Good afternoon! Welcome to Shanks. In the event you’ve been sleeping under a rock, you should know that Tiger Woods is playing golf this weekend. If you want to bet on him to win, our friends at BetMGM are offering $1500 back in bonus bets if you lose.

Sign up to claim that offer here. 

Golf Trivia: Other than the Hero World Challenge, what event has Tiger played in the most in the last decade?

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

• Doin Lines: Hero World Challenge

• Tiger & Spieth Comment On Merger

• Shots Heard Round The World

• Willy Z is Back

• Liquid Death vs Arnold Palmer

• Thing We’d Buy If We Weren’t Broke

Doin Lines: Hero World Challenge

🚩 Location: Albany Golf Course, Bahamas

💰 Purse: $4.5M - $1M to 1st.

👑 Previous Winner: Viktor Hovland

👀 Watch On: Golf Channel, ESPN+

Hero World Challenge Field & How To Watch

This is a limited field event which features only twenty golfers and no cut.

Here’s the full field:

Golf Channel announced this morning that they would be moving coverage up a full hour, so that fans can see more Tiger Woods. He is the needle, after all.

Thursday, Nov. 30: 12:30-4:30 p.m. ET (Golf Channel)
Friday, Dec. 1: 12:30-4:30 p.m. ET (Golf Channel)
Saturday, Dec. 2: 12-2:30 p.m. ET (Golf Channel); 2:30-5 p.m. ET (NBC)
Sunday, Dec. 3: 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. ET (Golf Channel); 1:30-4:30 p.m. ET (NBC)

The Course

Albany Golf Course | Par 72 | 7,449 yards

Previous Winners 

2019 – Jon Rahm

2020 – Cancelled

2021 – Viktor Hovland

2022 - Viktor Hovland

Shanks Picks

Listen, if you think for one second we aren’t taking a flier on Tiger +6600, you are mistaken. We will also be betting on Will Zalatoris +3300.

There are two simple reasons for this.

One, we are here for the comeback season. Those two fellas are the two most motivated golfers in the field.

Two, our friends at BetMGM are offering $1500 back in bonus bets if you don’t win. 

1. Sign up for BetMGM here.

2. Place your bet.

3. Get up to $1500 paid back in bonus bets, if you don’t win.

Tiger & Spieth Comment On Merger

The only thing we know for sure about this proposed merger between the PGAT and PIF is that we know nothing. It seems even Tiger Woods wasn’t filled in before the merger was announced.

“I was frustrated with the fact that the players were never involved,” Woods said. “No one knew. That can’t happen again.” 

Here’s what Tiger said when asked what golf would look like in a few years:

“The answer is murky. There’s a lot of moving parts on how we’re going to play. Whether it’s here on the PGA Tour or it’s merging, or team golf.”

Here’s what Spieth said when asked if he wants the deal to work out:

"I think that I'm not entirely sure yet.. there's some kind of like non-negotiables that I think the players of the PGA Tour should have and I'm not sure that that could be met with PIF.

"I think that there are options that I think could be super beneficial, but I don't know if they're possible."

Make of those quotes what you will.

Shots Heard Round The World

Luke Donald will return as Team Europe captain in 2025.

Kyle Berkshire and Bryson Dechambeau put on absolute nuke show.

Max Homa tells hilarious story about playing basketball against Keenan Allen.

Tiger says ‘best case scenario’ he can play 12 events this year.

Jordan Spieth gets ultimate dad injury. Welcome to being old dude.

Willy Z Is Back

Will Zalatoris was rookie of the year in 2021.

Last year, heading into The Masters, he was ranked inside the top-ten.

Then he suffered a back injury and we haven’t seen him in 7 months.

“Kind of a golfer’s worst nightmare is feeling your back giving out on the driving range at Augusta 30 minutes before your tee time,” Zalatoris said yesterday.

When you go from warming up in Augusta on a Thursday to immediate back surgery on Saturday, you know you’ve got a long road ahead of you.

Dylan Diether from Golf Mag wrote a good piece on Will’s journey back to competitive golf.

Read The Full Article

Liquid Death vs. Arnold Palmer

Okay.

Let’s start here. Liquid Death is a venture-backed brand that sells overpriced canned water (and now a tea/lemonade concoction).

These clowns raised millions of dollars from other rich dudes (ain’t nothing wrong with being rich, btw) and then try to attack a deceased legend after they illegally used his name…because he was rich.

Whack. Arnold Palmer was a great man, and incredibly charitable.

Of course, there are some absolute morons out there who ate it up anyway.

So, great marketing move if you want people talking about your brand, not so great if you want them to be talking about it in a positive way.

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

Nike has brought back the Tiger Woods 13 in other color ways already, but this is by far the best one - The Masters edition.

Should you be looking to secure a pair, set a reminder for December 8 at 10AM EST and check on Nike and retailers like Carl’s Golfland, Golfposer and Function18.

Trivia Answer: The Masters

That’s all folks! See you Saturday Morning.