🏦 Let's Get Fiscal

📢 Fore, Please:

I loved every minute of being on the road the last few weeks, but nothing beats being at home! Sleeping in your own bed, not having to live out of a suitcase. The simple things.

Either way, I’ve got the itch. I want to be out there every single week. Nothing beats being in the action and seeing the best players in the world up close and personal.

It won’t be long!

Thank you, as always.
Rick

🏅 Last Week’s Optimal Lineup

Scottie Scheffler: $13,400 | 117.0 PTS
Davis Riley: $6,100 | 93.5 PTS
Ryan Gerard: $6,000 | 90.5 PTS
Harris English: $6,800 | 90.0 PTS
Bryson DeChambeau: $11,500 | 88.0 PTS
Jhonny Vegas: $5,500 | 85.5 PTS
TOTAL: $49,300 | 564.5 PTS 

🏆 The Concern-o-Meter

There were some significant names who missed the cuts last week in Charlotte and now, halfway through the year, it’s time to evaluate how concerned they should be.

Ludvig Aberg - he’s won a signature event and finished Top 10 at the Masters but this still feels like a campaign that should be much better. He’s now lost strokes on approach in five of his last seven starts.
1/10 (long-term)
8/10 (short-term)

Patrick Cantlay - there was not a single moment during the PGA Championship where Cantlay was under-par. He made bogey on the first hole he played and could never get back into red figures. This missed cut snaps a streak of 11 straight weekends at Majors. 6/10.

🧟 The Rest of the Round-Up

The rest of what you missed last week:

• Hideki Matsuyama’s streak of making the cut in 19 straight Majors has come to an end. During that stretch he earned one win, (3) Top 10s, and (11) Top 25s.

• JT Poston (T5) earned the best Major Championship finish of his career, previously a T30 at the 2024 Masters.

• Harris English gained 7.15 strokes in the final round, which is the 7th best round in a Major Championship this year.

🐳 That Scheffler Boy Is At The Again!

Scottie Scheffler won his first Major Championship in 2022 and he hasn’t looked back. He’s played a total of (14) Majors and has a Top 5 finish in half of them. He has more Top 5s than Xander Schauffele & Jon Rahm combined. Those two have another (3) Majors wins to their names.

Not only has he won more than anyone else, but he has more Top 5s than anyone, more Top 10s than anyone, and has gained more strokes to the field than anyone.

The “close but no cigar” award might have to be shared between Collin Morikawa and Tommy Fleewood. They have 28 combined Major starts since then, and are the 4th and 7th best players during that stretch. They have (8) combined Top 5 finishes … and zero wins.

🐳 JD + RRG + U

Remember when we gave away an all-expense paid trip to play golf with John Daly and myself? Yeah, we’re doing it again. We’re filling that fourth spot in the group with one of you!

⛳ Play one round of golf with John Daly and myself.
✈️ $1,000 cash towards travel
🎟️ Each contest entry = one chance to win
⏰ All PGA contests thru U.S. Open

This Week’s Contest
🤑 $25/Entry
🪙 $25,000 guaranteed purse, $2,500 to first.
🎱 Pick six golfers, best five scores count!

🔗 Play Now

🌲 Keep It On The Straight & Narrow

The tree-lined fairways at Colonial would imply that accuracy, over power, would reign supreme. And those implications are correct. There is only one hole (no. 3) where the reward for hitting a Long Drive is more than that penalty for missing the fairway.

The missed fairway penalty in many scenarios can be upwards of a half a stroke! That’s a massive number. There are only four courses still left on the schedule that will be more penal on errant drives.

😰 Know The Penal Code

That missed fairway penalty at Colonial ranks as the 10th most penal on the PGA TOUR Schedule. I went ahead and run the numbers — here are everyone in this field when playing one of the 10 Most Penal Driving Courses (since 2020):

Does anything make more sense than seeing Lucas Glover’s name here? A whopping 25 starts with (7) Top 10s and (2) wins. He’s made a career of throwing darts from the middle of the fairway.

Ryan Gerard is starting to become a model darling. I’ve been slicing up the data in a variety of ways the last few months and Gerard’s name always seems to pop up. He doesn’t have the same sample size as most, but it’s growing and he refuses to go away. Another strong week in Charlotte, finishing T8.

🏅 New Hardware On The Mantle

Neal Shipley is going to make his first PGA TOUR start since his win on the Korn Ferry Tour last month. His 2025 off to a rocky start with missed cuts in four of his first five events.

Despite that, he has a T9 and his last three have gone win-T29-T18. He’s clearly getting more comfortable with his game and he should be brimming with confidence in Fort Worth. He was an accomplished amateur earning top-honors at both the Masters and U.S. Open last year. It’s just a matter of time before he continues his ascension through the game.