Will Zalatoris opened as the +1100 favourite to win the Bermuda Championship

The second iteration of the Bermuda Championship begins on Thursday with Will Zalatoris the favourite to win at +1100 odds, followed by the defending champion Brendon Todd at +1400.

Last week, Patrick Cantlay outlasted Justin Thomas and Jon Rahm to win the Zozo Championship at Sherwood after beginning the week with +2800 odds to win outright.

After watching some stellar fields compete over the last two weeks, most of the big names have opted not to participate at Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton Parish.

In fact, Todd is the lone top-50 golfer teeing it up.

Last year, Todd won for the first time since 2014, which was a stunner given that Todd fell out of the top 2,000 players in the world at one point after he endured a stretch of missed cuts in 37 of 41 starts.

Four Canadians are set to tee it up this week, with each considered a long shot to earn a victory.

David Hearn, who finished T-8th here last year, has the shortest odds among the Canadians at +9000 to win his second tour title.

Roger Sloan and Michael Gligic follow him at +12500 odds.

Finally, Graham Delaet has the longest odds in that group at +25000.

Here is our first look at the field for the Bermuda Championship.

Betting Odds To Win The Bermuda Championship – Top-15

Will Zalatoris +1100

Brendon Todd +1400

Harold Varner III +2200

Denny McCarthy +2500

Charley Hoffman +2800

Doc Redman +2800

Emiliano Grillo +3300

Aaron Wise +3300

Cameron Tringale +3300

Kristoffer Ventura +3300

Henrik Stenson +4000

Luke List +4000

Rasmus Hojgaard +4000

Henrik Norlander +4000

Peter Malnati +4000

Will Zalatoris the heavy favourite despite being winless on the PGA Tour

Even the most ardent golf fans would have to admit they probably don’t know a ton about outright favourite Will Zalatoris.

He led the Korn Ferry Tour points list with a string of strong performances and he’s kept up his great play in the early going of the 2020-21 PGA Tour season.

Between the two tours, the 24-year-old has racked up 11 top-10 finishes in his last 15 starts.

Even when he didn’t place in the top-10 he still delivered some decent results, with a T-14th, T-18th and T-19th among his misses.

Zalatoris’ lone missed cut was two starts ago at the Sanderson Farms Championship.

Despite the string of amazing performances, Zalatoris only cashed in one of them for a victory at the Korn Ferry’s TPC Colorado Championship at Heron Lakes.

Zalatoris has an opportunity to lock up special temporary membership with a good tournament this week, but still doesn’t officially have status on the biggest stage.

While he’s been on a heater for some time, I just don’t love him being such a heavy favourite given that he has just one career win and it was on the lower circuit on the Korn Ferry Tour.

Defending Champion Brendon Todd returns to the scene of his huge victory

Nobody and I mean nobody, expected Brendon Todd to claim his second tour victory at the Bermuda Championship last year.

Todd, who won his lone title at the 2014 AT&T Byron Nelson where he outlasted Mike Weir, entered the Bermuda Championship as the 522nd ranked player in the world.

All Todd did was win by four in the first of back-to-back titles to jump start his career following years of the full swing yips.

He backed up those two victories late in 2019 with some solid play in 2020 where he had 54-hole leads at a few tournaments but wasn’t able to go the distance.

Of late, Todd has hit a bit of a rut in his game, finishing T-47th and T-52nd in over the past two weeks.

In those tournaments, he’s lost over a combined eleven shots to the field tee-to-green at the CJ Cup and Zozo Championship.

Without his trademark fantastic putting, it would have been even uglier for Todd.

He's gone seven straight events losing strokes to the field tee-to-green.

In 10 of his last 11 tournaments, he’s lost shots to the field off the tee, which is surprising because he's normally very accurate, albeit a short hitter.

Even though he won here last year, nobody is expecting him to go back-to-back with those peripherals.

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Peter Malnati +4000

It’s actually very surprising that one-time PGA Tour winner Peter Malnati has odds this long, especially considering the field isn’t deep.

Two events ago at the Sanderson Farms Championship, Malnati very nearly picked off win number two, where he finished runner-up to Sergio Garcia despite shooting a final round 63.

Then in his next tournament, he had another strong result - a T-5th at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

In the very early going of the 2020-21 season, Malnati leads the tour in strokes gained: putting.

Though he’s hardly a household name, there aren’t any players competing in this tournament who have been as hot as Malnati has been of late.

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Henrik Stenson +4000

After looking at the watered down field and seeing this price for Henrik Stenson, you might wonder why his odds aren’t shorter for a world-class player.

One big reason is because the Swede has barely played any golf since the pandemic halted play back in March.

The 2016 Open Champion has competed in just five tournaments since golf events resumed in June.

Over that time frame, he’s missed three cuts, the PGA Championship, US Open and his last start at the Sanderson Farms Championship.

The other two times resulted in good-not-great T-21st and T-35th showings.

In terms of talent alone, Stenson is easily near or at the front of the line of players competing this week.

However, his game has been rusty of late, which is why we see him at +4000 odds.