2026 TOUR Championship picks for East Lake: Why Chris Gotterup, Hideki Matsuyama and Russell Henley stand out

The 2026 PGA TOUR season concludes this week anticlimactically with the TOUR Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia.

After using a "starting strokes" format from 2019-24 that no one liked — not the fans nor the golfers — this is the second year all 30 guys in the TOUR Championship field will start at even-par.

Fortunately, new PGA TOUR commissioner Brian Rolapp announced a new postseason format earlier this week that will start in 2028.

The top 90 players will compete in a final stroke-play event (the first round of the playoffs) before the top 32 advance to a two-week, match-play TOUR Championship. 'PAR TALK': WHY WYNDHAM CLARK DESERVES PGA TOUR PLAYER OF THE YEAR, LIV GOLF'S FINAL HOORAH, AND SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER'S MONEY Designed by the legend Donald Ross, East Lake is a 7,455-yard, par-70 that has hosted the TOUR Championship every year since 2004.

It is a driver-heavy layout with wide fairways, long approach shots and fast Bermuda greens, rewarding players who can bomb it off the tee and create birdie looks with their irons.

This has been a nightmare season for me betting on golf.

I've donked off -50.94 units (u) in 2026, finished 4,133rd out of 5,297 entries in the Race for the Mayo Cup (one-and-done league) and I've only hit one outright: Nico Echavarria at the Cognizant Classic (+5900).

That said, I'm trying to minimize the loss and end the season on a high note by backing these three dudes.

The following odds are from when I bet on the golfers listed below.

Subject to change. 🇺🇸 Chris Gotterup +2654 (0.75u) and Top-10 with ties +124 (1u), both at Kalshi 🇯🇵 Hideki Matsuyama +3200 at DraftKings (0.63u) and Top-10 with ties +146 at Kalshi (1u) 🇺🇸 Russell Henley +3500 (0.57u) and Top-10 with ties +167 (1u), both at Kalshi I love Gotterup's price because, as I wrote last week , his game travels.

His four wins over the last 13 months have been at different types of courses and conditions: 2025 Genesis Scottish Open, Sony Open in Hawaii, WM Phoenix Open in Arizona, and the John Deere Classic in Illinois.

East Lake is a driver-heavy course that favors distance over accuracy and has easy Bermuda greens, according to Betsperts Golf .

Well, Gotterup ranks second in this field for Strokes Gained (SG): Off-the-Tee (OTT) and second in driving distance over the last 30 rounds.

He's picked up more than eight strokes on the greens last week in a T4 finish at the BMW Championship, and Bermuda is his best putting surface.