Sleeper Picks: Who's a value play at World Wide Technology Championship?

NOTE: Sleeper Picks did not appear in Rob’s Power Rankings, but each presents value for the bet specified.

Top 20

Ben Silverman (+240) ... When browsing in his vicinity in this market for the World Wide Technology Championship, there are others who present as likelier to deliver based on what they’ve achieved, their projected floors and other factors. Collectively, they help explain why they’re as long or longer than expected relative to the Canadian in a vacuum. However, he’s having a moment while those others are scuffling, so we’re seeing that crossover on the board. He’s 231st in the Official World Golf Ranking and 116th in the FedExCup, but he’s not even eligible to be ranked officially in the stats because he’s logged only 49 rounds (in 17 starts). That’s due in part to having missed nine cuts but also to limited playing time as he’s been saddled with the third of three tiers of conditional status. But he’s as high as he is in the FedExCup thanks to a pair of T3s, the more recent of which came just two weeks ago at the weather-shortened Bermuda Butterfield Championship. Proving that it wasn’t a fluke benefited by placement after three rounds, he piggybacked it with a steady T19 at the VidantaWorld Mexico Open. Now he gets a second crack at El Cardonal at Diamante where he finished T21 last year.

Top 30

Preston Stout (+198) ... My first thought when he crossed my gaze in this market was that there’s going to be a bettor somewhere, perhaps you, who one day will be saying, “Remember when you could get Preston Stout at +198 for a top 30 on the PGA Tour?” And the odds include ties. The world’s top-ranked amateur and top-rated collegian in PGA Tour University is done with his fall season at Oklahoma State, but this appearance is more than just a way to stay sharp until his Cowboys reconvene for competition in earnest in February. He’s here to do damage. In three starts this term, he finished T5, T10 and T3 as an individual, and then added a pair of strong performances in team formats. When he won the NCAA Division I National Championship five months ago, he defeated emerging notables such as current BYU sophomore and quick study on the PGA Tour, Kihei Akina (T8); PGA Tour winner Jackson Koivun (T10); recent Korn Ferry Tour graduate Tommy Morrison; and 2026 PGA Tour University valedictorian Ben James, who’s since recorded four top 10s among seven top 25s at this level. That victory and winning the Mark J. McCormack Medal yielded starts for Stout into three majors next year. You’re going to continue to hear and consume more about him, so there likely won’t be a more lucrative time to strike for a long, long time.

Top 40

Peter Malnati (+200) ... If you haven’t known that his multi-year exemption for winning the Valspar Championship in 2024 was expiring at the end of this season, then you may have had an inkling if you’ve been paying attention lately. The 39-year-old has popped for a pair of top 25s in the FedExCup Fall. While he’s not a top-25 machine – he hasn’t risen for that kind of frequency since the win at Innisbrook Resort, which was the third of three top 15s across five starts at the time – it can’t be ruled out that the pressure to perform right now is paying dividends, so let’s hitch on, especially at twice the kickback in this market. He’s three yards shorter than the Tour average in distance of all drives, but he’s a surprising T27 in Par 5 Scoring Average. That’s primarily as a result of paying off his opportunities with his putter. It’s that calling card that plays up on large greens in a shootout, but he’s also treated to four par 5s at El Cardonal at Diamante.

Odds were sourced at DraftKings.

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