🚀 Ready For Takeoff

📢 Fore, Please:

Last week, I spent a few days back in Philadelphia with a group of buddies who I don’t see often enough. They get together every year for the Thu/Fri of March Madness and I have missed it for at least six years.

On a whim, I booked my ticket this year and just said “screw it, let’s go”. It’s an incredibly busy time of the year for me but if I can’t make time for a few days with my close friends then what are we even doing here?

We had a blast and I couldn’t be more glad to have made the 3,000 mile trek. Enjoy the good times, don’t sweat the small stuff.

Thanks
Rick

🏅 Last Week’s Optimal Lineup

Jacob Bridgeman: $7,400 | 103.0 PTS
Viktor Hovland: $8,400 | 102.5 PTS
Justin Thomas: $10,800 | 101.5 PTS
Bud Cauley: $7,600 | 88.5 PTS
Ryo Hisatsune: $6,600 | 88.5 PTS
Lucas Glover: $8,800 | 86.0 PTS
TOTAL: $49,600 | 570.0 PTS 

 🥤 Shot-gunning Diet Cokes

This is a sentence I cannot imagine I would ever be typing…

You can win a free round of golf to play with John Daly and myself.
Plus travel!

Wow.

The prize pool is nuts, with $100,000 for first. However, simply entering the contest (doesn’t matter your finishing position), will enter you to win that round of golf with John and I. Every contest entry is a chance to win the round of golf.

I don’t know what’s going to happen. Maybe we will shotgun Diet Cokes and head to the casino afterwards. Literally no idea. But it’s going to be a blast!

Join: https://bit.ly/4hUHvIN

🌉 A Bridge Too Far

I wanted to take a moment to highlight Jacob Bridgeman who is having a stellar 2025, earning (4) Top 25 finishes thus far. He’s been knocking on the door, with a runner-up at the Cognizant and a third place finish last week at Innisbrook.

He possesses a really interesting stat profile, where he’s picked up a substantial number of strokes from tee-to-green (+15.267) over his last 16 rounds.

On top of that, he’s been capable of picking up an insane number of strokes with his flatstick. He has (4) different starts of 5+ strokes putting since the start of the fall. He’s the only person on TOUR to accomplish that feat.

He’s building a solid statistical foundation while still being able to tap into the upside. That’s an incredibly valuable skill-set.

🏆 Viktory Shall Be His

Viktor Hovland is back in the winner’s circle and, boy, did he have some things to say:

"I hit a lot of disgusting shots but they happen to go where I looked."
"I don't have control over what I'm doing."
“I was able to win with much of the same stuff I’d had all year … I just played freaking sweet this year.”

Those are quotes from a guy who just won (!!) a PGA TOUR event. Sick game, huh?

On the stat sheet, Hovland picked up 7.3 strokes putting which was the second best putting event of his career. That’s even more impressive considering he is only two starts removed from the worst putting event of his career.

Even throughout his recent struggles, Hovland has been solid in the ball-striking categories and he’s been able to overcome those around-the-green struggles.

Hovland only has four worldwide wins that were ShotLink measured and he’s lost strokes around-the-green in half of those. In fact, the most he’s ever gained around-the-green in a win was the +1.095 strokes he picked up at the 2023 TOUR Championship.

Pretty impressive that he can overcome a hole that large in his game and still win.

🦕🦕 The Big Two

This week’s field in Houston is headlined by the Top 2 players in the world but it only has four of the Top 20 players.

Rory McIlroy (+650) and Scottie Scheffler (+350) stand alone at the top of the betting board in a way that I cannot remember. It’s crazy to have two different golfers with odds of +650 or shorter, then a massive gap to everyone else at 30-1 or longer.

Since the calendar turned to 2025, it hasn’t been much of a competition for “best player” as McIlroy has outpaced Scheffler in nearly every category.

This is also the best start to a year for McIlroy since 2020 —

He’s picked up 2.27 strokes to the field in 24 rounds this year, which is significantly better than the first three months of 2024 or 2023. I really don’t want to get into the whole “this is the year he wins the Masters” thing but — this is the year he wins the Masters.

☂️ Rain Rain Go Away

Another week, another forecast to decipher. This time, a wet one.

The forecast is calling for an inch+ of rain on Thursday, continuing overnight into Friday which will then greet the TOUR with thunderstorms. Certainly not an ideal forecast for playing golf!

I’m interested to see if the TOUR will invoke preferred lies for the first two days of the tournament. As of right now, the Thursday rain could come late enough in the day where the TOUR would look silly for playing ball-in-hand before a single raindrop has landed.

However, there could be a plan to proactively declare preferred lies based on the future radar and to maintain equity for the field.

If any portion of the event is played with preferred lies, playing out of the fairway will become significantly more valuable. That would benefit:

1. Ben Kohles

2. Max McGreevy

3. Takumi Kanaya

4. Aaron Rai

5. Austin Eckroat

Those five all hit at least 68% of their fairways AND gain strokes off-the-tee, meaning that their length is also a benefit.

🤠 Lone Star Stars

Scottie Scheffler takes pride when playing in Texas and it shows up on the stat-sheet. He’s the best player in this field teeing it up in the Lone Star State, picking up 1.53 strokes per round.

He’s won the Match Play in Austin but he hasn’t won a stroke play event on TOUR in his home state. He boasts a 10% rate of finishing in the Top 5.

Davis Riley has been stellar in Texas and is playing some of the best golf he has in a year (low bar!).

Jason Day’s short-game should help him find success again this week and he’s a two-time winner in Texas.