Find Me a 100 Winner: Two chanced in Texas at 109/1 and 169/1

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A couple of last week's fancies looked like that they might give us a big run for our money.

At the Houston Open, 190.0189/1 pick Nico Echavarria was matched at a low of 14.527/2 when he put in an almighty charge after the weather delay on Friday. Meanwhile, 120.0119/1 chance Pablo Larrazabal was matched at a low of 18.017/1 after a bright start to his fourth round at the Indian Open.

At nine-under-par for the day with two holes to play, Echavarria looked like beating the course record at Memorial Park in round two, but he drove into the water off the tee on the 17^th hole and finished bogey-bogey.

Larrazabal's challenge ended in India when he triple-bogeyed the par four 14^th and he eventually finished 10^th but that was a fair performance given he made a nine on the eighth on Thursday.

I've highlighted those two performances as it's a reminder that my suggested lay backs detailed below each selection are only optional targets and they're also for record keeping purposes. Laying back before they get anywhere near as low as I suggest is a perfectly good way to play the markets.

With just one week to go before the US Masters, which I'll preview at the weekend, there's no DP World Tour event and just the one tournament on the PGA Tour, the Valero Texan Open.

As highlighted in the preview, it's been a decent event for longshots, so I've got a couple of suggested plays.

Rico Hoey @ 110.0109/1

There's a lot to like about Rico Hoey this week. A winner on both the Canadian Tour and the Korn Ferry Tour, the 29-year-old Filipino, who grew up in California, now looks ready to step up to the next level and grab his first victory on the PGA Tour.

Hoey finished 14^th here on debut 12 months ago, despite being in woeful form both before and after the event. He arrives here this year on the back of a decent performance at the Houston Open last week, where he finished 11^th.

The two key stats for this event have been Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green and SG: Approach so the fact that he ranked first for SG: T2G at the Cognizant Classic and second at the Players Championship recently bodes well also.

Hoey ended 2024 nicely enough and after a string of five missed cuts before the end of June, he made it through to the weekend in all 17 events played, finishing sixth in the Rocket Mortgage, second at the ISCO Championship, eighth in the Barracuda Championship and third at the Shriners.

He has current form figures reading 25-26-33-MC-11 and looks primed to do what four of the five winners between 2017 and 2022 did and that's secure their first PGA Tour title at TPC San Antonio.

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

Sami Valimaki @ 170.0169/1

It's notoriously hard to back up a low round and it's never easy to go again after a near miss so that would explain the big drift on Sami Valimaki, who played exceptionally well in Houston last week.

The 26-year-old Finn was sitting tied for 59^th after his level par opening round and he was still eight off the lead at halfway after a three-under-par 67 in round two, but he really got his skates on after that, firing 64-62 over the weekend to eventually finish fourth.

Although his current form figures, that read MC-34-48-69-36-4, look ordinary, he's actually playing nicely.

Prior to his weekend off at the Phoenix Open, he had finished 15^th in the Farmers insurance Open and although he only finished 34^th in the Mexico Open, he was eighth at halfway.

He sat second after the opening round of the Cognizant Classic, where he finished 48^th, and led the Valspar Championship after round one two weeks ago, so last week's performance wasn't completely out of the blue.

He ranked number one for the key stat, SG: T2G, in Houston last week and he ranked ninth for putting Average.

This is his first appearance at the Valero Texas Open but there's nothing to suggest he can't contend on debut.

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

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