The PGA Tour season continues this week with the 2024 Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches, hosted by PGA National (The Champion). Our Action Network golf betting experts have already peppered the board at open on Monday morning with outright bets, and they have bets for two different golfers ready.
Find our 2024 Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches Early Outright Bets below.
2024 Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches Early Outright Bets
Jason Sobel: Christiaan Bezuidenhout +8000 (FanDuel)
If there’s one player I’m buying prior to the Florida Swing, it’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout. In five starts so far this year, his Strokes Gained (SG): Approach numbers, per round, have been through the roof: +2.14, +1.38, +2.13, +1.26 and +1.16. That torrid iron play has resulted in four top-30 finishes, including a runner-up at The American Express, where he received the first-place check when Nick Dunlap won as an amateur.
Combine that with the fact that his bread-and-butter is actually putting – he’s gained strokes on the greens in three of those five starts and was just barely below field average in the other two – and being back on Bermuda surfaces in his adopted home state could be the key to another big-time result.
Considering the lengthy list of unpredictable winners this year, I shouldn’t have to do too much convincing on anyone outside the favorites, but it’s hard not to love the fact that the 29-year-old South African already knows how to win, having done so three times on the DP World Tour and four times on the Sunshine Tour. He’ll be a popular selection in my previews over the next month, but PGA National might suit him even better than the other venues.
Spencer Aguiar: Christiaan Bezuidenhout +6600 (BetMGM)
Let Jason's early entry in this article above be the blueprint for why getting ahead of a number is so important early in the week.
Books have shifted Christiaan Bezuidenhout from the 80-1 range to this 66-1 tag you can find readily throughout the space, but don't let the movement completely deter you from jumping onto a bet that should have been closer to 50-1.
Bezuidenhout has gained between 1.3 to 4.7 shots with his irons over his past four starts, averaging a cool 3.22 during that span. His driver will have to improve after dropping strokes to the field over his last eight tournaments. However, I do believe a shorter venue that enhances Bezuidenhout's Weighted Proximity and Bermuda Putting allows him a chance to find fairways off the tee and do his damage with the more critical metrics.
Matt Gannon: Russell Henley +2700 (bet365)
Anytime you get a track that rewards precision into fairways and greens on bermudagrass, Russell Henley comes to mind.
He was a winner here in 2014 and has finished in the top eight two other times. All of Henley’s best results come on these type of tracks, and he seems to be getting hot at the perfect time. His tie for 24th at The Genesis Invitational resulted in his best iron week of 2024 when he gained 1.2 shots per round on approach.
Waialae Country Club is a comp course for PGA National where golfers who have had success in Hawaii have also fared well in Palm Beach Gardens. Henley has a win there as well as two other top-four finishes and is usually a popular pick in Hawaii. This course asks very similar questions to Waialae and fits Henley’s game to a tee. Henley is an easy click on Monday afternoon.
