Opinion & Analysis

The Case Against a World Golf Tour

Published

6 years ago

Nov 26, 2017

In late 1994, the No. 2-ranked player in the world, Greg Norman, dropped a bombshell on the golf world. In partnership with Fox, Norman announced that beginning in 1995 there would be a new tour on the block. The eight-event schedule, boasting a total purse of $25 million plus a $50,000 travel stipend and a $1 million bonus to the player of the year, was Norman’s attempt to globalize the game; he called it the World Golf Tour (WGT). At least that was the claim.

Criticism of the WGT was almost instant for several reasons, namely that Norman was trying to steal the top-30 players in the world (plus another 10 who would be offered sponsor’s exemptions) and his proposed event schedules were going to be in direct conflict with the PGA Tour. The other major criticism was that Norman was greedy because of the large purses he was claiming, as well as the shared TV revenue the players on the WGT would get. Remember, the largest first-place prize for a tournament in 1994 was $540,000 at the Tour Championship. The WGT, as it was going to be set up, would guarantee any player a minimum of $290,000 per year based on the last place earnings of $30,000 guaranteed (first-place prize for all eight events would be $600,000), plus the travel expenses and the TV revenue sharing. In 1994, that was a nice prospect. In a November 17th, 1994 article for the Washington Post, Thomas Boswell, wrote the following:

The WGT’s For-Stars-Only format would strip bare the fields of established events such as the Kemper Open and detract from major events such as the U.S. Open. It’s no accident the WGT plans events for the weeks before the four majors.

Potentially, the World Golf Tour — if it ever really comes into existence — could throw golf into an ugly Balkanized era of tennis-like chaos. Think of the strikes in baseball and hockey; then think of golf, ripped by litigation and bad blood between rival groups of players. Think of the Federal Trade Commission, jumping all over the PGA Tour on restraint of trade issues. Thanks, Greg. You’re a buddy.

The news of the WGT didn’t settle well with many players either. In another article for the Los Angeles Times from 1997, Ron Sirak quoted Norman: “’Everybody I’ve spoken to — Nick Price, Fred Couples, Jose Maria Olazabal — all the responses have been extremely positive,” Norman said. Within days, however, it was clear than no one was rushing to jump on the Norman bandwagon. Finchem had made it clear that anyone playing on the World Tour would be walking away from the PGA Tour. It will likely always remain unclear what Norman’s exact intentions were, but was it clear is that his attempt was poorly timed and Tim Finchem wasn’t having it. The tour never kicked off thanks to various legal battles and threats from the PGA Tour to suspend any player who teed it up in a WGT event. By 1997, Finchem had announced the birth of the World Golf Championship series sporting a $4 million prize pool, a full $1 million more than Norman promised with his WGT.

The question is, 23 years removed from Norman’s attempt at globalizing golf, where do we stand? Have the WGC events made men’s golf a more global game? We have two major golf tours competing week after week for eyeballs and rapidly increasing prize pools. The 2017 U.S. Open boasted a $12 million pot with more than $2 million going to brandishing bomber Brooks Koepka (his winnings alone were more than the entire prize pool for the 1994 Masters) after he made Erin Hills look like a municipal par-3. The European Tour has bolstered its prize money, revitalized tournaments like the Irish Open, Spanish Open and Italian Open, and yet the total Race to Dubai prize purse is only half of the first place bonus for the winner of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup. It’s also $2.5 million less than it was in 2009, when the Race to Dubai replaced Order of Merit.

Rumblings of the need for a World Golf Tour have been circulating for a few years. Recently, it was brought up on the No Laying Up podcast in an interview with Rory McIlroy. Soly asked Rory a series of questions and they came to the topic of new storylines in the game. The following exchange happened:

Rory: You’ve got storylines from everywhere, ‘This young Spanish kid’, ‘This young Japanese kid’, you’re always going to have the strength in America because of just the numbers that play here and the system and it’s always going to be great, but it’s such a global game now. You know, even the PGA Tour now expanding to Asia, going to these places, you know it’s … World Tour. It’s happening one day I think.

Soly: Well, you walked right into that one. What do you think of the possibilities of that? How would that look? Are you in support of it?

Rory: I think it has to happen. You know, as time goes on, just to have all these tours competing against each other. Having to change dates and this and that, it’s counterproductive. I think everyone has to come together and say, ‘Alright, this is what we have to do’….I mean, jeez, I don’t know what the solution is.

Right, the problem is that we don’t really know what the solution would be or what it might look like, or at least nothing has been proposed. But part of the reason we don’t know the solution is because we don’t know the problem. So, what’s the actual problem?

Is the problem that there are too many options for players? That’s going to be a hard sell. Is the problem that it’s too hard for players to schedule the “best” events because so many great events conflict with others or fall in the sixth or seventh week of a playing stretch? Again, that’s a hard sell. Maybe the problem is that there are two really strong tours that the fans don’t get to see the top-30 or top-50 players more than eight times in a season? Or a little further, that the top-30 or top-50 or top-100 don’t get to compete against the other 29, 49, or 99 guys as often as they’d like. If that’s the problem, and it’s the only problem I can see that might need attention, then I think there is another solution, or multiple parts to a solution that could make a whole.

Rory goes on to say that he thinks the PGA Tour will eventually have to buy the European Tour. That’s an option, but before we do that, let’s take a look at the schedules of the PGA and European Tour by the numbers, because when you place the schedules next to one another, you realize that, yes, the PGA Tour trumps the European Tour in many ways, but I don’t know if that’s such a bad thing.

PGA Tour 2016-17 Schedule: By the Numbers

Tournaments: 51
Total purse of all tournaments: $358,800,000.00
Total purse without Majors: $315,550,000.00
Total purse without WGC Events and Majors: $276,800,000
FedEx Cup Prize Pool: $25,000,000
Weekends with dual events (events opposite WGC or Major): 4

European Tour 2017 Schedule: By the Numbers

Tournaments: 48
Total purse of all tournaments: $188,000,000.00*
Total purse without Majors: $145,000,000.00
Total purse without WGC Events and Majors: $105,000,000.00
Race to Dubai Prize Pool: $5,800,000.00
Weekends with dual events (one of those is the Australian Open/Alfred Dunhill): 3

*Currency converted to USD for easy comparison

It’s not surprising to see the prize pool for the PGA Tour nearly triple the European Tour without the dual events. But does that mean the tours should be combined? I understand where someone like Rory feels that it’s bound to happen or that it needs to happen, but such a solution as a World Tour will come at the expense of established tours. It’s like building a pyramid. If you create a new layer on top, all you’re doing is making it more difficult to grind out and make a living at the lower level because the money will rise to the top and the climb to the top is a little bit higher. The developmental tours, such as the Web.com Tour, PGA Tour Latin America, Sunshine Tour, Challenge Tour, and Japan Golf Tour will all suffer. The players on those tours already struggle to make a living if they aren’t rattling off top-10s week after week, and stacking another layer on top of that will only make it more difficult for those tours to survive. Let’s take a look at those developmental tours by the numbers.

Japan Golf Tour (2017)

Tournaments: 27
Total Purse of All Tournaments (converted from Japanese Yen): $76,000,000
Total Purse of All Tournaments NOT Including the Majors: $32,300,000

Web.com Tour (2017)

Tournaments: 26
Total Purse of All Tournaments (not including Q-School): $17,800,000
Winner’s Share: ~$100,000-120,000

PGA Tour Australasia Schedule By The Numbers (2017)

Tournaments: 18
Total Purse of All Tournaments: $16,800,000
Total Purse of All Tournaments NOT Including the World Cup of Golf: $8,800,000

Mackenzie Tour (2017)

Tournaments: 13
Total Purse of All Tournaments: $2,245,000
Winner’s Share: ~$31,000

PGA Tour Latin America (2017)

Tournaments: 20
Total Purse of All Tournaments: $3,365,000
Winner’s Share: ~$31,000

The combined prize pool for all of those developmental tours above (factoring in the majors on Japan Golf Tour) is less than the prize pool available on the European Tour without counting the majors ($116,000,000 for all of them).

I’m not saying there aren’t some broken cogs in the current model, but a World Tour would only exacerbate those issues. And what’s to be gained? That 40 percent of the players who try and play a global schedule get a few extra weeks off here and there? That they can earn more money over fewer events? In a world where golf is growing in fewer countries than it’s declining, it’s a slippery slope.

As it stands now in men’s golf, the European Tour is strong enough to not be considered a developmental tour. They are even experimenting with format, which seems such an obvious thing to do I can’t imagine why it isn’t happening more often. The prize pools are large enough and the course rotation is exotic enough that many players solely play the European Tour. The PGA Tour isn’t necessarily the only option to earn a superstar-living in the game. The more logical solution seems to be to simply expand the WGC series. These events are always a joy to watch and produce great drama (unless D.J. wins by four shots). Instead of playing four (as they did in 2017), expand to seven or eight. With eight WGC events plus the four majors, that’s 12 events one could consider “global” events. They already play one WGC in China and one in Mexico. Give us two more in Europe and another in Australia at Royal Melbourne and we’re set. In fact, why can’t the Australian Open be converted to a WGC?

The PGA Tour could swap three or four of their smaller tournaments like TPC Deere Run, Montreux, and Puerto Rico, and the European Tour would only have to cut two or three and they could run dual events. Or, instead of scrapping any, just play dual events. I get it, that’s a lot of work for tournament and tour officials, but creating a new tour is going to be no small feat either.

***

While we’re at it, is there any reason why the PGA Championship can’t be played in Europe every three years? I know, I know, it’s run by the PGA of America, but come on, let’s not get hung up on titles. In 2017, the PGA Championship drew a 3.6 Nielsen rating for the final round, the lowest since the final round of the PGA Championship since 2008. It’s not a dead event — it’s still a major — but it doesn’t always feel like one.

Think about the possibility of having the PGA Championship in Europe. It could basically be played on the same rotation as the Open Championship. The PGA has been swapping venues with the U.S. Open for decades. Why can’t we have a PGA Championship at the home of golf? Troon? Or even better, let’s have one at in South Korea. Korean golf has been on the rise for a couple of decades now. Imagine you’re a 10-year-old kid from South Korea and Si Woo Kim is playing in the first PGA Championship ever held outside the United States at Nine Bridges on Jeju Island. You’re that kid and you get to witness Si Woo Kim become not only the first player to win a PGA Championship outside the U.S., but the first Korean player to win a major championship. Korean children would grow up wanting to win the PGA Championship, not The Masters. The PGA Championship needs a spark, take it overseas.

The other piece to this puzzle, and likely the root of the issue with many of the European players, is membership. The current requirements for membership to the PGA Tour are as follows: must play a minimum of 15 events on the PGA Tour (majors and WGC events count toward that number) and if you play less than 25 events on the PGA Tour then you must add an event you have never played to the schedule next year.

The European Tour, on the other hand, only requires you to play in five events to be eligible for the Race to Dubai. The requirements for the PGA Tour are more rigid than the European Tour, which isn’t surprising. But this has caused some problems for a few players in terms of the Ryder Cup eligibility, namely Paul Casey. Casey hasn’t played a Ryder Cup since 2008 despite likely being eligible for at least two of the last three because he wasn’t a member of the European Tour. In Rory’s conversation with the guys from No Laying Up, he hinted that membership and schedule were the biggest concerns. Paul Casey talked about similar things on a podcast with Alan Shipnuck back in the summer. A World Tour might help the membership squabble, but so would adding a few more WGC events and hosting them around the world, you know, actually making them “World” Golf Championships.

Golf is already a global game. As it stands now, we have two great tours that provide amazing playing opportunities for players, a developmental system that provides multiple tours on multiple continents. I’m normally one to say “out with the old and in with the new” as quick as anybody. It’s all too easy to get hung up on tradition and handicap your problem solving, but before we run wild with the idea of this shiny new World Tour concept, let’s make sure we’re not trying to solve vanity problems at the expense of the developmental tours.

I agree with what Thomas Boswell wrote 23 years ago and think it still applies today, “Potentially, the World Golf Tour — if it ever really comes into existence — could throw golf into an ugly Balkanized era of tennis-like chaos.” Rory mentioned that he thought golf could mimic the tennis model, maybe for the top-10 in the world, but we want players to become more recognized, not play in obscurity.

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19th Hole

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

Published

16 hours 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

7 days 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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Opinion & Analysis

Ryan: Lessons from the worst golf instructor in America

Published

7 days ago

Apr 30, 2024

Brendan Ryan

In Tampa, there is a golf course that boasts carts that do not work, a water range, and a group of players none of which have any chance to break 80. The course is overseen by a staff of crusty men who have succeeded at nothing in life but ending up at the worst-run course in America. However, this place is no failure. With several other local courses going out of business — and boasting outstanding greens — the place is booked full.

While I came for the great greens, I stayed to watch our resident instructor; a poor-tempered, method teacher who caters to the hopeless. At first, it was simply hilarious. However, after months of listening and watching, something clicked. I realized I had a front-row seat to the worst golf instructor in America.

Here are some of my key takeaways.

Method Teacher

It is widely accepted that there are three types of golf instructors: system teachers, non-system teachers, and method teachers. Method teachers prescribe the same antidote for each student based on a preamble which teachers can learn in a couple day certification.

Method teaching allows anyone to be certified. This process caters to the lowest caliber instructor, creating the illusion of competency. This empowers these underqualified instructors with the moniker of “certified” to prey on the innocent and uninformed.

The Cult of Stack and Jilt

The Stack and Tilt website proudly boasts, “A golfer swings his hands inward in the backswing as opposed to straight back to 1) create power, similar to a field goal kicker moving his leg in an arc and 2) to promote a swing that is in-to-out, which produces a draw (and eliminates a slice).”

Now, let me tell you something, there is this law of the universe which says “energy can either be created or destroyed,” so either these guys are defying physics or they have no idea what they are taking about. Further, the idea that the first move of the backswing determines impact is conjecture with a splash of utter fantasy.

These are the pontifications of a method — a set of prescriptions applied to everyone with the hope of some success through the placebo effect. It is one thing for a naive student to believe, for a golf instructor to drink and then dispel this Kool-Aid is malpractice.

Fooled by Randomness

In flipping a coin, or even a March Madness bet, there is a 50-50 chance of success. In golf, especially for new players, results are asymmetric. Simply put: Anything can happen. The problem is that when bad instructors work with high handicappers, each and every shot gets its own diagnosis and prescription. Soon the student is overwhelmed.

Now here’s the sinister thing: The overwhelming information is by design. In this case, the coach is not trying to make you better, they are trying to make you reliant on them for information. A quasi Stockholm syndrome of codependency.

Practice

One of the most important scientists of the 20th century was Ivan Pavlov. As you might recall, he found that animals, including humans, could be conditioned into biological responses. In golf, the idea of practice has made millions of hackers salivate that they are one lesson or practice session from “the secret.”

Sunk Cost

The idea for the worst golf instructor is to create control and dependency so that clients ignore the sunk cost of not getting better. Instead, they are held hostage by the idea that they are one lesson or tip away from unlocking their potential.

Cliches

Cliches have the effect of terminating thoughts. However, they are the weapon of choice for this instructor. Add some hyperbole and students actually get no information. As a result, these players couldn’t play golf. When they did, they had no real scheme. With no idea what they are doing, they would descend into a spiral of no idea what to do, bad results, lower confidence, and running back to the lesson tee from more cliches.

The fact is that poor instruction is about conditioning players to become reliant members of your cult. To take away autonomy. To use practice as a form of control. To sell more golf lessons not by making people better but through the guise that without the teacher, the student can never reach their full potential. All under the umbrella of being “certified” (in a 2-day course!) and a melee of cliches.

This of course is not just happening at my muni but is a systemic problem around the country and around the world, the consequences of which are giving people a great reason to stop playing golf. But hey, at least it’s selling a lot of golf balls…

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