Players Championship Favorite Rory McIlroy Has Bettors Regretful

Rory McIlroy was the betting favorite entering the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, but following an dismal opening round, there’s a chance the game’s biggest name isn’t even playing this weekend.

McIlroy, who won the Players Championship in 2019, shot a 4-over par 76 in the morning group. He’ll likely enter the second round trailing by 12 shots with Chad Ramey sitting atop the leaderboard at 8-under par 64. He currently is tied for 126th place in the 144-person field.

McIlroy started his round by carding a double bogie on the par-4 10th hole. It didn’t get any better with four additional bogies and just two birdies. He played the course’s four par-5s at an underwhelming even par and made just one putt longer than four feet.

FanDuel Sportsbook listed McIlroy as the betting favorite entering the tournament (+850) ahead of Scottie Scheffler (10-1) and World No. 1 Jon Rahm (11-1). Scheffler and McIlroy ranked second and third in the world, respectively.

McIlroy probably has bettors already regretting their decision — and there were a lot of them. BetMGM revealed that McIlroy represented the most money wagered on the Players Championship at 11.8% of the handle and 7.9% of the tickets.

McIlroy will have to shoot an impressive red number Friday afternoon just to advance into the weekend, but even if he makes the cut it’s quite unlikely he’ll be in contention Sunday.