Wells Fargo Bets, Twitter Beefs, and Brackets.

Happy Wednesday to ya, and welcome to Shanks. Reading us is cooler than David Bowie smoking a lung dart in the 1970s.

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

• Doin Lines: Wells Fargo

• The Bracket Is Back

• Phil Mickelson vs Colt Knost

• Golf Shots Heard Round The World

• Tiger Podcast

• Golf Data

• Golf Thing We'd Buy If We Weren't Broke

Doin Lines: Wells Fargo Championship

Ahhhhhh!

We are back in the swing of things (no sh*tty pun intended) with a designated event at the historic Quail Hollow Club this week. The top dogs are all playing, besides Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm, for a big trophy and an even bigger purse.

Plus, we get the return of Rory McIlroy after his masters collapse, which left him chuckling to himself after bogeys like a patient at an insane asylum. Let's dive in.

🚩 Location: Quail Hollow Club

💰 Purse: $20M - Winner gets $3.6M

👑 Previous Winner: Max Homa

⛳️ Field: 156

👀 Watch On: Golf Channel, CBS, ESPN+, Paramount+

Let's Gamble

We've got past champions looking for a win, we've got never-winners seeking their first dub, we've got hot golfers looking to capitalize on a streak and bring home the bacon.

Ladies and Gentleman, we've got ourselves a god damned golf tournament.

The Course

A beautiful beast. Quail Hollow is a 7,538 yard par 71 with tricky greens and finishes with The Green Mile.

"The 16th hole is a 506-yard, dogleg-right par 4, the 17th a 223-yard par 3 with water, and the finishing hole is a 494-yard par 4 with a creek down the entire left side. The hole demands precision off the tee (a creek on the left must be avoided) to leave a good angle into a green protected by water on the left and bunkers." -PGAT

A winning score surpassed 12-under par just once here over the last six years.

Big Brain Analytics

"Like most other modern Major championship-style venues, Quail Hollow rewards the longest players off the tee and requires polished all-around skillsets from tee-to-green.

Compared to Major conditions, the fairways are less pinched for the Wells Fargo Championship, opening the door for shorter fairway-finders like Abraham Ancer, Joel Dahmen, and Nick Watney to contend in the last three Wells Fargo Championship contests at Quail Hollow Club." - The Lines

Going back to 2014, all the winners have ranked top 15 in shots gained off the tee leading into the tournament.

The top 15 players in Driving Distance in this field entering this week are: Rory McIlroy, Cameron Young, Cameron Champ, Matthias Schmid, Byeong Hun An, Gary Woodland, Keith Mitchell, Brent Grant, Wyndham Clark, Trey Mullinax, Luke List, Will Gordon, Vincent Norrman, Callum Tarren, and Davis Thompson.

💰Shanks Picks💰

Outright Winner: Cam Young +2000 via BetMGM

Cam is top of the board in Driving Distance and has competed well since he won rookie of the year last year. That first tour win is coming soon.

Top Five: Viktor Hovland +400 via BetMGM

Viktor has gained strokes OTT (off the tee) in every event this year. Don't hate him at all to win OR either, which is +1800.

Top Ten: Hard to find good odds here, but we're gonna go with past Quail Hollow winner Justin Thomas +220 and Joel Dahmen, who's also played well here, +1000.

Long Shot: Just going to pick Sahith Theegala here until he wins. +4000

Notes: Rory has won here three times and Rickie Fowler has won here once. Rory also set the course record in 2015. Rory OR +750 and Rickie OR is +3300.

Brackets are Back!

If you got absolutely hosed during March Madness, or even during the Dell Match Play in Austin, Texas, you may get your shot at redemption.

Today is the day that it’s announced who the 81 NCAA golf teams are that qualify for the postseason. Each of the six regionals are played on May 15-17. The top five teams, and top individual not on an advancing team, from each regional will advance to the 30-team NCAA Championship on May 26-31 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Betting on college sports? Well I never! Currently, Vanderbilt is predicted to win with +125 odds. Shortly behind are Texas Tech (+350) and North Carolina (+550). If you already forgot where Masters Amateur favorite goes, (Sam Bennett) he’s at Texas A&M, and their odds at winning the NCAA Golf Championship sit at +4000.

Defending champions Texas are at a fairly long shot to win, +2800. Tune in to Golf Channel at 1pm ET to see who is in, and who is out.

Phil Mickelson vs Colt Knost

Every week on Golf Twitter, there is some sort of drama bubbling, or arguments being made, or dastardly accusations being hurled around.

Almost every week, it's either Phil Mickelson or Lee Westwood getting hyped with their twitter fingers and lashing out at the "golf media establishment". This week the target was Colt Knost, a former tour player who works now at CBS

The Drama:

Phil is whining about OWGR, or Official World Golf Ranking, and how they aren't awarding points to LIV players, which effects their ability to get into majors. He goes on to claim that its a conspiracy with the PGA Tour for TV Deals.

On the other side of that argument, LIV plays 54 hole events, that are shotgun starts, in a friendly team environment, against a MUCH smaller field (48 vs like 150). Which they all knew before they left.

Anyway, all of this led to a lil twitter beef, but they kept it respectful.

Respectfully, if you want to read more, details can be found here.

Golf Shots Heard Round The World

Tiger and Joe Split: Tiger Woods longtime caddie Joe Lacava have parted ways. Joe will now be on the human tortoise (Patrick Cantlay) bag.

Golfers Get Their Asses Kicked: Another week, another golf course fight. This time, some former MMA dudes kicked some golfers asses. However, there are two sides to this fight.

USA! USA! The LPGA is competing in a little international team competition this week. Here's everything you need to know about the teams.

Listen Up

Founders Podcast did an excellent episode on Tiger Woods this week.

The first 30 minutes of this Tiger Woods episode is nuts.

Listen here.

Golf Data

Siri, what does dominance look like?

Golf Thing We'd Buy If We Weren't Broke - Reader Edition

Our readers have been letting us know what kinds of stuff they’d be buying if they weren’t totally broke, and we wanted to share those things because misery loves company!

“A Scotty Cameron ($247.99 on eBay). Mine was stolen from me at a high school practice while I was using the bathroom and I haven’t played a round since where I didn’t miss it (sad emoji).” – Joe P. (Costa Mesa, CA)

We want to hear from you lovely readers about the things you’d be willing to do to get the cash for your dream driver. Or a new bag to replace yours which is all tattered from that time you drove the cart into the swamp. Or heck, maybe you just want some new golf balls. Tweet at us @caddy_shanks and hashtag #DearCaddyShanks to be featured in a future newsletter!

Maybe we will buy you the thing you covet?

That's all folks! See you Fridee.