It’s hard to bet against Jackson Koivun after the week he just had at Medinah, right?
Oddsmakers are certainly making pricing less than desirable for the 2026 U.S. Presidents Cup star, who is a pretty significant favorite over the field at this week’s Bank of Utah Championship.
Koivun, who went 3-0-1 in his debut for the stars and stripes, sits above 2025 champion Michael Brennan on the listed favorites entering this week.
Both Koivun and Brennan are recent winners on Tour, with Koivun taking home the 3M Open in Minneapolis and Brennan clinching a spot in the postseason at Sedgefield. None of the other names behind them on the odds board can make such a claim.
And with that, let’s take a look at who bookmakers expect to contend with Koivun and Brennan this week at the Black Desert Resort.
2026 Bank of Utah Championship odds (as of September 30, courtesy of Draft Kings)
- Jackson Koivun (+1225)
- Michael Brennan (+1750)
- Ben James (+1900)
- Maverick McNealy (+2050)
- Doug Ghim (+2300)
- Matt Wallace (+2450)
- Marco Penge (+2700)
- Jackson Suber (+3200)
- Kevin Yu (+3500)
- Davis Thompson (+3800)
- Max Homa (+3900)
- Jordan Smith (+4000)
- Johnny Keefer (+4100)
- Beau Hossler (+4200)
- Harry Hall (+4200)
- Eric Cole (+4500)
- Mac Meissner (+4500)
Bank of Utah Championship: Pick to win
Don’t love all the traveling Matt Wallace has been doing compared to some of the other names in the field who are coming in considerably more rested, but we do love his approach game more than anyone not named Koivun so we’ll take the +2450 and not complain.
Two names that we feel obligated to mention with all the Presidents Cup talk: Nick Taylor at +5000 and Christiaan Bezuidenhout +6000. Can’t exactly come up with the reasoning why they’re not higher here after being entirely solid for Geoff Ogilvy’s squad at Medinah.
We also don’t hate past champion Matt McCarty at +5000 while we’re giving out some longshots.
Bank of Utah Championship: First round leader
This could age terribly come Sunday but we’re of the belief that the 21-year-old Koivun will hit a wall and fade a bit down the stretch. This has been a lot this golf and time in front of the camera for the young man!
With that said, he’s coming in here as unquestionably one of the best players on the planet so we simply cannot resist +315 to finish top 10 after the first 18 holes in Utah. There’s a course familiarity argument here to go against any Round 1 betting on Koivun but we like our youthful American star early as opposed to late this week.
As for an actual Round 1 leader, we’ll dip our cup back into the Jackson Suber well again at +4600 and see if it comes up full. Can’t say we’ll ever stop doing this after he posted a 65 at Royal Birkdale on Thursday playing links golf for the first time. Just an insane tidbit that doesn’t get mentioned nearly enough.
And for additional context, Suber is an approach wizard similar to Wallace. And that leads us to our final offering of this week...
Bank of Utah Championship best bet
Austin Smotherman to T-20 including ties at +255 is a layup as the Tour’s ninth best player in strokes gained in approach to green. He should have a considerable advantage over the field, one that should make him more in the market of +150 to finish top 20. We’ll take the extra value and run to the betting window.
Parlaying Smotherman and Bezuidenhout to both finish T-20 including ties pays +950 and that’s a payout we can’t resist either.
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