2013 Tampa Bay Championship Betting Odds + Info, Times, Coverage

The PGA Tour travels about four hours northwest to Tampa for the playing of the Tampa Bay Championship at Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club in Palm Harbor Florida. The event is played on the famed Copperhead Golf Course.

The Tampa Bay Championship starts on March 14th and will play through March 17th unless unforseen delays occur. As for the coverage of the event, Golf Channel and NBC will team up for televising it all week long. Look for coverage of early round to be shown on Golf Channel on Thursday and Friday beginning at 3pm ET. Golf Channel and NBC will broadcast weekend play with coverage starting at 1pm ET and 3pm ET respectively on Saturday and Sunday.

The Tampa Bay Championship

Established back in 2000, then as the Tampa Bay Classic, this is one of the newest stops on the PGA Tour annually. Transitions has been the sponsor of the event since 2008, but chose for 2012 to be its last year of the "Transitions Championship".

The course is the main attention getter for this event. Copperhead stretches to 7,340 yards as a Par-71, making it quite a long venue for the players to get through. Two of the four final closing holes are Par-3s, both very long; it makes for a difficult finish. A win will get the player 500 FedEx Cup points. Copperhead is wildly popular with Tour players, attracting many of the greats to the Tampa area. The winner of the Tampa Bay Championship gets $990,000 of the $5.5 million total purse which isn't a bad pay day at all.

What Happened In 2012?

If you are wondering why you have not heard of the Tampa Bay Championship, it's because last season it was known as the Transitions Championship. But 2012 was the last year as a sponsor for Transitions, so this tournament is now known as the Tampa Bay Championship.

After losing his No.1 ranking at the Honda Classic two weeks before, Luke Donald golfed his way back to the top ranking with a win at Copperhead. Donald won in a four-player playoff, over Jim Furyk, Sang-Moon Bae, and Robert Garrigus. It was a dramatic way to ascend back to the No.1 ranking for Donald, and a big win to boot.

2013 Tampa Bay Championship

The WGC Cadillac Championship ended with Tiger Woods claiming his 17th-career World Golf Championships victory. Now, the PGA Tour moves through the state of Florida from Miami, up a little more north and west for the playing of the Tampa Bay Championship at Innisbrook Resort on the famed Copperhead course.

Woods won't be in the field this week, but six of the top-20 players in the world will be, led by No.3 Luke Donald. Also in the field will be Matt Kuchar, Louis Oosthuizen, Adam Scott, Jason Dufner, Sergio Garcia, and Ernie Els.

Vegas Odds For The 2013 Tampa Bay Championship

It's close at the top of the betting odds to win the Tampa Bay Championship, with four of the names we just mentioned leading the way. Scott has separated himself slightly, paying out 14 to 1 on the ltest lines. Ass for Donald, Kuchar, and Garcia, they have been set at 16 to 1.

Donald enters as the defending champion in the event, so it certainly no surprise that he should be right at the top of the list of favorites to win. And while he has yet to win in 2013, he is coming off of a couple of nice finishes at the Honda Classic, and the Cadillac Championship. Copperhead may very well be the toughest course that the PGA Tour visits in Florida as well.

Kuchar won the Accenture Match play a couple of weeks back, the first WGC even of the season. He continued solid play, but was never a factor at TPC Blue Monster this past weekend. Kuchar will try to keep that momentum from the WGC victory going as the lead up to the Masters is just a few weeks away.

Garcia is also trying to find Major form, and has shown flashes of brilliance this season. But consistency over four rounds has plagued Garcia this season so far. Oddsmakers are expecting big things from him this week though.

As for Scott, he closed with the low round at the Cadillac Championship on Sunday, firing an eight-under par round of 64 to finish in the top-10. Oddsmakers are banking on Scott carrying this momentum over into Copperhead, and if he continues to putt like he did on Sunday, he will certainly play a big factor.

Two golfers come in behind the leading odds, set at 20 to 1 to round out the top-five favorites. They are Webb Simpson and Jason Dufner. Both players had career years in 2012, but have yet to win in 2013. Innisbrook this week could be the venue to change all that.

2013 Tampa Bay Championship Betting Odds - lines found at Bovada on 3/12/2013
Adam Scott 14/1 Luke Donald 16/1 Matt Kuchar 16/1 Sergio Garcia 16/1 Jason Dufner 20/1 Webb Simpson 20/1 Jim Furyk 25/1 Louis Oosthuizen 25/1 Nick Watney 25/1 Jason Day 33/1 Robert Garrigus 33/1 Scott Piercy 35/1 Geoff Ogilvy 40/1 Jimmy Walker 40/1 Martin Kaymer 40/1 Michael Thompson 40/1 Brendon De Jonge 50/1 Ernie Els 50/1 John Senden 50/1 K J Choi 50/1 Luke Guthrie 50/1 Ryan Moore 50/1 Aaron Baddeley 66/1 Bryce Molder 66/1 Gary Woodland 66/1 Graham Delaet 66/1 Patrick Cantlay 66/1 Ryan Palmer 66/1 Young Eun Yang 66/1 Sang-Moon Bae 70/1 Zach Johnson 70/1 Brian Gay 80/1 Carl Pettersson 80/1 Jeff Overton 80/1 Josh Teater 80/1 Kevin Stadler 80/1 Retief Goosen 80/1 Scott Stallings 80/1 Ben Crane 100/1 Boo Weekley 100/1 Brian Stuard 100/1 Bud Cauley 100/1 Charlie Wi 100/1 George Coetzee 100/1 John Rollins 100/1 Lucas Glover 100/1 Matt Jones 100/1 Pat Perez 100/1 Ross Fisher 100/1	Seung-yul Noh 100/1 Stewart Cink 100/1 Vijay Singh 100/1 Andres Romero 125/1 Angel Cabrera 125/1 Billy Horschel 125/1 Camilo Villegas 125/1 Charlie Beljan 125/1 David Toms 125/1 George Mc Neill 125/1 Greg Chalmers 125/1 Harris English 125/1 John Huh 125/1 Marc Leishman 125/1 Martin Laird 125/1 Sean O'Hair 125/1 Ted Potter Jr. 125/1 Bob Estes 150/1 Cameron Tringale 150/1 Charley Hoffman 150/1 Chris Stroud 150/1 David Hearn 150/1 Erik Compton 150/1 Fabian Gomez 150/1 James Hahn 150/1 Kevin Na 150/1 Matt Every 150/1 Nicholas Thompson 150/1 Robert Streb 150/1 Troy Matteson 150/1 Brendan Steele 175/1 Mark Wilson 175/1 Tom Gillis 175/1 Trevor Immelman 175/1 Ben Kohles 200/1 Brian Harman 200/1 D A Points 200/1 James Driscoll 200/1 Jeff Klauk 200/1 Jonas Blixt 200/1 Justin Leonards 200/1 Kevin Streelman 200/1 Roberto Castro 200/1 Ryo Ishikawa 200/1 Steve Marino 200/1 Dicky Pride 225/1 Jerry Kelly 225/1 Patrick Reed 225/1 Scott Langley 225/1 Brad Fritsch 250/1	Cameron Percy 250/1 Chad Campbell 250/1 Chez Reavie 250/1 Doug Labelle II 250/1 Greg Owen 250/1 John Mallinger 250/1 Justin Hicks 250/1 Ken Duke 250/1 Kevin Chappell 250/1 Martin Flores 250/1 Ricky Barnes 250/1 Rory Sabbatini 250/1 Stuart Appleby 250/1 Tommy Gainey 250/1 William Mcgirt 250/1 Brian Davis 300/1 J J Henry 300/1 Jason Bohn 300/1 Luke List 300/1 Peter Tomasulo 300/1 Richard Lee 300/1 Robert Allenby 300/1 Steven Bowditch 300/1 Tag Ridings 300/1 Will Claxton 300/1 Casey Wittenberg 350/1 David Lingmerth 350/1 Stephen Ames 350/1 Alistair Presnell 400/1 Colt Knost 400/1 Daniel Summerhays 400/1 Jason Kokrak 400/1 John Daly 400/1 Michael Bradley 400/1 Scott Gardiner 400/1 Tim Herron 400/1 D H Lee 500/1 David Mathis 500/1 Henrik Norlander 500/1 Kevin Sutherland 500/1 Lee Williams 500/1 Mike Weir 500/1 Scott Verplank 500/1 Shawn Stefani 500/1 Troy Kelly 500/1 Jesper Parnevik 750/1 Joey Snyder 1500/1 Rod Perry 1500/1 Wes Short Jr 1500/1

Free Picks For 2013 Tampa Bay Championship

The Winner

Donald is probably the smart pick to go with, but we are going to go just a bit out of the box to another former winner. That would be Jim Furyk. Furyk is a top-10 favorite this week, paying out at 25 to 1, and we think is getting a great value. PGABettingOdds.com expects Furyk to have a big week, and get into the winner's circle. He finished runner up last year to Donald in a playoff.

Darkhorse Value Bet

Going down the list of odds, we get to Zach Johnson, set at 70 to 1. Copperhead is a straight driver's course, and doesn't necessarily reward the big hitter. This bodes well for Johnson, who is not know as a bomber. At 70 to 1, we think Johnson is a great value pick this week.

Notable Pairings

The Tampa Bay Championship strung together some solid pairings for the first two days of competition at Copperhead. The tournament favorite Adam Scott is paired with fellow countrymen Jason Day, and Geoff Ogilvy. This threesome goes off at 1:30pm ET on Thursday and 8:30am ET on Friday.

Oddsmakers have formed 3-ball betting odds for the tournament, which will be available on both days though the first round is what is available currently. Scott is a +125 favorite to shoot the low score in the group on Thursday, with Day behind at +185. Ogilvy rounds the pairing out at +225.

Elsewhere around the field, defending champion Luke Donald will tee off Thursday morning at 8:30am ET with K.J. Choi and Jim Furyk. Donald is the favorite to shoot the lowest score on Thursday, installed at +125. Furyk, who lost in a playoff to Donald, is set at +165, with Choi at +260.

The trio of Sergio Garcia (+135), Webb Simpson (+150), and Martin Kaymer (+260) will be paired together for an 8:20am ET tee time on Thursday, and 1:30pm ET Friday. This is certainly one of the marquee pairings for the week.