The PGA Tour returns for its FedExCup Fall, beginning with the Procore Championship where 10 Ryder Cup players are in action.

Golf betting tips: Procore Championship

3pts e.w. Collin Morikawa at 25/1 (Sky Bet, Betfair, Paddy Power 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)

2pts e.w. Akshay Bhatia at 30/1 (BoyleSports, Betfred, Coral, Ladbrokes 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)

1.5pts e.w. Davis Thompson at 50/1 (Sky Bet, Betfair, Paddy Power 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)

Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook

Things have been pretty tense on the PGA Tour at times of late and I can’t help but wonder how the rank and file feel about event one of the FedExCup Fall being used as a Ryder Cup prep-run by 10 members of Keegan Bradley’s team.

These players of course have every right to be here and after the foundations for a shambling Rome effort were laid when almost the entire squad thought they could rock up after more than a month off and compete, it’s a wise move from Bradley to have encouraged those who can to be in California for the Procore Championship.

It’s also not really what this part of the season is meant to be about and instead of the sort of weak, open-looking Procore won by a big-priced Patton Kizzire last year, now we’re left with almost a Signature Event in disguise, which in turn will reduce the available points for those who are still fighting to be in those tournaments, or even on the PGA Tour, come January.

Great for the sponsors who, by the way, have handed an invite to outspoken PGA Tour critic James Hahn, but tricky for us, as most if not all of those 10 members of Team USA would not otherwise be here. Several of them lack course experience, Scottie Scheffler most notably, and it is hard to balance the potential absence of real motivation with their obvious skill advantage over most.

Ultimately, I don’t think we’ll need to go far down the market for the winner and while there’s of course every chance it’s Scheffler, if anything can catch him out it might be a course debut in California, the only state where he’s made upwards of five starts without winning. Such are his standards that finishes such as 10th at Riviera last year and ninth at Pebble Beach back in February rank among his worst of those seasons, so we can cling to hope for now.

Given that I wouldn’t bank on Sam Burns’ putting remaining quite so hot out on the west coast, where Russell Henley is another from the east who has often struggled, there is at least a path to getting the favourites beaten and I’m hoping COLLIN MORIKAWA can stride along it.

Morikawa is a California boy so this is a home game of sorts, albeit quite a distance from his LA upbringing. It’s also the event which handed him his PGA Tour debut aged 19, on a sponsor’s invite, where he showed in a battling Friday round some indications as to the player he would become.

Shortly after turning pro he broke through with victory just over the border in Nevada and then came back here to finish 10th, that after a break and following a couple of mediocre performances in the FedExCup Playoffs. As you might expect, that 10th place came about thanks to elite iron play, with a decent but unspectacular putting performance keeping him from challenging.

One year later, a dazzling week with that club saw him earn his first major here in California so he’s certainly not a player for whom the grasses and general conditions can be any kind of excuse, and as a wildcard pick not everyone agreed with, he’s also not one who can afford to rock up here and go through the motions.

And while he’s managed just one top-10 finish since Sawgrass back in March, a time when he could legitimately claim to be the third-best player in the world, Morikawa’s long-game has been firing since he returned to the US following a fortnight of links golf. He gained on average 1.22 strokes per round with his approaches last month (Scheffler is on 1.23 for the season) and has also been driving it well, his short-game the only issue.

We can only hope for putting improvement but the return to poa annua back in California gives us cause for greater optimism, with Morikawa’s overall record here as a pro showing 17 starts, just a single missed cut, and a host of quality performances including second, third and fourth at three different courses together with his US PGA win.

With a point to prove and his long-game in excellent shape, Morikawa rates the best bet at 20s and bigger.

While focus is on those Ryder Cup players, both here and in the BMW PGA Championship, one thing I’ll be interested in is how those who were overlooked for selection fare over the coming weeks and months.

In 2022, Ryan Fox, Lucas Herbert and Mackenzie Hughes all won pretty much straight after they’d been left out of the Presidents Cup side and if for instance Maverick McNealy does feel hard done by, then now would be a great time to remind Bradley what he’s missing, at a course where he’s been runner-up before.

However, McNealy has been poor on every other Silverado start despite being a regular visitor and I’d rather chance AKSHAY BHATIA, another California-born player albeit one who spent much of his childhood out in North Carolina.

Bhatia’s first win came in California but it’s his second which really interests me, as it came at TPC San Antonio. Brendan Steele has won at both, Steven Bowditch very nearly managed it too, while Patton Kizzire and third-placed Patrick Fishburn last year became the latest two players to tie these two courses together.

I’m not entirely sure why as Silverado has appeared less of a driver’s course than it seemed to be when Steele won this title twice, but one way or another when you’ve players like these, Martin Laird, Kevin Tway and Austin Smotherman popping up at both, perhaps it’s worth taking note.

The case for Bhatia extends beyond that play-off win, though. He was ninth here in 2020, when not in possession of a PGA Tour card and generally struggling to establish himself, and following a quiet spring he’s really been impressing with his ball-striking lately, enough to suggest a third PGA Tour title might not be too far away.

Bhatia has gained strokes with his approaches on all eight starts since the US Open, he’s generally been solid off the tee, he’s sharpened up around the greens, and while not putting as he did in 2024, he was very good out in California at the beginning of the year and outside of the Wyndham has shown signs of improvement lately.

Definitely on the Ryder Cup radar at the beginning of the year, in the end Bhatia could take great satisfaction from overcoming some issues to scrape through to East Lake, and he has the class to get the better of those who did make it into Bradley’s side.

Of the other Team USA members, Patrick Cantlay and JJ Spaun are obvious options as two more from this part of the world, both having gone close in the Playoffs, but they might be happy enough to get some work done and arrive at Bethpage in a couple of weeks ready to go.

With two-time course winner Max Homa probably the right sort of price now at the wrong side of 50s generally, I’ll take the more solid form profile of DAVIS THOMPSON next.

This is a player certainly capable of vying for Ryder Cup spots with the likes of Bhatia and McNealy when the next one comes around and he’s come a long way since finishing ninth on his debut as a PGA Tour cardholder here at Silverado.

Returning a year later following a break and without notable form since January, Thompson again showed a liking for the course when 30th, again excelling off the tee and gaining strokes with his approaches only this time putting poorly.

Now a PGA Tour winner, his last outing was a tie for 11th at the Wyndham, his best result since March, and having produced three positive putting displays in a row the hope is he’s solved the one thing that held him back throughout much of the season.

Thompson gained strokes in all other departments and ended the season ranked 20th in strokes-gained tee-to-green, so if he can sustain this putting improvement then he’ll go close to winning over the next couple of months.

Having missed out on the Playoffs by just one spot, he doesn’t need any extra incentive to go and climb up into those 51st-60th places which unlock Signature Events at the beginning of next year, while he’s also a win and another good week or two away from cracking the world’s top 50 to gain access to the majors.

That’s where this supreme ball-striker belongs and I’m hopeful the break, longer than those class players ahead of him in the market, doesn’t prove his undoing. At as big as 50s in places I’ll take that chance, anyway.

Somehow, I’ve followed Beau Hossler to the edge of the cliff in this event and while taken with his improved approach play, have to leave him out this time. Hossler, who did have a good chance to win at San Antonio and has a couple of good results here to his name, continues to be ragged off the tee and that’s been the issue here too.

Rico Hoey’s move to the long putter, revealed by Sean Martin, makes him a fascinating option for those willing to speculate, while Pepperdine duo William Mouw and Joe Highsmith are two other quality ball-strikers who will be out to emulate former teammate Sahith Theegala by landing this title in the same state.

David Lipsky is playing well and was runner-up here last year so he’s an option at 200/1 but to me this feels like the sort of tournament where you could spend all day finding a collection of outsiders at massive odds, then on Sunday evening wonder why you looked beyond the class players who’ve spent most of the year in stronger fields.

For that reason it’s a top-heavy staking plan, made up of one perhaps fortunate Ryder Cup player, and two youngsters with designs on being there next time. Hopefully, Scheffler isn’t quite at his best.

Posted at 1300 BST on 09/09/25

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