It’s been a while folks and I am sorry for the delays. While I could make up some excuse saying it was family reasons or some bs, the real reason I couldn’t blog was because I got locked out of my Microsoft 365 and I didn’t want to pay for a new one. It was a real bitch but we finally found our way back in and kept all our old files so we’re ready to rock. I also was shadow banned by Instagram and TikTok for a little bit, still am by TikTok so that didn’t help much. It seems IG has officially let me back into the algorithm so I’m ready to cash some winners to get back on track with our goal of 100k followers. That being said, we have a shitload to catch up on so let’s jump right into it all.
PGA Catch Up
So the last time we spoke, we were heading to LIV Boston, with the Presidents Cup ahead of us. While I can confidently say that I expected little to nothing from the Presidents Cup, I was pleasantly surprised. The International team managed to make it interesting and at times almost too interesting against the US team. Tom Kim, Sungjae Im and Si Woo Kim all really stepped up on Saturday and made it a true competition. Captain USA, Jordan Spieth, went 5-0 for us and helped to secure the victory on Sunday, bringing home yet another Presidents Cup trophy for us. I did post JT as top points scorer and it was an absolute heartbreaker to lose against Si Woo Kim on the last hole. The Shriners Cup is also this weekend but I feel the LIV event carries more merit so will be focusing on that this week.
LIV Catch Up
So I didn’t get a chance to write a full recap of LIV Boston or Chicago so will quickly go through those. LIV Boston was an awesome watch and easily the most electric tournament we have had this year. DJ, Niemann and Lahiri all went to a playoff and DJ won on a walk off eagle. The place exploded and it was awesome to see a walk off there. I had posted Lee Westwood at +5500 in the blog so it was heartbreaking to his meltdown on the final holes to miss the playoffs. At LIV Chicago, Cam Smith, showed why he’s the number 2 player in the world (should be number one soon enough) and rolled the competition. Cam looked to be in full stride all weekend as he went home with a three stroke win. There is definitely a world where Cam just dominates each event as much as he did Chicago but we will have to see how he does on the international side of things. Now before we get to Bangkok, let’s get to the reality TV show that is golf….
LIVin For the Drama
While we haven’t seen any changes in the field over the last three tournaments, we have had some interesting drama regarding LIV. For starters, the antitrust case of LIV vs PGA has lost many of its participants, including the lead player, Phil Mickelson. Phil says that he has put enough in and there’s enough of a case without him to win it. The only big name remaining is now Bryson and at this rate it could be a matter of time for him to drop out as well. It’s hard to identify the exact reason for this, whether it be lawyer fees, time spent or just fear of losing the case but something definitely changed here. A lot more updates are still to come on the case so I will keep you updated there.
The biggest news in my opinion, came last week when it was announced that LIV was making some changes to their championship in Miami. I am trying my best to not give false info and I am only so plugged into the golf world since none of these fuckin gambling companies will sign me but here’s what I’ve seen. LIV had some major issues finding a TV/Streaming partner but did receive some interest from Fox. The main goal was to get the championship onto TV and I believe let that prove their ratings capabilities in order to secure a deal for the 2023 season. As Fox has been the only major cable company without PGA access, this did make a lot of sense. Now, the wrinkle in this situation is that the deal seemed to have come with some contingencies. I know Norman has said some of this stuff fake but he also says a lot, but I have been told that Fox forced LIV to move the Championship from Saturday to Sunday, pay for the broadcast time slot on FS1 and find all sponsorships for commercials. Honestly, the only one here that I think truly raises an eyebrow if it’s true, is paying for and finding their own sponsors for commercials. Eventually the truth will come out and we will see the true ratings that LIV pulls so I guess until then we will leave this as is. Now that we are all caught up on the drama, let’s get to some actual golf….
Field
A few notes on teams and the field heading into the week:
- All of the players seem to be very into the team aspect as even Cam was celebrating a birdie putt that meant nothing to his placing in Chicago
- The 4 Aces have now won 4 straight and are a true dynasty of the sport.
- Personally, I think LIV jumped the gun stacking this team in Bedminster but other teams are finally catching up.
- HiFlyers had been in dire need of a strong performance from Phil and it led to them securing a third place finish
- Personally, feel Wolff continues to be the most underrated and underappreciated player in LIV
- I think the Niblicks and Cleeks will continue to be auto fades as they really don’t have the star power to compete with the rest of the teams.
- Iron Heads could be on this last as well since Kevin Na continues to be the reason relegation is making its way to LIV
Course and Times
The tournament will be played at Stonehill Golf Club and plays from a whopping 7800 yards. The course was designed by a Thai billionaire and is supposedly beautiful. The fairways are said to be very wide and the greens have some crazy designs so it should be cool. The course is super private so this will likely be the only way us peasants will ever see the course. From what I understand, for the pros this will be very gettable so we’re looking for someone that can take advantage of the par 5’s and score low.
If you are like me and live in the northeast, this is going to be pretty difficult to watch. They will be teeing off at 10:15am Friday in Bangkok which is 11:15pm EST on Thursday. It will definitely be tricky so I suggest if you are as interested in it as I am, either stay up late night with some Pac 12 football on the side or just avoid checking Twitter and watch the replay in the morning on YouTube.
Odds for the Weekend
As always, a quick note – Why the Fuck does NJ not have LIV odds yet?
Now let’s dig into these odds a bit
- Cam and DJ continue to be our favorites going into the week. They have won the last two tourneys and seemingly showing LIV is not slowing down their careers
- Niemann comes in as the third lowest odds at +700
- Personally, like Niemann to potentially win this but I struggle to be okay with taking him at 7-1
- Wolff continues to be the most disrespected player in LIV and him being +3500 perfectly depicts that.
- I have given him out too much so I can’t give him to win again but I will be betting it
- Brooks at +4k is appealing but at the same time I don’t think I’m ready to start losing money on him until he gets some top finishes under his belt
- Bryson should be someone to eye up considering the length of this course but with all the long drive stuff I don’t think he’s been too focused on his overall game enough
THE PICKS
Winner – Anirban Lahiri +4000
This is a gut pick. Lahiri has been talking a lot about fans from India coming out to Bangkok and I think with a bit of a hometown crowd he’ll be ready to go. Lahiri has proven he can compete with the best of the best in both the PGA at The Players and in LIV at LIV Boston. I don’t feel his odds are accurate on this one and getting him at +4k is an absolute steal. He will need to outduel DJ and Cam Smith but I think he’s hungry to get his revenge on that playoff in Boston.
Longshot – Carlos Ortiz +8000
I’m taking this primarily because the odds are just out of control. Ortiz might not be in his absolute best form but he is definitely better than +8000. He has shown he has the potential to win a tournament with his second place finish in Portland and if he gets hot, he could pull the win off in Bangkok. Let’s see if we can at least find ourselves in a hedge opportunity with an 80-1 ticket going into the final day.
Team – Punch GC +360
A couple things on this one, for starters, I refuse to bet on the 4 Aces at this point. It’s like betting on the KD Warriors, you can’t root for this stacked team and it’s more fun to try to be on the right side when they fall. Punch is the Australian team so they should have some strong international support at the course and it would be no surprise if Cam cruises to yet another win giving the team a large boost. Let’s see if the dynasty of the Aces can finally come to an end out in Bangkok.
MORTAL LOCK – Lee Westwood Top 10 +140
Lee has been a bit all over the place since joining LIV but the last couple events he has been pulling it together. He started out very slow in the first few events but then after getting in some Twitter rivalries, he showed some flashes of his old self. We almost pulled off the win in Boston with him as our longshot but I don’t think he’s quite ready to take home the trophy so going for the top 10 here instead. Lee finished in 15th in Chicago, just one stroke out of the top 10 so I think he can definitely secure this one for us.
MORTAL LOCK Part 2 – Matthew NeSmith Top 20 +300
Normally I would make all the picks just LIV this week but I genuinely do love this pick. NeSmith has finished in the top 15 the last three years at the Shriners and just a strong showing at the Sanderson Farms last week. I think this is going to be one of the easiest wins of the year and we will be seeing his name close to the top of the leaderboard on Sunday. Hell, he might fuck around and win this thing.
Three Putt Bogeys 