Opinion & Analysis

A Quick Nine: Q&A with Robert Trent Jones Jr.

Published

7 years ago

Apr 8, 2017

If there is a Royal Family of Golf Architecture, it is surely the Jones clan. Robert Trent Jones Jr. has amassed a portfolio that is a match for any designer in history, including his Hall of Fame father and brother. He is a living history of modern golf with the span of his lifetime ranging from Bobby Jones to Rory McIlroy. Artist, scholar, poet, gentleman… RTJ2 is all of these and more.

In this edition of A Quick Nine, Jones talks about his special relationship with the Masters, the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay, and his no-holds-barred take on the golf courses of Jack Nicklaus and other players-turned-designer. (Note: this Q&A has been lightly edited for brevity and style).

WRX: It’s Masters Week. Why is it so special? And will you be there?

Robert Trent Jones, Jr.: Would you miss church on Easter Sunday? I’ll be there. For me it’s a special homecoming with friends from all over the golf world. I’ve been there with my dad, and I have memories of him and my mother and my family in the in the 60’s and 70’s when we all went together. Its just the place to be; it’s a great gathering, like going to Scarborough Fair…it’s the celebration of spring. It’s like the Easter of the golf world, and very often the tournament takes place on Easter weekend. We’re finally out of our homes in the Northern parts of our country and when the Masters is televised, it’s a celebration of Spring and our great game.

WRX: How did your father Robert Trent Jones make Augusta National what it is today?

RTJ2: Well, Bobby Jones together with Alister MacKenzie, the great golf architect of the 20s and early 30s, designed the original Augusta National Golf Course in what was a lovely, heavily rolling field with very strong contours, and down along Rae’s Creek there were lots of lovely trees there since it was tree nursery at one time. The tournament was played starting in the early 30s, but some things changed in the game. Gene Sarazen invented the sand wedge, (he also holed out on No. 15 in 1935 for double eagle, the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World”) and so these fierce beautiful bunkers that MacKenzie built had less significance and were not as fearsome. After World War II there had been a long hiatus in advance of the game; from the beginning of the Great Depression through World War II nothing much happened in terms of course design… in fact many courses went out of business. So when Augusta National came back to its tournament Bobby Jones invited my father, who was then a young golf architect of some note, to help.

My father said, “Look, you have a lot of bunkers but they are no longer fearsome.” So he said, “Let’s put ponds in so that if your ball lands in a pond it’s clear that it’s going to be a hazard, lost ball, lost stroke.” So Bobby Jones agreed to that and he put the pond in on No. 11 on the left hand side of the green. No. 15 already had a small pond so one that was enlarged, and at No. 16 he completely changed the hole. It’s now one of the most beautiful holes in golf; it used to run perpendicular to the creek and now you hit toward the pond. So that’s what he did; he added strength back to the course and added beauty.

Bobby Jones used to say, “When your ball ends up in one of our bunkers at Augusta it’s like getting into a car crash. But if you go into one of the ponds it’s more like an airplane crash because you can recover from a car crash but never from an airplane crash.” When you think about the Masters, they say the tournament really starts on the back nine on Sunday, meaning that you have to deal with all of those hazards; it’s kind of an obstacle course and when you are fighting for the championship anything can happen. And that’s the beauty and the drama that we always love to watch. My father did that.

WRX: Do you think the tournament is diminished without Tiger Woods being there?

RTJ2: Well, no because it’s an invitational tournament unlike the [U.S.] Open where all participants must qualify. Tiger is always invited to play as a former champion as was Hogan, Snead, Palmer and Nicklaus. But at some point they say that they can’t make it for whatever reason that they have and in this case Tiger’s demise has been somewhat unexpected and much earlier in his career than the others due to his back surgery and all sorts of other physical ailments. It’s sad and we’ll miss him, but there will be new champions to usher in and we’ll cheer them. The competition will be tight and it will be interesting, but we’ll have many more glories to enjoy. There’s a lot going on in the golf world and the younger players are shooting phenomenal numbers now. I think I’ve seen more 60s and 59s than I ever expected. But the architects are on defense and you have to think of ways to defeat (the players), but also make sure that the game is playable for everybody else … we have to make more golf courses that are enjoyable for the tourists rather than all of the public and private courses that try to mimic Augusta National, because it’s too expensive to maintain and too hard to play. So the architecture world should want to take note of these great cathedrals of golf, but not necessarily copy them.

WRX: You have described Chambers Bay (site of the 2015 U.S. Open) as a “laboratory on how to protect par against the modern player.” Did you expect the course to generate such controversy? And are you tired of talking about it?

RTJ2: Well, I never get tired of talking about Chambers Bay! No, I didn’t expect the controversy to get to the crescendo that it did during the championship itself, but I don’t think it had to do with the design; I think it had to do with the conditioning of the course in that particular week. It was designed to play very long, very wide open, no vertical hazards like Augusta (meaning no trees) and no horizontal hazards like Augusta (meaning no water), none at all. So how do we defend against the greatest players in the world during an Open championship? Well, we have wide open, fast running contours. Even the tees were undulating … the fairways had countours, and of course the greens had contours and the whole thing is covered in fescue grasses. Fescue is a very interesting grass; it’s kind of slippery and it’s a grass that comes from Northern Europe where links courses are predominant. It’s different that what the players normally see on tour, where they can throw darts into these bent grass greens were the ball sticks when it lands. At Chambers the name of the game isn’t how far you can hit it, it’s how far you hit it and then control it because it could roll on the ground for prodigious distances and roll into a bunker or a bad lie or an awkward angle for the approach shot. And the same thing was true on the greens. The greens were like pool tables; you could use ‘cushions’ to bank a shot off.

It’s a different sort of game. It’s not target or artillery golf like you see at Augusta National, and these player aren’t used to that and we wanted to get into their minds. If we are in their minds, we are in their backswing and that’s what happened. The other good thing about Chambers Bay is that it’s a public course owned by the community. At the end of the day the championship has come and gone, but people are playing there every day and so it has to be a fun golf course, so the width and the lack of hazards make it a fun experience if you play it from the forward tees. It’s a hard thing to do, to be all things to all people, but I think that but I think we achieved that. The hunt on Sunday afternoon in 2015 was like the hunt at a Masters. There were six people who came to the 10^th tee with a chance to win the championship and we you know the drama that ensued. That’s the success of a championship course; a national championship where the players really hit their stride at the end of the tournament.

WRX: What is your favorite golf course?

RTJ2: I’ve been asked that many times and my answer is always, “The next one I either play or design” (laughs). When you are involved in a project and you’re thinking about it all the time and all the details of it … you get excited. And when you’re playing a golf course, it captures your imagination. If you are a skilled shot maker it gives you so many options and choices, then you are engaged with the course. For me, the so-called “Golden Era” of golf was a wonderful time. It was also the same time that the predominant cars were Duesenbergs or Model T’s; and we’re now in the Tesla, Maserati and Porsche era. A lot of things have changed in car world, and they have in the golf world too over a 100-year period. I think we are in our own new Golden Era, maybe a Platinum Era of golf architecture. Many people are doing wonderful golf courses here and there. What I get concerned about is that we’re also in an era where so many people think they are course designers — that anybody can hire anybody and they’ll get a good golf course — and that’s not true. You have to pay a lot of time and attention to each project and for the owners, they have to be in tune and engaged and hopefully they love golfers and love the game.

WRX: There are many former great players who became course designers. Do you think there is one of them that can be called a superior golf course architect?

RTJ2: There are very few, and the most honest ones among them admit that. You think of Bobby Jones, the great player working with Mackenzie and then my father. I think you get the best courses from a collaboration, a Yin and Yang where the designer has creativity and an understanding of the game. Because they are proficient players themselves, they will propose a concept and then the expert player such as Bobby Jones hits shots into a shaped green and says, “Hey, can we move that bunker a little bit farther right, I need a little more entrance.” That’s what results in a fine-tuned creation over time.

Even after the course is built and finished, it can be remodeled or adjusted to change the playing characteristics, but most players are about offense. You wouldn’t ask Barry Bonds to be a hitting coach for a pitcher; the pitcher has different skills so it’s not going to translate. That’s true in golf architecture, too. Players tend to be all about attack and score, and golf course architects tend to be more like goalies on soccer or hockey. We are on defense and the players are trying to beat us to the net. But we ultimately want them to use their skill and creativity to score. Are there some players who have made the transition? There are some (former PGA Tour great) Mike Souchak was one, but it’s rare. Those that I think of that have done well have paired with other good golf architects, like [Ben] Crenshaw and [Bill] Coore. I paired with Tom Watson and Sandy Tatum for Spanish Bay. Those are great collaborations. Sometimes they come together for a one special course at a specific location like Pebble Beach. Other time, they make an ongoing business out of the collaboration. But Jack Nicklaus, and he’s a personal friend of mine, he changed golf architecture into big business. It certainly helped the poor struggling artist like me get a little higher fee out of it, but it also became a little bit like a Four Seasons Hotel. You know that when you go there you are going to get a perfect pillow, the colors are going to be pleasant and so on. There’s a certain predictability in the work.

If you’ve played one Jack Nicklaus course you’ve probably played many of them in the sense that he favors kind of small greens, small targets, a little bailout on the right because he hit high fades, and so forth. That’s not to say that they weren’t proficient; they were very well built and he had a good team that helped him. But he came on the scene and other golf professionals tried to copy him, even the great ones like Arnold Palmer. And you’re not going to hear too much about great Arnold Palmer golf courses or Gary Player golf courses. They’re OK, but they’re not in the nature of high art, such as a Monet or a Rembrandt.

WRX: Isn’t some of that on the owners who play a Nicklaus course in France and want to build one in Venezuela to be just like it?

RTJ2: Yes, some of that is on the owners who want what we call “production” golf architecture. Jack Nicklaus had a great team of people who are very busy because there’s only one Jack Nicklaus, and he and his team would work hard in Florida and they would send plans from Florida to South Korea. Well, Florida is flat and South Korea is mountainous, so it doesn’t always fit the landscape. That’s “production” design; it’s not necessarily out of the earth, it’s imposed on the earth. I think the best golf courses are drawn out of the earth. Now, we are in the age of naturalism where everything is about keeping it natural. When you have great land, especially great land that meets the sea, of course you’re going to get excited for the visual. And if you have sand [as a base] that’s even better because you can grow fescue grasses and the sand allows for perfect draining that leads to a firm playing surface. But those kinds of sites are hard to come by, and when you have them it should be collaboration between a loving owner and a very skillful architect and perhaps a player or even a journalist to serve as a critic. At the end of the day, the composition has to hold together like music, more like jazz music because you can riff a little bit and it still holds together.

WRX: Name the three other players in your all-time dream foursome?

RTJ2: Wow, I’ve never been asked that question. Id like to play with people who are sociable. Skilled players like Hogan, they’re pretty quiet. He didn’t talk much other than, “You’re away” (laughs). I have played a lot of golf with Tom Watson, who I find to be very intellectual and fun to play with and a great competitor. He has the eyes of an eagle. He can see the line of a put from way across the green and it was always amazing to me how many long putts he made. He would be in the group. If could get into the time machine, I’d like to play with Bobby Jones because I have a similar name and because he’s so lionized not only for his skill as a great player but for Augusta and working with my Dad. And I would like to play with A.W. Tillinghast because he’s my favorite architect. A lot of people don’t know that after (architect George) Crump died while doing his Pine Valley creation, Tillinghast came and helped finish those holes that weren’t yet finished, the four holes that were left to be built. I grew up on Tillinghast-type courses and I’m a member of one now, San Francisco Golf Club. So that’s my foursome. I’m not sure they’d want to play with me because I’m not as good as them but I sure would enjoy it (laughs)!

WRX: If you were the King of Golf for a day, what would you do?

RTJ2: The first change would be to simplify the rules of golf, which the USGA and the R&A are doing, so that the rulebook doesn’t look like a legal treatise. The rules are written for competition, and trying to cover every possible happening in golf is impossible. So I’d like to simplify the rules and speed up the game. I’m not personally in favor of bifurcation; different rues for pros and amateurs. I’m a traditionalist in that sense. That’s the way it’s been for a long long time. You have to understand that the professional tour is like an elite labor union. They are paid to do what they do and they want definitive rules because there’s a lot of money at stake. And they should know the rules; they are in fact professionals and they shouldn’t make mistakes like what Dustin Johnson made at the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits or the thing that just happened with Lexi Thompson. But for minor situations, they should just play on. I remember Harry Bradshaw, he found his ball in the 1948 British Open and it was in part of a broken whiskey bottle and he just played it, glass and all. That’s the nature of the game…hit it, go find it and hit it again. If you just do that you can get around a course in 3-3.5 hours. But if you look over every shot and keep thinking about the rules, it’s going to add another hour and it’s slower for everyone. Maybe we can get people to play faster if you give them a time card when they go out and if they finish in 3.5 hours they get a free drink at the bar…and if they finish in four, maybe some peanuts.

I’d also like to see courses be a little more “rough and ready,” less perfectly maintained so that the cost of maintenance would go down, which would make the cost of playing thee game go down. The impact of fertilizers and the like would be less impactful. And water would be conserved, all of which we did at Chambers Bay. Frugal, fun, interesting, challenging, but not overly hard to play. It should feel like you can’t wait to get to the next tee box so you can try your skill and luck again. Not overwhelming, and not underwhelming. From the architectural sense, the suit should fit the body it’s cut for. And in the game itself, I think the pros take too much time preparing for a shot and that translates to the youth. And finally, we want to see more caddy programs. Youth On Course is a program initiated by the Northern California Golf Association where they pay clubs to let kids come out after school and play their course when there’s nobody on their private course. That’s very important for the future of the game. We gotta get them away from their cellphones and PlayStations and enjoying themselves on the course, and the only way to do that is to make it accessible because kids have the time but they don’t have the money.

WRX: At the 19th Hole: Beer, Wine, Whiskey or a Martini?

RTJ2: All of the above, but not all at once (laughs)! No, I prefer wine so for me it would be a buttery Chardonnay, a Malbec or a Pinot Noir. I guess it’s because I live in wine country in California. But what I really enjoy is the camaraderie and talking over the round afterwards with my fellow players.

WRX: Would you rather win an Oscar, a Nobel, the Lottery or the Grand Slam?

RTJ2: You can drop the last one because I believe money is overrated. Many rich people that I know are unhappy people and sadly money doesn’t solve their pursuit of happiness. But all of the rest are worthy, extraordinary accomplishments by well-deserving recipients. For me personally, I would prefer a Nobel prize. If I had done something that advanced humanity — or something in the science arena, like say discovering how we cure poa annua from overcoming fescue, or in the negotiating area, like where we assisted Corazon Aquino to transfer power from Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines so the people could enjoy peace in their country — well, that would be as important as any other accomplishment. And the fact is that I have worked on both of those things in my private life. So I think that Nobel Prize would be something that would be wonderful.

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Opinion & Analysis

The Wedge Guy: What really makes a wedge work? Part 2

Published

19 hours ago

May 9, 2024

Terry Koehler

In my last post, I explained the basic performance dynamics of “smash factor” and “gear effect” as they apply to your wedges and your wedge play success. If you missed that post, you can read it here.

At the end of that post, I promised “part 2” of this discussion of what makes a wedge work the way it does. So, let’s dive into the other two components of any wedge – the shaft and the grip.

It’s long been said that the shaft is “the engine of the golf club.” The shaft (and grip) are your only connection to all the technologies that are packed into the head of any golf club, whether it be a driver, fairway, hybrid, iron, wedge or even putter.

And you cannot ignore those two components of your wedges if your goal is optimizing your performance.

I’ve long been an advocate of what I call a “seamless transition” from your irons into your wedges, so that the feel and performance do not disconnect when you choose a gap wedge, for example, instead of your iron-set-matching “P-club.” In today’s golf equipment marketplace, more and more golfers are making the investment of time and money to experience an iron fitting, going through trial and error and launch monitor measuring to get just the right shaft in their irons.

But then so many of those same golfers just go into a store and choose wedges off the retail display, with no similar science involved at all. And that’s why I see so many golfers with a huge disconnect between their custom-fitted irons, often with lighter and/or softer graphite or light steel shafts . . . and their off-the-rack wedges with the stock stiff steel ‘wedge flex’ shaft common to those stock offerings.

If your wedge shafts are significantly heavier and stiffer than the shafts in your irons, it is physically impossible for you to make the same swing. Period.

To quickly improve your wedge play, one of the first things you can do is have your wedges re-shafted with the same or similar shaft that is in your irons.

There’s another side of that shaft weight equation; if you don’t have the forearm and hand strength of a PGA Tour professional, you simply cannot “handle” the same weight shaft that those guys play to master the myriad of ‘touch shots’ around the greens.

Now, let’s move on to the third and other key component of your wedges – the grips. If those are not similar in shape and feel to the grips on your irons, you have another disconnect. Have your grips checked by a qualified golf club professionals to make sure you are in sync there.

The one caveat to that advice is that I am a proponent of a reduced taper in your wedge grips – putting two to four more layers of tape under the lower hand, or selecting one of the many reduced taper grips on the market. That accomplishes two goals for your scoring.

First, it helps reduce overactive hands in your full and near-full wedge swings. Quiet hands are key to good wedge shots.

And secondly, it provides a more consistent feel of the wedge in your hands as you grip down for those shorter and more delicate shots around the greens. And you should always grip down as you get into those touch shots. I call it “getting closer to your work.”

So, if you will spend as much time selecting the shafts and grips for your wedges as you do choosing the brand, model, and loft of them, your scoring range performance will get better.

Vincenzi’s 2024 Wells Fargo Championship betting preview: Tommy Fleetwood ready to finally land maiden PGA Tour title

Published

3 days ago

May 6, 2024

Matt Vincenzi

The PGA Tour season ramps back up this week for another “signature event,” as golf fans look forward to the year’s second major championship next week.

After two weaker-field events in the Zurich Classic and the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, most of the best players in the world will head to historic Quail Hollow for one of the best non-major tournaments of the year.

Last season, Wyndham Clark won the event by four shots.

Quail Hollow is a par-71 measuring 7,521 yards that features Bermudagrass greens. The tree-lined, parkland style course can play quite difficult and features one of the most difficult three-hole stretches in golf known as “The Green Mile,” which makes up holes 16-18: two mammoth par 4s and a 221-yard par 3. All three holes have an average score over par, and water is in play in each of the last five holes on the course.

The field is excellent this week with 68 golfers teeing it up without a cut. All of the golfers who’ve qualified are set to tee it up, with the exception of Scottie Scheffler, who is expecting the birth of his first child.

Past Winners at Quail Hollow

2023: Wyndham Clark (-19)
2022: Max Homa (-8)
2021: Rory McIlroy (-10)
2019: Max Homa (-15)
2018: Jason Day (-12)
2017: Justin Thomas (-8) (PGA Championship)
2016: James Hahn (-9)
2015: Rory McIlroy (-21)

Key Stats For Quail Hollow

Strokes Gained: Approach

Strokes gained: Approach will be extremely important this week as second shots at Quail Hollow can be very difficult.

Total SG: Approach Over Past 24 Rounds

Akshay Bhatia (+1.16)
Tom Hoge (+1.12)
Corey Conners (+1.01)
Shane Lowry (+0.93)
Austin Eckroat (+0.82)

Strokes Gained: Off the Tee

Quail Hollow is a long course on which it is important to play from the fairway. Both distance and accuracy are important, as shorter tee shots will result in approach shots from 200 or more yards. With most of the holes heavily tree lined, errant drives will create some real trouble for the players.

Strokes Gained: Off the Tee Past 24 Rounds:

Ludvig Aberg (+0.73)
Rory McIlroy (+0.69)
Xander Schauffele (+0.62)
Viktor Hovland (+0.58)
Chris Kirk (+0.52)

Proximity: 175-200

The 175-200 range is key at Quail Hollow. Players who can hit their long irons well will rise to the top of the leaderboard.

Proximity: 175-200+ over past 24 rounds:

Cameron Young (28’2″)
Akshay Bhatia (29’6″)
Ludvig Aberg (+30’6″)
Sam Burns (+30’6″)
Collin Morikawa (+30’9″)

SG: Total on Tom Fazio Designs

Players who thrive on Tom Fazio designs get a bump for me at Quail Hollow this week.

SG: Total on Tom Fazio Designs over past 36 rounds:

Patrick Cantlay (+2.10)
Rory McIlroy (+1.95)
Tommy Fleetwood (+1.68)
Austin Eckroat (+1.60)
Will Zalatoris (+1.57)

Strokes Gained: Putting (Bermudagrass)

Strokes Gained: Putting has historically graded out as the most important statistic at Quail Hollow. While it isn’t always predictable, I do want to have it in the model to bump up golfers who prefer to putt on Bermudagrass.

Strokes Gained: Putting (Bermudagrass) Over Past 24 Rounds:

Taylor Moore (+0.82)
Nick Dunlap (+.76)
Wyndham Clark (+.69)
Emiliano Grillo (+.64)
Cam Davis (+.61)

Course History

This stat will incorporate players that have played well in the past at Quail Hollow.

Course History over past 36 rounds (per round):

Rory McIlroy (+2.50)
Justin Thomas (+1.96)
Jason Day (+1.92)
Rickie Fowler (+1.83)
Viktor Hovland (+1.78)

Wells Fargo Championship Model Rankings

Below, I’ve compiled overall model rankings using a combination of the five key statistical categories previously discussed — SG: Approach (27%), SG: Off the Tee (23%), SG: Total on Fazio designs (12%), Proximity: 175-200 (12%), SG: Putting Bermuda grass (12%), and Course History (14%).

Wyndham Clark
Rory McIlroy
Xander Schauffele
Shane Lowry
Hideki Matsuyama
Viktor Hovland
Cameron Young
Austin Eckroat
Byeong Hun An
Justin Thomas

2024 Wells Fargo Championship Picks

Tommy Fleetwood +2500 (DraftKings)

I know many out there have Tommy fatigue when it comes to betting, which is completely understandable given his lack of ability to win on the PGA Tour thus far in his career. However, history has shown us that players with Fleetwood’s talent eventually break though, and I believe for Tommy, it’s just a matter of time.

Fleetwood has been excellent on Tom Fazio designs. Over his past 36 rounds, he ranks 3rd in the field in Strokes Gained: Total on Fazio tracks. He’s also been incredibly reliable off the tee this season. He’s gained strokes in the category in eight of his past nine starts, including at The Masters, the PLAYERS and the three “signature events” of the season. Tommy is a golfer built for tougher courses and can grind it out in difficult conditions.

Last year, Fleetwood was the first-round leader at this event, firing a Thursday 65. He finished the event in a tie for 5th place.

For those worried about Fleetwood’s disappointing start his last time out at Harbour Town, he’s bounced back nicely after plenty of poor outings this season. His T7 at the Valero Texas Open was after a MC and T35 in his prior two starts and his win at the Dubai Invitational came after a T47 at the Sentry.

I expect Tommy to bounce back this week and contend at Quail Hollow.

Justin Thomas +3000 (DraftKings)

It’s been a rough couple of years for Justin Thomas, but I don’t believe things are quite as bad as they seem for JT. He got caught in the bad side of the draw at Augusta for last month’s Masters and has gained strokes on approach in seven of his nine starts in 2024.

Thomas may have found something in his most recent start at the RBC Heritage. He finished T5 at a course that he isn’t the best fit for on paper. He also finally got the putter working and ranked 15th in Strokes Gained: Putting for the week.

The two-time PGA champion captured the first of his two major championships at Quail Hollow back in 2017, and some good vibes from the course may be enough to get JT out of his slump.

Thomas hasn’t won an event in just about two years. However, I still believe that will change soon as he’s been one of the most prolific winners throughout his PGA Tour career. Since 2015, he has 15 PGA Tour wins.

Course history is pretty sticky at Quail Hollow, with players who like the course playing well there on a regular basis. In addition to JT’s PGA Championship win in 2017, he went 4-1 at the 2022 Presidents Cup and finished T14 at the event last year despite being in poor form. Thomas can return as one of the top players on the PGA Tour with a win at a “signature event” this week.

Cameron Young +3500 (DraftKings)

For many golf bettors, it’s been frustrating backing Cam Young this season. His talent is undeniable, and one of the best and most consistent performers on the PGA Tour. He just hasn’t broken through with a victory yet. Quail Hollow has been a great place for elite players to get their first victory. Rory McIlroy, Anthony Kim, Rickie Fowler and Wyndham Clark all notched their first PGA Tour win at Quail.

Throughout Cam Young’s career, he has thrived at tougher courses with strong fields. This season, he finished T16 at Riviera and T9 at Augusta National, demonstrating his preference of a tough test. His ability to hit the ball long and straight off the tee make him an ideal fit for Quail Hollow, despite playing pretty poorly his first time out in 2023 (T59). Young should be comfortable playing in the region as he played his college golf at Wake Forest, which is about an hour’s drive from Quail Hollow.

The 26-year-old has played well at Tom Fazio designs in the past and ranks 8th in the field in Strokes Gained: Total on those courses in his last 36 rounds. Perhaps most importantly, this season, Young is the best player on the PGA Tour in terms of proximity from 175-200 in the fairway, which is where a plurality and many crucial shots will come from this week.

Young is an elite talent and Quail Hollow has been kind to players of his ilk who’ve yet to win on Tour.

Byeong Hun An +5000 (FanDuel)

Byeong Hun An missed some opportunities last weekend at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson. He finished T4 and played some outstanding golf, but a couple of missed short putts prevented him from getting to the winning score of -23. Despite not getting the win, it’s hard to view An’s performance as anything other than an overwhelming success. It was An’s fourth top-ten finish of the season.

Last week, An gained 6.5 strokes ball striking, which was 7th in the field. He also ranked 12th for Strokes Gained: Approach and 13th for Strokes Gained: Off the Tee. The South Korean has been hitting the ball so well from tee to green all season long and he now heads to a golf course that should reward his precision.

An’s driver and long irons are absolute weapons. At Quail Hollow, players will see plenty of approach shots from the 175-200 range as well as some from 200+. In his past 24 rounds, Ben ranks 3rd in the field in proximity from 175-200 and 12th in proximity from 200+. Playing in an event that will not end up being a “birdie” fest should help An, who can separate from the field with his strong tee to green play. The putter may not always cooperate but getting to -15 is much easier than getting to -23 for elite ball strikers who tend to struggle on the greens.

Winning a “signature event” feels like a tall task for An this week with so many elite players in the field. However, he’s finished T16 at the Genesis Invitational, T16 at The Masters and T8 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. The 32-year-old’s game has improved drastically this season and I believe he’s ready to get the biggest win of his career.

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19th Hole

Vincenzi’s LIV Golf Singapore betting preview: Course specialist ready to thrive once again

Published

1 week ago

Apr 30, 2024

Matt Vincenzi

After another strong showing in Australia, LIV Golf will head to Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore looking to build off of what was undoubtedly their best event to date.

Sentosa Golf Club sits on the southern tip of Singapore and is one of the most beautiful courses in the world. The course is more than just incredible scenically; it was also rated 55th in Golf Digest’s top-100 courses in 2022-2023 and has been consistently regarded as one of the best courses in Asia. Prior to being part of the LIV rotation, the course hosted the Singapore Open every year since 2005.

Sentosa Golf Club is a par 71 measuring 7,406 yards. The course will require precise ball striking and some length off the tee. It’s possible to go low due to the pristine conditions, but there are also plenty of hazards and difficult spots on the course that can bring double bogey into play in a hurry. The Bermudagrass greens are perfectly manicured, and the course has spent millions on the sub-air system to keep the greens rolling fast. I spoke to Asian Tour player, Travis Smyth, who described the greens as “the best [he’s] ever played.”

Davis Love III, who competed in a Singapore Open in 2019, also gushed over the condition of the golf course.

“I love the greens. They are fabulous,” the 21-time PGA Tour winner said.

Love III also spoke about other aspects of the golf course.

“The greens are great; the fairways are perfect. It is a wonderful course, and it’s tricky off the tee.”

“It’s a long golf course, and you get some long iron shots. It takes somebody hitting it great to hit every green even though they are big.”

As Love III said, the course can be difficult off the tee due to the length of the course and the trouble looming around every corner. It will take a terrific ball striking week to win at Sentosa Golf Club.

In his pre-tournament press conference last season, Phil Mickelson echoed many of the same sentiments.

“To play Sentosa effectively, you’re going to have a lot of shots from 160 to 210, a lot of full 6-, 7-, 8-iron shots, and you need to hit those really well and you need to drive the ball well.”

Golfers who excel from tee to green and can dial in their longer irons will have a massive advantage this week.

Stat Leaders at LIV Golf Adelaide:

Fairways Hit

1.) Louis Oosthuizen

2.) Anirban Lahiri

3.) Jon Rahm

4.) Brendan Steele

5.) Cameron Tringale

Greens in Regulation

1.) Brooks Koepka

2.) Brendan Steele

3.) Dean Burmester

4.) Cameron Tringale

5.) Anirban Lahiri

Birdies Made

1.) Brendan Steele

2.) Dean Burmester

3.) Thomas Pieters

4.) Patrick Reed

5.) Carlos Ortiz

LIV Golf Individual Standings:

1.) Joaquin Niemann

2.) Jon Rahm

3.) Dean Burmester

4.) Louis Oosthuizen

5.) Abraham Ancer

LIV Golf Team Standings:

1.) Crushers

2.) Legion XIII

3.) Torque

4.) Stinger GC

5.) Ripper GC

LIV Golf Singapore Picks

Sergio Garcia +3000 (DraftKings)

Sergio Garcia is no stranger to Sentosa Golf Club. The Spaniard won the Singapore Open in 2018 by five strokes and lost in a playoff at LIV Singapore last year to scorching hot Talor Gooch. Looking at the course setup, it’s no surprise that a player like Sergio has played incredible golf here. He’s long off the tee and is one of the better long iron players in the world when he’s in form. Garcia is also statistically a much better putter on Bermudagrass than he is on other putting surfaces. He’s putt extremely well on Sentosa’s incredibly pure green complexes.

This season, Garcia has two runner-up finishes, both of them being playoff losses. Both El Camaleon and Doral are courses he’s had success at in his career. The Spaniard is a player who plays well at his tracks, and Sentosa is one of them. I believe Sergio will get himself in the mix this week. Hopefully the third time is a charm in Singapore.

Paul Casey +3300 (FanDuel)

Paul Casey is in the midst of one of his best seasons in the five years or so. The results recently have been up and down, but he’s shown that when he’s on a golf course that suits his game, he’s amongst the contenders.

This season, Casey has finishes of T5 (LIV Las Vegas), T2 (LIV Hong Kong), and a 6th at the Singapore Classic on the DP World Tour. At his best, the Englishman is one of the best long iron players in the world, which makes him a strong fit for Sentosa. Despite being in poor form last season, he was able to fire a Sunday 63, which shows he can low here at the course.

It’s been three years since Casey has won a tournament (Omega Dubai Desert Classic in 2021), but he’s been one of the top players on LIV this season and I think he can get it done at some point this season.

Mito Pereira +5000 (Bet365)

Since Mito Pereira’s unfortunate demise at the 2022 PGA Championship, he’s been extremely inconsistent. However, over the past few months, the Chilean has played well on the International Series as well as his most recent LIV start. Mito finished 8th at LIV Adelaide, which was his best LIV finish this season.

Last year, Pereira finished 5th at LIV Singapore, shooting fantastic rounds of 67-66-66. It makes sense why Mito would like Sentosa, as preeminent ball strikers tend to rise to the challenge of the golf course. He’s a great long iron player who is long and straight off the tee.

Mito has some experience playing in Asia and is one of the most talented players on LIV who’s yet to get in the winner’s circle. I have questions about whether or not he can come through once in contention, but if he gets there, I’m happy to roll the dice.

Andy Ogletree +15000 (DraftKings)

Andy Ogletree is a player I expected to have a strong 2024 but struggled early in his first full season on LIV. After failing to crack the top-25 in any LIV event this year, the former U.S. Amateur champion finally figured things out, finished in a tie for 3rd at LIV Adelaide.

Ogletree should be incredible comfortable playing in Singapore. He won the International Series Qatar last year and finished T3 at the International Series Singapore. The 26-year-old was arguably the best player on the Asian Tour in 2023 and has been fantastic in the continent over the past 18 months.

If Ogletree has indeed found form, he looks to be an amazing value at triple-digit odds.

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