⛳️ Quick Update: Tour Championship

Good Morning. You are more likely to get hit by a car than make a hole in one in golf.

Did You Know? There are $420 million dollars worth of golf balls lost every year. In case you were wondering why those Acushnet earnings have been so solid.

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

• Quick Update: Tour Championship

• Not About The Money

• Golf Shots Heard Round The World

• Phil Steals From Augusta

• Whoops

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

Quick Update: Tour Championship

Rounds 1 & 2 Recap

The cream rises to the top.

With two rounds left to play, there’s only six golfers within four strokes of the lead.

That lead is held by Viktor Hovland, who last week replaced Lucas Glover as the hottest man in golf, and Collin Morikawa.

Viktor Hovland might not hold that title for very long, with the way Morikawa is playing at East Lake this weekend.

“I was going to treat Monday through Wednesday this week just as a kind of relaxing, get into it, game felt good enough to play well, and I went down this rabbit hole of just kind of — I hit one bad shot in the practice round, tried to figure it out, was out on the range two more hours,” he said.

What about everybody else?

Scottie Scheffler (-14): Scottie is a bit frustrated lately. You’ve no doubt heard about his putting woes, but he’s seemed to be dealing with that pretty well mentally. Yesterday, however, he was a little uncharacteristically testy with the press after his round. Maybe a historic iron striking season with little to show for it.

Keegan Bradley (-13): Keegan Bradley is playing like a man who wants to be on The Ryder Cup very, very badly.

Xander Schauffele & Jon Rahm (-12) Xman loves him some Eastlake. In 26 career rounds there, he has been under par in 23 of them.Our outright pick, Jon Rahm, can very much still win this thing. Remember earlier this year when he stole Morikawa’s lunch at the Sentry?

Rory McIlroy (-10): One thing to note on ol’ Rory here - he’s been dealing with back tightness all week. There’s no issue with that, except that the betting market didn’t find out about it until like Thursday morning before the tournament started. The Tour needs to do a MUCH better job of sharing about injuries if they are going to embrace gambling.

💰 Shanks Picks 💰

Our Card From Wednesday.

Quick Card Review:

Our outright pick (Jon Rahm) is just four off the lead. He’s carrying the whole card on his back right now.

Our Longshot, Max Homa, is currently T13 and nine off the leader. Unlikely that this will cash, but miracles do happen.

Our Top Five Pick, Sungjae Im, has decided to stick it to shanks this week. Dead in the water.

Brian Harman, our top ten pick, is T16, so with two strong rounds of play this could hit.

Tourney Special: Max Homa and Xander Schauffle to both finish Top 10. Xander is looking good, and Max is just out of the top ten. This feels strong!

Weekend Bet: Xander Schauffele +1200.

Not About The Money

John Rahm is cut from the cloth of an old school golfer. When he talks about the game, his love for the history of the game always shines through.

He has always maintained it’s not about the money for him.

That’s why he sent Greg Norman and LIV to his manager when they wanted to talk. 

After the round yesterday, he was asked if the money changes things, or adds more pressure, or whatever.

“It’s one of the things that frustrates me about watching this broadcast. Like, we’re not thinking if we miss a putt how much it’s going to cost us money-wise. No chance. Like, none whatsoever. You’re trying to finish as high as possible. You’re trying to win a tournament. It’s one of my pet peeves when they make this tournament all about money because I think it takes away from it.

“When you win a green jacket, I can tell you right now that any major champion this year might not remember how much money they made. And that’s the beauty about this game and I think that’s kind of how it should be. Obviously I’m saying that being in an extremely privileged position financially. I mean, at that point, from first to second, you’re making a ton of money, so it’s more about winning than the prize itself.”

More Here.

Golf Shots Heard Round The World

LIV Golf: PGA Tour merger 'turbocharged' business.

Swing Coach: How the relationship between tour pros and their swing coaches is evolving

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

Phil Steals From Augusta

We’ve gotta give Phil credit.. his ability to gain the attention of the golf world is second only to Tiger Woods.

Kind of a theme for his whole career actually.

Anyway, this time he took to Twitter (X) and shared a story about the time he stole a sign from Augusta National.

Whoops!

Gotta be careful with those homemade set ups.

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

If you don’t normally play Callaway golf balls, you may want to rethink that decision. Not only are they one of the most trusted balls on the professional tours, but they also constantly release LIMITED EDITION sets that are absolutely exquisite. Let’s examine (and please read in a hoity-toity British accent):

• The International Beer Day Golf Ball. $49.99. Divine. Let’s have a toast!

• The Dog Paw Golf Ball. $49.99. Exuberant. Bork bork!

• The Odyssey Swirl Golf Ball. $49.99. Delectable. A putter’s favorite ball!

• The Truvis Pink Golf Ball. $49.99. Superb. Reminds me of a proper pitch!

We like to have fun on the course at CaddyShanks, and these golf balls are sure to set you in the right headspace when you pull out one of these bad boys on the first tee.

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