First tee time moved to 10:30am due to the rain. Positive is the weather looks great the rest of the weekend.
Anyone putting a few shekels on any guys?
I have a few bucks on these 5 guys to win, plus a few prop bets and making cut bets:
Scottie
Spieth
Day
McCarthy
Hovland
I love Spieth this year. I have a gut feeling he plays really well and is in legit contention going into Sunday.
Best 4 days of the year in golf. Can't wait.
With Rory and Scottie it is all about putting - those two's biggest bug-a-boo....
Watch out for Hideki.
Sheffler
Matsuyama
Hovland
Any one of these guys could win it. Let's hope for nice weather and some exciting golf.
W. Clark keeps showing up in big tournaments.
Some guys I think have a shot Wyndham Clark, Xander Schauffele, Hideki Matsuyama
My longshot pick/top ten finish: Ludvig Aberg
scheffler with a stroke probably at least 2:1 vs the field but not impossible. if someone eagles a par 5 this could get interesting.
He kicked it around through the 8th...and then woke up.
he's carrying golf right now. i wonder if faldo's comments re rahm arent true of more players who are hurting their games by not playing as much whether liv or otherwise.
such a big gap between #1 and whoever #2 is right now and as great as sheffler has been as a #1 is as bad as the competition for #2 is right now. hovland a mess, cantlay, and rory just 4 top 10's combined so far this year, no wins. jt off face of the earth. rahm/cam smith/koepka at liv.
Quote:
for Scottie.
he's carrying golf right now. i wonder if faldo's comments re rahm arent true of more players who are hurting their games by not playing as much whether liv or otherwise.
such a big gap between #1 and whoever #2 is right now and as great as sheffler has been as a #1 is as bad as the competition for #2 is right now. hovland a mess, cantlay, and rory just 4 top 10's combined so far this year, no wins. jt off face of the earth. rahm/cam smith/koepka at liv.
We said the same thing for most of Tiger's years - where is his competition? Argument was Jack had Arnie, Gary, Watson, Casper etc and Tiger only had Vijay.
Yes, Spieth, Thomas, Cantlay, Rory, have seemingly dropped the ball. Schauffele seems to disappear in majors. Homa is improving and I think Wyndham Clarke will be there soon. Tommy Fleetwood and Colin Morikawa are excellent, too.
Hovland is working on a swing change, no? That takes time.
And yes they are missing the big guns that went to LIV. Just had a big discussion with our teaching pro at my course. I said the LIV guys would not do well at the Masters because they don't have the level of competition that they had with the Tour and playing 3 days per week in a circus atmosphere is not conducive to playing under the pressure of majors. Would you ever expect Rahm, DJ, Koepke, Cam Smith, et al to disappear like they did this weekend? DeChambeau held his own, but after his crazy good start on Thursday went 73, 72, 73(iirc).
FWIW, I do not blame the LIV guys for taking the money and only needing to play 20 events over 2 years(IIRC) and for only 3 day events. Being on the road 26/30 weeks per year is rough while living out of a suitcase. For the Australian guys it is a godsend. European guys(most live in the US anyway) it is only about 8 hrs to fly back - Australia is about 20 hrs even in a private jet? Yuck
There will need to be a reconciliation between the Tour and LIV. LIV cannot get a foothold on TV and that is bad even if the Saudi money is limitless.
Problem will be how the Saudis payoff the Tour players to allow the LIV guys to return.