Top Picks for the 3M Open: Akshay Bhatia & Gary Woodland

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00:00Keith, who do we like in Minnesota this week at the 3M Open?

00:03Give me some outrights.

00:05All right, let's run right through these guys.

00:06First guy on the board, and all these guys have seen a ton of action on their number,

00:10but the first one I love is Akshay Batia.

00:12Back-to-back weeks where the ball striking is back to where it needs to be for young Akshay,

00:17and you know what?

00:18He gained with the putter for three or four rounds over there at Royal Portrush.

00:21He's got a little momentum coming in, and what I love about this one, Mike,

00:24is that this one reminds me a lot about Valero,

00:27and Valero is one of those places where you could go nuclear like Akshay did the year that he won,

00:3220 under or so, but you've got to keep the ball in play.

00:35He's the type of guy at a Cognizant, at a Valspar.

00:39Those are your comp courses.

00:40Valero, those are the places that you want to look for guys that play well,

00:43and another guy that absolutely strikes his ball fantastic,

00:47and he's a little bit shaky with the putter as well,

00:49but Emiliano Grillo at 50-1, number 71 on the FedExCup points list.

00:54He wants to get into the playoffs, right?

00:56At the 3M, it's his best property ever with the putter, strokes gained-wise.

01:01He's got a 24th year.

01:02He's got a runner-up, a third place, a 10th place.

01:04I love myself some EG, right?

01:06He lost in the playoff at the John Deere where I played him at the Rocket.

01:09He's had a good summer going.

01:11Another guy, past champion, 2021 Cam Champ.

01:15Listen, Cam Champ played most of the year on the Corn Fairy Tour, Mike, right?

01:19But he's come back.

01:19He's got four top 20s in his last five starts.

01:22He's gaining over six and a half strokes total against the field, and he loves this place.

01:27He's 132nd in FedExCup points.

01:29He knows he needs a big two weeks coming up,

01:32and this would be the place that he'd really want to take advantage of.

01:34And the last one is our man Gary Woodland.

01:37Everybody loves to root for this guy, but I'm not just doing this because he's a nice guy.

01:41He's top 20 in strokes gained approach and strokes gained putting in this field,

01:46and you're going to need both of those factors to go low and keep the ball in play,

01:50keep it out of the water, none of this lake stuff, right?

01:52We've seen it before.

01:54Four of the last five holes have water in play.

01:57Woodland at triple digits.

01:58I'm giving you a bomb.

01:59I'm giving you the prime minister a bomb.

02:01All the viewers a bomb.

02:03Gary Woodland, hey, top 20 guy with the iron game and rolling the rock.

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