5 picks our 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 may learn his picks beneath for the Procore Championship, which will get underway Thursday in Napa, Calif. Together with Kannon’s really useful performs, you’ll additionally see knowledge from Chirp Golf, a cellular 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.

After a fast break, the PGA Tour resumes this week, kicking off its FedEx Cup Fall on the Procore Championship at Silverado Resort & Spa in Napa, Calif.

A lot of the stars we noticed two weeks in the past on the Tour Championship, might be taking this week off and certain, a lot of the autumn sequence. The Procore Championship is the primary of eight occasions making up the FedEx Cup Fall. In the end, this stretch will decide the highest 125 gamers in FedEx Cup factors and, therein, eligibility for the 2025 season, which begins in Kapalua, Maui, in January.

Sahith Theegala is your defending champion, incomes his first and, to this point, solely PGA Tour victory right here in Napa final fall. Two-time winner, Max Homa is right here. And fellow Presidents Cup opponents, Wyndham Clark, Corey Conners, Min Woo Lee, and Mackenzie Hughes spherical out the vast majority of the notables on this week’s discipline.

Silverado (the North Course) is a observe at which a combined bag of gamers have seen success. Stable Whole Drivers with a superb quick recreation would appear to be the most recent pattern, making use of to the occasion’s final 4 winners, Theegala, Homa, and Stewart Cink. Shorter hitters like Brendon Todd and Matt Kuchar have completed effectively right here up to now, as have pure ball strikers like J.J. Spaun, Emiliano Grillo, and Kevin Streelman. It’s value noting that many of those holes are doglegs and shorter golf equipment can and might be used off the tee. We have to additionally point out that whereas these fairways are comparatively slim and tree-lined, the tough isn’t very penal.

I leaned on Strokes Gained: Off the Tee this week, together with Good Drives Gained. I additionally emphasised Scrambling and SG: Strategy. In a lesser capability, I checked out SG: Par 5’s, Birdies or Higher Gained, Gap Proximity from 75-150 yards, and SG: Placing on Poa Annua greens. Observe that these greens are literally a mix between bentgrass and poa annua.

In selecting correlated programs this week, I discovered different tracks that catered to work off the tee, strategy play, scrambling, and making birdies. That led me to TPC Craig Ranch (Byron Nelson), Memorial Park in Houston (Houston Open), Detroit Golf Membership (Rocket Mortgage), Pebble Seashore, and TPC Summerlin (Shriners Kids’s Open).

That is the primary full-field match we’ve had for the reason that Wyndham Championship over a month in the past. With that being the case, I’ll play every of those alternatives for an outright win and a top-20 end.

Maverick McNealy (22-1)

The Stanford graduate is certainly aware of California golf and placing on these greens. He’s completed effectively up to now at Silverado and at Pebble Seashore, ending runner-up at every match in 2021. In 4 of his final eight begins, McNealy has completed 17-7-3-12. McNealy ranks forty first on Tour in Whole Driving. During the last 24 rounds, he’s eighth on this discipline for SG: Placing (Poa Annua), nineteenth in Scrambling, and fifth in Birdies or Higher Gained. Final 12 months, we hit with Theegala at Silverado, getting his first-ever Tour win. Let’s do the identical right here this season with one other Californian searching for his first Tour victory.

J.J. Spaun (34-1)

Spaun completed eleventh right here final 12 months and was ninth in 2020. In every of these years, he shot three of the 4 rounds within the 60s. Including a fourth spherical within the 60’s simply would possibly push him into the winner’s circle. He’s one other California man who may be very aware of a lot of these greens and in his final two begins, Spaun has completed third and ninth. Again in June, he was tenth on the Rocket Mortgage Traditional, considered one of our correlated programs. During the last 24 rounds, Spaun is No. 1 on this discipline for SG: Strategy, fourth for Birdies or Higher Gained, and is third for SG: Par 5s.

Eric Cole (43-1)

In his final seven begins, Cole has posted two seventh-place finishes and a sixth-place end — with the sixth place coming at Detroit Golf Membership, as soon as once more, a correlated course for us this week. He was fourth right here in Napa final 12 months and has two consecutive top-15 finishes at Pebble Seashore. He was additionally third final 12 months on the Shriners Kids’s Open at TPC Summerlin. During the last 24 rounds, Cole is twenty ninth on this discipline for SG: Placing (Poa Annua), thirty ninth in Scrambling, 18th for SG: Strategy, eleventh in Birdies or Higher Gained, and No. 1 for each SG: Par 5s and Gap Proximity from 100-125 yards.

Chan Kim (60-1)

Kim has performed everywhere in the world and has eight wins on the Japan Tour. He gained in back-to-back weeks final 12 months on the Korn Ferry Tour and is now making a reputation for himself within the large leagues. He has completed high 12 in three of his final 5 begins on the PGA Tour. Kim ranks twenty eighth on Tour in Whole Driving and during the last 24 rounds, he’s fourth on this discipline for Gap Proximity from 125-150 yards, sixth in SG: Strategy, eighth in Birdies or Higher Gained, and is thirteenth in Scrambling. 4 of our 5 alternatives this week are searching for their first-ever Tour victory and Kim seems to be one other worthy candidate to just do that. 

Jacob Bridgeman (80-1)

Right here’s a Tour rookie who truly has performed this occasion in Napa again in 2022. He made the reduce and ended up ending fifty fifth. Bridgeman at the moment ranks 121st in FedExCup factors, so he’ll want a strong FedExCup Fall with the intention to hold his eligibility on Tour for 2025. That type of motivation doesn’t damage for a man that has been in good kind, ending twelfth and nineteenth in his final two begins. He thrives in three areas: Ball Placing, Placing, and Scrambling, all of which we wish to have on board this week. During the last 24 rounds, Bridgeman ranks twentieth on this discipline for SG: Placing (Poa Annua), twenty third in SG: Strategy, twenty sixth for Birdies or Higher Gained, and sixteenth in Scrambling. He seems to be one other up-and-comer on Tour who has a shot to interrupt by way of this week.

Who Chirp Golf gamers are selecting this week

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