7 picks our gambling expert loves

Welcome to our weekly PGA Tour gambling-tips column, that includes picks from GOLF.com’s expert 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 can comply with on Twitter at @LasVegasGolfer, and you’ll learn his picks under for the Memorial Tournament, which will get underway Thursday in Dublin, Ohio. Along with Kannon’s beneficial performs, you’ll additionally see knowledge from Chirp, a free-to-play cellular platform that includes a vary of video games with engaging prizes, giving followers every kind of how to interact within the motion with out risking any cash.

For the second time within the final month, the PGA Tour is utilizing certainly one of its most illustrious occasions to behave because the precursor to a serious championship. In May, it was the Wells Fargo Championship, a Signature Event, previous the PGA Championship. Now, it’s the Memorial Tournament, additionally of Signature Event standing, coming the week earlier than the U.S. Open.

This week on Tour is usually known as a cease at “Jack’s Place.” Jack Nicklaus is the proprietor and designer of Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, a course he opened in 1974 with it first internet hosting the Memorial in 1976.

Nicklaus has carried out many tweaks to the golf course over time, with the most recent modifications being made in 2020. As it stands now, the course has been stretched to almost 7,600 yards. It is a par 72 with beneficiant fairways bordered by very penal, thick tough. The greens are smaller than common, undulated, very quick, bentgrass surfaces. Muirfield Village is known as after Nicklaus’ favourite British Open venue, Muirfield in Scotland, the place he received the claret jug in 1966. The design, in some ways, was impressed by one other Nicklaus favourite, Augusta National, the place Jack received the Masters six occasions. Probably the best instance of a comparability to Augusta is the twelfth gap at Muirfield Village. It is almost a carbon copy of the enduring par-3 twelfth gap at Augusta National.

Yes, we’ve seen some crossover success with Masters winners additionally successful the Memorial. Tiger Woods received right here 5 occasions. Both Nicklaus and Tom Watson have received the Memorial together with Raymond Floyd, Fred Couples, and most lately, Jon Rahm. The Memorial additionally appears to have ties to U.S. Open success with Bryson DeChambeau, Rahm, Watson, Floyd, Woods, Justin Rose, Ernie Els, Jim Furyk, Curtis Strange and Hale Irwin all having received each championships.

Distance off the tee at Muirfield Village helps for certain, because it nearly all the time does, however the course has seen many shorter titties prevail as nicely. The vast fairways don’t essentially make Driving Accuracy an enormous requirement, however avoiding the tough is essential as it’s a number of the extra penal tough we see all season. In true Nicklaus trend, Muirfield Village is a second-shot golf course. Iron play should be extremely sturdy. And lengthy iron play at that, with many of the method pictures coming from 175 yards out and past into these smaller greens. And due to that, Scrambling turns into a key class. These greens will likely be missed and getting up and down has proven to be a vital ingredient to success right here over time.

We have famous the ties to Augusta National and U.S. Open play. It is true, Muirfield Village actually requires a bit of little bit of all the things with a purpose to obtain success, as do main championships. And whereas I did contemplate a number of statistical areas this week, I emphasised iron play (Strokes Gained: Approach), Par 4 Scoring (450-500 yards), and Scrambling. 

I consider there are a variety of how one can go when making an attempt to pinpoint correlated programs to Muirfield Village. We can be aware Bay Hill, Torrey Pines, and Quail Hollow for his or her size and championship pedigree. Augusta National must be within the dialog. We can take a look at different Nicklaus designs like Valhalla Golf Club, however I consider from a structure standpoint, and the programs that demand related talent units, TPC Potomac (2022 Wells Fargo Championship), The Concession (2021 WGC – Workday Championship), Oak Hill Country Club (2023 PGA Championship), Innisbrook (Valspar Championship), Firestone Country Club (as soon as a daily Tour cease for many years), and TPC Twin Cities (3M Open) current essentially the most similarities. It’s a blended bag for certain, however you are inclined to see most of the identical names having success in any respect of those properties and Muirfield Village as nicely.

Let’s get to the products. I’ve performed every choice this week for an outright win in addition to a top-20 end. Note, with all of the luminaries within the area this week, Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, and so on., we’re getting fairly the juicy costs on a number of the “other” finest gamers on the planet — in a area, thoughts you, of solely 73 gamers.

Russell Henley (40-1)

I discussed giving particular consideration to SG: Approach, Scrambling, and scoring on the Par 4ss this week. Henley is without doubt one of the best within the area whenever you mix all three. Over the final 36 rounds, He is Thirteenth on method, sixth in Scrambling, and fifteenth on the Par 4’s measuring 450-500 yards. He completed sixteenth right here final yr and has sturdy latest finishes on the Masters. Henley has completed as excessive as ninth on the Valspar Championship. I like the present type as nicely, as he has three top-12 finishes within the final two months. 

Keegan Bradley (60-1)

The present type is great for Bradley as nicely, going 21-18-and runner-up on the Wells Fargo Championship, PGA Championship, and Charles Schwab Challenge, respectively. He was runner-up on the Valspar in 2021 and runner-up at TPC Potomac in 2022. He’s completed high 10 right here on the Memorial twice. Over the final 36 rounds, he’s twentieth on this area for SG: Off the Tee, twenty third in SG: Approach, and is eighth in SG: Putting (bentgrass).

Alex Noren (60-1)

We’ve been backing Noren fairly a bit this season and whereas it hasn’t resulted in an outright win, he had tallied eight-straight top-25 finishes earlier than lacking his first lower of the season final week in Canada. He excels in nearly each class this week and during the last 36 rounds, ranks high 10 on this area for Scrambling, Par 4 Scoring (450-500 yards), Par 5 scoring (550-600 yards), and Bogey Avoidance.

Sam Burns (60-1)

Burns sandwiched a missed lower on the PGA Championship between a Thirteenth-place end on the Wells Fargo Championship final month and a Tenth-place end in Canada final week. It seems his early-season type is on the return. He has twice received the Valspar Championship, completed seventh at TPC Twin Cities, and was sixteenth right here final season. He’s high tier in all the stats this week, together with sixteenth for SG: Off the Tee, Thirteenth in Bogey Avoidance, Thirteenth on the Par 5s (550-600 yards), sixteenth in Hole Proximity from 175-200 yards, and twelfth in SG: Putting (bentgrass) during the last 36 rounds.

Shane Lowry (70-1)

Lowry received the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone CC in 2015 in Akron, Ohio and has finishes of 15-6-16 right here in Dublin. Coming in, he has a win within the crew occasion, the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, a sixth on the PGA Championship, and shot three of 4 rounds within the 60s final week in Canada. He was twelfth on the Valspar in 2022 and twelfth once more final yr at Oak Hill for the PGA Championship. Over the final 36 rounds, Lowry is nineteenth on this area for SG: Off the Tee, Tenth for SG: Approach, ninth on the Par 4’s (450-500 yards), and twelfth in Hole Proximity from 175-200 yards.

Tom Hoge (92-1)

Other than Scottie Scheffler, Hoge could also be the perfect ball-striker on this week’s area. He ranks third on method and is Thirteenth in Good Drives Gained during the last 36 rounds. He was Thirteenth right here in 2018 and fourth at TPC Twin Cities in 2022. He arrives having missed just one lower all season lengthy in stroke-play occasions and was twenty third three weeks in the past on the PGA Championship, adopted by a seventeenth on the Charles Schwab Challenge.

Kurt Kitayama (125-1)

A Signature Event winner already final yr on the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Kitayama has begun to emerge as higher-tier participant extra so than ever earlier than in his profession. He too has solely missed one lower all season and is available in off a twenty sixth place end on the PGA Championship. He was fifteenth at TPC Potomac in 2022 and completed fourth finally yr’s PGA Championship at Oak Hill. Over the final 36 rounds, Kitayama ranks Tenth on this area for SG: Off the Tee, twentieth for SG: Approach, and is 18th in Hole Proximity from 175-200 yards.

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