Books Clean Up on Johnson Withdraw

Dustin Johnson had more money wagered on him to win the Masters than any other golfer. So sportsbooks weren’t too disappointed to see him withdraw from the tournament on Thursday. Johnson is ranked No. 1 world, but the top player hasn’t won the Masters since 2005 when Tiger Woods did so.

Johnson was involved in a highly publicized fall down the stairs at his rental home not far from Augusta National. He said he would try to give the tournament a go and even Thursday morning was saying the same thing. But five minutes before he was supposed to tee off, he knew he wouldn’t be able to play.

“I was only swinging 80 percent and I couldn’t get through the ball all the way,” he said. “The backswing was fine but at impact and moving through, it hurt. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to compete. It’s terribly disappointing.”

Johnson hit dozens of balls on the driving range but also took a number of breaks to enter the clubhouse for treatment.

He did elaborate on his accident in more detail.

“I slipped down the stairs, and there were only three stairs,” Johnson said. “It would have been better if it was a full staircase because I might have slid more. Instead, I just kind of stopped and hit.”

With Dustin Johnson out of the picture, the tournament is up for grabs. Phil Mickelson was No. 2 in terms of tickets at Las Vegas sportsbooks and he was tied for the clubhouse lead at 1-under par. Jordan Spieth and Ricky Fowler also received a good amount of action.

Most sportsbooks have a policy of “all bets are action,” meaning it doesn’t matter if your golfer makes it to the first tee or not. A few, such as the Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas, have a rule that if your player doesn’t tee off, your bet is refunded.