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The Humana Challenge is without a doubt one of the hardest tournaments in the PGA tour to tip.
What you usually end up with when it comes to this tournament is a very tight leaderboard and you won’t know until the very last putt who is actually winning it. It takes place over 3 separate courses. Those courses are the Arnold Palmer Private Course at PGA West, the Jack Nicklaus Private Course at PGA West, and the La Quinta CC.
Patrick Reed was the winner of the tournament last year but to show how tough it can be he shot 63 for 3 straight days, then a 71 on the final day. All those courses are par 72. The year before that Brian Gay came out the winner after a 3 way playoff.
All 3 courses are relatively easy which makes it that much trickier – it’s one of those tournaments where luck overcome skills a lot of the time. This is going to be a very interesting course and tournament as it always is.
Humana Challenge 2015 Betting Odds:
- Patrick Reed: 12/1
- Matt Kuchar: 18/1
- Ryan Palmer: 20/1
- Chris Kirk: 25/1
- Phil Mickelson: 28/1
- Harris English: 28/1
- Bill Haas: 28/1
- Zach Johnson: 30/1
- Keegan Bradley: 33/1
- Webb Simpson: 33/1
Odds taken from which is the best place to bet due to the E/W bonus. Funny to see Reed at 12/1 when he was 130/1 last year on this course.
Humana Challenge Winner #1: Zach Johnson
A 30/1 price for Johnson is nice, and one we’ll be taking. Johnson had a bad time out last time at the Sony Open and really couldn’t get going – but he’s got the capabilities to do it here. He played here last year and came tied for 3rd, including a stellar 62 on the last day. He’s got the ability to do it, and with luck being more of a factor here in determining the winners – his could come in.
Humana Challenge Winner #2: Jerry Kelly
A whopping 80/1, we think Kelly is worth a punt.
Kelly did well at the Sony Open – but more importantly he ended on a high note after a bad first day. He came into it strong and he’s coming off the 5th position finish in the OHL Classic.
Kelly also has experience on this course, with -20 last year, where he played some consistent and solid golf and came tied for 13th. He’s constantly improved his golf game since 2012 when he was cut here.
HUMANA CHALLENGE RESULTS & ANALYSIS:
Zach Johnson just couldn’t get going. He played some okay golf – but we saw the same issues as we did at the Sony Open. He was missing that excellent round and floating around par all tournament long. We will now be putting him on the “don’t bet” list for the next few tournaments.
Jerry Kelly had a great second day with the 67, and based on some of the results if he had kept that going then who knows. Sadly he went over par and out.
Overall two disappointing picks in what was a fun tournament that went right down to the last few holes. Props to Bill Haas, the 7th favourite, for a nice win and good to see Hoffman burning it up. We were tempted by him but couldn’t pull the trigger due to the odds. Felt the bookies knew something we didn’t. Turns out they didn’t. Oops..
