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3M Open betting: The Lake Show

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Admittedly, the 150th Open at St. Andrews is a tough act to follow. But now that the British Open is the last major of the season, and with three weeks still to go before the FedEx Cup Playoffs, there's little reason for the game's biggest names to head to Minnesota after multiple weeks abroad.

While the top players in the game recharge, the TOUR's midsection continues the battle for FedEx Cup points. All you need to know about the quality of the field is that Tony Finau is the favorite at +1200.

TPC Twin Cities is your standard private course in a suburban subdivision. Appropriate to the "Land of 10,000 Lakes," 14 of the holes have water. While that'd be frightening for you and me, touring pros will be less concerned. So, expect the usual birdie-fest that comes from target-based golf in a usual TOUR stop, even if you've never heard of the majority of the players.

Power Draws

Joohyung Kim (+3500)

I don't normally like to back players who've come over from a run in Scotland. However, Kim got a special temporary membership to the PGA TOUR, so he'll be motivated to rack up results against some largely inferior competition.

The 20-year-old finished 23rd at the U.S. Open at Brookline, scored a fifth-place result at the Scottish Open, and made the cut at The Open Championship. At +185 for a top-20 finish, Kim can contend with this competition knowing that a win would augment his status on TOUR.

Cameron Champ (+5000)

Call me a sucker, but I'm just going to bet on last year's champ to again have a good weekend this time around. Just a couple of months ago, K.H. Lee went back-to-back at the Byron Nelson despite doing very little in the run-up to the tournament he won a year earlier.

This year, Champ has missed five straight cuts, which is why he's 60-1. But more importantly, it's also the reason he's +220 to catch a top-20 result. In the six events before the 3M last year, Champ missed four cuts and withdrew in another. So, he can get hot without warning.

Ryan Armour (+15000)

Our long-shot play of the week pays +450 if Armour finishes in the top 20. That's exactly what he did last year when he tied for sixth despite only shooting 1-under in the last round. Data Golf's course fit tool likes only three golfers better than Armour for TPC Twin Cities - Chez Reavie (+3500) got an odds bump from winning the Barracuda last week, while Brian Davis and Brian Stuard haven't shown anything in the way of form. At least Armour has finished in the top 35 in half of his last 10 tournaments.

Soft Fades

Sahith Theegala

Theegala (+270) is probably too talented to miss the cut, but he was just in Scotland a couple of days ago. Given how low the scores will be this weekend, it's a lot to ask of the TOUR rookie to exceed his market expectations with a quick turnaround.

Chez Reavie

Reavie has been feast-or-famine recently. Before winning last week's TOUR event on U.S. soil, Reavie had missed four cuts in his last eight tournaments. While the other four results were positive, I'll give away my tickets to "Chez-fest" days after a win that was way more newsworthy to him than to the casual golf fan.

Ryan Palmer

Out of nowhere, Palmer lingered in contention at the Scottish Open despite three missed cuts in consecutive traditional stroke-play events. Although he made the cut at the Zurich Classic, it helped that his partner was Scottie Scheffler. Palmer's +160 to miss the weekend at the 3M Open, which he's never played before.

Matt Russell is a betting writer for theScore. If there's a bad beat to be had, Matt will find it. Find him on Twitter @mrussauthentic.

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