5 picks our playing skilled loves

Welcome to our weekly PGA Tour gambling-tips column, that includes picks from GOLF.com’s skilled prognosticator Brady Kannon. A seasoned golf bettor and commentator, Kannon is an everyday visitor on SportsGrid, a syndicated audio community dedicated to sports activities and sport betting. You possibly can comply with on Twitter at @LasVegasGolfer, and you’ll learn his picks under for the RSM Traditional, which will get underway Thursday in St. Simons Island. Together with Kannon’s really helpful performs, you’ll additionally see knowledge from Chirp Golf, a cell app that options each Free-To-Play and Every day Fantasy golf contests the place you’ll be able to win money and prizes with every spherical and match.

The autumn is completed, and so may be your PGA Tour card.

Sure, it’s the RSM Traditional this week in St. Simons Island, Georgia on the Sea Island Resort, and it’s the closing occasion of the FedEx Cup Fall season. Gamers discovering themselves exterior of the highest 125 within the FedEx Cup Fall standings on the conclusion of this week’s match, won’t obtain absolutely exempt standing on Tour in 2025.

Listed here are the gamers, so as of present rating, on both aspect of bubble. Sami Valimaki isn’t within the discipline this week on the RSM Traditional.

120 – David Skinns
121 – Sami Valimaki
122 – Sam Ryder
123 – Zac Blair
124 – Joel Dahmen
125 – Wesley Bryan
126 – Henrik Norlander
127 – Daniel Berger
128 – Hayden Springer
129 – Pierceson Coody
130 – S.H. Kim

From a handicapping perspective, it’s attention-grabbing to notice that two weeks in the past, Austin Eckroat was your winner on the World Large Know-how Championship — and he was already absolutely exempt for 2025 going into the match, sitting contained in the top-50 within the standings. He had no added strain to carry out. Final week in Bermuda, Rafael Campos entered the week ranked 147th within the standings. He was undoubtedly enjoying with some added incentive and necessity. The purpose is, we are able to do our greatest to play sideline psychologist nevertheless it’s onerous to handicap motivation, mindset, strain, and so on. Positive, there are conditions that usually seem considerably apparent and have stood the check of time traditionally in handicapping, however right here particularly, making an attempt to foretell a golfers efficiency in a specific week, primarily based solely upon the place they sit within the FedEx Cup rankings, is unreliable.

This isn’t to say that I don’t take it into consideration after we attain these factors in a golf season. No, I don’t ignore it, nevertheless it is sort of a “must-win” recreation in NFL Soccer. Simply because a crew should win, doesn’t imply they may. I usually say, for those who “should win” you should not be that good. One wouldn’t be in such a state of affairs in the event that they had been actually good. So, banking on a participant that sits 128th on this week’s standings to out of the blue flip a swap and play that a lot better so as to get themselves into the highest 125 isn’t the place I need to place the muse of my handicap.

The inspiration of my handicap goes to start with the golf course and what ability units will seemingly be most necessary for achievement. Right here at Sea Island, we now have two programs, the Plantation Course and the Seaside Course. Every participant will play the Plantation Course as soon as, on both Thursday or Friday, and the Seaside Course will host three of the 4 rounds. They’re each quick, par-70 programs, simply barely over 7,000 yards. The Plantation Course sometimes performs a few shot-and-a-half simpler than the Seaside Course. I’ve truly performed the Seaside Course and with none wind, the course performs comparatively simple. The fairways are huge by Tour requirements however placement and Driving Accuracy has proven to be a key ingredient right here in St. Simons. I additionally checked out Strokes Gained: Method, Greens in Regulation Gained, Birdies or Higher Gained, the Par 4s measuring between 400-450 yards, gap proximity from 100-175 yards and Strokes Gained: Placing (Bermudagrass).

For corollary programs, it is vitally much like final week at Port Royal: a shorter, coastal observe, Bermudagrass, and so on. Final week we used Pebble Seashore, Colonial CC, and Waialae CC. I used these programs once more, Port Royal, and in addition TPC Southwind, El Cardonal at Diamante, and Harbour City, residence to the RBC Heritage.

It’s also price mentioning {that a} vital variety of gamers within the discipline this week both dwell within the Sea Island space, observe right here frequently or went to highschool close by. Backside line, there are a variety of gamers this week which might be extraordinarily acquainted with this property.

When you have come right here searching for who’s going to complete second this week, you’re in the best place as we’ve had the runner-up now two weeks in a row in Carson Younger and Andrew Novak. Let’s see if we are able to shut out the season with one higher.

On the time of writing, I’ve not but seen the pairings for the match. I do suggest having a look when they’re launched because it might matter by way of the wind and a potential draw bias. Proper now, it appears to be like just like the wind goes to blow all day on Thursday within the neighborhood of 20 mph. It’s presupposed to die down on Friday however presumably extra so within the afternoon than the morning. Only a guess, however an early begin time Thursday on the simpler Plantation Course may be the perfect draw.

Seamus Energy (34-1)

It has been an excellent fall swing for Energy, who has two Eleventh-place finishes, a thirteenth, and was twenty third final week in Bermuda, a match he gained again in 2022. His final occasion over the summer season was the FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind, one in every of our correlated programs, the place he completed tenth. Right here on the RSM Traditional, he’s gone 5-4 in his final two visits. He’s additionally completed as excessive as third at Waialae (Sony Open) and sixth at Harbour City. The shorter, coastal, extra accuracy-based programs appear to be in his wheelhouse. Over the past 36 rounds, Energy is basically strong, rating inside the highest 40 or higher throughout the entire stats I thought of this week.

Justin Decrease (50-1)

We spoke earlier about handicapping motivation and mindset. Decrease was emotional a number of weeks in the past on the podium and spoke about how it is vitally troublesome for a journeyman PGA Tour participant and that the brand new guidelines are making it much more troublesome. It appears to be like as if that has impressed him as he went on to complete runner-up that week in Los Cabos and adopted it up with a fifth-place end final week in Bermuda. I’m going to proceed to experience the recent hand right here. He is a superb wedge participant, among the best on this discipline from 100-150 yards, makes a ton of birdies, and is No. 1 over the past 36 rounds on the 400-450 yard Par 4s. He additionally ranks twenty ninth on Tour in SG: Placing. 

Matt Kuchar (60-1)

Kuchar is form of like the unique Seamus Energy-slash-Justin-Decrease-type participant. Doesn’t hit it far, hits it straight, magical quick recreation, nice putter, and so on. He’s gained at Harbour City, he’s gained at Waialae, a number of top-10 finishes at Colonial. He’s precisely the kind of participant we’d anticipate to have success at any such golf course. And oh, by the way in which, he calls the St. Simons space residence too, so he’s loads acquainted with this golf course. The present type appears to be like good too as Kuchar has grabbed 4 top-15 finishes in his final seven begins.

Daniel Berger (70-1)

We’re going to provide him another shot and it may very well be the final shot for a minute as he presently sits on the surface wanting in at 127th within the FedEx Cup Fall standings. Once more, we now have spoken about this and I’m not basing my whole handicap on Berger’s have to play nicely so as to get to a hundred and twenty fifth or higher, however I do like the truth that he’s a confirmed veteran with pressure-cooker expertise like main championships, Ryder Cups and Tour wins. That doesn’t damage. However the whole lot else is sensible too. He’s gained at Colonial, he’s gained at Pebble Seashore, he has gained twice at TPC Southwind, and between Harbour City and Waialae, he has three top-15 finishes and two top-10s. If the putter cooperates this week, he ought to fare nicely, and Bermudagrass has at all times been his greatest floor.

Michael Kim (75-1)

Kim’s solely Tour victory got here on the 2018 John Deere Traditional — one other shorter-type course with a watered-down discipline — considerably much like what we now have right here. And I really like his final three begins, ending fifth, thirtieth, and twelfth final week at Port Royal. Over the past 36 rounds, Kim is 18th on this discipline for Greens in Regulation Gained, sixteenth for SG: Method, and is twenty third in Birdies or Higher Gained. He’s been as excessive as sixth at Colonial, twentieth at Waialae, and Eleventh at Pebble Seashore.

Who Chirp Golf gamers are choosing this week

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