The PGA TOUR heads to Southampton, Bermuda this week to play the Butterfield Bermuda Championship at Port Royal Golf Club.

Port Royal Golf Club is a 6,828-yard, Par 71 layout, featuring Bermudagrass greens. This is the fourth edition of the tournament and marks the third time it will be the primary TOUR stop for the week (it was previously an alternate event). The course was designed by Robert Trent Jones.

The Bermuda Championship field is relatively weak but will feature some interesting names on TOUR such as Garrick Higgo, Thomas Detry, John Daly, Seamus Power and Lucas Glover.

Butterfield Bermuda Championship Outright Bets

Aaron Rai (+3500): Aaron Rai has had a pretty strong start to his 2022-2023 season. He’s finished 20th and 36th in his first two starters and managed to gain 7.0 strokes on approach at The Shriners Children’s Open. He also tied for 5th at last month’s Italian Open on the DP World Tour. 

Rai excels at hitting fairways and ranks 3rd in the field in Fairways Gained over his past 24 rounds. Combining his precision off the tee with his recent strong iron play (6th in approach) should be the perfect combination for Port Royal Golf Club.

With four wins on the DP World Tour, he’s a player who knows how to win and is one of the better players in this weak field.

Chesson Hadley (+7000): Chesson Hadley had a strong season in 2021-2022, and he’s off to a pretty good start this season as well. He finished 37th in a pretty strong Shriner’s field and more importantly gained 3.0 strokes on approach. 

Hadley played this event in 2020 and was impressive, finishing in 16th place. He ranked 3rd in the field in Strokes Gained: Approach in his past 24 rounds and is the type of player who can get scorching hot on Bermudagrass greens. He’s gained more than 7.0 strokes with the putter seven times in his career and all seven of those performances came on Bermudagrass greens. In an event where the best putters have risen to the top, I’ll take the guy who has an enormously high ceiling in that department.

Scott Piercy (+9000): Scott Piercy had a commanding lead at the 3M Open before a devastating Sunday collapse. As painful as it was to watch, he played some excellent golf to get himself into contention over the first three rounds of the event. 

Piercy played Port Royal Golf Club back in 2020 and had a strong performance, finishing in 14th place. It’s no surprise that he played well at the course based on the fact that he has a strong short game (4th in the field past 24 rounds) and can make birdies in bunches (10th in the field in Birdie or Better past 24 rounds).

Piercy also has some success on similar courses in the past. He won the 2015 Barbasol Open at RTJ Trail (Grand National) which was a Robert Trent Jones as well. He also has a second place finish at the Sony Open which is a coastal resort type course.

He’s hard to trust when he gets in contention, but he’s a better player in this field than the odds suggest.

Akshay Bhatia (+25000): While he had an up and down season last year on the Korn Ferry Tour, I still believe Akshay Bhatia is a future star. Still just 20-years old, The North Carolina native won the 2019 Jones Cup and was the No. 1-ranked junior in the country and was the first high-schooler ever to become a member of the winning United States Walker Cup team in 2019. 

He managed to win his first start on the KFT last year at the Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald Bay. His ability to win on a resort coastal course that can play pretty difficult should aid him in his efforts to contend in Bermuda.