PGA Tour Sentry Tournament of Champions golf odds, trends, tee times: Jon Rahm favored, bettors backing two-time winner Justin Thomas

As usual, the calendar-year PGA Tour season begins at the Kapalua Resort in Hawaii with the Sentry Tournament of Champions, which tees off Thursday (see tee times below). A total of 17 of the world's top 20 players are set to play, although notably missing is world No. 1 Rory McIlroy. Spain's Jon Rahm is the +650 favorite at BetMGM, but Justin Thomas (+1100) is taking easily the most action at the book.

It used to be that only PGA Tour event winners from the previous year were invited to this tournament, but in part because of the defection of some top players to LIV Golf – including two-time Tournament of Champions winner Dustin Johnson and defending champion Cam Smith of Australia – it is now also open to all players who also qualified for the previous year's Tour Championship (i.e., the top 30 in the FedExCup standings).

Thus, it's set to be a 39-player field with no cut. A total of 40 golfers qualified, but McIlroy chose not to play. He almost always stays overseas this early in the year and has competed in this event only once.

The purse has nearly doubled to $15 million this year. The tournament is one of the new "elevated" events to prevent more PGA Tour players from heading to LIV. Expect massively low scores, especially if there is little wind. The Plantation Course at Kapalua Resort is the PGA Tour's only par-73 and measures 7,596 yards. Smith won last year at a tournament-record 34-under 258. A score of less than 20 under has been good enough to win here just once since 2015.

Rahm hasn't won the tournament but was runner-up to Smith by a shot last year – they co-led after 54 holes – and also a runner-up in 2018. The Spaniard hasn't finished worse than 10th in five visits. He closed out his 2022 worldwide season with a pair of wins overseas. However, Rahm isn't among the top 3 in tickets or money wagered to win at BetMGM.

Thomas, the 2022 PGA Championship winner, has the highest handle by far at 18.1% as well as the most tickets at 15.7%. Thomas won here in 2020 in a playoff over Patrick Reed and Xander Schauffele, and also won in 2017 by three over Hideki Matsuyama. Thomas hasn't been worse than T5 here since 2018.

The two other players taking the most action: Sungjae Im at +1800 and Schauffele at +1100. Im is taking 10.9% of the tickets and 13.9% of the handle and has finished no worse than T8 in two trips. Schauffele is at 8.9% of the tickets and 13.7% of the handle. He won in 2019 and was the runner-up the next year.

Reigning U.S. Open champion Matthew Fitzpatrick (+2000) is among the players making their tournament debuts.

Sentry Tournament of Champions Tee Times (Eastern)

2:30 p.m. – Adam Svensson

2:35 p.m. – Seamus Power, Mackenzie Hughes

2:45 p.m. – Scott Stallings, Chez Reavie

2:55 p.m. – Tony Finau, Collin Morikawa

3:05 p.m. – Patrick Cantlay, Hideki Matsuyama

3:15 p.m. – Cameron Young, Sam Burns

3:25 p.m. – Adam Scott, Sahith Theegala

3:35 p.m. – Tom Hoge, Ryan Brehm

3:50 p.m. – Trey Mullinax, J.J. Spaun

4:00 p.m. – K.H. Lee, Chad Ramey

4:10 p.m. – Aaron Wise, Russell Henley

4:20 p.m. – J.T. Poston, Corey Conners

4:30 p.m. – Brian Harman, Luke List

4:40 p.m. – Sepp Straka, Billy Horschel

4:55 p.m. – Viktor Hovland, Keegan Bradley

5:05 p.m. – Sungjae Im, Max Homa

5:15 p.m. – Scottie Scheffler, Will Zalatoris

5:25 p.m. – Jordan Spieth, Tom Kim

5:35 p.m. – Matt Fitzpatrick, Jon Rahm

5:45 p.m. – Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas

• Picks: NFL | NBA | CFB | CBB
• DFS: Lineup Optimizer | Picks
• Early Edge: YouTube | Apple Podcasts
• Newsletters: SportsLine Daily | Fantasy

Qualifying SportsLine members receive a 30-day free trial of Paramount+ premium. Sync your account right here.