40/1 shot to cap form of his life with Memorial Tournament win
Published:
Fresh from a week where a triple-figure winner was crowned the AT&T Byron Nelson champion, it is high time that the steady form horse among the field for this week’s Memorial Tournament shone through.
Steven Bowditch backers could probably be counted on one hand after the Australian took the Byron Nelson title by four shots in Texas, but there are likely to be far more supporters of Kevin Na when the Tour moves to Ohio for the Memorial.
The Korean-American has been in an extended purple patch for the past seven tournaments of stroke play action, without ever managing to find a way into the winner’s enclosure. But at Muirfield Village Golf Club all of that is about to change.
Na hasn’t finished outside the top 20 in any of his last seven stroke play starts, finishing inside the top 10 in six of those outings and the top six twice.
A disappointing showing at the World Match Play sits in between that run of form, but the T6 and T10 finishes he’s recorded since that event prove his confidence in the traditional form of the game hasn’t wavered.
Taking that extended run of good form and mixing it with Na’s last appearance at the Memorial makes the 40/1 about the Las Vegas resident look extremely bloated.
He finished second behind Hideki Matsuyama after losing out in a playoff with the Japanese star 12 months ago, storming up the leaderboard with a flamboyant eight-under-par 64 on Sunday to challenge at the sharp end of proceedings.
But while we may be backing Na to crown his run of top 20s with ultimate glory in the Buckeye State, it is also worth looking at Rory Sabbatini to iron out some kinks in his form with a finish as his top countryman.
The see-sawing South African has interspersed some pretty dire play with impressive results, ending a run of four straight missed cuts with a T6 at the Players Championship, then landing in the top 10 at the Crowne Plaza Invitational.
In seven appearances at the Memorial, the South African has managed five top 20s and Ladbrokes make the 80/1 shot a 3/1 chance to be the leading Springbok.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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