Betting: Is Tony Finau the best bet at the 3M Open?
Minty Bets is joined by Jay Busbee to give his top picks for the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities.
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 3M Open takes place at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minnesota. Here with me is Jay Busbee to give us his best bets for the weekend. Jay, who are your favorites to win? And why?
JAY BUSBEE: Well we've got a few people that you want to look at here. But the first thing you've got to know is this is a relatively new event. It's only been played twice before this year. And the two winners averaged 20 strokes below par. So it's a kind of a birdie fest. With that in mind, you want to look at guys who can score well and score often. And the two favorites obviously fit in that category, Dustin Johnson, and Louie Oosthuizen. We saw them leaving the 18th hole at the British Open last week in very different states of mind.
But I'm not looking at the two of them. They're your favorites, but I'm looking a little bit lower down. I'm looking at a couple of guys that have a lot more incentive to play for right now. And that's Patrick Reed and specifically Tony Finau. 1,800 for Patrick Reed and 1,400 for Tony Finau. And these guys are trying to play their way onto the Ryder Cup. I like Finau a lot because he has a third place finish here in 2020, he's coming off a 15th place at the British Open, and he's got a lot of incentive to play well because he wants to work his way up into the good graces of coach Steve Stricker, play his way up with the Ryder Cup team.
And then again, you never want to overlook the winners that play the tournament again. Matthew Wolff won here in his fourth ever PGA TOUR [? star ?] a couple of years back. He's at 30 to 1 right now. He plays T12 here in 2020. So he's another guy you want to keep an eye on.
MINTY BETS: OK, it would be nice to see top 10 Tony finally win. Now who are your sleeper picks?
JAY BUSBEE: Well here's the thing with sleeper picks. At this tournament, and again, bearing in mind we don't have a whole lot to work with. But the average odds going in, 150 to 1 on the winners of the last two tournaments here at the 3M Open. So you're going to want to look way, way down into the mix there and potentially find yourself some gems. One of the key stats you want to look at, greens and regulation. The tournament winner averaged about fourth on the field in greens regulation, about second in shots gained on approach.
So that seems to be the way to play this course. Bear in mind, it's also potentially going to be dry, going to make it that much tougher to putt. So a couple of guys that you're going to want to look at, Emiliano Grillo. He's a 33 to 1. So not necessarily a sleeper. But he ranks right at the top of the PGA TOUR out and amongst the top 10 in greens regulation and shots gained on approach. That's a great couple of stats you want to keep an eye on.
Troy Merritt at 80 to 1 is another guy that you want to watch for. He's got a couple of missed cuts. But he's got four top 10s in his last 10 events. He's got a second place finish in Detroit, which plays very similar to TPC Twin Cities. And then one more guy if you're really looking to take a flyer, go with Russell Knox. He comes in at 151 just like the average of the last couple of winners. But he's sixth on the tour in greens in regulation. And he's a guy that you might want to take a little bit of a flyer on and maybe get a little bit of value out of him low.
MINTY BETS: Awesome. Thank you so much, Jay.
JAY BUSBEE: Thank you.
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