Butterfield Bermuda Championship 2026: Odds, favorites for Port Royal

The Butterfield Bermuda Championship is a full, 120-player event with a field that ranges from intriguing amateurs to a newly-minted Tour champion.

Adam Schenk enters as the tournament’s defending champion, while Austin Smotherman looks to make it two-in-a-row after capturing his first career title in Utah earlier in the month.

When it comes to young stars, rookie Ben James is a name to watch after four finishes inside the top five over his last six events. Oddsmakers have taken notice listing James as a pretty substantial pretournament favorite.

Walker Cup teammates Miles Russell and Kihei Akina are also making an appearance this week, although coming in with much higher odds to stand in the winner’s circle after 72 holes in what projects to be some pretty intense playing conditions. Let’s take a look at some of the other favorites before giving out some recommendations for Port Royal.

Butterfield Bermuda Championship 2026 odds (as of October 20, courtesy of DraftKings)

• Ben James (+1150)
• Corey Conners (+2400)
• Kevin Yu (+2450)
• Eric Cole (+2700)
• Andrew Novak (+2700)
• Chris Kirk (+2800)
• Rico Hoey (+2900)
• Kris Ventura (+3000)
• Seamus Power (+3000)
• Kevin Roy (+3100)
• Austin Smotherman (+3100)
• Ben Kohles (+3300)
• Neal Shipley (+3400)
• David Ford (+3400)
• Max Greyserman (+3500)
• Trace Crowe (+3500)

Who will win the Butterfield Bermuda Championship?

When 16 names are sandwiched between 11-to-1 and 35-to-1, there’s no other way to read the odds than as a declaration of “We have no favorite!” Yes, James has a sizable advantage in the implied probability to win the tournament. BUT, if the oddsmakers were really trying to dissuade you from placing money on the young Connecticut native he wouldn’t still be priced in the double digits.

So, what does it all mean? Go long. Yes, there are good cases for Smotherman, Kohles and Shipley based on recent form and course fit — and all three might get a look elsewhere in this post, but to win we trust that this is the tournament where some bigger numbers can be rewarded. And, most importantly, are worth the risk.

That’s why we’re recommending Zac Blair at +4600, A.J. Ewart at +5900 and John VanDerLaan at +8400 as our three winner picks. Blair is 120th on the FedExCup fall points list looking to preserve conditional status as well as possibly vault into a Tour card for 2027. For a longshot, Blair has some stats that would make any eyebrows raise: He’s sixth in strokes gained approach to green and third in driving accuracy. He also made 11 out of 15 cuts and finished top-25 five times in 2026.

Ewart, No. 105 in the fall standings, also has plenty of motivation this week and some interesting stats to back it up. The 27-year-old Canadian finished top-25 seven times this year and ranks sixth in strokes gained putting and 19th in scrambling. Really nice numbers for someone not in the top 20 favorites heading into the tournament.

First-round leader prediction: Butterfield Bermuda Championship

Two picks in this “market,” if you will, and they both play closer to the top of the odds board. We’ll hand out Chris Kirk as FRL at +4300 and David Ford to finish top 10 in the round at +480.

Since missing the cut at Shinnecock, Kirk has been fine on the weekends over his last six events but if you look a little bit closer he’s enjoy a lot of success recently thanks to quick starts. Specifically, he’s been fast to start in the fall where he opened with a 65 in Asheville and a 68 in Utah (followed up by a 63 in Round 2). Think this trend continues at Port Royal this week.

Ford, who sits No. 125 in the FedExCup fall standings, is entirely a play on motivation and recent form. He finished T-3 at Black Desert Resort, boosted by a bogey-free final round. While we really like the North Carolina product this week, his odds to win at +3500 is precisely why Bermuda is ripe for risk-taking.

Butterfield Bermuda Championship best bet

OK, OK, OK. We gave this one away slightly above but it’s to take Smotherman, Kohles and Shipley all to T-20 and parlay that at the sweet price of +1100.

We have yet to give out a make-the-cut parlay this year but if you’re feeling more conservative with the bankroll, then there’s a Smotherman-Kohles-Shipley parlay sitting there at +101 just for the trio to make it to the weekend.

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