Welcome to our weekly PGA Tour gambling-tips column, featuring picks from GOLF.com’s expert prognosticator, Brady Kannon. A seasoned golf bettor and commentator, Kannon is a host and regular guest on SportsGrid, a syndicated audio network devoted to sports and sports betting, and is a golf betting analyst for CBS Sportsline. You can follow Brady on Twitter at @LasVegasGolfer, and you can read his picks below for the 2026 Farmers Insurance Open, which gets underway Thursday in La Jolla, Calif. Along with Kannon’s recommended plays, you’ll also see promo from Chirp Golf, a mobile app that features both free-to-play and daily fantasy golf contests where you can win cash and prizes with each round and tournament.

The pre-season is over and it’s nothing but big-boy golf on the PGA Tour for the next couple months as the push toward the season’s first major championship gets underway. Resort golf and birdie-fests give way to Torrey Pines, a 7,765 yard par-72 beast and two-time U.S. Open venue, located high above the Pacific Ocean shores in beautiful La Jolla, Calif.

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It is the 2026 edition of the Farmers Insurance Open and the headliner this year is one Brooks Koepka, making his first PGA Tour appearance since announcing his departure from the LIV circuit just over one month ago. The five-time major champion has missed the cut here at Torrey Pines in his last three appearances, although he did finish fourth here in 2021 when the South Course hosted the U.S. Open.

The South Course will be responsible for three of the four rounds played this week. Each player will play the North Course once before the 36-hole cut on Friday afternoon. I have always felt that Total Driving was one of the most important skill sets at this golf course. Obviously, it is a very long course and the fairways are narrow as well and the rough is thick, so driving it long and straight is a big factor this week. The greens are Poa Annua, which is a spongy-type, typically coastal surface that many players struggle with mightily when putting. Seven of the par 4s on the South Course measure over 450 yards and many of the approach shots on this course will come from 200 yards or greater. Missing greens in regulation will be common with that type of difficulty on approach and thus, Scrambling becomes another key factor when assembling some of the most crucial skill sets this week.

The connection between Torrey Pines and some of the correlated courses this week, is strong. A couple of my favorites are Quail Hollow Club, home to the Truist Championship, which was formerly the Wells Fargo — and was also the site of last year’s PGA Championship (won by some guy named Scheffler). And the Country Club of Jackson, which hosts the Sanderson Farms Championship. We see many of the same names pop up on the leaderboards between these three tournament venues. I also used two former U.S. Open venues, Los Angeles Country Club and Winged Foot. Finally, I added Corales Golf Club, where they play the Puntacana Championship. Both Torrey Pines and Corales are especially long, coastal golf courses with atypical putting surfaces.

It was last season that we hit Harris English here at the Farmers at 110-1. I’m going to try for another triple-digit bomb this year with a couple on this week’s card.

Taylor Pendrith (40-1)

The big-hitting Canadian has been a regular at the top of the leaderboard at Torrey Pines in recent years. He’s never missed a cut here in four tries and has finished as high as seventh, ninth, and 16th. He’s been 10th and fifth at Quail Hollow, 11th at Corales, and finished 23rd at Winged Foot at the 2020 U.S. Open. Over the last 24 rounds, Pendrith ranks 18th in this field for Driving Distance, 48th in Scrambling, and 36th for Strokes Gained: Putting (Poa Annua). He’s off to a good start this season as well, as it was two weeks ago in Hawaii where Pendrith finished sixth.

Keegan Bradley (46-1)

Total Driving has been a signature mark of the 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup team captain’s game since he arrived on Tour. He ranked 31st on the circuit in that category last season. Bradley has finished top 10 here at Torrey Pines three times in his career and also three times in the top 20. Last season, he finished eighth at the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow and he has twice been top 5 at the Sanderson Farms. Over the last 24 rounds, Bradley ranks 30th in this field for Scrambling and 24th for Bogey Avoidance.

Nicolai Hojgaard (50-1)

It was two years ago that I picked Hojgaard to win here and he ended up finishing runner-up. He’s also finished runner-up at Corales and was 41st at Quail Hollow at last year’s PGA Championship. Just last week, Hojgaard took fourth at the Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour, so I like the form coming in. Over the last 24 rounds, he ranks 37th in this field for SG: Putting (Poa Annua), 11th for SG: Approach, eighth for Driving Distance, and 28th in Hole Proximity from 200+ yards.

Patrick Rodgers (65-1)

I can’t recall if I have ever picked Rodgers to win before and now I am going with him for a second time in as many weeks. He is an excellent driver of the golf ball, ranking 33rd on Tour last season in Total Driving. He comes in this week ranking 10th in this field for SG: Off the Tee and 12th for SG: Approach. He’s finished top 9 here four times when you include his third-place finish last year at the Genesis Invitational which was moved to this golf course. Rodgers has finished runner-up at Quail Hollow, top 20 twice at the Sanderson Farms, and has been as high as 11th at Corales Puntacana.

Christiaan Bezuidenhout (105-1)

And here come the triple-digits. Will we see two longshots in a row at Torrey Pines? Bezuidenhout is not a big hitter but he is very accurate off the tee and ranks 18th in this field over the last 24-rounds for SG: Approach — where he is also fifth on the 450-500 yard Par 4s and seventh for Bogey Avoidance. Bezuidenhout has been as high as 16th at Quail Hollow and has twice finished sixth at the Sanderson Farms. Ranking 50th in this field for SG: Putting (Poa Annua), he has had very solid past results both here at Torrey Pines and also at Pebble Beach, which also features a pure Poa Annua putting surface.

Andrew Novak (108-1)

This up-and-comer on the PGA Tour finished third and 13th here last season at the Farmers Insurance Open and then at the Genesis Invitational three weeks later. Shortly thereafter, he earned his first Tour victory in the team event at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Novak then finished up last season strong with two top-10 finishes at the FedEx St. Jude and in his hometown at the RSM Classic at Sea Island. He is 20th in this field for Hole Proximity from 200+ yards over the last 24 rounds and he is an excellent putter, showing that on the Poa Annua surface at Torrey Pines as well as at Pebble Beach, where he finished 13th last season. I have a feeling a solo victory is coming for the young man in 2026.

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