Xander Schauffele leads the way in dominant fashion through 36 holes at the Wells Fargo Championship. Schauffele has played the most consistently of anyone without a win and is surely due for one soon.
Usual Quail Hollow suspect Rory McIlroy is at seven under par. Jason Day is clinging on to a solid short game to find himself with a late tee time as well. Finally, Taylor Moore continues his consistency across the board and has himself in a decent position heading into the weekend. Below, we will take a look at both the odds and leaderboard and look for some value to wager over the weekend. Here are my Wells Fargo Championship Round 3 picks.
1) Xander Schauffele -11 (-125)
T2) Rory McIlroy -7 (+360)
T2) Jason Day -7 (+1200)
T4) Taylor Moore -6 (+3000)
T4) Sungjae Im -6 (+2200)
6) Collin Morikawa -6 (+2200)
Collin Morikawa Top 5 +190
Morikawa continues to play solid golf and has truly found something over the past four weeks. More importantly, he is hitting his irons very well this week. If you know anything about Morikawa, you know he is one of the most precise iron players on the entire PGA Tour.
Early on this season, he had been struggling with the irons. This week, they are clicking. That tells me that he's not going anywhere this weekend. I'm not confident enough to say he'll chase down the leader, but I am confident he'll be a part of the final story line.
Xander Schauffele To Win -125
Call me crazy, call me what you want, but Schauffele is going to lift the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship Trophy on Sunday.
"But Matt, how could you lay this number on a a golfer notorious for choking!?" Don't get it twisted, I am well aware of Schauffele's history, but the writing is on the wall for him to take it home this weekend.
Just think about it, how on brand will this be for Schauffele? We all bet him to win majors year after year. Of course he will figure it out and win the week before the 2024 PGA Championship — only to put up an absolute stinker next week.
In terms of the golf itself, Schauffele is absolutely flushing it this week. Putting is the only statistic in which he isn't in the top 10, which shows how impressive his ball striking has been. The man is lapping the field and isn't even putting that great. As we know, ball striking is the most predictive stat in terms of future success.
At TPC Sawgrass, Schauffele played well, but fell just short in the end. The only club that has given him issues this season is the driver. The narrow fairways and thick rough of TPC Sawgrass is not the place to miss and that is exactly what Schauffele did in March. This course is more forgiving off the tee and the rough is far lighter. Lay the juice, you'll get it back Sunday afternoon.
Corey Conners Top 5 +500
In typical Conners fashion, he is hitting the ball very well and putting very poorly. Through 36 holes, no one is ball striking it better than Conners. I don't believe Conners will just figure it out with the flat stick over the weekend, but as the course firms up, the ball striking will be rewarded. Look for Conners to continue to pound fairways and greens and work his way up the leaderboard little by little.
