- Nicolas Echavarria 14
- Jacob Bridgeman 12 (25 Rounds)
- Maverick McNealy 11.7
- Richy Werenski 11.6
- David Skinns 11.4
Initial weather forecasts call for wind gusts as high as 25 MPH.
Strokes Gained Total – Windy Conditions (Last 36 Rounds)
- Brendon Todd 40.7
- Andrew Novak 36
- Patrick Rodgers 34.4
- Daniel Berger 31.2
- Doug Ghim 27.3
- Mark Hubbard 25.3
- Andrew Putnam 21.4
- Lucas Glover 20.6
- SH Kim 19.3
- Nate Lashley 18.4
- Justin Lower 18.3
- Kevin Streelman 18
- Chez Reavie 17.4
- Carson Young 16
The wind will cause greens to be missed, so players will have to scramble to save pars.
Scrambling (2024 PGA TOUR season)
- Henrik Norlander 67.47%
- Mackenzie Hughes 65.40
- Aaron Baddeley 65.38
- Greyson Sigg 65.01
- Maverick McNealy 64.68
- Nate Lashley 64.14
- Ben Griffin 64.00
- Roger Sloan 63.99
- Seamus Power 63.81
- Zac Blair 63.58
- Sam Stevens 63.16
- Doug Ghim 63.07
- Andrew Novak 62.89
- Ryan Moore 62.87
- Andrew Putnam 62.83
Selections
Patrick Rodgers 33/1 Bet365
In the short time of the Bermuda Championship’s existence, veteran players have won here.
Rodgers has been on the PGA TOUR since 2015, but still seeks his first victory.
He has finishes of 3rd (2022) and 4th (2021) here.
Daniel Berger 35/1 Circa Sports
Berger’s Top 20 last week in Mexico put himself back inside the FedEx Cup Top 125 at No. 124. However, he needs another good finish to give himself a buffer to keep his TOUR card.
He is an excellent wind player as evident by a runner-up and two finishes of 4th at PGA National.
Jacob Bridgeman 40/1 Circa Sports
At No. 115, Bridgeman is likely to keep his TOUR card.
He has five Top 20 finishes in his rookie TOUR season but four of those five come within the last seven starts, so he is showing signs of improvement and getting closer to a victory.
Kevin Yu 45/1 FanDuel
Yu won his first PGA TOUR event at the Sanderson Farms several weeks ago and finished 3rd here on debut in 2022.
He also has a run of good form on shorter Bermuda courses with a 3rd at The American Express in California, 5th at the Malaysian Open, and 9th at the Cognizant Classic in Florida.
Yu is also currently in the 60 spot which is the last spot to get into the “Next 10” for the 2025 season’s first two signature events.
Ben Kohles 75/1 Circa Sports
Kohles should have won the CJ Cup Byron Nelson earlier this year but collapsed on the final hole.
He has made 11 of 14 cuts since and would have even better form is the putter had not betrayed him, but Bermuda is his best surface.
Ryan Moore 115/1 Circa Sports
Moore was 5th here last year and he certainly fits the profile of winners in their 40s (Gay, Villegas) that have won here recently.
At 152, he is two spots below conditional status and needs to make a big leap to the Top 125 in order to keep his full playing privileges.
Placement market and/or matchup bets will be posted Wednesday at VSiN.com/picks.
