Shorter list than normal this week considering the small field…
Bubba Watson - $7,400: Prior winner of this event and noted Pete Dye specialist, there’s Bubba courses and not-Bubba courses. This is no doubt a Bubba course as he won here in 2018. Not in fantastic form coming in, and pooled alongside Captain America (and Texan) Patrick Reed, an in-form Bermuda specialist in THE BEZ, and the wonder boy Jaco Niemann, it will be difficult to get out of this pool. But if anyone can based on their track record here, Bubba will be up to the task, especially at this discounted price. Warning: those peevish of high ownership, beware...
Brian Harman - $7,200: The ornery Georgia dawg nearly swiped The Players from JT a few weeks back, and looks to break out of his pool this week in Austin. With a tough, but not impossible pool of guys in erratic form (Cantlay, Hideki, and another sleeper candidate in Ortiz), I expect this in-form, top-tier Bermuda putter to be one of the toughest first round outs of all.
Victor Perez - $6,600: Another guy who made a weekend push at The Players with a T9, VP is also up to 33rd in the OWGR, and has lingered around that range for a while. We know he’s a world-class player. A mainstay on the Euro Tour leaderboards since 2018, he could be a sneaky play not only to get out of his group (a weaker one on paper), but to potentially break that whole side of the bracket with a potential matchup with DJ in Round 2.
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