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2023 Genesis Scottish Open Bets

2023 Genesis Scottish Open Bets

LIV & PGA Senate Hearing, Best Putter in The Game, and more golf news.

Josey Orr
July 12, 2023

Good afternoon! Welcome to Caddyshanks, a golf newsletter that plays fast even though we suck, likes to gamble, and has a great vibes.

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

Doin Lines: Genesis Scottish Open
The Swamp
Golf Shots Heard Round The World
Best Putter in The Game
Golf Thing We'd Buy If We Weren't Broke

Doin Lines: Genisis Scottish Open

Finally, after a few weeks without the biggest names in golf, we get most of them back for the Scottish Open (and next week at The Open).

Not only that, but 3 of the last 4 years, this event has gone to a playoff. If you’ve been reading Shanks for a while now, you know we love a Sunday Playoff.

🚩 Location: The Renaissance Club

💰 Purse: $9M - Winner gets $1.57M

👑 Previous Winner: Xander Schauffle

⛳️ Field: 156

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

The Field at a Glance

The Scottish Open serves as a tune-up for a lot of players ahead of The Open.

This week, we’ve got 20 of the top-30 in OWGR competing.

That list includes Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay, Viktor Hovland, Xander Schauffele, Max Homa, Matt Fitzpatrick, Jordan Spieth, and Wyndham Clark.

The Course

Links golf baby!

For those not in the know, Links Golf is a bit different than traditional American golf - and we aren’t going to go into the agricultural details today, but here’s the gist:

“When most people think of links-style golf, they are picturing golf that can be played along the ground with lots of undulation, plenty of dunes and little to no trees. These courses also usually feature pot bunkers as opposed to the larger sprawling American-style bunkers. Because of the lack of trees and waterfront location, wind plays a huge factor on most links courses.” - GD.

The Renaissance Club, founded in 2008, is a modern Scottish Links course designed by Tom Doak.

Weather should be pretty good, with maybe a touch of rain, but the wind is going to pick up as the weekend goes along.

The Data

There isn’t a ton of course / event specific data considering this event and course just became co-sanctioned by the PGAT last year. We will look instead at recent form & ball striking.

SG: T2G The top 10 players in SG: T2G over the last 24 rounds are: Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, Patrick Cantlay, Tommy Fleetwood, Gary Woodland, Viktor Hovland, Xander Schauffele, Byeong Hun An, and Corey Conners.

Because the wind is likely to pick up throughout the weekend, and it’s a links course to begin with, pure ball striking is going to be a big factor.

10 players in SG: APP are: Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Rickie Fowler, Justin Rose, Jordan Spieth, Alex Smalley, Corey Conners, Rory McIlroy, Mark Hubbard, and Aaron Rai.

💰Shanks Picks💰

As per usual, the art of golf gambling involves trying to find someone who has long enough odds from Vegas, yet can still win outright.

Outright Winner: Tommy Fleetwood +2200 BETMGM - Recent form has been good, he’s a European and accustomed to links-style play.

Top Five: Tyrell Hatton +350 BETMGM - He has three top 25 finishes at this event.

Top Ten: Aaron Rai +550 BETMGM - Rai has been playing sneaky good golf, has won this event before, and has been a nice T20 play for us. Let’s see if he can crack the top ten.

Top Twenty: Ludvig Aberg +225 BETMGM - Last week we hit Sepp Straka here. Let’s ride with our boy Ludvig Aberg again, with a little less pressure this time.

Long Shots: Adam Scott +5000 BETMGM - It’s his birthday on Sunday.

Tourney Special: Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffle, and Patrick Cantlay to finish inside to top ten (including ties) +1300 on Fanduel.

LIV & PGAT Go To The Swamp

Every time you think of Capitol Hill, and the fine folks who “work” there, you should think of that Obi Won Kenobi line from A New Hope.

"You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious".

And so we find ourselves in D.C. in front of members of the Senate, who want to ask Ron Price (Tour COO) and Jimmy Dunne (PGAT Board Member who brokered the deal) some questions about the “LIV Merger”.

Short Summary: Some Senators asked stupid questions, some asked good questions. The deal was brokered in secret, but when pressed on why it was so secretive, neither Price nor Dunne had a great answer.

The reality for the PGAT Tour was a simple one: they were drug into a lawsuit by PIF, which they could not afford to continue fighting, and PIF could…indefinitely.

So, a small group within the board decided to squash the lawsuit and come to the table.

Social Takeaway: What most of social media focused on, was the back and forth between PIF and PGA, when they were working on a framework to the deal.

Very interesting: some of the proposals floated between the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund, as shown in documents released today by the Subcommittee:
- Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy being given ownership of LIV Golf teams and participating in LIV Golf events
- Greg… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
— John Nucci (@JNucci23)
2:57 PM • Jul 11, 2023

Quote of The Day: “There is no merger. There is no deal. There is simply an agreement to try to get to an agreement and settle lawsuits.” Jimmy Dunne

Further Reading: PGA Tour defends Saudi deal in Senate as emails show plan’s origins.