The 2024 PGA Tour season has begun like no other, with hope of a merger deal between the main three tours in men's professional golf growing more realistic by the day, a handful of players still weighing up a switch of tour, and four total outsiders being pictured with the tournament trophy at the end of the week.
Parking the off-course politics for a second, the opening month of PGA Tour action has generated more storylines than the James Bond franchise - with a couple of debut successes intertwining with a pair of long-awaited returns to the winner's circle.
And not only would the players involved be jumping for joy, so would the world's bookmakers after a quadruple stretch of rank-outsiders hoisted the trophy aloft come Sunday - or Saturday, in Matthieu Pavon's case - during the early part of 2024.
But how much could you have won if you had placed a four-fold accumulator on Chris Kirk, Grayson Murray, Nick Dunlap, and Pavon all to win in that order before a ball was struck in Hawaii? Let's break it down and take a look.
Chris Kirk - The Sentry (200-1)
In a field which is made up of the past season's very best on the PGA Tour, winners of events and other top-60 FedEx Cup players, Kirk was by no means among the most fancied to follow up his Honda Classic title from the previous February with a victory in Maui, Hawaii.
All but one of the 60 eligible players - Rory McIlroy - were in attendance at the Plantation Course to bomb record-breaking drives while hoping to see a whale or two in the background.
Yet, following a one-shot victory over the likes of Jordan Spieth and Sahith Theegala, that's exactly what happened. Kirk wrapped up his sixth PGA Tour title on a mammoth 29-under and banked a delightful $3.6 million in the process. In doing so, anyone who chucked a cheeky dollar on him winning at 200-1 would have enjoyed a pretty good Sunday as well.
Grayson Murray - The Sony Open (500-1)
Although the line-up for The Sony Open was not quite as strong as the tournament which preceded it, names such as Justin Rose, Keegan Bradley, and Tyrrell Hatton made it an extremely competitive field, still, and one that very few would have fancied Murray to come out on top in.
However, the man whose story holds similarities to Kirk's in that he had previously struggled with alcoholism and depression ended up topping the leaderboard via a playoff over Bradley and Byeong Hun An.
While Murray, himself, won a cool $1.49 million - as well as a spot in The Masters and Players Championship - an unnamed fan turned $35 into almost $7,000 after backing Murray to get the job done at Waialae Country Club.
Turned $35 into $6.7K thanks to Grayson Murray's win at the Sony Open 😳(via IG: cvillebowler89 | @FDSportsbook) pic.twitter.com/QT8vmeCPOQJanuary 16, 2024
Nick Dunlap - The American Express (500-1)
In a group of unlikely heroes, Dunlap's win was arguably the most stunning given his amateur status at the time and the calibre of players he was directly up against during Sunday's final round.
Having produced a staggering 12-under round of 60 on the Saturday of the American Express to chisel out a three-shot lead going into Sunday, Dunlap outlasted both Justin Thomas and Sam Burns to secure a historic PGA Tour victory.
And once again, someone out there saw the whole thing coming. An anonymous bettor placed $300 on Dunlap to win the American Express and ended up banking a life-changing six-figure sum.
Matthieu Pavon - Farmers Insurance Open (140-1)
Pavon has been trending in the right direction for a few months now, ever since his Spanish Open success on the DP World Tour towards the end of last season. Yet, despite that, the bookmakers had him well down the list of potential champions at Torrey Pines.
Pavon showed them how wrong they were, however, by becoming the first Frenchman to lift a PGA Tour-recognized title since the 1907 Open Championship - where Arnaud Massy was named Champion Golfer of the Year.
He edged out Nicolai Hojgaard and overnight leader Stephan Jaeger to land his first PGA Tour win while completing one of the most unlikely four-fold accumulators sports gambling has ever seen.
PGA TOUR WINNERS FOUR-FOLD ACCUMULATOR
So, after all that, what would it have meant? For clarity, the above odds were a maximum price that could have been found before a ball was struck at every tournament.
And, using a basic accumulator calculator, odds of 200-1, 500-1, 500-1, and 140-1 total out to at an absolutely astonishing 7,113,619,340-1. Meaning even a dollar/pound on the four winners to scoop their respective events would have earned you a reward which stretched into the billions.
And with the Pebble Beach Pro-Am up next on the PGA Tour's schedule, there is every chance the "Year Of The Longshot" could continue for another week...
