Tour Championship Odds: Russell Henley Soars In Round One

Russell Henley came out blazing with a sizzling 61 to take the outright lead after Round 1, narrowly edging tournament favorite Scottie Scheffler. Henley’s hot start could shift the odds heading into the weekend.

Robert Criscola - Betting Analyst at Covers.com
Robert Criscola • Betting Analyst
Aug 21, 2025 • 22:20 ET • 4 min read
PGA Tour Russell Henley
Photo By - Imagn Images. Russell Henley plays his shot from the second tee during the first round of the TOUR Championship.

Scottie Scheffler came in as a massive favorite to win the season-ending Tour Championship for a second straight year as the FedExCup Playoffs come to a close at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.

But it was Russell Henley with an unmatched opening round after delivering a beautiful performance, firing seven birdies and an eagle without a single dropped shot for a 9-under 61. Enough to give himself a two-stroke lead over world No. 1 Scheffler.

Scheffler is a +150 consensus proposition, with Rory McIlroy the only golfer at less than 10-1 in the golf odds.

Let's take a look at the Tour Championship odds and field for August 21-24.

Tour Championship odds

Tour Championship field

Scottie Scheffler (+150) may be riding momentum into the Tour Championship after winning the BMW Championship last weekend, but he won't have the advantage of starting strokes, as was the case last year.

All 30 golfers will start at even-par when they tee off on Thursday, including three-time FedExCup winner Rory McIlroy (+850). 

Looking at the FedExCup standings, books are bearish on No. 3-ranked J.J. Spaun (+3300) and No. 4 Justin Rose (+4500), with No. 5 Tommy Fleetwood sitting as a +1200 third-choice after finishing T-4 with Sam Burns (+2800) at the BMW Championship.

Tour Championship recent winners and odds history

Let's take a look at some recent Tour Championship winners and their closing odds to win:

Year Golfer Closing odds
2024 Scottie Scheffler +120
2023 Viktor Hovland +500
2022 Rory McIlroy +800
2021 Patrick Cantlay +325
2020 Dustin Johnson +175
2019 Rory McIlroy +800
2018 Tiger Woods +1200
2017 Xander Schauffele +8000
2016 Rory McIlroy +600
2015 Jordan Spieth +800

Odds courtesy of GolfOdds.

Pages related to this topic

Robert Criscola - Covers.com
Betting Analyst

Robert M. Criscola’s road to becoming a Covers publishing editor began with an internship at Metro New York, which eventually turned into a freelance job at MetroBet covering many sports from a wagering angle, including horse racing. He continued to focus on “The Sport of Kings” by writing for shapperdacapper.com, danonymousracing.com, and informer.fanxt.com before joining the team at the TwinSpires Edge in 2019 as a regular contributor and weekend editor. “Crisco” began writing game previews for Covers in 2022 and joined the editing team in 2023.

His best advice for sports bettors? Bet with your head, not over it.

Popular Content

Covers is verified safe by: Evalon Logo GPWA Logo GDPR Logo GeoTrust Logo Evalon Logo