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The Wedge Guy: Top 4 reasons why most golfers don’t get better

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A couple of years ago, I attended a symposium put on by Golf Digest’s research department. They explored the typical responses as to why people quit or don’t play more – too much time, too expensive, etc. But the magazine’s research department uncovered the real fact – by a large margin, the number one reason people give up the game is that they don’t get better!

So, with all that’s published and all the teaching pros available to help us learn, why is that? I have my rationale, so put on your steel toe work boots, because I’m probably going to step on some toes here.

The Top 4 Reasons Golfers Don’t Improve

  1. Most golfers don’t really understand the golf swing. You watch golf and you practice and you play, but you don’t really understand the dynamics of what is really happening at 100 mph during the golf swing. There are dozens of good books on the subject – my favorite is Ben Hogan’s “Five Lessons – The Modern Fundamentals of Golf.” But pick any good one and READ IT. LEARN IT. It will help you immensely if you understand what the swing is really all about. Use a full length mirror to pose in key positions in the swing to match the drawings and photos. All the practice in the world will not help if you are not building a sound fundamental golf swing.
  2. Learning golf doesn’t start in the middle. A sound golf swing is built like a house. First the foundation, then the framing, roof, exterior walls, interior, paint, and trim. You can’t do one before the other. In golf, it all starts with the grip. If you do not hold the club properly, you’ll never accomplish a sound golf swing. Then you learn good posture and setup. If you don’t start in a good position, the body can’t perform the swing motion properly. With a good grip and a sound setup posture, I believe anyone can learn a functional golf swing pretty easily. But if those two foundations are not sound, the walls and roof will never be reliable.
  3. Most bad shots are ordained before the swing ever begins. I am rarely surprised by a bad shot, or a good one, actually. The golf swing is not a very forgiving thing. If you are too close to the ball or too far, if it’s too far forward or backward, if you are aligned right or left of your intended line, your chances of success are diminished quickly and significantly. The ball is 1.68 inches in diameter, and the functional striking area on a golf club is about 1.5-inches wide. If you vary in your setup by even 3/4 inch, you have imposed a serious obstacle to success. If you do nothing else to improve your golf game, learn how to set up the same way every time.
  4. Learn to “swing” the club, not “hit” the ball. This sounds simple, but the golf swing is not a hitting action: it’s a swinging action. The baseball hitter is just that, because the ball is in a different place every time – high, low, inside, outside, curve. He has to rely on quick eye-hand coordination. In contrast, the golf swing is just that – a swing of the club. You have total control over where the ball is going to be so that you can be quite precise in the relationship between your body and the ball and the target line. You can swing when you want to at the pace you find comfortable. And you can take your time to make sure the ball will be precisely in the way of that swing.

Learning the golf swing doesn’t require a driving range at all. In fact, your backyard presents a much better learning environment because the ball is not in the way to give you false feedback. Your goal is only the swing itself.

Understand that you can make a great swing, and often do, but the shot doesn’t work out because it was in the wrong place, maybe by only 1/4 inch or so. Take time to learn and practice your swing, focusing on a good top-of-backswing position and a sound rotating release through impact. Learn the proper body turn and weight shift. Slow-motion is your friend. So is “posing” and repeating segments of the swing to really learn them. Learn the swing at home, refine your ball striking on the range and play golf on the course!

So, there you have my four reasons golfers don’t get better. We all have our own little “personalization” in our golf swing, but these sound fundamentals apply to everyone who’s ever tried to move a little white ball a quarter-mile into a four-inch hole. Working on these basics will make that task much easier!

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Terry Koehler is a fourth generation Texan and a graduate of Texas A&M University. Over his 40-year career in the golf industry, he has created over 100 putter designs, sets of irons and drivers, and in 2014, he put together the team that reintroduced the Ben Hogan brand to the golf equipment industry. Since the early 2000s, Terry has been a prolific writer, sharing his knowledge as “The Wedge Guy”.   But his most compelling work is in the wedge category. Since he first patented his “Koehler Sole” in the early 1990s, he has been challenging “conventional wisdom” reflected in ‘tour design’ wedges. The performance of his wedge designs have stimulated other companies to move slightly more mass toward the top of the blade in their wedges, but none approach the dramatic design of his Edison Forged wedges, which have been robotically proven to significantly raise the bar for wedge performance. Terry serves as Chairman and Director of Innovation for Edison Golf – check it out at www.EdisonWedges.com.

24 Comments

24 Comments

  1. David W Largen

    Sep 5, 2021 at 1:34 pm

    Fastest way to lower scores:
    1. Course and Game Management
    Don’t always have to hit driver.
    Have a go to shot to find a fairway
    Know how far you hit each club. Be realistic.
    Play to center of green.
    In trouble get ball back in play. Chip out.
    Par 5 second shot. 250 yards to green.
    150 yard puts you 100 yards in. Much easier shot than whacking a 3 wood in the woods or ob
    STAY DISCIPLINED PLAY SMART SHOTS.
    Know your miss and shot pattern and play accordingly.

  2. Jason Corro

    Aug 10, 2021 at 1:46 am

    My opinion is yes people don’t know enough about the golf swing, but you don’t need to know everything. Have a good understanding and then keep everything simple. The big problem people don’t get better is too much information. Now with social media, there are many people out there with a fix for everything, or a secret for whatever you want. As soon as I meet a golfer that says they get tips from YouTube or any other platform, I already know they have no idea what they are doing and their mind is a cluttered mess of incongruent ideas. Stop getting advice from 100’s of different sources on YouTube, get in shape, spend 75% of your time on short game. I guarantee you will improve.

  3. Steve Dodds

    Aug 5, 2021 at 9:45 am

    I think the reason most people don’t get better at golf is the same reason most people don’t get better at other sports.

    Good golf requires a level of athleticism and hand/eye co-ordination that most people simply do not have. It is easy to tell who has the potential to have a decent swing. Just watch them throw a ball.

    Those who can throw a ball properly can usually swing a club (or a bat, or a racquet) properly.

    Attempting to teach those without basic athleticism an athletic swing (which the vast majority of teachers try and do) is futile. None of the points in the article are applicable to golfers without basic natural ability.

    Golf’s great equaliser is that it is a game of two parts. Hitting the ball, and then putting the ball in the hole.

    You do have to be athletic to hit driver and irons well. You don’t to putt (or to a lesser extent chip) well.

    And if you can do that, and scoring is the most important thing for you, you can enjoy golf without actually being good at it.

    I’ve been playing seriously for over 30 years. But I would never have kept playing if I didn’t have the basic athleticism to hit the ball properly. I was very chuffed the other day when, at age 60, a new playing partner said my swing reminded him of Ernie Els.

    Despite hating putting I’ve taught myself to be a bit better at it. And with age my misses tend to less penal than when I was younger because I don’t hit it as far. So my handicap is lower than it was when I was younger. But I don’t have a better swing.

    Mind you, I have friends with awful swings who don’t know or care. They could have dozens of lessons and apply themselves like monks but they will never be able to change what their body is capable of. So no 300 yard drives. No high and soft wedges. But even though they can’t swing like a pro, every now and again they get the same result as a pro.

    And that’s why they keep playing awful golf.

    So most golfer’s don’t get better because they can’t get better. Although most can score better.

  4. Donald Drumph

    Aug 3, 2021 at 10:02 am

    Just cheat, like me

  5. Gordy

    Aug 2, 2021 at 11:51 am

    #1 reason why most golfers do not improve. Golf is hard and they give up. They do not play/practice enough either.

    Drop EGO golf and you will get better. #1 on the PGA Tour for proximity to the hole is 32 ft 8 inch. Average birdies per round for PGA Tour Player is 3.65. Be happy with a shot to the green, being on the green, and walking off with a par.

    • geohogan

      Aug 11, 2021 at 8:16 am

      Golf swing is not so much difficult, but demands movment that is not natural, not genetically preprogrammed.

      What is preprogammed is: Tonicity of muscle. (2) The muscle in a steady partially contracted state caused by the successive flow of nerve impulses, as in muscle tonus.

      In so many ways the golf swing demands muscles work contrary to “Tonus”
      Understanding which genetically preprogrammed muscle contractions need to be overridden.
      Thanks to Gerry Hogan for doing the research.
      author “The Hogan Manual of Human Performance: GOLF, 1991.

  6. geohogan

    Aug 2, 2021 at 9:36 am

    Golf magazines and the non stop, “TIPS” perpetuates the myth that the golf swing is learned
    by tips, when in fact it is a complex movement happening at too quick a speed to be controlled by conscious thought.
    Rather all complex human movement are subconsciously conceived and orchestrated, triggered by a single intent.
    A single intent for the golf swing? YES. Very few have uncovered that intent.
    Until the proper intent is known, golfers will be doomed to follow tips , conscious movement over riding the subconscious and lead to the YIPS, perpetuated by golf instruction magazines.

  7. Dennis

    Aug 2, 2021 at 8:47 am

    I don’t know. I see a lot of golfers with low scores and an ugly golf swing. Maybe face control and hitting sweet spot is more important than most Teaching Pros will ever admit.

  8. Pingback: The Wedge Guy: Consistent setup is key to success – GolfWRX

  9. Mark Eting-Grifter

    Jul 26, 2021 at 1:12 pm

    5. Buying new equipment every year hoping that will fix it.

    • jgpl001

      Aug 5, 2021 at 5:58 am

      Does that not fix it?
      OEM’s are always telling me it will

  10. Kauaiboy

    Jul 23, 2021 at 1:08 pm

    I’d recommend Top Speed Golf with Pro Clay Ballard to learn all the fundamentals. I’ve been playing for over 50 years and his system got me from a 10 to a 4 index.

  11. GN

    Jul 23, 2021 at 11:39 am

    The main reason golfers don’t improve is too much L.O.F.T.

    • GaGolfer

      Aug 20, 2021 at 5:41 pm

      LOL. I see what you did there. Absolutely correct. I look at some of these weekend golfers and wonder what the heck they’re doing out here. It can’t be fun hitting it that badly.

  12. Greg McNeill

    Jul 23, 2021 at 10:27 am

    I think one of the worst things to do when trying to develop a sound, repeating swing is “Use a full length mirror to pose in key positions in the swing to match the drawings and photos.” A golf swing is NOT a series of static positions that you consciously attempt to emulate. The “key positions” are the “effects” of a proper swing, not the cause. For example, the tour player’s head remains well behind the ball (or even moves away from the target) at impact, not because the player is forcibly seeking to keep his head back. Rather, it is a consequence of the offsetting forces of the downswing. As the force of the swing moves to impact, there is a counterforce which keeps the head and upper body back naturally, just like a baseball player’s. Simply trying to keep your head back to match some picture of the swing will will ruin your swing.

    • Rascal

      Jul 31, 2021 at 10:04 pm

      100% correct.

    • Tyler Durden

      Aug 9, 2021 at 9:59 pm

      Ben hogan, seve among many many others practiced in front of a mirror and they were pretty good golfers

  13. Ben Hogan

    Jul 22, 2021 at 10:02 pm

    Unless you have the time and patience like me the average golfer needs to get off the range. I dont know how many times people need to say this to get better practice grom 100 and in!! What wins PGA tournaments….. This is why if you give the average golfer a tour quality caddy they will shoot significantly better than they ever have. He doesnt change your swing but knows what to do when it comes to wedges and reading putts.

    Also remember I use to hit HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS of putts a day!! The grind is real if you want to get better

    • GaGolfer

      Aug 21, 2021 at 1:26 pm

      ‘Drive for show and putt for dough’ doesn’t work for the average hacker. You aren’t putting for any dough if you’re getting to the green in 6. I have an excellent short game (around the greens it’s nearly scratch) but have too many rounds where I don’t know which side of the fairway I should aim at; and some where it doesn’t seem to matter where I aim because I’m going to be losing 3-4 balls or chipping out too many times.

      I agree with you 100% that you have to put the work in, but it has to be the right work, with the right coaching. I’ve taken tons of lessons over the years (an ungodly amount, really) and at least half of the instruction wasn’t good. Not that they were wrong, but they weren’t right for what I needed to accomplish. Practicing wrong, I was historically a 10-12, and got as bad as a 17. Practicing right, with the right coaching, got me to a 7 within a year. My goal this coming year is to get to a 5, and we’ll adjust accordingly (if there’s a God, downward) once we get there – after a lot of work and patience.

  14. Dan

    Jul 22, 2021 at 8:28 pm

    You focused on just the swing. Exactly where people go wrong.

    The REAL reason people don’t improve is that they practice the swing, and short game is an afterthought or non thought. Just like your article.

  15. aziz shafi

    Jul 22, 2021 at 2:39 pm

    Very nicely written and well reasoned. I wish I had been able to read something like this twenty years ago…I would be a different golfer today.

    • geohogan

      Aug 1, 2021 at 11:22 am

      Golf magazines and the non stop, “TIPS” perpetuates the myth that the golf swing is learned
      by tips, when in fact it is a complex movement happening at too quick a speed to be controlled by conscious thought.
      Rather all complex human movement are subconsciously conceived and orchestrated, triggered by a single intent.
      A single intent for the golf swing? YES. Very few have uncovered that intent.
      Until the proper intent is known, golfers will be doomed to follow tips , conscious movement over riding the subconscious and lead to the YIPS, perpetuated by golf instruction magazines.

  16. percy freeman

    Jul 22, 2021 at 1:39 pm

    “Learn the swing at home, refine your ball striking on the range and play golf on the course!”

    Terry, this says it all.

    Thanks

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19th Hole

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

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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

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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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19th Hole

Vincenzi’s 2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans betting preview

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The PGA TOUR heads to New Orleans to play the 2023 Zurich Classic of New Orleans. In a welcome change from the usual stroke play, the Zurich Classic is a team event. On Thursday and Saturday, the teams play best ball, and on Friday and Sunday the teams play alternate shot.

TPC Louisiana is a par 72 that measures 7,425 yards. The course features some short par 4s and plenty of water and bunkers, which makes for a lot of exciting risk/reward scenarios for competitors. Pete Dye designed the course in 2004 specifically for the Zurich Classic, although the event didn’t make its debut until 2007 because of Hurricane Katrina.

Coming off of the Masters and a signature event in consecutive weeks, the field this week is a step down, and understandably so. Many of the world’s top players will be using this time to rest after a busy stretch.

However, there are some interesting teams this season with some stars making surprise appearances in the team event. Some notable teams include Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry, Collin Morikawa and Kurt Kitayama, Will Zalatoris and Sahith Theegala as well as a few Canadian teams, Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin and Taylor Pendrith and Corey Conners.

Past Winners at TPC Louisiana

  • 2023: Riley/Hardy (-30)
  • 2022: Cantlay/Schauffele (-29)
  • 2021: Leishman/Smith (-20)
  • 2019: Palmer/Rahm (-26)
  • 2018: Horschel/Piercy (-22)
  • 2017: Blixt/Smith (-27)

2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans Picks

Tom Hoge/Maverick McNealy +2500 (DraftKings)

Tom Hoge is coming off of a solid T18 finish at the RBC Heritage and finished T13 at last year’s Zurich Classic alongside Harris English.

This season, Hoge is having one of his best years on Tour in terms of Strokes Gained: Approach. In his last 24 rounds, the only player to top him on the category is Scottie Scheffler. Hoge has been solid on Pete Dye designs, ranking 28th in the field over his past 36 rounds.

McNealy is also having a solid season. He’s finished T6 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and T9 at the PLAYERS Championship. He recently started working with world renowned swing coach, Butch Harmon, and its seemingly paid dividends in 2024.

Keith Mitchell/Joel Dahmen +4000 (DraftKings)

Keith Mitchell is having a fantastic season, finishing in the top-20 of five of his past seven starts on Tour. Most recently, Mitchell finished T14 at the Valero Texas Open and gained a whopping 6.0 strokes off the tee. He finished 6th at last year’s Zurich Classic.

Joel Dahmen is having a resurgent year and has been dialed in with his irons. He also has a T11 finish at the PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass which is another Pete Dye track. With Mitchell’s length and Dahmen’s ability to put it close with his short irons, the Mitchell/Dahmen combination will be dangerous this week.

Taylor Moore/Matt NeSmith +6500 (DraftKings)

Taylor Moore has quickly developed into one of the more consistent players on Tour. He’s finished in the top-20 in three of his past four starts, including a very impressive showing at The Masters, finishing T20. He’s also finished T4 at this event in consecutive seasons alongside Matt NeSmith.

NeSmith isn’t having a great 2024, but has seemed to elevate his game in this format. He finished T26 at Pete Dye’s TPC Sawgrass, which gives the 30-year-old something to build off of. NeSmith is also a great putter on Bermudagrass, which could help elevate Moore’s ball striking prowess.

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