Betting: Will Brooks Koepka win the Palmetto Championship?
Minty Bets is joined by Jay Busbee to give his top picks for the Palmetto Championship at Congaree Golf Course this week.
Video Transcript
MINTY BETS: New users get a risk-free first bet up to $1,000. Go to betmgm.com/yahoo and sign up today. The Palmetto Championship takes place this weekend at the Congaree Golf Club in South Carolina. Here with me is Jay Busbee to give us his best bets for the weekend. Jay, what do you think about this tournament overall?
JAY BUSBEE: I think it's a strange one for any number of reasons. First of all, as you said, it's played at Congaree. This is the first time ever that this has been played at this course. The course is only four years old, and it's only being played at Congaree because the RBC Canadian Open was canceled for a second straight year because of COVID and travel restrictions. So that's the start.
Second of all, the date on the calendar. This is right before the US Open, and a whole lot of players will skip this date traditionally. No offense to Congaree or anyone else involved in this tournament, but they tend to rest up. And the players that are there, the top-flight players I should say, tend to be the ones who may-- let's not say mail it in, but let's say they're getting real close to just seeing if they can get a few reps in before the major.
And a couple of guys who may well meet that status are Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka. They're your two favorites. DJ is at 750. Koepka is at 800. They're right there neck and neck. They're the biggest names in the tournament, and they're getting action mainly because of their name, not necessarily because of how they're playing. DJ, in particular, has struggled a lot lately. He's played some very un-DJ-like golf. Missed a couple of cuts. Not been playing his best golf.
Brooks Koepka, on the other hand, was in the hunt, obviously, right until the end at the PGA Championship. And he lost to Phil Mickelson at the end, but he's playing good golf. He also has the social media reason for staying engaged. He wants to keep that feud that he's got with Bryson DeChambeau going. Is that enough to make him a safe bet this week? Eh, tough to say.
The last guy that I want to look at amongst the leaders, Sungjae Im, he's at 16 to 1. He's the kind of guy I would normally bet on, but right now he's missed five of his last eight cuts. Not playing his best golf. So it's kind of wide open amongst the top names on the leaderboard there.
MINTY BETS: Right. Maybe he's due. And can you give us some long-shot picks please?
JAY BUSBEE: Well, here's the thing, when everybody's a sleeper, almost nobody's a sleeper. This is a course and a tournament where you've got a lot of room, so I'll run through a couple real quick.
Harold Varner III, he's coming in at 40 to 1. He's from North Carolina. He's not totally unfamiliar with this kind of golf. He was tee two at Harbour Town in South Carolina earlier this season. And he's got six top 25s this year already. He's a guy who is looking like he's almost there, putting everything together tee to green all at once on the right weekend. When he does that, he's gonna win, and this could very well be his weekend.
Another guy you want to look at, a local player, Patton Kizzire. He's played very well in the past. Went through a rough patch, but lately he's had two top third-place finishes two of his last three tournaments. He's one of the best on tour in putting. He's just outside the top 10 in shots gained putting. He is right there in terms of breaking through as well, kind of coming back from a season-long lull.
And then finally let's go with Garrick Higgo. He played his college golf, Minty, at UNLV not far from you. He's coming in at 50 to 1 odds. But he's got two really recent wins on the European Tour, including at the Canary Islands Championship. And I always say, when you win the Canary Islands Championship, you are getting my money.
MINTY BETS: Love it. Thank you so much, Jay.
JAY BUSBEE: Thank you.