Paulie’s Picks: Black Desert Championship

This week the PGA Tour makes its long awaited return to the state of Utah for a new event, the Black Desert Championship held at the Tom Weiskopf-designed Black Desert Resort. Whenever we have a new course in the tour rotation, I usually try not to overthink things and target the best in-form players with a slight preference to ball-strikers as the field does not have the knowledge of the greens like they do at other events. With that being said, let’s take a look at three players to target for bets this week:

Seamus Power Top 30 -125

I’m going back to the well with Power after he cashed a top-30 ticket for us last week. He is one of the best overall players in the field and as mentioned at the Sanderson, he is finally fully healthy. I feel like the market is pricing him a bit low considering he was the 28th ranked player in the world when healthy. His game continues to trend in the right direction and look for a similar finish to his T11 last week.

Beau Hossler Top 30 -120

Off a heartbreaking loss at the Sanderson Farms Championship, I fully expect Hossler to bounce back into contention again this week. His game is in great shape as he gained strokes in all four main categories last week. In 2023, Hossler finished top 30 in every event in the fall series. I would not be surprised to see Hossler get on a similar run this year as his game is very streaky and he is full of confidence coming out of Mississippi.

Austin Smotherman Top 40 +110

Smotherman’s 42nd place finish last week is going to be easily overlooked. If we dig into the stats, it’s clear that he could have finished much higher. He led the field in ballstriking (off the tee plus approach). He lost seven strokes on the greens! If he putted field average, he would have finished eighth. Prior to the Sanderson Farms, he finished seventh at the Procore Championship. I will gladly take one of the best in-form ball strikers in this weak field to finish top 40 at plus-money odds.