With Corey Conners missing out on a top-20 by one shot after a final hole bogey and Justin Harding taking three steps forward before two back, last weekend’s props could, and should, have shown far more than just the top-40 for Ryan Armour.

Still, it keeps the wheels turning and whilst we are going to leave the brand new Soudal Open alone, we go again this week at the well-established Byron Nelson, a week that should see winning scores far lower than seen at TPC Potomac.

As always, this column ignores the outright market, and these are the best bets on a week before a big one.

Top-10 and Top-20 finishes

Will Zalatoris +250 +115 (FanDuel)

Sam Burns +250 +120 (DraftKings)

Adam Hadwin +600 + 320 (FanDuel)

At this event last year, Scottie Scheffler went off at around 22/1 and had still to win an event.

Over the next 25 outings, he won four events, including The Masters, and is now the undisputed world number one, and of the current crop of young, talented maidens, Will Zalatoris is surely the one most likely to do a ‘Scottie’ after just a couple of seasons at the top level.

There are no secrets about his play – he is long off the tee, supremely accurate with his irons and makes plenty of birdies. The only thing holding him back is the flat stick, but there have been signs of improvement on the greens over the last three events.

Numbers-wise for the season, Will is 11th off-the-tee, second in approaches and also in tee-to-green, 11th in greens-in-regulation and 28th in birdies.

He hasn’t missed the cut in all seven of the regular rules events, just failed to make the semi-finals of the Match Play, and added a sixth-placed finish at The Masters to go along with another three Major top-10s.

Here, at Craig Ranch, he finished 17th last year on his debut, ranking third for tee-to-green off an event-leading +9.5 for his approaches. Of course, in typical Willy Z fashion, ranking 70th for putting affected his final position, but anything resembling a field-average display on the greens will see him land this wager with ease.

DraftKings see his chance as a negative number, which isn’t wrong in this field, so get all over the price on FanDuel.

Sam Burns is another 25-year-old ready to take on the world and, like Willy Z, won on the KFT. The ultimate difference between them being Burns’ three victories at PGA Tour level, all with scores of at least 17-under.

Again, seasonal figures are impressive to look at – 11th in approach play leads to a ranking of 18th for tee-to-green; 10th in greens-in-regulation, and 34th in putting – figures that find it hard to spot a weakness in this all-round player.

Burns repeats form at tracks he does well at. Back-to-back winner at the Valspar, he also a win and third at the Sanderson Farms, so his runner-up here last season makes him look a very obvious play.

For correlation in tracks, look to his third place at Riviera, the Genesis form appearing in three of last year’s top-six, including winner K.H Lee, whilst 2019 winner Sung Kang can also boast a tied-second around there.

Long off the tee, the slight waywardness shouldn’t matter around Craig Ranch. Burns is top-20 for scoring in each of the disciplines (par-3, four and five) and has the aforementioned course form with a runner-up last season, a tournament at which he ranked top-10 for all disciplines except putting (45th). Any slight improvement will see land this bet with ease.

34-year-old Adam Hadwin has appeared in this column previously as a prop bet and landed the money with ease at both the Valspar and Texas Open.

Going back 10 years, the in-form Canadian had his best finish of his debut year around here when finishing 3rd at the Web.com Tour Championship and whilst the course might play somewhat longer, he’ll come here confident of building on a good 2022.

In nine regular events, Hadwin has three top 10s, one top-20 and three top-30 finishes with figures that impress for consistency.

His ranking of 15th for strokes-gained approach and 28th for tee-to-green show the quality of his recent ball-striking (only once outside the top-20 in approach in six starts), whilst 11th for par-5 scoring and 19th in strokes-gained-total mean he should find this place a breeze.

Twice in the top-3 at the low-scoring Career Builder, he has a 6th at Riviera and 4th at the Rocket Mortgage Classic as further pointers to his chance.

Another former winner of the Valspar, Hadwin, crept inside the world’s top-100 to cement his place at Southern Hills next week and can celebrate in style.