Dave Tindall picks out his best final-round bets for the action at Detroit Golf Club, where we have a surprise 54-hole leader.
Golf betting tips: Rocket Classic final round
2pts win Davis Riley at 7/2 (General)
1pt win double Davis Riley & Yealimi Noh at 14/1 (BetMGM)
Any notions that the revamped Detroit Golf Club would play harder were put to bed on day one when Peter Malnati signed for a 61 and admitted later that he’d had a 57 in mind during his birdie blitz. Cam Young then revealed he was thinking of a 55 when shooting a 61 of his own in round two to take a share of the lead. All rather bonkers.
Those 61s were matched on Saturday by Rasmus Hojgaard, who said somewhat breezily: “I don't know if I at any point knew it was going to be a special round. I just sort of tried to give myself chances. Holing a few good putts there on the back nine. I just felt like I played nicely all day and yeah, suddenly it was a 61.”
Hojgaard’s 61 vaulted him up 62 places to the top of the leaderboard at one point but he eventually settled in tied third. That was three shots behind new leader Davis Riley (-15) and two back from second-placed Michael Brennan (-14). Riley jumped five spots to solo first with a 63 while Brennan was on course to match him before bogeying the last.
So what next after a volatile first three days? History can be helpful here. Last year Aldridge Potgieter cashed in on a hot start (62) and a low one on moving day (65) to take a two-shot lead into the final round. He converted it but only after a playoff following a Sunday 69.
That continued a trend here which shows that all seven champions at Detroit Golf Club have started the final round in the top three. Three had a piece of the lead. In a tournament where super-low rounds are possible, perhaps it’s telling that nobody has been able to come from out of the pack. Even if a leader has faltered, someone in the top three has done enough to get over the line.
The fascinating angle now is that we have two players at the top of the leaderboard whose results on the PGA Tour bring to mind John Daly’s majors career rather than Scottie Scheffler’s 2026 near-miss consistency i.e. there are lots of nothing weeks but suddenly they pop.
Riley won the 2024 Charles Schwab by five and produced an unexpected second place in the 2025 US PGA Championship but a sixth at the season-opening Sony Open in January is his only top 10 in over a year. In fact, he hasn’t even managed another top 40 in singles play in 2026. Brennan won the Bank of Utah Championship in October 2025 on just his third start as a pro but a sixth at May’s Charles Schwab Challenge is his only top 20 since.
Looking at the stats, it’s hard to get away from the idea that this is a putting contest. In the SG: Putting stats, Riley is ranked 3rd, Brennan 4th and Hojgaard 6th. Michael Kim, he of the 59 last week and tied seventh here, is 2nd for SGP.
The one I like is leader DAVIS RILEY and this is his assessment of why he’s suddenly burst into form: “A little bit of everything honestly. My Achilles heel this year has been off the tee, I feel like I've put myself in position a lot more off the tee this week. Putter’s been good all year, so I think just giving myself more looks. I've hit a lot of greens this week and I think it's just the whole game's kind of trending and getting in the right direction.”
It’s a fair summation as Riley is 24th Off The Tee and 12th for Approach. He’s a general 7/2.
As for the other members of the top three who history likes, Brennan obviously has a serious chance but I prefer Riley at a bigger price, especially as he has a one-shot advantage. Looking at Hojgaard, it’s worth noting that Malnati and Young have followed up their 61s with rounds of 71 and 69 respectively, fuelling the idea that it’s hard to back up a very low score with another.
Chris Kirk, Rickie Fowler and Young are all three back alongside Hojgaard in T3 and will have their backers for reasons of value, pedigree and class. They’re rated 14/1, 12/1 and 5/1 respectively but Kirk and Young are outside the top 50 for SG: Putting. Fowler at 12s could be worthy of consideration and he's a past champion here.
For a second bet though, I’m going to put Riley in a double with AIG Women’s Open leader Yealimi Noh. The American leads by three but, like Riley, is considered a dodgy proposition. I’ve made the argument for her here. But history favours the two pacesetters and a double on them pays around 14/1 which is just too good to ignore.
Posted at 07:55 BST on 02/08/26
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