🐷 Oink Oink

📢 Fore, Please…

The FedEx Cup Playoffs start next week and we launched a FIVE & DONE for the occasion. Pick five golfers for each week of the playoffs (15 total picks) but you can only use each golfer once. Total money takes it, but there are also payouts for each tournament as a segment.

I’ve never done anything like this, so it’ll be a little bit of a trial to see how well received these types of contests are. I hope you enjoy!

Rick

🏆 Last Week’s Optimal Lineup

$8,200: Michael Thorbjornsen (129.5)
$7,400: Matt Wallace (114.0)
$6,200: Davis Riley (111.0)
$10,200: Xander Schauffele (110.0)
$6,900: Rasmus Hojgaard (108.0)
$6,900: Rico Hoey (107.5)
$45,800: 680.0 Pts

🔫 Young Guns

The world of golf is having a youth movement. Jackson Koivun and Michael Thorbjornsen have arrived with authority the last two weeks but they are just the tip of the iceberg. The game is getting younger as evidenced by Blades Brown, Tommy Morrison and a variety of more young studs coming up through the ranks.

They’ll have their moment in the spotlight, let’s circle back to Michael Thorbjornsen and what he was just able to accomplish.

Michael Thorbjornsen becomes just the 20th 24-year old to …

1) win in their age 24 season
2) have at least (3) Top 10s
3) gain at least +0.50 strokes per round

The rest of the players on that list are certainly names that you’d want to be surrounded by. Many are clear cut HOFers and there are plenty of major champions amongst them. This doesn’t mean that Thorbjornsen is going to turn into one of these guys but it certainly helps to get off to a good start.

🔥 Heat Check

With four rounds to go until the FedEx Cup Playoffs, now is a good time to be playing your best golf. We are seeing a handful of players find their stride at this point of the year and they are working hard to extend their seasons.

Here are the ten “hottest players” on TOUR based on their SG in the last 24 rounds.

Zac Blair, despite being one of the worst players off-the-tee in the last 24 rounds is one of the best overall players. That speaks volumes to the rest of his game.

Ben Kohles has done nothing but play great golf all summer long.

Matt Wallace sneaks up on me here. He’s fueled by a runner-up at the Italian Open and a T5 at the Rocket Classic amongst a bunch of other decent finishes.

Doug Ghim is a zero with the putter, always a good sign for a first ballot #TeamNoPutt Hall of Famer.

👴 The Don

Sedgefield CC is a Donald Ross design that dates back to 1926. He was well known for doing his best to move as little earth as possible, using the site’s natural undulation to create its identity.

With over 400 courses in his portfolio, there’s no shortage of Ross designs in professional golf. Here are the Donald Ross Specialists — dating back to 2020.

1. Patrick Cantlay +2.66

2. Brooks Koepka +2.01

3. Aaron Rai +1.95

4. Billy Horschel +1.82

5. Cameron Young +1,78

6. Johnny Keefer +1.51

7. Chris Kirk +1.48

8. Max Greyserman +1.47

9. Davis Thompson +1.34

10. Ben Griffin +1.32
    

🎲 Playing For Comps

When I ran my regression model this week, the three most statistically comparable courses to Sedgefield were Harbour Town, Colonial CC, and TPC Twin Cities. I love this!

Especially off-the-tee, these are courses that are tree-lined and/or extremely penal for missing the fairway. They are positional venues where precision often outduels power.

So — I wanted to make a “Mega Course History” query. Here are the best players in the field this week on those four courses, since 2020 (min 5 starts).

🥵 Filling It Up!

Our britches are getting quite big. Another week and another (very) early fill of our listener league. You can no longer wait around until Thursday morning to get into these contests. As I write this, on Tuesday, there are less than 500 spots to go. That’s abnormal but very good!

Cheers to y’all for taking good care of us.

Join: https://bit.ly/SplashRRG

• Use my fantasy and betting tools here!

• Let me know which players and stats you want to hear more about. Reply to this email with suggestions.

• Play big contests & win big money. See my contests now.