After a successful weekend for the PGA Tour and Scottie Scheffler in the Players’ Championship, attention this week turns back to the LIV Golf tour as the rival organization’s second event of the 2023 season gets underway at the Gallery Golf Club in Tucson. Cameron Smith enters the competition as the betting favorite, and here we assess his chances with our latest Golf betting picks.
Cameron Smith leads the way in the betting to win the second LIV Golf event of 2023. The 2022 recruit to the tour is +900 to claim victory in Tucson this weekend. Behind the Australian in the betting are Dustin Johnson and Joaquin Niemann, who are both at +1100.
Next is Paul Casey and Abraham Ancer, both at +1400, and then Talor Gooch at +1600. The winner of the LIV Golf Mayakoba in Mexico last month, Charles Howell III, is down at +2200.
More Vegas golf odds can be found below on our odds table. These odds are taken from some of the best golf betting sportsbooks. More details of these sites can be found on our Las Vegas sportsbooks reviews page.
| LIV Golf Tucson 2023 Event Winner Betting |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cameron Smith | +900 | +900 | +900 |
| Dustin Johnson | +1100 | +1100 | +1100 |
| Joaquin Niemann | +1100 | +1100 | +1100 |
| Paul Casey | +1400 | +1400 | +1400 |
| Abraham Ancer | +1400 | +1400 | +1400 |
| Talor Gooch | +1600 | +1600 | +1600 |
| Patrick Reed | +2000 | +2000 | +2000 |
| Charles Howell III | +2000 | +2000 | +2000 |
| Mito Pereira | +2000 | +2000 | +2000 |
| Matthew Wolff | +2200 | +2200 | +2200 |
| Carlos Ortis | +2200 | +2200 | +2200 |
| Sergio Garcia | +2200 | +2200 | +2200 |
| Branden Grace | +2500 | +2500 | +2500 |
| Brendan Steele | +2800 | +2800 | +2800 |
| Peter Uihlein | +2800 | +2800 | +2800 |
| Thomas Pieters | +3000 | +3000 | +3000 |
| Brooks Koepka | +3300 | +3300 | +3300 |
This is the second LIV Golf event of 2023. In total, there are scheduled to be 14 events in 2023. This represents significant growth from the eight competitions that took place in 2022.
In the opening event held in Mexico last month, veteran Charles Howell III won. Playing for his Crushers GC team, the 43-year-old recorded his first win on the breakaway tour by shooting a 16-under-par 197, defeating runner-up Peter Uihlein by four strokes.
The win sees Howell III go into an early lead in the 2023 LIV Golf standings. As well as leading the individual standing, Howell’s Crushers GC team (captained by Bryson DeChambeau) also leads the team standings. The crushers have 32 points in total. Their opening weekend win sees them open up an eight points lead over 4 Aces.
This weekend the competition follows the usual LIV Golf format. The field will comprise 48 players, who are split into 12 teams. There will be an individual winner and a team winner. The 48 golfers will play 54 holes across three days, with a total prize purse of $25 million up for grabs. The individual winner will receive a cool $4 million, with the winning team receiving $3 million.
The venue for this event is the Galley Golf Club, just outside of Marana in Arizona. There are two courses at the venue, and the South Course is being used for this weekend’s event. Opening in 2003, the South Course hosted the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship twice in 2007 and 2008.
There’s a nice big pool of capable players to pick from in LIV Golf, which usually gives us a very open betting market. This week is no different. And with the favorite to win this competition out at odds of +900, we have opportunities to hedge our bets and improve our chances of cashing in. So let’s now name our picks.
And for our first pick, we’re looking at the favorite, Cameron Smith. The Australian was the highest world-ranked player to join LIV Golf when he signed shortly after his British Open Championship wins in 2022, and as the current number five in the world, Smith is still the highest world-ranked player on the LIV golf roster.
Smith started his 2023 LIV Golf season in solid, if not spectacular, fashion, finishing sixth at Mayakoba last month. The simple facts are that Smith is the best player in LIV Golf, so he enters tournaments as the favorite. Even in the major championships, he’s still listed as the favorite. For example, in the latest Masters betting odds, Smith is the fourth favorite at +1600 with BetOnline.
Cameron Smith is expected to be the dominant player in the 2023 season, like Dustin Johnson was in 2022. At +900, Cameron Smith looks like a great bet for the LIV Golf Tucson event, and we make him our first golf betting pick of the competition.
Alongside Smith, Talor Gooch also looks good value. Gooch also got his 2023 season off to a good start. Unfortunately, his good start didn’t continue into the third day, after impressive scores in the first and second rounds at Mayakoba. His scores in Mexico were 67-66-76. He eventually finished 14th.
If Gooch can recreate the form he did across the opening two rounds in Mexico and all three Tucson this weekend, he’ll be in with a good chance.
Our final individual pick is Peter Uihlein. The 4 Aces team member will be looking to build on his second-place finish in Mayakoba. And although he might not be an obvious pick to win the competition, at +2800, Uihlein looks like a great each-way bet in Tucson.
