2021 Shriners Children's Open: Round 3 Matchups

Sam Burns continues his rapid ascension towards the upper tier of the world's best players as he carded yet another low round on Friday, shooting an 8-under 63 at the second round of the Shriners Children's Open. Coming off his victory last week at the Sanderson Farms Championship, Burns appears ready and capable to break the stereotype of players not being able to win back-to-back tournaments. He currently sits in second place, one shot behind leader Sungjae Im and Chad Ramey, who each shot 6-under in round two. As far as the bigger names within striking distance, Matthew Wolff is at 11-under, followed by Louis Oosthuizen and Charley Hoffman at 10-under. In between and further down sit a mixture of Tour veterans and talented younger players like Aaron Wise and Talor Gooch. It was not a good two-day stretch for many of the pre-tournament favorites as the likes of Scottie Scheffler, Abraham Ancer and Webb Simpson each missed the cut.

Round 3 Betting Selections

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*Betting lines accurate at the time of publication.

Viktor Hovland over Cameron Tringale (-125)

While Cameron Tringale has been consistently good over the past few months, Viktor Hovland is the superior talent and has a huge ball-striking edge over the first two rounds. Hovland has gained almost six strokes on the field compared to Tringale's 0.68. Tringale has been greatly outperforming his bentgrass putting baseline, and I would expect that to regress to the mean during tomorrow's round.

Risk: 1.25 Units on PointsBet.

Parlay: Charley Hoffman over Robert Streb (-175) & Brooks Koepka over Richy Werenski (-225)

Over 18 holes of golf, anything can happen. However, these present two of the matchups with the largest Strokes Gained (SG) Rating differential on the board. Both Brooks Koepka and Charley Hoffman completely outmatch their opponents in class and in ball-striking through the first two rounds. Both are also much better "Saturday" players than either Richy Werenski or Robert Streb, who have both greatly struggled with their recent form. Remember also that one of the key metrics to analyze for these head-to-head matchups is how a golfer is performing either above or below their baseline putting average for that surface. Both Werenski and Streb are putting a combined five strokes above where they should be thus far. They each present an easy fade for tomorrow's round, even if their opponents weren't two of the better remaining players in the field in Koepka and Hoffman.

Risk: 1 Unit on DraftKings (pays +127).

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