Myrtle Beach Classic Picks: Options For Alternate Field Event

To Brooks or not to Brooks, that is the question at this week’s Myrtle Beach Championship.

Just a few weeks after getting meme’d while kicking back with a coffee and waiting to see if his number got called at Harbour Town, Brooks Koepka (+1400) is apparently trading in alternate status at a signature event for an alternate-field event itself.

There should be little surprise that the five-time major champion is the favorite in a field that’s teeming with players soon hoping to see how the other half lives.

No, the surprise — for me, at least — is that Koepka isn’t a Scottie Scheffler-like favorite, or maybe just a Rory McIlroy-like fave.

Instead of something in the 5/1 neighborhood, Brooks is listed at nearly three times that price, which actually suggests some value here.

We must ask ourselves a question, however, before blindly betting the best player in this tournament: Is his motivation for playing this tournament to get into the two remaining signature events this season or is he simply using this one as prep for next week’s PGA Championship?

It’s a fair query and one we might not even get answered by the man himself, who’s notoriously tight-lipped on such matters. Without playing here, he would’ve had exactly two rounds of team play in the four weeks in between majors, which doesn’t seem like a great way to get ready for one if you’ve got designs on winning it.

Bottom line, he’s the best player in this field. This feels like one of those weeks where we could try to get too cute and overthink things instead of taking the obvious play that’s staring us straight in the face.

This week marks just the third edition of this tournament, the first two won by big hitters in Chris Gotterup and Ryan Fox. That’s a small sample size and doesn’t mean only bombers stand a chance here — Harry Higgs and Mackenzie Hughes reached last year’s playoff and neither one fits that category — but it does suggest there’s an advantage to hitting it a long way at Dunes Golf and Beach Club.

Problem is, that doesn’t exactly narrow down the playing field.

After Koepka, the next half-dozen players on the board — Davis Thompson (+1800), Marco Penge (+2200), Rasmus Hojgaard (+2200), Kevin Yu (+2800) and Rico Hoey (+2800) — are all well within the top half in driving distance this season, with Penge and Hojgaard inside the top-10.

If I’m taking one of these players, it’s probably Thompson, though Hoey at 10 points longer is very tempting, as well.

Instead, my favorite play might be the guy who teamed with Thompson for a T-6 finish at the Zurich Classic – Austin Eckroat (+3300). He’s a two-time PGA Tour winner who just has the look of a player that should be hanging around inside the world’s top-50.

There are a few other players in this tier who similarly make some sense. Eric Cole (+3300) has been terrific with his wedges and putter, though I’d like him more the tougher it plays this week. Not sure he gets to 22-under like Gotterup did two years ago, but Fox’s 15-under winning total could be in play.

Adrien Dumont de Chassart (+4000) is getting a rep for being one of the PGA Tour’s slower players, but he’s also quickly – see what I did there? – becoming a player to watch, with five top-30s in his last six starts.

I think Blades Brown (+4000) is still more of a top-10 type of play than an outright, but with his PGA Tour card likely already close through his Korn Ferry points, he can play with the proverbial house money. Even though he’s a pro, it feels like he plays with the sort of carefree attitude that had guys like Nick Dunlap and Luke Clanton playing so well at this level while still amateurs.

In fact, that 40/1 number has a few other options, too. Haotong Li (+4000) and Max McGreevy (+4000) have some value here, but Stephan Jaeger (+4000) is a guy I really like, as it was just two years ago when he held off Scottie Scheffler to win in Houston.

The further we move down the list, the more Goldilocks sees each player as a little too something, but Johnny Keefer (+5000), Taylor Moore (+5500) and Karl Vilips (+6000) all make some sense here.

If you’re seeking a true longshot here, well, good luck. With so many players packed inside the top range on the board, it’s tough to find many viable options too far down the list.

Carson Young (+8000) is back in his home state this week. Keita Nakajima (+12500) has been wildly inconsistent lately, but he does have plenty of talent. I remain a Danny Walker (+17500) truther and believe he can win an alternate event at some point. And the numbers never look great for Davis Riley (+25000), but he’s shown a propensity for playing really well when we least expect it.

For the TL;DR crowd, on my final card I was prepared to go with Thompson from the top-tier, but at very similar odds to Koepka, I’ll stick with the latter, then Eckroat, ADDC, Jaeger and Vilips from the mid-tier and I’ll add Walker as my favorite triple-digit longshot.