Bad Beats
Why Jordan Spieth bettors were particularly upset over his closing bogey on Thursday
Sarah Stier
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Jordan Spieth was clearly disappointed with a bogey on his final hole at Liberty National on Thursday. Those betting on him, however, were even more upset.
In honor of Spieth's new partnership with FanDuel that was announced on Wednesday, the online gambling site offered a rather tempting odds boost bet for the first round of The Northern Trust. To win, bettors needed the three-time major champ to shoot even par or better at Liberty National, and, well, you can probably guess what Spieth shot thanks to that final blemish on the scorecard.
Spieth entered the week as the second-favorite to win behind Jon Rahm. The original bet for him to shoot even or better was listed at -200 (risk $200 to win $100), but with the odds boost it moved to even money. Needless to say, people weren't pleased with Spieth's finish.
Actually, for most of the round it looked like Spieth backers wouldn't cash as their guy, who started his round on the back nine, was three over with six holes to play. But he birdied the par-3 fourth and eagled the par-5 sixth to get back to the magic number.
After pars on seven and eight, Spieth split the fairway on the par-4 ninth. But his approach came up short and left of the green and after a poor pitch, he missed a 12-footer for par to shoot a one-over-par 72. Ouch.
UPDATE: Apparently, FanDuel has decided to refund all those Jordan Spieth odds boost bets. It's still a bit of a dagger he couldn't finish even par and win those bets for his backers, but still, a refund is better than nothing. Well played, FanDuel.