Royal Liverpool hosts the final major of the year, the Open Championship. The course showcases narrow fairways, pot bunkers and small, undulated greens. Players who are accurate off the tee with the ability to get up and down around the greens will excel this week. Here’s one head-to-head matchup to bet this week. Season record: 15-10-2.
Min Woo Lee (+115) vs. Tony Finau
Lee is on a run lately with three top-20 finishes in his last five events. His strengths fit the player profile for excelling at Royal Liverpool. He’s solid off the tee (14th in the field) and great around the green (fourth best). Although his iron play is suspect, having lost strokes on approach in seven of his last nine tournaments, Lee made up for it with his short game, gaining strokes in seven of his last nine events. His short-game abilities led to a T5 in the US Open after a T18 in the PGA Championship.
Finau is trending in the opposite direction. Since winning the Mexico Open in April, he has two missed cuts, while failing to place in the Top 20 in six events. Finau has been volatile off the tee, losing strokes every other event, while hemorrhaging with the flat stick, losing at least two strokes in five of his last six tournaments. Finau also skipped out on playing the Scottish Open. Lee has the advantage of not having to travel, while also already being exposed to the extreme weather elements. Back Lee as an underdog to a downward-trending Finau.