The App is Back! Don’t forget to download the NBC Sports EDGE app to receive real-time player news, mobile alerts and track your favorite players. Plus, now you can check out articles and player cards. Get it here!
I personally can’t recall the last time a PGA Tour stop went without a weather hitch. The Memorial, as it always does, brought rain delay after rain delay, and even a downpour while Patrick Cantlay and Collin Morikawa were battling on the 71st hole. The Palmetto Championship featured a quick storm, much to dismay of J.T. Poston and caddie Aaron Flener.
Both the U.S. Open and the Travelers Championship were delayed, albeit for another reason, as fog was the culprit the last two weeks. This week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic was unfortunately the same story. Plagued by heavy rains over the last week, the Detroit forecast didn’t let up. A three-hour and 15-minute rain delay occurred while those players who teed off in the morning were finishing up their first-round.
[[ad:athena]]
The one man, or should I say recent University of Georgia alum, who took the fullest advantage of the soft conditions was Davis Thompson. After a decorated amateur career that included making his fair share of noise at the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, Thompson has since turned professional.
En route to tying the Detroit Golf Club course record, Thompson carded nine birdies against nine pars. Sitting at 9-under, Thompson possesses a two-stroke lead heading into Friday’s play. With the recent influx of young stars over the last few years like Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland, and Matthew Wolff, we may have another fearless twenty-something on our hands.
With Thompson and plenty of others going low on Thursday, not everyone had the same luck. Most prominent was Bryson DeChambeau’s poor play. With news breaking of DeChambeau and his long-time caddie, Tim Tucker, parting ways a few hours before his tee time, his world must have been spinning. With a new man on the bag, the defending champion looked a bit disoriented for most of the day and was never able to settle into his round.
DeChambeau, the heavy pre-tournament favorite, sits at even-par for the tournament and nine-strokes behind Thompson. Despite the heavy deficit, PointsBet Sportsbook has DeChambeau at +3300 as he will try to make up ground tomorrow morning.
Updated Odds to Win (Odds Via PointsBet):
+550: Joaquin Niemann
+1400: Davis Thompson
+1800: Matthew Wolff
+2000: Jason Day
+2500: Kevin Kisner, Patrick Reed, Tom Lewis
+2800: Seamus Power
+3000: Garrick Higgo, Si Woo Kim, Webb Simpson
+3300: Bryson DeChambeau, Jason Kokrak
+4000: Brandon Hagy, Chris Kirk
+5000: Bubba Watson, Danny Willett, Hideki Matsuyama, Maverick McNealy, Pat Perez, Troy Merritt
Round 2 Plays (Odds Via PointsBet):
Henrik Norlander (+186) over Emiliano Grillo and Adam Schenk
We are going back to the well with selecting the best player on Thursday to win for us on Friday. This strategy has worked for us at a decent clip this season and I expect that to continue in the second round. Tomorrow, our selection lies with the big Swede, Norlander, who has been striking the ball beautifully over the last couple of weeks.
He finished inside the top-25 at the Palmetto Championship and made the cut last week at the Travelers Championship. Clearly trending in a nice direction, I expect Norlander to make his way into the weekend in Detroit. First, he’ll need another solid round, after posting 4-under in the first-round. Norlander gained strokes in all four major statistical categories on Thursday and should do something similar on Friday.
I made the unfortunate mistake of going to Grillo in the first-round leader market. He posted a round of 2-over and never got things rolling. Schenk wasn’t much better as he carded a round of even-par. They were both rather poor tee-to-green and there’s nothing to suggest that changing in Round 2. That combined with neither of them being phenomenal putters and Norlander as a heavy underdog makes for an easy selection.
Jason Kokrak (+3300 to win):
I typically don’t add outright selections before the weekend, as it hasn’t panned out for us in the past (just see Max Homa last week). However, Niemann sitting near the top of the leaderboard, inflates a lot of the numbers once you get past those at 5-under. I’ll go a bit further down and double down once again, but this time with Kokrak.
Sitting on a pre-tournament ticket myself, I’ll happily reinvest at longer odds. Currently sitting fifth in the field in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, Kokrak posted a round of 3-under on Thursday. While he does sit six-strokes back, the putter was a major let down in Round 1, and should hopefully rebound over the next three days.
With numerous three-putts and short misses on the greens, Kokrak should like where he stands with 54-holes to go. He’ll have the opportunity to get things going early Friday morning after Round 1 is completed. The two-time PGA Tour winner will just need to clean up the mistakes as he was able to make seven birdies on Thursday and should continue to do so as the week progresses.
Editor’s Note: Get an edge with our premium DFS and Betting Golf Tools that are packed with a DFS Optimizer, DFS Projections, Salary Tracker, Edge Driver, Prop Projections, Futures and much more. Gain access to both tools in our EDGE+Max tier and don’t forget to use promo code SAVE10 to get 10% off. Click here to learn more!
Phil Mickelson (+12500 to win):
Going with Mickelson this early in the tournament will either blow up in my face or make me look like a genius. At such long odds, I’m willing to wager on the latter as his play on Thursday, and as of late, has been extremely encouraging. After stalling for most of his first-round, Mickelson came out of the rain-delay firing, converting three birdies opportunities in a row.
He walked off the course and discussed with Golf Channel exactly what needs to happen moving forward, and simply put, he said he needs to make more putts. Despite sitting at 3-under, Mickelson lost nearly two-strokes on the greens and didn’t make anything outside of 10-feet.
More noteworthy, he discussed the importance of getting into contention. Being a Ryder Cup year, there will be a lot of eager eyes on Captain Steve Stricker in a few months. Whether you agree with it or not, Mickelson is on the short list of potential captain’s picks and he wants to do everything in his power to make himself more enticing.
He understands he needs to post more quality finishes and to contend more often. With his game tee-to-green clearly in tune, ranking 10th in the field at the moment, I believe Mickelson will get things going on the greens over the next three days and fire his way up the leaderboard.
PointsBet is our Official Sports Betting Partner, and we may receive compensation if you place a bet on PointsBet for the first time after clicking our links.
