Golf Bets

Find Me a 100 Winner: Three chanced at Muirfield from 169/1 and 269/1

Golfer Lee Hodges
Lee Hodges - one of three longshot fancies at Muirfield

The PGA Tour moves to Ohio this week for the Memorial Tournament and Steve Rawlings has three longshot picks at Muirfield Village...

  • Steve's three outsiders to back up to 269/1270.00

  • Read my Memorial Tournament preview here

  • Read my Scandinavian Mixed preview here


It looked like we might bag our first longshot winner of the year last week when 130.0129/1 chance Ryan Fox shot four strokes clear of the field at the Canadian Open after seven holes of round three. But having been matched at odds-on to take the title, he fell away tamely to finish tied for seventh.

It was a bit of a hammer blow given how comfortable he'd looked until the turn on Saturday, but he met both lay back targets, so it was a profitable week and we move on.

The chances are we'll see an outsider win the Scandinvian Mixed on the DP World Tour but we have so little to go on I'm happy to swerve the event before the off and concentrate on this week's PGA Tour event - the Memorial Tournament - where I've backed three longshots, starting with Christiaan Bezuidenhout.


Christiaan Bezuidenhout @ 170.0169/1

South Africa's Christiaan Bezuidenhout has enough class to win a big event on the PGA Tour and he's come close a couple of times previously, finishing runner-up at the John Deere Classic two years ago and second at the American Express back in January this year.

In three previous visits to Muirfield Village he's finished 22nd, 37th and 38th so he doesn't have a terrific bank of course form. But ranking inside the top-20 for Scrambling and as high as fifth for Par 4 Scoring on the PGA Tour, he looks a good statistical fit for the venue.

Having finished 13th at the Players Championship and ninth in the Valspar Championship, he's played well during the Florida Swing in March, something many a winner here has done previously.

Bezuidenhout at wentworth.jpg

Bez missed the cut at the US PGA Championship last month but either side of his weekend off at Valhalla he's finished 16th at the Wells Fargo Championship and 17th in the Charles Schwab Challenge, so he's been in fair form. He's drifted to a price I thought was big enough to chance.

Place order to lay 8 Us @ 10.09/1 & 12 Us @ 2.01/1


Davis Riley @ 200.0199/1

Winning back-to-back is never easy but it's impossible to ignore the Charles Schwab Challenge winner, Davis Riley, this week.

Riley was an impressive five-stroke winner at Colonial last time out and even though he's only finished 13th and 54th on his first two visits to Muirfield, he clearly loves the venue given he led after round one on both occasions. And it's well worth noting that his 54th place finish last year came on the back of six straight missed cuts.

Davis Riley wins teh Charles Schwab.jpg

He's most certainly one to consider in the First Round Leader market and although he's already been backed down form a high of 350.0349/1, odds of around 200.0199/1 are more than fair.

Place order to lay 8 Us @ 10.09/1 & 12 Us @ 2.01/1


Lee Hodges @ 270.0269/1

Last year's runaway 3M Open winner, Lee Hodges, looks overpriced given he finished 12th here on debut 12 months ago and that he's finished 12th in each of his last two starts - at the US PGA Championship and the Charles Schwab Challenge.

That's a very decent level of current form for someone who's shown he can win on the PGA Tour and on bentgrass greens to boot.

At only 28, Hodges has plenty of scope for improvement and he's far too big at odds in excess of 250.0249/1.

Place order to lay 8 Us @ 10.09/1 & 12 Us @ 2.01/1


Now read my Memorial tournament preview here


*You can follow me on Twitter @SteveThePunter


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