Original article published 15 September 2022
The LIV Golf Tour rocks up this week in Chicago for their latest event and Open Champion Cameron Smith will be eager to land a first win on this tour.
This week sees Dustin Johnson and the Aussie Major winner contesting favouritism for the LIV Golf Chicago event at Rich Harvest Farms, Illinois.
Here's what to expect in the Windy City, along with three players to follow at the 54-hole event.
What | LIV Golf Chicago |
| Where | Rich Harvest Farms, Sugar Grove, Illinois |
| When | Thursday 15th - Saturday 17th September, 2022 |
How to watch | YouTube or livgolf.com |
| Odds | Dustin Johnson 9/2, Cameron Smith 5/1, Joaquin Niemann 15/2, Talor Gooch 9/1, Patrick Reed 16/1, Louis Oosthuizen 18/1, Bryson DeChambeau 25/1 |
The fifth event on the LIV Golf schedule starts on Friday evening (UK and Ireland time), with the circuit moving close to Chicago, employing Rich Harvest Farms Golf Club. The private members club will welcome DJ, Smith and the rest of the LIV Golf community.
Smith was market leader for LIV Golf Boston - the last LIV event - but the Australian could manage only a tie for fourth place. He started the tournament as world number two - the latest big-money signing by LIV chiefs - and got within a shot of the eventual playoff.
Smith can be backed at 5/1 to make Chicago his first LIV victory, while Johnson is a 9/2 chance. The giant Carolinian held his nerve in a thrilling finish to the Boston shootout, holing an enormous eagle putt at the first extra hole of a playoff.
Johnson defeated Anirban Lahiri and Joaquin Niemann in that playoff, winning on the LIV circuit for the first time, and the former world number one will be well fancied for Rich Harvest Farms.
There is $20m up for grabs in the 48-runner, no-cut event, with Henrik Stenson returning to the line-up. Stenson missed Boston due to vertigo, but the Swede has got fit for action and is 45/1 to claim a second LIV title on Sunday.
A full range of each-way terms are available for the tournament. As well as the standard quarter the odds, the first five places, the Each Way Extra section has four different options.
LIV Golf Chicago course details
Rich Harvest Farms opened in 1999 as an ultra-private and exclusive members club. The 2009 Solheim Cup was staged there, along with numerous elite amateur events.
Giant par-threes and two enormous par-fives (at 634 yards apiece) are a feature of this long, hilly, tree-lined layout; where a lake, lagoons and a creek are in play, and there are numerous blind tee shots.
This week's competitors will be thrilled to see that sunny, warm weather is expected for all three tournaments days, but a breeze will get up at times. There has been plenty of rain in Chicago in the lead-up to the event, so the course will play extremely long.
It typically plays as a 7,715-yard, par 72, with four par-fives, ten par-fours and four par-threes, but it remains to be seen how the LIV Golf chiefs tinker with the tees and the par. This seems an event which long drivers should dominate.
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Three to follow
Sam Horsfield
The 45/1 about Sam Horsfield is catching the eye of many punters this week, given he is one of few players in the field with positive course experience.
Rich Harvest Farms is a new domain to most of the 48-man field, but Horsfield knows the layout from competing in the 2015 Western Amateur Championship.
The Englishman was only 18 when he teed up in the Western Amateur, but he was superb in the four rounds of strokeplay competition, finishing third. This week, he has returned as a 25-year-old who appears to have rediscovered his A-game.
Back on the DP World Tour last week, Horsfield got better every day of the BMW PGA Championship, carding rounds of 70, 68 and 67 for 18th place in the high-class Wentworth line-up.
Horsfield's last LIV Golf round was a Sunday 65 in Boston, so he is 16-under par for his last four competitive rounds.
Eugenio Chacarra
An each-way investment in Eugenio Chacarra could yield a return at 140/1. The 22-year-old Spaniard, a former world number two amateur who turned professional in June, is another with positive vibes for Rich Harvest.
Chacarra won all four of his matches for The Internationals against the USA in the Palmer Cup last year - a prestigious amateur event staged at Rich Harvest. Maybe the Madrid man can harness his love for the layout with a bold effort in Chicago.
Bryson DeChambeau
One of the forgotten men of golf is Bryson DeChambeau, who not long ago was dazzling PGA Tour galleries with his incredible driving.
The Californian has had a few injury problems to deal with amid his switch to LIV Golf, but his health appears to be returning and 25/1 could be popular this week given how the venue lends itself to long driving.
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