Joaquin Niemann among best bets at Rocket Mortgage Classic

Bryson DeChambeau is the 8-1 favorite to repeat as winner of the PGA Tour’s Rocket Mortgage Classic, which tees off Thursday in Detroit.

The rest of the field has odds in double digits and that’s where handicapper Wes Reynolds, co-host of VSIN’s “Long Shots” golf betting show, is targeting his best bets.

Here are his plays and comments on each:

Joaquin Niemann, 24-1

”Niemann finished fifth in his debut in Detroit two seasons ago. The young Chilean currently rates ninth on the PGA Tour for driving distance and 16th for birdie average.”

Jason Kokrak, 27-1

”Last week, Harris English joined Patrick Cantlay, DeChambeau, Stewart Cink and Jason Kokrak as two-time victors for the 2020-2021 PGA Tour season.

“Kokrak missed the cut two weeks ago at the U.S. Open, but the Detroit Golf Club should be perfectly suited for his game.”

Doc Redman, 44-1

”Redman has two top 10s over his last five starts. He has four finishes of third or better during his PGA Tour career and two of them are on Donald Ross designs, including a runner-up here in 2019.”

Emiliano Grillo, 50-1

”Once again, Grillo stands out across the board for relevant statistics this week. However, it did not work out last week at the Travelers, where he rallied on Friday but missed the cut by one stroke.”

Maverick McNealy, 72-1

“McNealy finished tied for eighth in his debut in Detroit last year, and he is very comfortable on the Poa annua/bentgrass mix that he grew up playing on out West.”

Sepp Straka, 88-1

”It is hard to call someone a horse for the course when an event has only been played twice, but Straka would certainly qualify. He has the best aggregate finish of any player in the field who has played this event both times with finishes of eighth and 11th.

“The Austrian also posted his second top 10 of 2021 with a tie for 10th last week at the Travelers.”

Troy Merritt, 90-1

“Merritt finished eighth here last year. He also comes in having made six of his last seven cuts, including three top 10s. Merritt is a player that can make a lot of birdies and he has done so of late.”

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.