PGA Tour - The Northern Trust @ Liberty National GC (8th-11th August 2019) - Tony Finau Top 10 Finish

Tony Finau followed another excellent major performance at The Open in Northern Ireland (3rd @ Royal Portrush) with a disappointing tie for 27th on American soil at the WGC (TPC Southwind), 13 shots behind the eventual winner, Brooks Koepka.

However, with four Top Ten finishes so far this season, including two in majors (WGC – HSBC, Masters, Charles Schwab, The Open) we are backing Tony to finish the season strongly and give himself at least a fighter’s chance of catching Kopeka for the $15m end of season winners bonus.

Kopeka will be the man to beat for the trophy, he is on a different planet at the moment to everyone else in the field. We picked him to win the WGC a few weeks ago (1.5u @ 10.00) based on his ball striking at The Open alone, which was out of this world. Shane Lowry fully deserved to win his first major but it would have been a lot harder for him on Sunday if Koepka’s putter hadn’t gone ice cold a day earlier…

With so many good players in this field all fighting to get closer to Brooks for the season finale at East Lake it is hard to find value in Kopeka to win @ 9.00 although I would not discourage anyone from taking that price, he usually always starts well and that price might look like value after the front 9!

Finau finished second to Bryson DeChambeau at this event last year (albeit at a different venue – Ridgewood CC) and then T8 at the BMW a couple of weeks later so we know he can perform in this environment. In fact Finau has proven himself in all conditions at all levels, he is just missing that career defining victory – could it be the FedEx Cup?

He currently sits 16th in the FedEx Standings so a good performance here is a must if he is to have any chance of challenging at the Tour Championship and we are backing him for a Top Ten Finish @ 5.00 (4u).

Last week at The Wyndham we waited until the end of day 1 to pick our horse, eventually plucking for Viktor Hovland (2.5u e/w – 5 places @ 41.00), the young Norwegian came up trumps finishing 4th! There’s every chance we’ll be back with a similar bet once the tournament is underway but with new websites being set up we thought we should get one in for Tee Off on Day 1...

GOLF!