Martin Mathews continues to churn out profit on the PGA Tour and he's backing Adam Schenk to win for the first time at the Barracuda Championship.
Golf betting tips: Barracuda Championship
3pts Adam Schenk to win the Barracuda at 15/8 (General)
2pts Joel Dahmen to beat Emiliano Grillo at 6/5 (bet365)
While much of the focus has been on the WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational, we've also reached the 54-hole stage of this weeks opposite event on the PGA Tour, the Barracuda Championship.
The event, which is unique on the Tour in that it uses a Modified Stableford scoring system whereby you pick up two points for a birdie and five points for an eagle, but lose points for bogeys or worse, has always lent itself to rewarding players who are capable of making plenty of red numbers and this year is no exception.
Top of the pile heading in to day four is ADAM SCHENK, who has amassed 38 points through three rounds. His two closest challengers are then Erik van Rooyen and Andrew Putnam on 34 while Scott Piercy and Joel Dahmen sit one point further back on 33.
Schenk, who arrived here in solid form having posted two top-20 finishes in his last four starts, posted six birdies and one bogey on Saturday to amass 11 points and take charge. Afterwards he talked about how well he was driving the ball and how well the course sets up for him, which makes sense given that generally neat and tidy players dominated last time they played here.
Still searching for his PGA Tour breakthrough, the format should help Schenk providing he can avoid anything worse than a bogey, which costs three points. This is backed up by the fact that since the tournament adopted the current scoring system in 2012, seven of the nine third-round leaders have gone on to win. Clearly then the format lends itself to helping the man in front on Sunday.
While the idea of backing a maiden at odds shorter than 2/1 heading in to Sunday would not normally appeal, history here tells me that Schenk is the man to beat and with him also having proven he knows how to get the job done on the Korn Ferry Tour, he looks worth backing at around the 15/8 mark.
JOEL DAHMEN stands out as the pick of the two-balls and can get the better of Emiliano Grillo.
Dahmen led after day one but struggled on his front nine on Saturday, however he bounced back well to make five birdies down the stretch and get back in to the hunt going into Sunday.
Winner of an opposite field event already this season, Dahmen can freewheel it on Sunday and as someone who is capable of producing plenty of birdies he could well emerge as the main challenger to Schenk.
Grillo is still looking for his second tour title to back up his lone success in 2016 at what is now the Safeway Open, and he has shown us on several occasions since that he is not a man to be trusted at the business end of a tournament.
It has to be said he has been by far the more consistent performer of the two this season and he actually sits well above Dahmen in the final-round scoring averages. As we know though stats can be deceptive and it is about producing when it really matters on a Sunday. The Argentine’s weekend frailties were on display again yesterday as he laboured to a two-point haul.
Granted there is not much between the pair but I would always prefer Dahmen in this type of situation and if you can get the odds-against available with bet365 he makes plenty of appeal.
Posted at 0920 BST on 08/08/21
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