Sleeper Picks: Butterfield Bermuda Championship

Austin Cook(+333 for a Top 20) … Golf. You just never, ever, ever, ever know. After enduring a dreadful 2021 that included 17 missed cuts, including 11 in a row at one point, he settled for 136th in the FedExCup. And even that was possible because a playoff loss at the Shriners last fall served as approximately 64 percent of his season total in points. A T15 at the Barracuda Championship in August was a glimmer, but it wasn’t until a seemingly pedestrian T32-MC-T11 in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals that translated into real success and fully exempt status on the PGA TOUR once again this season. Although splashing at 42nd in the pecking order of his category, he’s already on the board with a T11 at the Fortinet Championship and a solo 67th at the Sanderson Farms Championship, so he’s poised to climb into the top 10 when the first reorder occurs at the conclusion of The RSM Classic, which he won four years ago.

Adam Svensson(+260 for a Top 20) … When I signed off on my comment beside him at No. 137 in the full-membership fantasy ranking, I had revised “reinvented” to “refined” as a description of his evolution as a professional golfer. In his only previous spin on the PGA TOUR in 2018-19, the Canadian was among the top 25 in numerous measurements of ability from tee to green, but as it often is with fresh faces, poor putting relegated him to the Korn Ferry Tour. Suffice it to say that he doesn’t belong there, either. With two wins among eight top 10s, he’s back in the big leagues. To the message of what’s better, he slotted 36th on the KFT in putts per GIR during its two-year season, but he still checked in at sixth in accuracy off the tee and 11th in GIR. The ball-striking captured my attention for Port Royal, but the improved putting qualified him for this prop.

Cameron Percy(+333 for a Top 20) … This already is his second appearance as a Sleeper this season, and that’s OK. He lined up here for the Fortinet Championship and finished T64. He needed better to fulfill the terms of a Minor Medical Extension but the 47-year-old Aussie is set with conditional status for the remainder of this season. Sometimes, the absence of that hovering is addition by subtraction, but he’d look good in the vacuum of these variables, anyway. He’s cashed in eight consecutive PGA TOUR starts and he’s 2-for-2 at Port Royal where the wind likely connects with the muscle memory of his formative years Down Under. He also led the TOUR in 2020-21 in greens in regulation and finished T7 in proximity to the hole.

Beau Hossler(+300 for a Top 20) … After opening last season with five straight paydays in the fall, he went cold until June but four top 25s still left him on the outside looking into the FedExCup Playoffs and ultimately conditional status this season. Still just 26 years of age, he can get over on the learning curve as if he never sputtered. Perhaps a season-opening T16 at the Fortinet Championship served as a combination of a devil-may-care approach and relatively recent form, but it projects to continue at Port Royal where he’s finished a respective T24 and T26, the latter including a second-round 68 on a day when the field averaged 73.64. He split only four (of 14) fairways and hit nine greens in regulation that day, but this patented putter delivered as he needed it just 22 times on the greens.

Mark Hubbard(+200 for a Top 20) … Second appearance for the 32-year-old. He finished T41 in the inaugural edition but sat T20 entering the final round. After what was a career campaign in 2019-20, he backpedaled into more familiar territory well outside the top 125 in the FedExCup last season, but he ranked 19th in fairways hit, T52 in Strokes Gained: Putting and T4 in par-3 scoring. Of course, it now means that with conditional status, he has nothing to lose and everything to gain. He’s also picked up the pace in recent months with 13 cuts made in his last 16 starts on two tours. All four top 20s baked in that stretch were on the PGA TOUR, including a T16 at Silverado last month.

Odds were sourced on Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2021. For live odds, visit betmgm.