Steve Palmer's PGA Tour money list preview, best bets, free golf tips, analysis

Best bets, free golf tips and analysis for the PGA Tour money list, which concludes at the 2020 Tour Championship.

Best bets

Rory McIlroy
7pts 2-1 Betfred, Coral, Ladbrokes
Back this tip with Coral

Rickie Fowler
1pt each-way 80-1 bet365
Back this tip with bet365

Cameron Champ
0.5pt each-way 150-1 Hills, Sky Bet
Back this tip with William Hill

Palmer's top tip
Rory McIlroy 2-1

The PGA Tour money list does not depend as heavily as its European counterpart on the Majors and WGCs – the prize funds are consistently immense across the pond – but the elite typically pocket the most dollars by winning one of the main events as well as scoring multiple lesser victories.

A glance at the last eight money-list winners illustrates how the best players in the business nearly always succeed in this market – Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, McIlroy again, Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Thomas again, then Brooks Koepka last year.

Woods dominated through the 2000s and the only surprise seen in the money list in the modern era is Matt Kuchar in 2010. Kuchar did it with incredible consistency, winning only one tournament, but normally a few victories are required to end up top dog. The last eight winners have won at least three times in the season of their success.

McIlroy won four times in 2012 and three times in 2014, and the former world number one can be fancied to land an overdue money-list hat-trick by ending 2020 as the Stateside king.

The short-priced favourite fully deserves his status when you consider that he has already banked one of the biggest cheques of the season. An impressive WGC-HSBC Champions triumph has put $1.745 million on the board for McIlroy already, building on the $565,500 earned from third place in the Zozo Championship.

McIlroy has laid the foundation for a fortune, while many of his rivals will hit 2020 with a big fat zero against their name. Defending champion Koepka missed the cut in the Shriners Open before withdrawing injured during the CJ Cup, while Dustin Johnson, fresh from knee surgery, is yet to start his new campaign.

Earnings from the Hero World Challenge are unofficial and do not count towards the PGA Tour money list, so Hero runner-up Jon Rahm, like Koepka and Johnson, enters the new year starting from scratch.

The big danger is Thomas, who won the CJ Cup in October to kick his season off strongly, but, like Rahm, three of the 2020 Major venues will be new to him.

McIlroy will be among the Masters favourites, he will start the US PGA as a course winner and he knows Royal St George's. If he takes a shine to Winged Foot for the US Open, a wonderful Majors campaign seems in store.

McIlroy is fully committed to the PGA Tour and it is entirely feasible that he plays in just two non-counting events – the Irish Open and the Olympics – before the season-ending Tour Championship. The FedEx Cup champion, coming off the most consistent campaign of his career, should have an even fatter wallet by the end of August.

Next best
Rickie Fowler 80-1

If somebody is going to 'do a Kuchar' this year and shock all the market principals, then Rickie Fowler is a lively candidate.

Fowler has not done himself justice, having just turned 31 with five official PGA Tour victories and a Hero World Challenge title in his locker, and he has gained a reputation as a Majors nearly-man. Average players would be thrilled with the silverware on his mantelpiece, but Fowler is a former world number one amateur who has always been destined for great things.

Maybe 2020 will be the year when Fowler realises his enormous potential, wins three or four times, and become a Major champion. He got married in October and the more settled home life could be the catalyst for career highs.

Fowler took more than three months off after the Tour Championship and will be hungry for competition in the early weeks of 2020. He was unbeaten at the Presidents Cup in his final outing of 2019, winning one match and halving his other three, and the forthcoming Major venues provide excellent opportunities.

Fowler was Masters runner-up last year, one of three top-ten finishes at Augusta, and fifth at Royal St George's in 2011, one of his three top tens in the Open. He won his group with three wins from three matches at Harding Park in the 2015 WGC-Match Play, before losing narrowly to Louis Oosthuizen in the knockout stages, so the US PGA venue will also appeal.

Other selection
Cameron Champ 150-1

Save a small stake for Cameron Champ, who is bursting with potential at the age of 24 and should claim a third PGA Tour title soon enough.

Champ, who appears to be over the back problems which were hampering his progress, won the Safeway Open at the end of September and already has $1,334,299 on the board. A positive start to 2020 will put him on the fringes of the world's top 50 and the sky is the limit for the most powerful player in the sport.

Champ is a Californian who will be excited that the US PGA is heading for his home state. If Champ has a strong West Coast Swing, a glorious summer could unfold.

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