Sleeper Picks: Who's being overlooked at Austin Championship presented by Compliance Solutions?

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

Top 20

Trace Crowe (+235) ... It’s been a big year outside the ropes for the 30-year-old for a couple of different reasons, but to fully understand its impact ahead of the Austin Championship presented by Compliance Solutions, it’s necessary to go back to August 2025. That’s when he made his last start anywhere for the year. He shut it down due to a broken right wrist. Although he missed the cut in his last start on the Korn Ferry Tour at the time, he retained position inside the number to graduate and reclaim fully exempt status on the PGA Tour that he lost after falling just outside the top 150 in the FedExCup as a rookie in 2024. His rehab from injury on the Korn Ferry Tour in March of this year yielded signs of strength, but he went just 4-for-10 and without a top 30 on the PGA Tour during the FedExCup season. As the FedExCup Fall was about to commence and immediately after alerting his followers on social media that his wife, Molly, was pregnant with their first child, he rose for a T24 at the Biltmore Championship Asheville near his home in Raleigh, North Carolina. All told during the series, he’s gone 5-for-5 with two top 20s, so your instinct about trusting the Nappy Factor has been validated. And despite the midyear lull, he’s third on the Tour in ball-striking, T6 in proximity and T11 in converting greens hit into birdies or better. The soon-to-be papa is also fifth in Par-5 Scoring, a valuable weapon with four par 5s on the Fazio Canyons Course at Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa.

Top 30

Thomas Rosenmueller (+220) ... Ever since he rattled off top 10s in the last two Additional Events late in the FedExCup season, I’ve been waiting to pounce for the opportunity to shine the light on the 29-year-old from Germany. In the six starts that followed, he went for another pair of top 10s among five top 25s in combined action on the Korn Ferry Tour and the DP World Tour. His most recent five results were forgettable and no doubt helped lengthen his odds for our purposes in Austin, but that’s fine. Since that international road trip without a break, he’s rested a month, and the pressure to perform on both of those circuits is gone. To prove it, he spun a bogey-free, 9-under 62 on the Palmer Lakeside Course at Barton Creek in Monday’s open qualifier to gain entry. There’s also likely a chip on his shoulder since putting himself behind the 8-ball early in his only season as a PGA Tour member in 2025. After a rough first six months, he rallied to go 9-for-10 with six top 30s, three of which came in the FedExCup Fall. He might need to lead the field in greens in regulation at Fazio Canyons to fulfill this bet, but he just might. After ranking T4 in the stat as a PGA Tour rookie last year, he slotted third on the Korn Ferry Tour this year.

Top 40

David Skinns (+220) ... The 44-year-old from England presents as a coin flip in this market, so the odds are in our favor. In his last 11 starts, he’s cashed eight times, five of which for a top 40. So, treat it like a make-the-cut prop and then trust that he’ll keep the pedal down in the third round, during which he ranks 12th on the PGA Tour. Closing it out is another matter, but that’s an acceptable component of the gamble. The unknown of Fazio Canyons caters to his accuracy off the tee and precision on approach, but even when he’s reviewing opportunities to break par from further away, you wouldn’t want anyone else standing over the putt. He’s No. 1 in conversion percentage from outside 10 feet.

Odds were sourced at DraftKings.

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