⛳️ Bets for The Sony Open

Plus: Rory's Dream Scenario & True Love Is Dead

Author

The Shanks Gator
January 10, 2024

Good afternoon! Welcome to Shanks. Tiger and Nike have officially broken up, which got us thinking, is this the best Tiger / Nike commercial?

Golf Trivia: Six players in history have won the “Hawaii Double” winning both The Sony and The Sentry, who are the six?

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

  • Doin Lines: The Sony Open

  • Rory McIlroy’s Dream Scenario

  • True Love Is Dead

  • Shots Heard Round The World

  • Thing We’d Buy If We Weren’t Broke

Doin Lines: The Sony Open

🚩 Location: Waialae Country Club, Oahu, HI

💰 Purse: $8.3M -$1.4M to first.

👑 Previous Winner: Si Woo Kim

👀 Watch On: Golf Channel, Peacock

The Sony Open Field and How To Watch

After last weeks limited field event, it’s nice to have a full field (144 golfers!) and a cut this week. It gives us the opportunity for the first MTCP of the year.

A win would certainly help to offset the jealously we feel while watching guys play golf in paradise, as we sit here at Shanks HQ in Pennsylvania freezing our asses off.

On a lighter note, Gary Woodland is back this week after recovering from brain surgery and Will Zalatoris is also in the field as he makes his comeback from back surgery.

The best in the field:

Matt Fitzpatrick, Ludvig Aberg, Tyrrell Hatton, Sahith Theegala, Brian Harman Akshay Bhattia, and Justin Rose will all be in the field, while Si Woo Kim defends his title from last year and Chris Kirk attempts to become the first player since Justin Thomas to win back to back weeks in Hawaii.

How To Watch

  • Thursday-Saturday: 6-10:30 p.m. (Golf Channel)

  • Sunday: 4-6 p.m. (NBC), 6-8 p.m. (Golf Channel)

Previous Winners 

2019 – Cam Smith

2020 – Kevin Na

2021 – Hideki Matsayuma

2022 - Si Woo Kim

Shanks Picks

As we mentioned in Monday’s newsletter, Waialae Country Club is second only to Augusta in terms of course history being predictive of play.

A few of other things to consider:

  • 16 of the last 17 Sony winners competed there at least once before winning

  • The last ten winners have gained an average of six strokes on the field putting

  • Seventeen of the 25 Sony Open winners played The Sentry the week before, although last year’s winner, Si Woo Kim, did not.

Winner: Chris Kirk +2800

Six golfers in history have won The Sentry and The Sony back to back. We believe that Chris Kirk will be the next. He has played this event thirteen times in his career, his recent form and putting are good, and the number on him isn’t awful.

Top Five: JT Poston +650

The Postman finished T5 last week, he’s consistently been one of the best putters on tour, and he has 1,2,3,4,5,6! Top ten finishes in the last six months.

Top Ten: Si Woo Kim +350

Si Woo played decently last week, carding a Top 25 finish, and we think he at least makes a run at defending his title.

Top Twenty: Corey Conners +138

Exact same pick as last week with the exact same odds. There is NO REASON this man shouldn’t be an easy bank builder this week.

Longshot: Akshay Bhatia +6000

Sahith Theegala broke our heart last week and we are ready to get hurt again. Akshay played pretty well last week, he started the final round one shot off the lead, but lost his opening tee shot and ended up T-12 by the end of the day.

Make The Cut Parlay: Rose, Todd, and Kuchar +160.

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Rory McIlroy’s Dream Scenario

Rory is in Dubai right now getting ready to play the DP World Tour’s Dubai Invitational, and apparently, while there, he decided to continue his speaking tour.

Speaking to Golf Digest, Rory outlined his dream scenario for golf:

“Going forward, if everything is on the table, venues have to be a big part of the consideration,” he says. “We need to make sure the courses are worthy of the players who are going to be competing. My dream scenario is a world tour, with the proviso that corporate America has to remain a big part of it all. Saudi Arabia, too. That’s just basic economics. But there is an untapped commercial opportunity out there. Investors always want to make a return on their money. Revenues at the PGA Tour right now are about $2.3 billion. So how do we get that number up to four or six? To me, it is by looking outward. They need to think internationally and spread their wings a bit. I’ve been banging that drum for a while.”

Shanks Says: In all of Rory’s talking, he almost never mentions golf fans or what they care about, just sayin.

Is True Love Dead?

If Pat Perez and his lovely wife, Ashley, can’t make it, what hope do the rest of us have?

Nine years of holy sanctimony down the drain.

We’re mostly just sad that we won’t get to see her take shots at other professional golfers anymore, or accuse Phil Mickelson of showing her inappropriate photos.

Shots Heard Round The World

Thing We'd Buy If We Weren't Broke

We like to think Caddyshanks is a big golf gamblers paradise. It’s why we bet our readers would love this collection of casino themed headcovers from Pins & Aces. Let’s check ‘em!

Even if you leave your clubs outside after a round to hit the tables, each Pins and Aces headcover is

“hand made and hand sewn, using a unique synthetic leather that will never fade, crack, rip or discolor.”

Trivia Answer: Justin Thomas, Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, Cam Smith, Zach Johnson, and Jim Furyk.

That’s all folks! See you Saturday Morning.