⛳️ Quick Update: BMW Championship

Good Morning. Welcome to Shanks. According to a quick google search, only 5% of golfers will break 80 and only .5% will ever break par. It’s a tough, beautiful game.

Did You Know? When traveling with golf clubs, one way people prevent their clubs from being damaged is by putting a broom handle in their bag that is slightly longer than their driver. Here’s a Reddit Thread with a bunch more helpful golf hacks.

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

• Quick Update: BMW Championship

• Brandel is Back

• Golf Shots Heard Round The World

• It’s Putter Season

• True or False?

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

Quick Update: BMW Championship

Rounds 1 & 2 Recap

The story of the BMW Championship so far is that Max Homa broke the friggin course record, man.

Homa-sexuals everywhere rejoiced as he carded a 62 on Friday.

What about everybody else?

Chris Kirk (-8): Chris Kirk shot four-under, but ended the second round with five straight pars. We can’t relate to being disappointed with four-under, but he definitely seemed a little let down with the run of pars to close out his round. With his win at the Honda Classic, he entered this week ranked 29th in Fedex points. Only the top 30 move on to the Tour Championship next week.

Matt Fitzpatrick (-7): Another bubble boy for next week. Fitz is ranked 40th and would advance if he finishes like he started.

Brian Harman (-7): The Open champion bounced back from his performance last week. He’s safely inside the top 30, and he’s definitely going to be a Ryder Cup pick.

Scottie Scheffler, Rickie Fowler, Justin Rose, Harris English and Rory McIlroy (-5):  

At this point, it’s more surprising when Scottie Scheffler isn’t near the top of the leaderboard. Rickie Fowler continues to be dialed. He almost aced the 8th hole, a par three which plays 254 yards. Justin Rose and Harris English are right in the thick of it, both of them on the bubble.

Rory McIlroy, who is probably the most talented golfer on the planet, is dead last in fairway accuracy so far. Despite only hitting 9/28 fairways, he still managed to get himself to five-under.

Course conditions should get tougher and faster as the weekend goes on, with no more rain on the schedule. Rory will need to reel it in if he wants a shot at winning this thing.

💰 Shanks Picks 💰

Our Card From Wednesday.

Quick Card Review:

Our outright pick (Viktor Hovland) is hanging tough and T13 at three-under. Plenty of golf left for this one. Our Longshot, Cam Young, came out hot in round one, but totally cooled off in round two. He’s two-under.

Our Top Five Pick, Patrick Cantlay, is looking good at four-under. He is currently T10.

Tyrell Hatton, who let us down last week, is letting us down again this week. He’s +2 and not likely to cash Top Ten.

Reader Request: Tommy Fleetwood outright is also alive. He is tied with Viktor at three-under. Hat tip to the anonymous reader.

Weekend Bet: Rickie Fowler +2200.

Brandel is Back

If you’ve been reading Shanks for a while, you know we enjoy poking fun at Brandel Chamblee, just like everyone else.

Brandel is sort of the Skip Bayless of the golf world - which means there’s always flaming hot (sometimes downright awful, sometimes accurate) takes coming out of his mouth.

Of course, Brandel has been VERY outspoken about LIV Golf, whether Brooks Koepka should make the Ryder Cup or not, and of course, how much he hates Phil Mickelson and thinks he shouldn’t be in the hall of fame.

Credit to Golf.com for putting a microphone in front of his face.

Also, credit to Chris Powers for pointing out how Brandel took a shot at Patrick Cantlay during his rant about Phil Mickelson.

This stuff is just too good, man. We’re in the golden era of golf content.

Full Interview Here.

Golf Shots Heard Round The World

Old Lady: 103 year old woman goes to BMW Championship, meets her crush Rickie Fowler.

Withdraw: Hideki Matsuyama cites back pain, withdraws from BMW, will miss Tour Championship. 

Tee Times: Tee Times and pairings for round three of the BMW Championship.

It’s Putter Season

Newest hot drop alert! The Mizuno putter, the M-Craft, has some new friends and they are even catering to lefty’s! It was announced a few days ago that Mizuno will be expanding the putter line with three new models, including two available to left-handers. Let’s talk about these Mizuno money sticks…

• Price: $350

• They keep things simple when it comes to naming the new models. The wide flange blade is the 4, the center shafted mid-mallet is the 5, and the winged mallet is the 6.

• Shaft: Comes with an all black finish

• Grip: Branded Lamkin OMOI Sink Fit pistol putter grip

• OMOI: is a word in Japanese that means “deep thoughts” or, one might even say, heavy thoughts. So putter heads are as much as 28 grams heavier than standard, improving their stability on off-center hits

• Speaking of head: forged from 1025 carbon steel and feature deep face milling for furthering that softer feel. 3 finishes are available, double nickel, blue ION, or Black ION

The new Mizuno OMOI putters models will be available starting August 23^rd.

True or False?

It’s not not true.

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

We will admit, we are curious about what Arccos could tell us about our own games…

If you’re unfamiliar… Arccos makes sensors that attach to the bottom of your club, and track your shots.

“With strokes gained analytics, you’ll know exactly which areas of your game you need to work on to improve faster. Now you’ll even be able to see how many strokes you’re gaining or losing with every club in your bag.”

According to their website, Arccos members improve by 5 strokes on average in their first year using the system.

Learn More.

That's all folks! Have a great weekend of golf and see you Monday.