The second tournament of the 2018-19 PGA season tees off on Thursday from Malaysia, the 2018 CIMB Classic. The first group heads to the tee at TPC Kuala Lumpur at 8 p.m. ET. Only four players from the top 25 in the world will play in the CIMB Classic 2018, which means there are multiple value plays this week. World No. 4 and two-time champion Justin Thomas enters as the Vegas favorite at 5-1 CIMB Classic odds, followed by Billy Horschel and Ryan Moore at 14-1. Last year's winner, Pat Perez, is going off at 40-1 and tees off with Moore and Thomas at 8:50 p.m. ET. Before you make any 2018 CIMB Classic picks or enter a daily fantasy golf tournament on sites like DraftKings and FanDuel, you'll want to hear what the team at SportsLine has to say.
SportsLine's prediction model, built by DFS pro Mike McClure, has nailed four of the past eight majors entering the weekend and called Tiger Woods' deep run in the PGA Championship despite being a 25-1 long shot.
This proprietary computer model was also all over Ryan Moore's strong performance at the Safeway Open last week. Despite the fact that Moore recorded just one top-10 finish in his final 11 starts of the 2017-18 season, the model had him as one of the top three contenders for the Safeway Open. The result: Moore surged to a second-place finish, his best performance in two years. Anyone who has followed the model is up big.
Now that the 2018 CIMB Classic field is locked, SportsLine simulated the event 10,000 times and the results were surprising.
One huge shocker the model is calling for at the 2018 CIMB Classic: Gary Woodland, a two-time runner up at this event, stumbles this week and finishes well outside the top 5.
Woodland recorded back-to-back second place finishes at the CIMB Classic in 2014 and 2015. However, he's failed to crack the top 25 since. And he finished last season with just one top-10 finish in his last 20 starts on the PGA Tour. He's somebody to completely steer clear of this week in Malaysia when making your 2018 CIMB Classic picks.
Another surprise: Pat Perez, the 2017 champion, fails to defend his title and finishes outside the top 20.
Perez cruised to victory at last year's tournament thanks to a score of 24-under par. However, he has failed to finish inside the top 20 in 10 of his past 11 starts on the PGA Tour. He's somebody to completely steer clear of this week.
Also, the model says five additional golfers with CIMB Classic odds of 20-1 or longer will make a strong run at title. Anyone who backs these underdogs could hit it big.
So who wins the 2018 CIMB Classic? And which long shots stun the golfing world? Check out the odds below and then visit SportsLine to see the full CIMB Classic projected leaderboard from the model that nailed the winners of four golf majors and was all over Ryan Moore's run last week.
Justin Thomas 5-1
Billy Horschel 14-1
Ryan Moore 14-1
Paul Casey 16-1
Xander Schaufflele 16-1
Gary Woodland 20-1
Keegan Bradley 20-1
Marc Leishman 20-1
Brandt Snedeker 28-1
Kyle Stanley 28-1
Rafael Cabrera Bello 28-1
Louis Oosthuizen 30-1
Byeong Hun An 33-1
Cameron Smith 33-1
Emiliano Grillo 33-1
Kevin Tway 33-1
Pat Perez 40-1
Kevin Na 40-1
Danny Lee 40-1
Branden Grace 40-1
C.T. Pan 40-1
J.B. Holmes 40-1
