Courses like Pebble Beach, The Bear Trap, Bay Hill, Riviera and Muirfield Village make the PGA tour watchable, captivating and brilliant. Detroit golf club (7370 yards par 72) on the otherhand is another one on the roster of smash it in the air and fire it at pins. In 2019 the cut was 5 under (a record tour low) and the course isn't long, it's flat as a pancake and despite it's beauty it's more suited to corporate golf than professional golf.
One dimensional golf does make for difficult punting, and the last 4 tournaments on tour have been very difficult to predict.
I can only imagine last week Davis Riley was fresh off 3 weeks on the lash, and courses like this do make it hard to pick the top players who may or may not have their competitive juices flowing, which Riley lacked last Thursday/Friday.
Last week was another week sweating over Grillo has his putter continues to return. The stat that came up on the Sunday that he is 197th on tour from 30 feet and over backs up what I've been saying for some time, but it's not the 30 footers that hurt him, it's the 4 footers and he is bang in form again. I dont construct these all in one sitting so by the time it is published maybe the Argie will be in the list.
5 picks this week and a 24pt outlay on the PGA tour after Marcus Kinhault topped up the coffers, and if it wasnt for a terrible last hole he would have finished higher than tied 3rd.
So I do have a habit of repeating myself and my picks and the first 2 are no strangers to this blog.
So Patrick Cantlay is the stand out player in the rankings, but he has 2 young guns accompanying him as the headline acts. Zalatoris is a class act but I do prefer him on tough tracks, so pick number one is the New York bulldog with a god like driving accuracy who could tear this place to bits if his putter gets warm. Cam Young is a huge 20/1 in an average field top 8 5pts ew with Skybet.
Next up I'm backing Davis Riley again. He's 40s this week and he is way too good for that in a field like this. His only weakness seems to be between the ears but he is more of a sleeper bet than a trending bet after his hot streak 2 months ago. He's class and I'm going with the line that last week was a kick up the behind for him. 2pts ew top 8 Skybet.
The RMC is 3 years old (since replacing the Quicken Loans in 2019), scores are low usually and only one of the two players (the other being Jason Kokrak) who have appeared to be course specialists are playing this week. Troy Merritt lost in a long play off last year to Cam Davis but his record here stands at 18 under and 15 under in his two visits and he's been tweeting about his excitement to come here again. Below average in all stats apart from Putting the lack of a test here means his price of 70/1 with Bet365 coupled with two top 5s on tour this year is very appealling. 2pts ew top 8 Bet365.
So no Grillo in the field this week, so it was a toss up between Callum Tarren or Rickie Fowler for pick number 4 and the guy in bold wins. Rickie has shown some pre weekend form in quite a few events in the last 2 months. One missed cut in 7 events his roll call this year is a myriad of 30th to 60th since his 3rd at the CJ Cup. The main reason for this pick, which I need to explain before men in white coats knock on the door, is Rickie's recent comments in the press about LIV. He sits 133rd in the Fedex rankings and he has stated if he can't make the top 120 then he is going to LIV. I won't go on a LIV rant (for once), but his statement not only shows his admiration for the PGA tour, but it tells me he still believes he has the game to climb to thetop table again. His short game is as good as anyone in the world as he stands 19th SG around the green on tour and 173rd in Strokes Gained putting......which means he's hitting chips and bunker shots stone dead or in the hole.....on a flat track he could card very few bogeys and thus 80/1 top 8 with Skybet appeals for a daft 2pts ew.
Last but by no means least is child prodigy Patrick Rodgers. It's speculative but I have put him up twice this season and both times he has started well, so it's another waste of 2pts, 1pt ew 100/1 top 8 with Skybet.
So after last weeks DP World tour near miss I'll throw a dart at a player who looked like he was right back to the form that saw him reach 66th in the world in 2020. The Hero Open at Fairmont St Andrews looks like a shoot out between Ryan Fox and Richie Ramsay with a host of average pro's in behind making up the numbers. Last week at Hillside Paul Waring finished 2nd being pipped by Ramsay but on the Friday it blew a gale and he stormed into a 2 shot lead. It's tentative and tenuous but I'm hoping it blows North of the border and if it does his ball striking and experience could make him huge value at 50/1 top 8 2pts ew Bet365.
In summary
Rocket Mortgage Classic
Young 20/1 5pts ew Hills top 8
Riley 40/1 2pts ew Skybet top 8
Merritt 70/1 2pts ew Bet365 top 8
Fowler 80/1 2pts ew Skybet top 8
Patrick Rodgers 100/1 1pt ew Skybet top 8
Hero Open
Paul Waring 50/1 2pts ew Bet365 top 8