The Texas Children’s Houston Open Longshots and First Round Leader Best Bets
By Todd Moser
In this article, I follow up my Power Ranking Best Bests with some longshots and some first-round leader (FRL) best bets which include a few local Texas Longhorns.
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The Texas Children’s Houston Open Longshot Best Bets
Our three longshots this week are certainly wild cards, and I think their odds back that up. Nevertheless, each has a puncher’s chance at victory.
Mark Hubbard +10000
Hubbard has a track record at Memorial and is playing reasonably. He finished T-2 here in 2021. On the season, he had a T-4 at Pebble Beach and most recently finished T-31 at the Players. He has some favorable stats including 24th in driving accuracy, 33rd in strokes gained approaching the green, 47th in total strokes gained, and 21st in putting average.
Cameron Champ +12500
Slowly but surely, Champ’s game is coming around. He hasn’t been able to put four rounds together yet. Last week, he was heading for a Top 10 finish before a final round 74 derailed him. His best finish here is a T-23 in 2020. Champ leads the Tour in driving distance and ranks third in strokes gained off the tee. He also ranks 14th in strokes gained putting.
Parker Coody +15000
I feel like we have to take a shot at one of the Texas Longhorn twins, and although it’s hard to tell them apart, Parker is the better of the two. He has some decent results this season including two T-25s. Last week started off well with a 69 but ultimately finished T-67. He ranks 12th in strokes gained approaching the green and a respectable 28h in strokes gained tee-to-green.
The Texas Children’s Houston Open First Round Leader (FRL) Best Bets
I’m hoping the obvious favorites save their best for rounds two through four.
Sahith Theegala +2800
Theegala ranks fourth on our Power Rankings. He ranks T-31 in first round scoring average at 69.00. He has three Top 10s in his last four starts including an impressive T-9 at The Players. He had a T-22 here last year and a T-61 in 2022. He currently ranks fourth in total strokes gained and seventh in strokes gained putting.
Alex Noren +4000
I’m not a huge fan, but he ranks T-23 in first round scoring averages at 68.67 and does seem to show up early on leaderboards. He has three T-25s including a T-9 at The Cognizant and a T-19 at The Players. For a guy who has not won, he has some excellent stats including 22nd in total strokes gained, ninth in driving accuracy, fourth in GIR, first in scrambling, and fourth in scoring average. Kinda makes me wonder why he isn’t on my card this week.
Beau Hossler +5000
Texas Longhorn Hossler ranks ninth on our Power Rankings. He ranks T-20 in first round scoring average at 68.50. He has some favorable stats starting with strokes gained off the tee at 35th and ranks 38th in GIR and 16th in strokes gained putting.
Doug Ghim +5500
Ghim is another Longhorn and has been on many a betting card in recent weeks (although not on mine). He ranks T-27 in first round scoring average at 68.75. He has five Top 16s this year and also has some respectable stats including seventh in total strokes gained, 12th in driving accuracy, 25th in GIR, and 17th in scoring average.
Taylor Montgomery +6000
Monty ranks seventh in first round scoring average at 67.25, so he usually gets off to a hot start. He had good runs at The Players (T-11) and at The Farmers (T-13). The man can putt and scramble. He ranks second in strokes gained putting and third in overall scrambling.
Mark Hubbard +8000
One of our longshots above, Hubbard ranks T-31 in scoring average at 69.00. We are doubling down on him.
Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.