The weekend is here in Detroit.
We have seen a ton of birdies thus far and believe it or not, we may see even more! There may be some rain in the forecast which will only soften the golf course a little more. If there is any sort of delay, this will make the course play even easier.
Look for early morning chasers to post a number, and the P.M. guys to keep the pedal down. This is a great golf course for chasers, but it also allows the leaders to run away with it. We have seen both sides of the coin in the history of this event.
Below, we will take a look at the leaderboard, odds board, and post a few bets to take a look at. Here are the Rocket Mortgage Classic Round 3 Bets on FanDuel.
- Akshay Bhatia -13 (+260)
- Aaron Rai -13 (+350)
- Cameron Young -11 (+550)
- Erik van Rooyen (+1200)
- Taylor Montgomery -11 (+2200)
- Troy Merritt -11 (+2500)
- Eric Cole -10 (+3000)
- Cam Davis -10 (+2000)
- Joel Dahmen -10 (+5000)
Neal Shipley Top 20 +140
If you are the low amateur at both The Masters and The US Open, you might just be good at golf! Combine that with a T10 in his first PGA Tour America's start and my eyes are surely turned towards Neal Shipley.
The big man is off and running again as he is currently -9 through 36 holes in Detroit. The stat profile is pretty impressive. He is middle-of-the-pack in terms of driving distance but is absolutely flushing his irons. This profile looks to me as if he will not implode over the weekend and will be a really safe play for a positional bet.
His putter has been OK, and if it heats up, he can surely make a charge at these leaders. He's hitting his irons so well that he'll have many solid looks at birdie, which should be able to make you money this weekend.
Will Zalatoris Top 5 +1000
Willy Z is one stroke away from being at -10 through 36 holes. One small mistake on hole 14 turned a sure birdie into a double bogey. Zalatoris chipped his third shot on the par-five from the green side into the water. That was his only mistake of the week thus far.
Despite that, his stats look very solid. He's gaining strokes on approach, and more importantly on the putting green. Although he's not at the top of the leaderboard in terms of driving distance, he's is averaging over 300 yards off the tee with ease.
Zal will continue to hit his driver well this weekend and he's tapping into the other stats he needs to find birdies. He may just be in line for a nice charge in Detroit this weekend.
Rico Hoey T5 +450
Rico Hoey is comfortably inside the cut line at -6. I love that he has posted consistent rounds of 69. If he can do that over the weekend and finish at -12, a T20 finish may just be on the horizon.
Hoey is generally an elite ball striker and a horrific putter. Through 36 holes, Hoey is inside the top-20 in driving distance and hitting his irons very well. More than anything, he is finally putting well!
He hasn't played many weekends this season so he will surely be hungry to post his best finish of the year. It's rare that we see him gaining strokes on the green. If he keeps it up over the weekend, we must take advantage of it. It's a decent number on him to post a nice weekend score and finish inside the top-20.
