⛳️ Wyndham Championship Bets

Good afternoon! Welcome to the 150 or so new golfers who have joined us since Monday. We like to have fun around here. This is a crack a beer, make some bets, sweat the cutline while we’re supposed to be working, and stay up to date on the world of golf type newsletter. We enjoy the hell out of writing this thing every week and we are happy to have you here. Does anyone have a lighter we could borrow?

Trivia: Who was the first golfer to earn $1 million dollars in career earnings on tour? Answer at the bottom.

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

• Doin Lines: Wyndham Championship

• Tiger Joins The PGAT Board

• Golf Shots Heard Round The World

• LIV Fantasy Golf

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

Doin Lines: Wyndham Championship

This is the final regular season event ahead of the Fedex Playoffs.

That means two things: some golfers will be desperately trying to sneak inside the top 70 and qualify for the playoffs, and those who are already safely inside the top 70 are taking the week off.

Let’s head to the land of Petey Pablo.

🚩 Location: Sedgefield Country Club

💰 Purse: $7.6M - Winner gets $1.36M

👑 Previous Winner: Tom Kim

👀 Watch On: Golf Channel, CBS, ESPN+

The Field at a Glance

Like we said up top, a lot of the top dogs are taking the week off because they are already safely inside the Top 70 and in the playoffs.

However, there’s still some big names lacing up their Footjoys this week:

Sam Burns, Adam Scott, Justin Thomas, Sungjae Im, Shane Lowry, and Hideki Matsuyama will all be in the field.

Scott, Thomas, and Lowry are all just outside the top 70 and looking in.

The Course

It’s kinda funny, after all the talk about rollbacks and length this season, we wrap the whole thing up on an old-school Donald Ross design that tops out at around 7100 yds… and the last major of the year was won by a guy who is nowhere near the longest guy on tour.

Anyway, The Wyndham is usually a birdie-fest. Here are the five previous winners and their scores:

• 2022: Tom Kim (-20)

• 2021: Kevin Kisner (-15)

• 2020: Jim Herman (-21)

• 2019: J.T. Poston (-22)

• 2018: Brandt Snedeker (-21)

💰Shanks Picks💰

Outright Winner: Adam Scott +3500

• He’s currently 81st in the Fedex Cup Rankings, his recent form has been pretty good, and he is number one in this field in Birdie or Better Gained over the last 24 rounds.

Top Five: Denny McCarthy +600

• Let’s see if Denny can end a strong season with another top performance. He has six top ten finishes this year.

Top Ten: JT Poston +340

• The 2019 winner finished in second place last week, and clearly has the game to play well at Sedgefield.

Top Twenty: Billy Horschel +310

• Billy finished T13 at the 3M Open last week and he’s another one of those guys on the outside looking in.

Long Shot: Alex Smalley +4000

• Not only is his recent form really good, he’s also a member at Sedgefield and has played the course many, many times.

Make The Cut Parlay: Denny McCarthy, Russel Henley, Alex Smalley, and Adam Scott +246

• You can grab that number at Fanduel

Tiger Joins PGAT Board

The golf world has been on fire with drama surrounding LIV Golf for the entire season. Many of the LIV guys have been vocal, especially Phil Mickelson. Plenty of PGAT players have also done some chirping.

Strangely, Tiger Woods, the most famous golfer on the planet, has said almost nothing on the matter.

Well, it looks like that’s about to change.

Here’s what we know so far:

• PGAT players were shocked and understandably pissed off when PGAT CEO and total coward, Jay Monahan, announced they’d be merging with LIV.

• 41 players, including Woods, sent a letter to Jay on Monday, demanding more say in the future of the tour.

• The group, which also included Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm, asked that Woods be appointed to the policy board and that an immediate review of the tour’s governance structure be conducted.

• By Tuesday, The Tour had announced the changes to its board, that was quick!

Tiger Said: “This is a critical point for the Tour, and the players will do their best to make certain that any changes that are made in Tour operations are in the best interest of all Tour stakeholders, including fans, sponsors and players,”…

We think that’s the first time during this whole debacle anyone has even mentioned the fans…

Golf Shots Heard Round The World

We Hate You: Does the Ryder Cup need more edge?

Groups: Tee Times and Groups for Round 1 of The Wyndham Championship.

Football: Josh Allen says Aaron Rodgers is a golf sandbagger.

Talk To My Manager: John Rahm said Greg Norman contacted him about joining LIV in 2022, but instead of trying to convince him with golf history and love for the game, it was all about “numbers, numbers, numbers..” according to Rahm.

LIV Out Your Fantasy

If you’re eagerly awaiting the fantasy football season and you’re a big fan of golf, we might have exactly what you’re looking for.

LIV Golf announced the launch of a free-to-play fantasy game, LIV Golf Fantasy, designed to engage fans and create deeper connections with the new golf league, its teams and players. How exactly you might ask?

• Join a public league or create your own

• Tactically select your team out of LIV Golf’s roster of players by selecting one captain, three other starters, one substitute, and one LIV Golf team

• Win prizes like exclusive event access, tickets and merchandise if your team does well

• Prizes are at stake for both individual events and the season-long competition

Will it be successful? We have no idea. Inconsistencies in how large the LIV audience is makes it hard to predict if something like this, even if executed properly, would resonate with fans.

Those interested in playing can create an account now and select their lineup for LIV Golf Greenbrier, taking place later this week at The Old White at The Greenbrier.

Trivia Answer: 

Arnold Palmer, but the craziest part is… he’s actually the third highest earning athlete of all time. Right behind Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods.

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

Tuesday was a big one! Major golf brand, Callaway, announced that they will be releasing their newest set of irons, the Callaway Apex, which is now 3 years in the making. To give you some context, the 2021 Callaway Apex were highly regarded as the best irons of 2021.

So here we are in 2023, the Callaway Apex Pro, and we are excitedly awaiting one of the most highly anticipated clubs and maybe the most popular irons for the next year or two. Let’s check out the details.

• $215 per iron

• Stock Shaft: True Temper Dynamic Gold Mid steel shaft

• Stock Grip: Golf Pride Z Grips

• Club Range: 3-iron (19 degrees) through attack wedge (50 degrees)

• Who Would Use These: Low and mid-handicap golfers. It’s players-distance with shot-shaping and forgiveness. Think TaylorMade P970.

• Models Available: CB and MB irons offer a small compact profile with thinner soles. Apex Pro offers a better player-preferred smaller shape in the mid and scoring clubs. UT provides 2 to 4-iron replacement for a more confidence-inspiring look on longer approach shots and off the tee.

The new Callaway Apex irons are on pre-sale starting August 18th and will be in retail stores starting September 8th. Take it from us at CaddyShanks, if you’re going to spend the money on new clubs, spend the extra $ on getting fitted. Your scores will thank you.

And check out the Callaway Apex video reveal here for one of the best hype videos we’ve seen all year.

That's all folks! See ya’ll Friday.