Kazeka1886

Ceylin Del Carmen Alvarado caught some form late and won the last 3 races. The first of those wins came in the weaker C2 class, but then she won at the last World Cup stop in Zonhoven, beating at that point the seemingly unbeatable Brand, and then she beat Brand again by winning the Dutch National Championships last week. With that type of form she is in, simply got to see great value backing her to win this one.

Nys sits in 2nd in the World Cup rankings this season, being only 10 points behind Van der Poel, who is skipping this race. Nys won the penultimate World Cup race in Dendermonde and is coming off a win at the Belgian National Championship, where he defended his title from last season. He is in excellent form and he trained here earlier in the season, which makes him a solid pick to win this one.

Vandeputte sits in 5th place in World Cup rankings with 176 points, while Ronhaar sits in 15th with 102 points. Vandeputte finished ahead of Ronhaar in each of the last four races they both attended, and was significantly ahead in all of those races. Vandeputte is clearly in much better form and should again finish ahead of the struggling Ronhaar.

Texans have been on fire, winning 9 games in a row to finish the season before dismantling the Steelers on the road in the first round of the playoffs and keeping them to only 6 points. On the other side, the Patriots had a very easy schedule all year and used it well to get the #2 seed before beating the Chargers by 13 points at home in the first round of the playoffs. It wasn't a very good offensive display, but they did enough defensively to win comfortably. Texans do have a more reliable run game, and their defense should keep them in every game, including this one, so got to expect a tight game till the end and fancy the Texans to stay within a field goal to cover this spread in the end.

Griffin finished last season super strong, notching six top-15 finishes in his last seven starts, including a win at the WWT Championship and a runner-up finish at the Procore Championship while he also played in the Ryder Cup. He sits 8th in the OWGR and is 3-for-3 in his previous appearances at Waialae, so got to expect him to continue where he left off at the end of last season and again be right in the mix for the win come Sunday afternoon.

Kitayama finished last year strong with five top-15 finishes in his last eight starts, highlighted by a big win in Minnesota at the 3M Open. He is 3-for-3 here in Hawaii, as he plays well in windy conditions and could easily transfer some of that end-of-season form to the start of this season and contend for the win.

Dunlap closed out last year with two solid outings, finishing T8 at the WWT Championship and T22 at the Dunlop Phoenix in Japan, where only a weak Saturday round ruined what would have been back-to-back top-10 finishes. He was T10 here on debut last year and led the field in SG Putting. He handles the wind very well, which makes him a solid pick at this price to contend once again.

Harman has a great record here in Hawaii as he made 11 of the last 12 cuts at Waialae with 5 top-20 finishes in that span. His best was 4th in 2018 when he led heading into the weekend. He sat tied for 5th here heading into Sunday last year but made a mess on the back nine with two bogeys in the final 9 holes after having only one bogey in the first three rounds. He closed out last season with a decent 16th at the Hero World Challenge despite a stretch of two double bogeys and four bogeys across an eight-hole span. He usually plays well in windy conditions, which will be on offer in Hawaii this weekend, so got to like Harman to kick off his new season with another strong showing at Waialae.

Rams averaged 30.5 points scored per game, leading the league in the regular season, and they scored 34 on the Panthers in their first game of the playoffs. Bears were in the bottom third of the league defensively and allowed 27 points to the Packers in their first-round match. Bears also suffered some significant injuries on the defensive side of the ball in that game, which will make it even harder to cover the likes of Nacua, Adams, and the various tight ends the Rams use, so got to expect the Rams to have another strong offensive showing and go over their team total.

Rams have an excellent team all around, which is playing at a really high level this season. Their QB, Stafford, led them to the title in 2022, and he is playing some of the best football of his career this year under McVay's helm. They have a superb young defense this year, filled with talent all over it, and they are one of the least penalized teams in the league. Being that young on defense allowed them to add Adams to their receiving core alongside one of the best receivers in the league, Nacua. Rams also have a really good running game with Kyren Williams and a whole stable of solid tight ends. So, with an experienced, Super Bowl-winning QB like Stafford, who usually plays his best in the biggest games, you simply have to like the Rams to go all the way and win another ring in Santa Clara this season.