Rory McIlroy won the Tour Championship on Sunday, taking home the FedEx Cup Trophy following a surge in the final round — winning a boatload of money for himself and the betting public in the process.
McIlroy entered the tournament with +1400 odds to win, according to BetMGM. Those odds didn’t improve much before Sunday, with the Irishman entering the final round with +1000 odds, placing in a distant third behind odds leaders Scottie Scheffler (+110) and Xander Schauffele (+175).
It wasn’t always pretty for McIlroy, who had a couple of awful shots down the stretch, but he got it done in the end by outlasting Scheffler on 18.
In winning the end-of-season tournament, McIlroy took home an $18 million purse. He also won some money for the betting public.
McIlroy received 11.3% of the bets placed on the potential FedEx Cup winner, the second most of any player entering the tournament, per BetMGM data analyst Drew O’Dell. He also received 11% of the handle, which was third most behind Scheffler (25%) and Schauffele (19.8%).
Given his opening odds sat so far below Scheffler (+250) and Schauffele’s (+700), a McIlroy win served as the worst-case scenario for the sportsbook.
