A new season brings new opportunities for amateur and professional bettors alike to lock in PGA Tour picks. The ninth-annual RSM Classic, which begins Thursday at Sea Island Golf Club in St. Simons Island, Georgia, is just the eighth of 46 events on the 2018-19 PGA Tour schedule. Five of the last six champions of this event were first-time winners on the PGA Tour, so it's a chance to view the stars of tomorrow. And with a 156-man field to choose from, there are multiple value plays this week. Webb Simpson, a five-time winner on the PGA Tour, is the Vegas favorite at 9-1 RSM Classic odds, followed by Cameron Champ (20-1) and J.J. Spaun (20-1). Before you make any 2018 RSM Classic picks or enter a daily fantasy golf tournament on sites like DraftKings and FanDuel, you'll want to hear what the team at SportsLine has to say.
SportsLine's prediction model, which was built by DFS pro Mike McClure, has nailed four of the past eight majors entering the weekend and called Tiger Woods' deep run in the PGA Championship despite being a 25-1 long shot. The proprietary computer model has been dead-on in the past couple of weeks as well. It was all over Bryson Dechambeau (12-1) winning the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, projecting him to finish on top of the leaderboard from the start. It also correctly predicted Brooks Koepka's (9-1) victory at the CJ Cup earlier this season. Anyone who has followed the model is up huge.
Now that the 2018 RSM Classic field is locked, SportsLine simulated the event 10,000 times, and the results were surprising.
One huge shocker the model is calling for this week: C.T. Pan, a 25-1 long shot, makes a serious run at the title. He's a target for anyone looking for a huge payday.
Pan is coming off an impressive 16th place finish at the Mayakoba Golf Classic last week and will look to duplicate his strong performance at Sea Island. He's been red-hot to start the new PGA Tour season, finishing 23rd or better in his last three starts. And he's played lights-out at the RSM Classic in his last two appearances. In fact, he finished sixth in his RSM Classic debut and recorded another top-15 finish at this event last year.
Another surprise: Cook, the defending champion, stumbles big-time this week and barely cracks the top 10.
Cook is making his fourth start of the new PGA Tour season. He has failed to finish inside the top 12 in his three previous starts this season and currently ranks just 101st on the PGA Tour in scoring average (71.414). Don't be fooled by his victory last year -- he's a golfer you want to completely steer clear of this week.
Also, the model says six additional golfers with odds of 25-1 or longer will make a strong run at the RSM Classic 2018 title. Anyone who bets on these underdogs could hit it big.
So who wins the 2018 RSM Classic? And which long shots stun the golfing world? Check out the odds below and visit SportsLine now to see the full RSM Classic projected leaderboard from the model that nailed the winners of four golf majors.
Webb Simpson 9-1
Cameron Champ 20-1
J.J. Spaun 20-1
C.T. Pan 25-1
Chesson Hadley 25-1
Lucas Glover 28-1
Austin Cook 28-1
Joaquin Niemann 33-1
Kevin Kisner 33-1
Russell Henley 33-1
Chris Kirk 35-1
Luke List 35-1
Charles Howell III 40-1
Harold Varner III 40-1
Zach Johnson 40-1
Bud Cauley 50-1
Denny McCarthy 50-1
Jamie Lovemark 50-1
Jim Furyk 50-1
Stewart Cink 50-1
