🎰 Vegas Straight Flushers

It’s good to be home! We had a blast in Italy and experienced a trip that previously only lived in my dreams. Now we are back in the states and the PGA TOUR is coming to my backyard. A true “home game” for me in Vegas this week, so I couldn’t be more fired up.

EnjoyRick

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🏆 Last Week’s Optimal Lineup 🐔

Ludvig Aberg: $10,900 | 123.5 PointsBen Griffin: $8,400 | 121.5 PointsLuke List: $8,000 | 121.5 PointsMark Hubbard: $8,800 | 120.0 PointsHenrik Norlander: $6,700 | 117.0 PointsScott Stalling: $7,200 | 114.0 PointsTOTAL: $50,000 | 717.5 Points

🍗 Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner

Luke List, I repeat, Luke List putted his way to victory last week. He gained 5.84 strokes putting, the fifth best mark of his career. He also became the eighth winner since the start of the 2022 season to gain fewer than one stroke on approach for the week:

🏠 Speaking of Home Games…

There are a lot of guys who play out of TPC Summerlin who you’ll see in the field this week. Doug Ghim & Justin Suh are the most notable but let me remind you of Harry Hall who loves home-cooking.

Harry has gained 16 strokes to the field in his eight rounds at TPC Summerlin, which is the most of anyone in this field with at least eight rounds.

Harry is an accomplished putter at nearly every course but he really finds his tee-to-green play at home. His two events in Vegas are the 3rd and 4th best tee-to-green weeks of his career.

🏌️‍♀️ Lexi Makes History

Peter Malnati called it a “gimmick” that Lexi Thompson will be teeing it up this week with the boys. I’m excited to see history in person and find out what Lexi can do, but statistically, I’m not optimistic.

Thompson is long off-the-tee compared to her LPGA peers, driving it 270.3 yards on average. On the PGA TOUR, that would be last of all qualified golfers.

Additionally, her form isn’t strong, missing the cut in five of her last eight events while struggling with the flat-stick. Combine that with all the buzz, and hoopla that will surround her this week and it feels like it’ll be an incredible difficult challenge.

🤕 Back in Action

Hayden Buckley tore a ligament in June which sidelined him for nearly two months. He teed it up at the FedEx St Jude Championship (in questionable health) as an attempt to continue his season. He finished T52 and hasn’t played since.

Presumably healthy after playing last week (MC), Buckley is back in action at a course with plenty of good vibes for him. He’s gained 1.75 strokes per round in eight career rounds — the second most behind just Harry Hall.

If you reset every golfer back to their 100 round baselines, Buckley is the 7th best ball-striker in this field.

🤩 The Curse of High Expectations

Expectations were incredible high for Tom Kim after he won the Wyndham Championship and Shriners Children’s Open within four starts of one another last year. And most casual viewers would assume that Kim hasn’t played well since then — which is only partly true.

The last seven starts for Kim have been excellent, piling up (4) Top 10 finishes and flashing signs of the skills that brought on those massive expectations.

He gained 4+ strokes on approach in four different occasions since the U.S. Open and has been a putting machine during the same stretch. This not only acts as a shameless plug for RickRunGood.com, which has metrics from six different global tours, but shows that Kim is easily playing his best golf since this time last year.

👂Listener League Is Back!

The fun tier-based contest on Splash is back for this week and I’ll do my best to remember to create one each week — the feedback has been awesome.

It’s a top-heavy payout again this week, good luck!

The contest for the Shriners Children’s Open is already live — $12 entry, three entry max.🪙 Join: https://bit.ly/44KbAUB

🔢 Run The Numbers!

There’s a type of golfer that should find success in Vegas this week. One who keeps it out of the desert off-the-tee, with distance not being a major concern. One who can give themselves plenty of birdie opportunities AND convert them. One who has a suitable short-game (nothing special, just don’t be horrible). And, ideally, one with a little bit of success at this venue.

Let’s take all of that and throw it into the Custom Model at RickRunGood.com to find our golfer rankings:

⚠️ In Case You Missed It

🍔 I’ve been photo-dumping tons from Europe and I just love this photo with Andrew “Beef” Johnston. I went on his podcast two nights in a row and it was great to chop it up and share a drink after the event had been decided. He’s been dealing with an injury but hoping to tee it up across the pond at the end of November.

⛳ I was very fortunate to be selected to play (!!) Marco Simone on Monday after the Ryder Cup. I shot an 82 from the member tees which I will never stop talking about. I had my really good game and was thrilled with my strategy. That course is SO HARD and it’s impossible if you are playing out of the rough.

📺 If you have access to Swedish TV (and who doesn’t!), you might have seen a familiar face. I appeared for a segment on Scottie Scheffler thanks to my new friend Mattias — who was generous enough to ask me to come on.