Sleeper Picks: Fortinet Championship

David Hearn (+35000 to win) … The 42-year-old from Canada hasn’t qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs since 2016 but he cleared an important hurdle in the interim as it concerns his status for the rest of his life on the PGA TOUR. It was at Quail Hollow in the summer of 2018 when he survived his 150th career cut to qualify for Veteran Membership. He hasn’t needed it since but short of a burst of form, it will be coming in handy. He has three starts on a Minor Medical Extension to earn 213.051 FedExCup points for a promotion to the Major Medical category, but collecting 59.833 points would net conditional status. For the former at Silverado, he’d need no worse than at two-way T2, but a solo 13th would achieve the secondary objective. He placed T14 here last year with four sub-70s. For the week, he ranked T6 in fairways hit, T15 in greens in regulation, 10th in Strokes Gained: Putting and T1 in par-4 scoring. Cameron Percy (+12500 to win) … The stars are aligned for the Aussie. He led the PGA TOUR in greens in regulation last season, he closed with seven consecutive paydays, including a T11 at the John Deere Classic, and he’s gone T7-T23 in the last two editions of the Fortinet Championship. Not that anyone is short on motivation in any event, much less the season opener, but the 47-year-old is only 40.297 FedExCup points shy of the target for fully exempt status for the remainder of the season. That’s because he was granted a Minor Medical Extension with one start. It requires a solo 22nd-place finish. Short of that and he’ll play on conditional status for the remainder of 2021-22. Kiradech Aphibarnrat (+8000 to win) … After a difficult 2020-21 PGA TOUR season during which he plummeted over 300 spots in the Official World Golf Ranking to outside the top 550 just two months ago, the Thai rallied at the Wyndham Championship (T37) to qualify for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, and then secured his return trip to the TOUR with a T20-T34-T27 sprint in the series. With the pressure off, he then turned in one of his best-ever performances at the BMW PGA Championship with a share of second place. Now back inside the top 200 of the OWGR (at 195th), he’s equipped with both the freedom and the momentum to keep the pedal down. Chad Ramey (+6600 to win) … Of those who finished inside the top 15 in Korn Ferry Tour points during the regular season, no one made as many as his 40 starts. What’s more, he cashed in 37 of them before going T7-T18-T11 in the Finals to finish with 24 top 25s overall. He also led the way with 136 rounds under par of which 104 were sub-70s. Finished the season at fourth in fairways hit, third in greens in regulation, third in scrambling, T1 in par-3 scoring and T2 in par-4 scoring. In a phrase, he’s built for the season-opening shootout as a rookie on the PGA TOUR. Ben Kohles (+15000 to win) … Because 25 cards are on the line at the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, it can go unnoticed how the 25 graduates from the regular season jostle for position in the opening reshuffle on the PGA TOUR. He finished 23rd in KFT points during the regular season, and then climbed over four others with a T54-T10-T20 showing to open in the 33rd position. Ranked 10th in fairways hit on the KFT, second in greens in regulation and fifth in scrambling. Odds were sourced on Sept. 14 at 8 a.m. ET. For live odds, visit betmgm.

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