The European Tour rolls on this week with the 2018 Irish Open at Ballyliffin Golf Course in Donegal, Ireland. The tournament is hosted by Rory McIlroy's foundation. McIlroy is the Vegas co-favorite at 7-1 along with Jon Rahm. Rafael Cabrera Bello, Matthew Fitzpatrick and Andy Sullivan, all going off at 20-1 Irish Open odds, are also among the the top challengers. Before you make any bets or enter a daily fantasy golf tournament on DraftKings, you'll want to hear what the team at SportsLine has to say.
SportsLine's prediction model, built by DFS pro Mike McClure, named Tiger Woods a top-five contender last week at the Quicken Loans National. The result: Woods overcame a slow start to shoot 11 under for the tournament, finishing fourth at TPC Potomac. It also nailed the 2018 Masters, predicting the career-defining victory for Patrick Reed entering the weekend.
Now that the 2018 Irish Open field is locked, SportsLine simulated the event 10,000 times, and the results were surprising.
For the 2018 Irish Open, we can tell you that McIlroy, who enters the tournament as the No. 8 player in the Official World Golf Rankings, fails to repeat his 2016 title.
Even though McIlroy won the Arnold Palmer Invitational earlier this year and finished in the top five at the Masters, he hasn't cracked the top five in a PGA Tour event since, including missing the cut at the U.S. Open.
Another surprise: Chris Wood, who Vegas views as a long shot, finishes in the top three and makes a serious run at the title.
Wood tied for second at the HNA Open de France, shooting 6 under for the tournament. He has recorded other impressive performances on the European Tour this year, including a second-place finish at the NBO Oman Open. He's a strong value at 33-1 you should jump all over.
Also, the model says an extreme long shot with odds longer than 60-1 makes a run at the title. Anyone who bets on this underdog could hit it big.
So who wins the 2018 Irish Open? And which long shot stuns the golfing world? Check out the odds below and visit SportsLine now to see the full Irish Open projected leaderboard from the model that called Tiger Woods' finish last week and was all over Patrick Reed's run at the Masters.
Rory McIllroy 7-1
Jon Rahm 7-1
Rafael Cabrera Bello 20-1
Matthew Fitzpatrick 20-1
Andy Sullivan 20-1
Shane Lowry 25-1
Thorbjörn Olesen 25-1
Russell Knox 25-1
Paul Dunne 25-1
Chris Wood 33-1
Kiradech Aphibarnrat 33-1
Hao-Tong Li 33-1
Thomas Pieters 33-1
Peter Uihlein 33-1
