6 picks our playing knowledgeable loves

Welcome to our weekly PGA Tour gambling-tips column, that includes picks from GOLF.com’s knowledgeable prognosticator Brady Kannon. A seasoned golf bettor and commentator, Kannon is a daily visitor on SportsGrid, a syndicated audio community dedicated to sports activities and sport betting. You’ll be able to observe on Twitter at @LasVegasGolfer, and you’ll learn his picks under for the Tour Championship, which will get underway Thursday in Atlanta, Ga. Together with Kannon’s advisable performs, you’ll additionally see information 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 event.

If profitable the FedEx Cup is indicative of who the PGA Tour season-long champion is, then this event must be a two-person discipline that includes the 2 finest gamers on the earth: Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele. It’s onerous to swallow Keegan Bradley one way or the other catching them and profitable this week when he’s had one win on the season and previous to final week, hadn’t completed within the prime 20 in three months.

Sure, the system is flawed, and I consider everyone seems to be properly conscious of this. The robust half is fixing it and I’m not right here to grandstand about the best way to do it, as a result of I don’t have a solution both. I really like the primary two weeks of the FedEx Cup playoffs. The drama, the jockeying for place, making an attempt to sneak inside the highest 50 and ultimately, the highest 30. I assumed final week’s golf course, at elevation, offered some fantastic, new, twists and turns. And East Lake is nice — now a newly-renovated, beast of a par-71 — however the drama has been sucked out of what’s purported to be the grand finale. The Tour Championship is anticlimactic to say the least. Of the 30 gamers within the discipline, I consider solely the top-10 in beginning strokes have an opportunity.

Talking of beginning strokes, they’re awarded in keeping with the place one sits within the FedEx Cup factors standings coming into this week. Scheffler is No. 1 and begins the event at 10-under par on Thursday. Schauffele is second and begins at 8-under. Matsuyama is third and begins at 7-under. This sample continues on down the board. The ultimate 5 gamers within the discipline, Nos. 26-30, begin their week at Even par, 10 pictures off the lead, principally enjoying just for pleasure and to seize as a lot money as they will. This event could be very entertaining for only a handful of gamers on the prime. It loses fairly a little bit of luster after that and I don’t really feel it is vitally receptive to betting both.

Andrew Inexperienced was introduced in to convey among the unique Donald Ross traits again into play at East Lake Golf Membership. He has reshaped greens, bunkers, and fairways. He has added and repositioned bunkers. He has modified among the run-off areas across the greens – and he’s modified the turf on each the fairways and greens to totally different strains of Zoysia grass and Bermuda grass, respectively. Over 100 yards was added to the golf course and it’ll now play as a par 71, measuring just below 7,500 yards.

Lots of the method pictures at East Lake will come from 200-yards or extra. Every of the 4 par-3 holes are longer than 200 yards. Nearly all of the 11 par-4s fall fairly carefully into the 400-450 yard window. Scrambling is vital. Driving Accuracy might be extra vital than Driving Distance. The gnarly Bermuda grass tough is to be prevented each across the greens and off the fairways. Avoiding bogeys, I consider, is extra vital than making birdies and naturally, method play and hitting greens in regulation will go a good distance towards that silver cup and the $25 million that comes together with it.

I consider the checklist of correlated programs is considerably intensive this week. TPC Potomac and TPC River Highlands make loads of sense to me. Sedgefield is one other Ross design that has crossover I consider. Royal Troon, residence to the latest Open Championship, is analogous. Muirfield Village (the Memorial) is one other, with its emphasis on second pictures, driving accuracy, and scrambling. TPC Southwind definitely has some variations however does have the identical mixture of Zoysia grass fairways and Bermuda grass greens. And eventually, Innisbrook, the Copperhead Course the place they play the Valspar Championship.

All of that being stated, I’m proper again to the place I started. I consider that is merely a two-person race.

Brady’s finest bets at East Lake

Earlier than we get too deep right here, there are markets on the market wherein one can guess who may have the bottom 72-hole rating (like a conventional golf event), that means with out the beginning strokes. Outdoors of the “Large Two,” I really feel like Aaron Rai has a shot on this market at round 50-1. Hideki Matsuyama makes some sense at round 18-1 however it’s important to marvel about his well being after withdrawing from the BMW Championship final week. Former FedEx Cup champs, Viktor Hovland (15-1), and Billy Horschel (35-1) are glorious selections, I consider. And eventually, for a protracted bomb, Christiaan Bezuidenhout can be my alternative for a flyer at round 70-1.

Nevertheless, I’m enjoying the with the strokes market and have been saying for a month now that I consider Xander Schauffele (+225) is the most effective guess to win the FedEx Cup. He has been the most effective horse for this course for a number of years. He received right here in 2017 and has completed runner-up 3 times. He was once more the low 72-hole scorer in 2020 and in 2023. In seven journeys to East Lake, he’s by no means completed worse than seventh.

He’s received at TPC River Highlands and Royal Troon. He’s completed top-15 on the Memorial 3 times and took eighth there earlier this season. Schauffele is about dead-even with Scheffler within the stats this week. They’re just about 1-2 or 2-1 nevertheless you take a look at it. However he has been the higher participant at this golf course and he comes at twice the value.

I consider Scheffler will probably be voted Participant of the 12 months on the PGA Tour and he positively deserves it, however I’m betting on Schauffele including another notch in his belt at East Lake this week.

Who Chirp Golf gamers are choosing this week

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