2013 Northern Trust Open Betting Lines - Event Info, Dates, Coverage

Continuing the West-Coast Swing, the PGA Tour goes to historic Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California for the 2013 Northern Trust Open beginning on Thursday, February 14th and going through Sunday, February 17th.

Golf Channel and CBS Sports will team up for the week to air the tournament. Golf Channel will have it all on Thursday and Friday, going from 3pm ET to 6pm ET. For the weekend, Golf Channel will air from 1-2:30pm ET until CBS comes and takes over at 3pm ET until the final stroke is made and the champion is crowned.

The Northern Trust Open

First played back in 1926, the Northern Trust Open has been played just about every year on the PGA Tour Since. It wasn't until 1973 however that it was moved to Riviera Country Club. The Northern Trust Open used to be called the Los Angeles Open, and later the Nissan Open, with the title sponsor changing. The L.A. Open was the first tournament Tiger Woods ever competed in on the PGA Tour, as a 16-year-old amateur.

Riviera Country Club stretched to nearly 7,300 yards for the tournament, and features some of the most challenging holes on Tour. This includes the 236-yard Par-3 No.4. It's a long fly all the way to the hole, with a green surrounded by bunkers. It's a key hole to build momentum in a round that can make or break a player. The winner of the Northern Trust Open will receive $1.188 million, with a total purse of $6.6 million. At this point in the season, an established order in the FedEx Cup will be compiled with the handful or tournaments already played. But, 500 points going to the winner will definitely help out their standings in the race for the cup.

2013 Northern Trust Open

Last week's winner at the 2013 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Brandt Snedeker, will not be in the field this week at Riviera for the playing of the Northern Trust Open. But there will be a host of other top players looking to get a win this week. They include Phil Mickelson, who is playing for a fourth-straight week, as well at #3 ranked player in the World Golf Rankings, Luke Donald, who is the highest-ranked player in the field. In addition, Dustin Johnson, 2011 Masters Champion Charl Schwartzel, Sergio Garcia, Adam Scott, Bubba Watson and more will be on display.

What Happened In 2012?

It was a very exciting finish to the 2012 Northern Trust Open, as we saw a three-way playoff decide things. Phil Mickelson was coming off of a victory the week prior at Pebble Beach, and continued his solid play into Riviera. He, along with Bill Haas and 2011 PGA championship winner Keegan Bradley were all participants in the playoff. It was Haas who buried a 60-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole to take the victory over Mickelson, Bradley, and the rest of the field. Haas recorded a final round score of 69, which was two better than both Bradley and Mickelson, to play his way into the playoff.

Odds For 2013 Northern Trust Open

Favorite: Mickelson didn't have a great week defending his Pebble Beach title, but he is only two weeks removed from a dominating win in Phoenix. As such, it's still enough for oddsmakers for oddsmakers to keep Lefty as a dominant favorite going into the 2013 Northern Trust Open. At 12 to 1 (+1200), his payout is still rather favorable considering that last week's winner, Brandt Snedeker, had the same odds being the third favorite as Mickelson has being the overall favorite.

Behind Mickelson is Luke Donald. After beginning his 2013 season over in Europe, Donald is making his debut on the Tour this week at Riviera. And though this is his first event state-side, oddsmakers are expecting the #3 ranked player in the world to come in and play serious factor in determining who will win the event, slated at 18/1 (+1800).

Charl Schwartzel will be making his PGA Tour appearance in 2013 at Riviera this week, and at 20 to 1 (wager $1 to win $20) odds, he's definitely worth throwing a few dollars on this week because that kind of payout for a top-5 or even a top-3 player is quite significant.

Two more players slated at 20/1 (Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia) round out the top-5 favorites going into the opening round this week.

Dustin Johnson already has one win to his credit in 2013 and is looking to add another to his resume. At 20/1, there is a great payout to be had if he can get back in that early form he showed in Hawaii. He's been near the top of the odds leaders each tournament he has played in thus far so to see him near the top of the odds to win the 2013 Northern Trust Open is not surprising

Sergio Garcia closed out 2012 on a big note and has played well at a few stops so far in this young 2013 season but this week will be Sergio's debut on 2013 PGA Tour as are two of the other top-five favorites to win the Northern Trust Open.

2013 Northern Trust Open Betting Odds - odds found at Bovada on 2/11/2013
Phil Mickelson 12/1 Luke Donald 18/1 Charl Schwartzel 20/1 Dustin Johnson 20/1 Sergio Garcia 20/1 Adam Scott 22/1 Bubba Watson 22/1 Keegan Bradley 28/1 Lee Westwood 28/1 Webb Simpson 28/1 Aaron Baddeley 33/1 Bill Haas 33/1 Bo Van Pelt 33/1 Hunter Mahan 33/1 Jimmy Walker 33/1 Matt Kuchar 33/1 Ryan Moore 33/1 Jim Furyk 40/1 Scott Piercy 40/1 Charles Howell III 50/1 Chris Kirk 50/1 K.J. Choi 50/1 Padraig Harrington 50/1 Zach Johnson 50/1 Graeme McDowell 55/1 Peter Hanson 55/1 Bryce Molder 66/1 Tim Clark 66/1 Ernie Els 70/1 Fredrik Jacobson 70/1 Kevin Stadler 70/1 Brendon De Jonge 75/1 Carl Pettersson 75/1 Brian Gay 80/1 J B Holmes 80/1 Kevin Na 80/1 Nicolas Colsaerts 80/1 Retief Goosen 80/1 Russell Henley 80/1 Ryan Palmer 80/1 Charlie Wi 100/1 Gary Woodland 100/1 Jeff Overton 100/1 John Senden 100/1 Josh Teater 100/1	Matt Every 100/1 Pat Perez 100/1 Patrick Cantlay 100/1 Seung-yul Noh 100/1 Angel Cabrera 125/1 Bud Cauley 125/1 Cameron Tringale 125/1 Chad Campbell 125/1 Fred Couples 125/1 Geoff Ogilvy 125/1 Harris English 125/1 John Huh 125/1 John Rollins 125/1 Jonas Blixt 125/1 Yong-Eun Yang 125/1 Ben Crane 150/1 Ben Curtis 150/1 Bob Estes 150/1 Brendan Steele 150/1 Charley Hoffman 150/1 John Merrick 150/1 Kevin Chappell 150/1 Kevin Streelman 150/1 Lucas Glover 150/1 Marc Leishman 150/1 Martin Laird 150/1 Ryo Ishikawa 150/1 Sean O'Hair 150/1 Steve Marino 150/1 Ted Potter Jr. 150/1 Tommy Gainey 150/1 William Mcgirt 150/1 Andres Romero 200/1 Brian Harman 200/1 David Hearn 200/1 David Lynn 200/1 Dicky Pride 200/1 George Mcneill 200/1 Graham Delaet 200/1 Greg Chalmers 200/1 Greg Owen 200/1 J J Henry 200/1 James Driscoll 200/1 Jason Kokrak 200/1	Jeff Maggert 200/1 Jerry Kelly 200/1 John Mallinger 200/1 Johnson Wagner 200/1 Justin Leonard 200/1 Ken Duke 200/1 Michael Thompson 200/1 Mike Weir 200/1 Ricky Barnes 200/1 Robert Allenby 200/1 Roberto Castro 200/1 Rory Sabbatini 200/1 Sang-Moon Bae 200/1 Stewart Cink 200/1 Stuart Appleby 200/1 Tom Gillis 200/1 Trevor Immelman 200/1 Troy Matteson 200/1 D A Points 250/1 Jason Bohn 250/1 Mark Wilson 250/1 Brian Davis 300/1 Charlie Beljan 300/1 Chris Stroud 300/1 Colt Knost 300/1 Daniel Summerhays 300/1 Jhonattan Vegas 300/1 Martin Flores 300/1 Stephen Ames 300/1 Brandt Jobe 400/1 Tim Herron 400/1 Will Claxton 400/1 Arron Oberholser 500/1 Corey Pavin 500/1 David Mathis 500/1 Hank Kuehne 500/1 Jeremiah Wooding 500/1 Jesper Parnevik 500/1 Joey Snyder III 500/1 Kevin Sutherland 500/1 Michael Block 500/1 Michael Bradley 500/1 Scott Verplank 500/1 Troy Kelly 500/1 Wes Short Jr. 500/1

Our Picks

The Winner - He wasn't mentioned among the top favorites, but Keegan Bradley isn't far behind. Bradley narrowly missed out on a win here last year, losing in a playoff with Bill Haas and Phil Mickelson. Haas went on to win the event. Bradley has to have good feelings coming into this week though, and at 28/1 he would be a nice payout as the winner. PGABettingOdds.com got the winner right last week at Pebble Beach, now only if we can keep it going.

Dark Horse Pick - When it comes to a dark horse, we like to pick someone off the radar, but who has been playing well. Chris Kirk finished runner-up at Pebble Beach last week to Snedeker, losing only by two shots. We think this momentum could carry over this week into the Northern Trust Open. A 50/1 payout sure would be nice.

Notable Pairings

* (+###) are the 3-ball betting odds for the group where the lowest scoring players wins wager

The event organizers at the Northern Trust Open certainly did well when they made the groupings for the first two rounds at Riviera Country Club for Thursday and Friday.

It starts with the three players who were all in a playoff together at the 2012 tournament, in Phil Mickelson (+125), Keegan Bradley (+200), and defending champion Bill Haas (+220). Unfortunately, this group will tee off on Thursday at 10:11am ET, long before coverage starts at 3pm on The Golf Channel. The good thing is that we should get to watch most of their Friday round (3:01pm ET) when the tee times are flipped around.

Outside of this pairing though, there are several more worth noting. Teeing off right behind the Mickelson grouping at 10:22am ET and 3:12pm ET on Thursday and Friday respectively will be Bubba Watson (+138), Lee Westwood (+150) and Fred Couples (+275). Some of the most popular players on Tour, even though Couples is not a regular participant on, will certainly draw a big crowd as this group makes its way around Riviera in the opening rounds.

Another group to watch goes off on the opposite draw as the first two we mentioned, starting in the afternoon wave on Thursday (3:01pm ET) and then in the morning wave on Friday (10:11am ET). That would be Luke Donald (+150), Adam Scott (+150), and Graeme McDowell (+220). Donald is the highest-ranked player in the field this week, currently at #3 in the world.

Other notable pairings include Ernie Els (+240), Dustin Johnson (+138), and Webb Simpson (+162) who are slated to hit the first tee at 3:12pm ET on Thursday and on Friday at 10:22am ET as well as the grouping of Ryan Moore (+160), Jim Furyk (+160), and Zach Johnson (+220) who will begin their first and second rounds at 10:11am ET and 3:01pm ET respectively.