Following Erik van Rooyen’s dramatic win at El Cardonal, the PGA Tour makes it’s way heads from Mexico to the North Atlantic for the Bermuda Championship.
2023 US PGA Tour
Butterfield Bermuda Championship
Port Royal Golf Course, Southampton, Bermuda
9th-12th November
Erik Van Rooyen picked up his long-awaited second PGA Tour title in rousing fashion, making an eagle on the last to win a low-scoring Worldwide Technology Championship at El Cardonal.
Van Rooyen was the designated ‘bubble boy’ last week, going into the WWT Championship as the 125th-ranked player in the FedEx Cup rankings.
But he drew strength from the prolonged cancer battle of Jon Trasamar, ultimately dedicating his victory to his best friend and former college teammate. It was a poignant victory that really emphasizes that sport isn’t the most important thing in life.
The Butterfield Bermuda Championship
The tour now moves to the penultimate event in its FedEx Cup Fall series: the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. This event started life as an opposite event (with top billing formerly going to the WGC-HSBC Champions event). This will be the fifth edition of the event and every single renewal has been hosted at Port Royal Golf Course.
Port Royal Golf Course
This Robert Trent Jones Sr. design is diminutive by modern PGA Tour standards, measuring just a tick over 6,800 yards. I always find it exciting when a course opens itself to a multitude of styles.
The first two winners- Brendon Todd and Brian Gay- fall firmly into the Kevin Kinser school of precision-based golf. The Bermuda/Zoyisa mixed rough can be quite tricky to navigate.
The Bermuda greens will run at around 10 on the stimp due to the course’s greatest defence: wind. Scot Russell Knox- who should know a thing or two about windy conditions- said he had never experienced wind as strong as 2021’s first-round gusts.
The piece de resistance of this course is the frankly terrifying par 3 16th. The 235-yard beauty has nothing but the Atlantic Ocean between the tee and pin and it makes Sawgrass’ much-vaunted 17th look positively quaint.
There have been six tropical storms here over the past three months so you can expect extremely receptive greens. Players should have plenty of birdie putts this week and it could boil down to a putting contest come Sunday.
The Condenders
Former Masters champ Adam Scott leads arguably the worst field in this entire fall series. The Aussie has been consistent this year and he actually won a PGA Tour event here back in 2013 (the PGA Grand Slam of Golf).
Otherwise, only two players in attendance- Lucas Glover and Brendon Todd- finished inside the top 50 of the FedEx Cup standings. Last year’s runner-up, Thomas Detry, is still yet to win on either tour after 181 starts.
Perhaps it would be wise to look for either coastal specialists (like Akshay Bhatia) or in-form fall players (like Luke List). This may not be the most star-studded affair, but it could nonetheless prove to be one of the most pivotal weeks in some of these player’s careers.
Past Winners
2022: Seamus Power (-19)
2021: Lucas Herbert (-15)
2020: Brian Gay (-15) *playoff
2019: Brendon Todd (-24)
To Win Outright:
Adam Scott 16/1 | Brendon Todd 18/1 | Akshay Bhatia 18/1 | Thomas Detry 18/1 | Lucas Glover 20/1
Value Bets
Alex Smalley- To Win 22/1
Alex Smalley is a player who has thrived on these idiosyncratic coastal courses. He has eleven finishes of T14 or better on the PGA Tour and six of those have come on coastal tracks. And two of those results have come at Port Royal. He finished in a tie for 12th in 2021 and followed that up with a T11 showing last year. He is currently 58th in the FedExCup Fall standings and he knows that solid finishes in these last two events should ensure that he sneaks into the ‘Next 10’, thereby gaining entry into two signature events next season.
Troy Merritt- To Win 60/1
Troy Merrit’s came into this Fall series in very serious danger of losing his playing card. A few positive finishes have elevated him to 119th in the current FedEx Cup standings and another solid showing this week should secure his playing rights. He really came good under pressure, registering back-to-back top 10’s at the Fortinet Championship and Sanderson Farms. He also finished with a brilliant final-round 65 in Mexico last week. He also has decent form at corollary courses, finishing 3rd at both El Camaleon and Harbour Town.
The Man to Beat- Taylor Pendrith- To Win 20/1
Canadian Pendrith is in excellent form coming into this event, finishing 3rd at the Shriners and 15th at the Worldwide Technology Championship. Pendrith has really thrived on short, coastal tracks (despite being a prodigious hitter). He has top 20 finishes at Pebble Beach, Sedgefield CC, Sea Island and- of course- Port Royal. Pendrith actually held the 54-hole lead here in 2021 only for a Sunday 76 to decimate his chances. This is exactly the type of week where the talented Pendrith could finally break that PGA Tour duck.
