2020 Bermuda Championship Preview
Bermuda Championship
October 29 – November 1
Port Royal Golf Course | Southampton, Bermuda
Par 71 – 6,828 Yards
Patrick Cantlay closed with a 65 to win the ZOZO Championship by 1 stroke over Justin Thomas and Jon Rahm. Cantlay went 3 under on the back 9 while JT shot even par to come up a little short. Rounding out the top 5 in a tie for 4th place at -19 were Russell Henley, Cameron Smith, Bubba Watson and Ryan Palmer. Henley saved us from getting shut out on the betting card with a top 5 at +700.
A weaker field takes us to the Bermuda Championship where Brendon Todd won last year at -24 over Harry Higgs (-20). Port Royal GC is a short par 71 playing just over 6800 yards with three reachable par 5’s that will yield a lot of eagles. The favorites this week are Will Zalatoris (+1100), Brendon Todd (+1200), Doc Redman (+2200), Harold Varner III (+2200), Denny McCarthy (+2800), Emiliano Grillo (+2800) and Kristoffer Ventura (+2800).
Last year was the first year of the tournament (an alternate event to the canceled WGC-HBSC) so we won’t have a ton of history to go on this week. The Masters coming up in a couple weeks has all of the top guys prepping, so not going to see them at an event like this. We will see a ton of wind as the course is on an island so something to keep in mind but I’d still expect a birdie-fest this week at a resort course. Other “notables” in this tournament include Charley Hoffman (+3300), Henrik Stenson (+3300), Luke List (+4000), Pat Perez (+5000), and Jason Dufner (+8000).
The Course
Port Royal Golf Course | Southampton, Bermuda
Par 71 – 6,828 Yards
Par 3’s: 148, 213, 235, 235
Par 4’s: 438, 458, 380, 370, 383, 350, 443, 383, 393, 412, 410
Par 5’s: 553, 517, 507
The first thing that sticks out for hole composition this week are the six Par 4’s 350-400 yards, probably as many short par 4’s as you’ll see on the tour. Looking at last year’s numbers, there were 47 eagles on the par 5’s, so that could be a differentiator as well.
Without a ton of history at Port Royal GC, we’ll stick with ball striking as always with an emphasis on SG Approach. Next up will be Birdie or Better Percentage as we noted that 24-under par won the tournament last year. I wouldn’t discount accuracy but it seems like driving distance is always going to be more important on even short courses like this. Lastly, SG Putting will allow some of the putting specialists to gain on the rest of the field in a tournament where players will go low.
We don’t have any shot link data from last year, but on short courses like this everyone is going to be hitting a lot of wedges. So if you want to look at proximity stats, I’d focus in the 100-150 yard range (or even shorter for the really long hitters).
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