The 2025 PGA Tour season concludes this weekend at East Lake in Atlanta, Ga., and, if we’re being honest, they should just crown Scottie Scheffler the FedEx Cup Champion and save us all the trouble.
Scheffler erased a four-stroke deficit Sunday to win the BMW Championship, giving the World No. 1 his fifth win and 15th top-10 finish in 18 starts this season.
Those results are historic, but he’ll only be crowned as this season’s champion if he can win this week’s Tour Championship.
In previous formats, Scheffler would start the Tour Championship at 10-under par, but the powers that be have decided to do away with starting strokes and put all 30 players on even par for the 2025 iteration.
Not only does that level the playing field, but it also makes this tournament a lot more fun for bettors, who, like casual fans, were pretty tired of the old format.
Even without the head start, Scheffler is a whopping +150 favorite at DraftKings, well ahead of Rory McIlroy (+850), Tommy Fleetwood (14/1), Ludvig Aberg (18/1) and Russell Henley (20/1).
Despite his Tiger-esque odds, you can feel pretty confident that Scheffler will be the most popular bet behind the window this week – and don’t let me stand in your way if that’s your speed – but we’ll pick out a few long shots who look like they’re primed to make some noise in the curtain-closer.
If you’re a regular reader of our Wednesday golf picks, you probably saw this one coming.
We’ve been on Harry Hall the past two weeks, hoping to cash in on the Englishman’s terrific, yet unheralded, form.
It hasn’t worked out just yet, but Hall was right around it once again at the BMW Championship, finishing sixth for his fifth top-10 finish on the season.
The 28-year-old has been remarkably consistent to close out 2025, posting 11 straight top-30 finishes with eight top-20s in that span.
According to Justin Ray of the Twenty-First Group, Hall ranks first in strokes gained: putting, third in scoring average and fourth in birdie-or-better rate since May 1.
He’s doing everything but winning right now.
It wasn’t too long ago that Shane Lowry was in terrific form with nine top-20s, four top-10s and a pair of runner-ups in his first 14 starts in 2025.
A terrible showing at the US Open seemed to cause the Irishman to come unglued, however, and he’s now without a top-20 finish in his last five tournaments.
That said, Lowry finished T23 at the BMW Championship and showed signs of life Sunday.
Known to do his best work on the biggest stages, Lowry’s talent means he’s always worth a look at this kind of price.
Like Hall, Sungjae Im has been a regular feature in this column to no avail, yet.
Like Lowry, this is a buy-low opportunity on a player with the talent to disrupt this field.
It may be a surprise that Im even qualified for this event, but his T17 at the St. Jude two weeks ago was enough to vault him into East Lake in what has otherwise been a down year.
The South Korean has missed four cuts and posted just two top-30 finishes in his last 10 starts, but he has popped at different times this year. He came out of the gates strong with two top-five results in his first three starts, and he was T5 at Augusta in April.
Im also has some strong history at East Lake with a runner-up in 2022 and a sixth-place finish last year.