NOTE: Sleeper Picks first appeared in "The Early Card" newsletter on Tuesday. To get these before everyone else, subscribe and get them straight to your inbox one day ahead. These picks did not appear in Rob’s Power Rankings, but each presents value for the bet specified.

Top 20

David Ford (+510) ... The lefty is nearing his first anniversary as a PGA TOUR member. Until then, courses where he chooses to tee it up will remain as question marks, but that hasn’t prevented him from making some noise often enough to warrant our faith when form and fit align. En route to a T46 at last week’s Valspar Championship, he was under par in three rounds. A third-round 78 ruined a charge, but it was just one bad day. He already has a pair of top 20s this season, but it’s his exceptionally balanced bag that stands out for his debut at Memorial Park Golf Course. He’s inside the top 50 on the PGA TOUR in total driving, greens hit, proximity, scrambling, bogey avoidance and adjusted scoring. Perhaps most impressive are his decisions off the tee, even though he has plenty of muscle to step on it when the shot calls for it. It’s a reflection of sound course management as he accepts the learning curve.

Top 30

Bronson Burgoon (+395) ... The nearby native and resident of The Woodlands and former hero at Texas A&M is in the field on a sponsor exemption, and he’s missed only one edition of the Texas Children’s Houston Open at Memorial Park since the course was reintroduced as host in 2020. This is his first PGA TOUR appearance since he exhausted a medical extension after five starts last season, and he hasn’t recorded a top 30 in the big leagues since The American Express 26 months ago. Fortunately, the 38-year-old is healthy and performing up to his potential again. In his last six starts on the Korn Ferry Tour, including three this season, he’s finished no worse than T16. So, these odds are tasty for a local who can send it off the tee, possesses plenty of course knowledge and has found his groove again.

Top 40

Davis Riley (+355)... Guys who do their best work with the putter tend to defend for pars better than others. It’s the lane in which Denny McCarthy is slotted. Riley is in the same category. Case in point, his last three standout performances resulted in a solo seventh at the Valspar Championship last year, a T2 two months later at the PGA Championship and a T6 at this season’s Sony Open in Hawaii. It’s also played out on cue at Memorial Park, where he’s 4-for-4 with top 30s in his first three appearances (2021-2024) when the track showed its teeth.

Odds were sourced at DraftKings.

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