Good afternoon! Welcome to Shanks. Rory McIlroy won The Match over Max Homa, Rose Zhang, and Lexi Thompson. 2024’s iteration was definitely better than 2023’s. They donated a bunch of money to charity and a large part of the golf world got to hear DJ Khaled yell incoherently for the first time. Sorry for not warning you.

Golf Fact: Last week, Jake Knapp became the lowest pre-tourney odds golfer to win this year at +4000. Wild start to the year.

Here's what we've got for ya today:

• Doin Lines: The Cognizant Classic

• Gooch Gets Ripped

• Shots Heard Round The World

• Anthony Kim: Hello Haters

• Gators Are Fast

• Thing We’d Buy If We Weren’t Broke

Doin Lines: The Cognizant Classic

🚩 Location: PGA National

💰 Purse: $9M -$1.62M to first.

👑 Previous Winner: Chris Kirk

👀 Watch On: Golf Channel, NBC, ESPN+

The Cognizant Classic Field & How To Watch 👀 

The Florida swing begins Thursday morning at PGA National, home of The Bear Trap. This tournament used to be called The Honda Classic, but now it’s got a new sponsor and name: The Cognizant Classic.

After watching them play on a wide open resort course last week, it will be a really nice change of pace to see the pros take on one of Jack’s designs at PGA National, which is much more challenging.

With that being said, we’ve still had our fair share of longshot winners here over the years.

Last year, Chris Kirk beat Eric Cole in a playoff. The year before that, a relatively unknown Sepp Straka won it all. The year before that? Matt Jones.

We also get a much stronger field this week than last, with 19 of the top 50 in Data Golf rankings competing.

Best In The Field

Rory McIlroy, Cameron Young, Eric Cole, Russell Henley, Byeong Hun An, JT Poston, Tom Kim, Matt Fitzpatrick, and Shane Lowry.

How To Watch

Thursday, Feb. 29: 2-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel)
Friday, March 1: 2-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel)
Saturday, March 2: 1-3 p.m. ET (Golf Channel); 3-6 p.m. ET (NBC)
Sunday, March 3: 1-3 p.m. ET (Golf Channel); 3-6 p.m. ET (NBC)

Previous Winners 

2021 - Matt Jones

2022 - Sepp Straka

2023 - Chris Kirk

Shanks Picks

Two small hits last week with Jake Knapp Top-twenty and the MTCP helped keep Shanks up for the season. Let’s see if we can add to it this week.

All odds via BetMGM. Except the MTCP, which is available on Fanduel.

Winner: Tom Kim +2800

He has never played at PGA National before, so that adds some risk to this pick, but he’s also been incredibly accurate off the tee, which is a major key at this course.

Top Five: Shane Lowry +650

Shane has played really well here the last two years, finishing T5 last year and 2nd in 2022.

Top Ten: Sepp Straka +350

The Big Man always plays well here and won in 2022.

Top Twenty: Christiaan Bezuidenhout +225

The recent form pick of the week.

Longshot: Robert Macintyre +10000

Bobby Mac got bit by a mosquito last week for the first time in his life in Mexico. Apparently, they don’t have a lot of those in northern Scotland. Anyway, he finished T5 last week and has gained strokes on the field in all three of his last starts.

Make The Cut Parlay (Fanduel): Shane Lowry, Keith Mitchell, Chris Kirk, and Byeong Hun An to all make the cut. +298

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Gooch Gets Ripped

Man, what a total jackass Talor Gooch is.

Here’s the moronic quote he gave to Australian Golf Digest, in reference to LIV players not being invited to The Masters (for the record, there are 12 LIV golfers in the field).

“If Rory McIlroy goes and completes his Career Grand Slam without some of the best players in the world, there’s just going to be an asterisk. It’s just the reality.”

As a result, the entire golf world proceeded to rip him on social media yesterday, someone even changed his Wikipedia page to show an asterisk on events he won that Rory wasn’t in.

But the best response of all was Rocco Mediate, from the top rope. (click tweet to read full commentary)

Shots Heard Round The World

LIV LANDS A NEW TV PARTNER

PGAT SAYS ONLY 6 LIV GOLFERS “DESIRABLE” FOR POTENTIAL RETURN

FIVE PLAYERS WHO NEED A BIG FLORIDA SWING

Anthony Kim: Hello Haters

Anthony Kim just posted this on his Instagram this morning…

We won’t lie, we are intrigued enough by Anthony’s return to watch LIV this weekend, at least a little bit. His swings on the range looked good.

Kim captured the hearts of a lot of golf fans in those years between 2007-2011.

Then he just disappeared for twelve years.

Funny enough, this is also a perfect example of why LIV doesn’t meet the criteria of OWGR. It’s an invitational league and no one earns their way on. Which is why a guy who disappeared for over a decade can just show up and play.

Anyway here’s how to watch Anthony Kim this week:

Friday
Live on The CW Network App, LIV Golf Plus and LIV Golf YouTube channel.

Saturday and Sunday
Live on the CW Network, LIV Golf Plus and LIV Golf YouTube channel.

Gator Attacks Golf Cart

Yesterday, my 65 year old dad, who lives in Florida, tried to tell me gators aren’t that fast. He was dead wrong.

Thing We'd Buy If We Weren't Broke

Ok so clearly it’s not the actual first run of putters from Toulon, but still, Toulon Golf announced their 2024 “First Run” line of milled putters which introduces 11 models across eight head shapes, including blades and mallets, designed with various toe hang options to suit different stroke types.

These putters are crafted with a double fly mill cut treatment on the face for a responsive but soft feel, with certain models incorporating an aluminum sole plate for improved stability. The collection, a passion project of founder Sean Toulon and his sons, combines heavier standard weight heads with adjustable sole weights and a new face milling pattern to enhance feel, sound, and control.

Fun Fact: If you play a TM Spider putter, Sean Toulon is the one who designed it. He knows his stuff for sure.

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That’s all folks! See you Saturday Morning.

*Disclosure: This is a paid advertisement for GolfSuites 1 Inc.’s Reg A offering. Please read the offering circular at invest.golfsuites.com.