Find Me a 100 Winner: Two longshots chanced at 269/1 and 339/1

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Joe Highsmith after his victory in Florida in March

Steve Rawlings has two longshot fancies in this week's PGA Tour event - the Memorial Tournament - and makes the case for backing them at Muirfield Village...

  • A pair of longshot fancies in Ohio

  • Read Dave Tindall's each-way piece here

  • Read my Memorial Tournament preview here

  • Read my Austrian Alpine Open preview here


This week's European event, the Austrian Alpine Open, makes a welcome return to the DP World Tour schedule after a break of four years but it's being staged at a brand-new venue - the Jack Nicklaus designed Gut Altentann Golf & Country Club - so it's a very tricky tournament to assess.

As highlighted in the preview, I liked the chances of Spain's Eugenio Chacara at odds in excess of 30/131.00 but other than that, I'm happy to leave the event alone before the off, so both of this week's longshot picks are playing in the PGA Tour's Signature Event - the Memorial Tournament.

As highlighted in my Memorial Tournament preview the last seven winners have been fairly easy to spot and straight out of the top drawer.

All seven have won either a FedEx Cup, at least one major championship, or both, so we may be up against it trying to find an outsider winning this week. But if we go back a little further in time, this used to be a great event for longshots. And the best place to start looking for a triple-figure priced winner is Florida.

The last three winners all had very strong form on the Florida Swing and that's been a good angle in for many years.

Bart Bryant (2005), Carl Pettersson (2006), David Lingmerth (2015), William McGirt (2016) and Jason Dufner (2017), who all went off at huge prices, had all shown up earlier in the year with some decent form before they won here.

All five had bits and pieces of form on the Florida Swing at events like the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Cognizant Classic and the ultra-competitive Players Championship.


Jacob Bridgeman @ 270.0269/1

With all that in mind, Dave Tindall's each-way fancy, Bud Cauley, who finished third last week in Texas, was carefully considered.

The 35-year-old finished sixth in The Players Championship and fourth in the Valspar Championship but in eight previous visits to Muirfield he has just one top 10 finish so I've opted for two younger players who may offer a bit more scope.

Rickie Fowler led this event with 18 to play on debut and Hideki Matsuyama won here on his first visit, so I'm happy to play a couple of first time visitors and first up is Jacob Bridgeman, who played very nicely on the Florida Swing.

Bridgeman finished second at the Cognizant Classic, 15th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and third at the Valspar Championship. The 25-year-old finished only 50th at the Players Championship but he sat tied for 11th at halfway and showed signs that he may be returning to form at the last Signature Event - the Truist Championship.

Bridgeman was a slow starter at the Philadelphia Cricket Club, but having sat tied for 43rd at halfway, a pair of 65s saw him finish fourth.

Bridgeman has missed his last two cuts, which will go some way to explaining his massive price, but he's an exceptional scrambler around the greens and he might just take to Muirfield Village.

Playing in the final two-ball, Bridgeman kicks off the event at 19:00 (UK time) on Thursday.

Place order to lay 8 Units @ 10.09/1 and 12 Units @ 2.01/1


Joe Highsmith @ 340.0339/1

At the other end of the draw, another 25-year-old, Joe Highsmith, kicks off the event at 12:50 UK time and he's another debutant who might just take to the venue.

Highsmith won the Cognizant Classic back in March and, although he (understandably) missed the cut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational the following week, he subsequently finished 20th at the Players Championship and 22nd in the Valspar Championship, so he emphatically ticks the Florida Swing form box.

Like Bridgeman, Highsmith looks like one for the future, as his excellent eighth placed finish in the US PGA Championship on debut three weeks ago demonstrated and he's another fine scrambler.

As highlighted in the preview, Scrambling has been the key stat here over the years so the fact that Highsmith ranked fourth for that stat at the US PGA Championship and third when he won the Cognizant Classic bodes well.

Although Highsmith is playing here for the first time, he has played in Ohio once before, when he finished second at Nationwide Childrens Hospital Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour two years ago.

Place order to lay 8 Units @ 10.09/1 and 12 Units @ 2.01/1


*You can follow me on Twitter @SteveThePunter


Now read more golf previews and tips here

STEVE'S 2025 FIND ME A 100 WINNER P/L

Staked: 100 Us Returned: 44 Us P/L: -56 Us

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