5 picks our expert likes

Welcome to our weekly PGA Tour gambling tips column, featuring picks from GOLF.com expert prognosticator Brady Kannon. A seasoned golf bettor and commentator, Kannon is a regular guest on SportsGrid, a syndicated audio network dedicated to sports and sports betting. You can follow him on Twitter at @LasVegasGolferand you can read his picks below for the Butterfield Bermuda Championship, which starts on Thursday in Bermuda. Along with Kannon’s recommended shows, you’ll also see data from Chirp Golf, a mobile app featuring Free-To-play and Daily Fantasy golf contests where you can win money and prizes with every round and tournament.

From Chiba, Japan, to Los Cabos, Mexico, to Southampton, Bermuda, the PGA Tour hasn’t set foot on the continent since. leaving Las Vegas almost a month ago.

If you’ve been globe-trotting along with the tour lately, it will be over 10,000 miles traveled when the players land on the island of St. Simons, Georgia next week for the FedEx Cup’s final fall stop at the RSM Classic.

But before we head home, we’re off the south-east coast by nearly 1,000 miles this week for the sixth edition of Butterfield Bermuda Championship at Port Royal Golf Course. Forty-two years old Camilo Villegas is your reigning champion. Since winning here last year, Villegas has missed 18 cuts on Tour in 2024. At the Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas, noted golf bookmaker Jeff Sherman is listing Villegas at 400-1 to repeat as Bermuda champion.

Villegas made it to the winner’s circle last season with a winning score of 24 under par. There is plenty of wind in the forecast for this year’s event and in the SuperBook, Sherman has bet this year’s under/over winning proposition at 13.5 under par.

For me, this will give the ball a kick and a fight at a high value. The wind will eat shots that aren’t hit properly and for those shots that don’t find the greens due to the wind, getting up and down will be paramount. The golf course is particularly short by Tour standards, a par 71 at just one tick over 6,800 yards. The fairways are relatively narrow, but not much can be said about it. The greens are above average in size and have a fair amount of undulation. The course features several elevation changes, seven holes with water in play, and the turf is, fittingly, wall-to-wall Bermudagrass.

I watched Scrambling this week, as I noted earlier. In terms of hitting the ball, I considered Greens In Regulation Gained, Good Drives Gained and Stokes Gained: Approach. There are 11 Par 4s at Port Royal, six of which are between 350-400 yards and five that fall between 400-450 yards. I also saw Strokes Gained: Putting (Bermudagrass).

With Port Royal being a shorter, narrower, coastal road I used The valley (Sony Open), Sea Island (RSM Classic), Colonial (Charles Schwab Challenge), and Pebble beach like my related courses this week.

We almost got there with an 85-1 shot on Carson Young last week in Los Cabos. Let’s see if a move to the shores of the Atlantic will change our fortunes for the better.

Mackenzie Hughes (18-1)

We’ll start with the chalk as Hughes is one of several favorites this week in Bermuda. It bothers me that he has never played this event before, but there is no doubt that he is one of the classiest players in the field and he has done better than anyone on the associated courses. He has top 20 finishes at the Sony Open, top 10s at Pebble Beach and Colonial, and at the RSM Classic, Hughes has one win along with two runner-up finishes. He has made two FedEx Cup appearances this fall, finishing fourth at Napa in the Procore Championship and was eighth in his next start at the Sanderson Farms Championship. Over the past 36 rounds, Hughes is fourth in the field for SG: Putting (Bermudagrass), second in Scrambling and ranks fifth in Par 4s of 400-450 yards.

Andrew Novak (31-1)

Novak has had a solid 2024 and this summer alone, posted three top-25 finishes along with one top 10. He added another top-25 finish this fall at the Sanderson Farms Championship and was 16th at the Zozo Championship just a few weeks ago. He played three times in this tournament and finished in 17th place. The hitting ball is the deal here with Novak. He is 10th in the field for GIR Gained, 17th for SG: Approach and ranks ninth for Good Drives Gained over the last 36 rounds.

Nick Taylor (45-1)

Like fellow Canadian Mackenzie Hughes, Taylor is one of the best players in the field – and also like Hughes, he has a win (Pebble Beach) at one of our affiliated courses. In addition to the 2020 Pebble win, Taylor has also finished 10th, 14th and 20th along the Monterey Peninsula. He also has two seventh-place finishes and an 11th at the Sony Open at Waialae. His best finish here in Bermuda is 23rd in two attempts. Over the past 36 rounds, Taylor ranks 21st in the field for drives earned and is 26th in Scrambling. Earlier this year, when he won the WM Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale, a classic golf course with Bermudagrass greens, Taylor ranked ninth that week in SG: Approach, second in GIR, 22nd in Accuracy of Driving, first in Scrambling, and first in SG: Putting.

Grayson Sigg (50-1)

Sigg has been playing very well of late and has a great history at this championship along with the related courses. He comes off going 4-11-23 in three of his last four starts this fall. He has been 11th and 22nd here in Bermuda in two visits. He has never missed a cut at the Sony Open in three tries and finished eighth and 15th at the RSM Classic. As an amateur, Sigg won and finished runner-up in the 2015 and 2016 Carmel Cup at Pebble Beach Golf Links, respectively. The man checks a lot of boxes for us this week. Over the past 36 rounds, Sigg ranks fourth in the field for GIR Gained, 30th in SG: Approach, second in Good Drives Gained and is 18th in 400-450 yard Par 4s.

Nate Lashley (85-1)

Lashley has played in every event so far this fall, and he’s made five straight cuts. He played here in Bermuda two seasons ago and finished 35th. He has finished seventh at the Sony Open and fifth at Pebble Beach, and has made four of six cuts at the RSM Classic. Lashley seems to make a living at these seedy beach events. He has finished 11th at the Mexico Open in Vidanta, 10th at World Wide Technology in Los Cabos, fourth and 15th at Corales Puntacana and he has gone 3-7-8 in Puerto Rico. Over the past 36 rounds, Lashley ranks 37th in the field for SG: Approach, 34th for Good Drives Gained and is 10th in Scrambling.

Who are Chirp Golf players picking this week?

This information will be updated as it becomes available.