Golf betting: Genesis Invitational field is stacked and bettors like Collin Morikawa

The Genesis Invitational has one of the best fields you’ll see all year for a non-major.

The top 11 players in the Official World Golf Rankings are participating in the event that begins Thursday along with top 15 players Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka. Only Bryson DeChambeau and Louis Oosthuizen are missing from the field among players in the top 15.

Jon Rahm is the No. 1 player in the world and enters as the favorite for the event once again. Rahm has been favored in every event he’s entered recently, but unlike a week ago, bettors at BetMGM are backing another golfer.

Rahm got the most bets and money ahead of last week’s WM Phoenix Open. At Riviera this week, OWGR No. 2 Collin Morikawa is the top pick of bettors. Morikawa is getting just over 8% of bets at BetMGM and is getting nearly 11% of the money bet on the outright winner.

Morikawa is the only golfer getting more than 10% of the handle. Rahm is getting 4.8% of bets but those bets equal just over 9% of the handle. The second-most bet golfer is Patrick Cantlay at just over 6% of tickets and those bets equal 7% of the handle.

Cantlay (No. 3 in the world) lost to Scottie Scheffler on the third hole of a playoff at Phoenix. Scheffler is at +2800 to win and is getting less than 1% of bets and money because of the difficulty in winning back-to-back events on the PGA Tour.

Dustin Johnson is the No. 3 favorite at the Genesis at +1600. Johnson is getting 6% of bets and 8% of the money while Justin Thomas is getting just under 5% of bets and 6.3% of the handle.

Here are the top favorites for this weekend’s event hosted by Tiger Woods. He will be in attendance at Riviera this weekend but is not playing as he continues his rehabilitation from a car crash after the 2021 Genesis Invitational.

Genesis Invitational favorites

• Jon Rahm (+900)

• Patrick Cantlay (+1100)

• Dustin Johnson (+1600)

• Justin Thomas (+1600)

• Collin Morikawa (+1800)

• Cameron Smith (+2000)

• Rory McIlroy (+2000)

• Xander Schauffele (+2000)

• Viktor Hovland (+2500)

• Scottie Scheffler (+2800)

• Will Zalatoris (+2800)