Fairway Rollin' - Brooks vs. Rory, Jordan Spieth Excitement, and Genesis Invitational Bets | Fairway Rollin’

Episode Date: February 11, 2020

The 2020 Genesis Invitational offers a major-caliber field of golfers, with nine of the top 10 players in the world competing. We wonder if it’s time to get excited about Jordan Spieth, predict Tiger’s performance this weekend, and preview the first official face-off between Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka in the 2020 season (3:10). Then we offer our top picks for the Genesis Invitational (43:50). Host: Joe House Guests: Justin Ray and Harry Gagnon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, my birdie buddies, this week's Fairway Rollin, brought to us as always by the good people at Callaway Golf. I want to tell you about something that's coming up next week. Tuesday, February the 18th, Calloway Golf has produced this incredible documentary, the ball that changed the town. It is about the golf ball manufacturing facility they have in Chickapie, Massachusetts, that has, been there for decades. In fact, it is the same site as the old Spalding facility that used to make Bobby Jones's golf balls, the balls that Bobby Jones used to win the Grand Slam in the same brick and mortar as where Callaway is currently making its chrome soft and all the other great balls. Lots of folks in the town of Chickapie Mass with the history of manufacturing, and this

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Hello, friends. Welcome to this golf podcast, unlike any other. All right, we've done it. My birdie buddies, my eagle enthusiast, my par saving pals. This is Airway Rolling. The Golf Podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network. I am your starter, Joe Howells. What a show today in honor of what a week we have coming up.

Right after Pebble Beach, we all got to watch the beautiful iconic Pebble Beach all weekend long, kind of quite a laconic feel, if you will, to that event. Now things are getting revved up. We have a major field assembled at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles, California, Tiger Woods is the host. I had to have a couple major guests to help make sense out of what we can hope to see this week coming up.

Justin Ray from the 15th club, the golf analytics firm. He's on to spread some of his beautiful analytical winsdom. And we have our old pal, Harry Ganga, from against all odds and odds shark, he makes his 2020 debut. The first tee is open. Let's go over there and put a peg in the ground.

with my main man, Justin Ray. All right, my birdie buddies, now on the T. I am very excited to have this gentleman on. You will recall he was a frequent guest and contributor to Fairway Roll. In last year, we had him on coincident with each of the majors. It is right and appropriate in view of the outstanding field. we have coming up this week at Riviera that Justin Ray

join us once again the 2020 debut of Justin Ray on Fairway Rowland. How you doing, buddy? I'm outstanding. Thanks for having me on again, man. I always love joining you. It is our pleasure and I am very excited because I don't think I anticipated that we were going to have the field that is

in front of us for the upcoming Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles. This is the first year that it's gone from being kind of an open into an invitational, and it seems like Tiger has control of the list. So we have nine out of the top 10 golfers in the world, and then a whole other 15 or 20 in the top 50 beyond that. This is a major tournament field, Justin Ray. Do you agree with me?

Yeah, 100%. I mean, this is everything the PGA Tour and the Genesis folks at the invitation I had in mind when they had Tiger officially tie his name to this thing. I mean, Tiger went 10, 12 years without even playing here. So to think that, you know, this has been,

traditionally, it's been a pretty strong field. You know, Rivier has been, you know, a fixture on, on, in professional golf or a century. You know, it's a famous place. Great layout there in Los Angeles. But since they've been able to get Tiger's name officially tied to it and now shifting it from

the 144 player field to make it a little bit smaller, prize money is a little bit bigger, and this is the strongest field I can never remember for this event. So, I mean, it's certified shaped up to be, this is the biggest week of the year so far in 2020 for golf, or it'll probably be the

biggest week until we get to maybe WGC matchplay. Yeah, and how about this? What if now with the new schedule, we have this event in February and get an outstanding field for that? Then we have the Players' Championship in March. That's always a terrific field. Super depth. Then we have the Masters in April, the PGA Championship in May, the U.S. Open in June, and the British Open in July.

I mean, this is a wealth of riches, Justin Ray. Yeah, and it's, I mean, maybe that's kind of what Genesis had in mind. I mean, I keep calling it by the title sponsor's name, but the folks who run this tournament had in mind is that, you know, they could position themselves on the calendar as, you know, an elite event with a great field where all the best players could set it up personally of their schedule. And, you know, that's what we've ended up with.

So it's worked out great. And it's going to be, you know, obviously, like you said, a tremendous field, nine of the top 10 players in the world. You know, Tigers there, Capco, Rory, everybody's there. You know, getting ready for what's going to be a great season here in 2020. Yeah, and we're helped by the fact there's a WGSC event in Mexico right around the corner. This event in California is the last of the California swing, this L.A., the L.A. Open. I'm just going to call it the L.A. Open.

I mean, no, all, just disrespect intended. Yeah, but that's... No one sends to me a car, so... that's right i didn't get a car either uh so we're going to call out the la open but you know some of the european players are coming across to play on the pGA tour for the first time this season um at riviera i know that uh sergio's coming over to play and we got adam scott uh he's not european but uh from australia and then eric van roi and these are all guys making their uh debut because you know right around the corners the wgc event down in mex

now I want to do proper justice to the just concluded AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am event and we'll just call that the Clambake you as is always your way posted

from the 15th Club newsletter 10 notes to know those come out twice a week you get got to get you got to follow Justin Ray on Twitter he is at Justin Ray Golf And then you have to sign up for the newsletter, the 15th Club newsletter, because that twice a week during the regular season gives you lots of great information, nuggets, trends, stats about guys playing well on tour.

And then when the big tournaments come around, they publish it round by round. So let's go ahead and tip our cat, JR, to Nick Taylor, because that was an impressive performance. Yeah, it was fantastic. coming down the stretch, doing a windy condition, course was getting a little bit tougher. And he was playing in the final group with an absolute legend in Phil Mickelton that won the tournament five times previously. And Nick just, you know,

stare at him in the eye and hold out that chip coming down the stretch of the back and eye that really turned the corner and gave him a lot of momentum to steal the victory. Anytime a guy can win wire to wire on the meeting door, which is what Taylor did, it took incredible feat. But to think to do it in that event where you're playing on three different courses

throughout the week. It speaks to a guy who was really clicking on all cylinders. And he was a top-ranked amateur in the world at one point when he was coming up. He's a skilled guy. He's got a lot of games. And, you know, when it's all firing, he's capable of. And that's, you know, beating a pretty good field and knocking off Phil Mickelson on Sunday at Pebble Beach. So big win for Nick Taylor.

It was a great finish. I know a lot of us were probably, you know, Phil would have set the eighth section of the BGA tour record book on fire a few to one. yesterday, you get that win at 49. He would have tied Walter Hagan on the all-time wins list. Phil's going to have a few more opportunities, I think, here at some of these venues this year and coming up, pretty much every year at Pebble Beach, you could probably peg it and win until he's about 55 years old.

So, but great win for Nick Taylor, and it was an exciting finish. It's a slow week on TV every year, Pebble Beach with all the celebrities and, you know, kind of, you know, extra stuff that's going on throughout the tournament. But it was some good golf, coming down to stretch. And, you know,

next was the, obviously the star of the show. Yeah, it was polite. I like how politic you put your review of the TV coverage. You know, golf Twitter, um,

does not have a big, uh, soft spot in its heart for the way that CBS handles the pebble beach event. And, uh, you know, the, the lack of being able to see the guys in contention,

especially on Saturday. You know, Nick Taylor was out there, uh, kicking ass. out it. I think he was at Spyglass on Saturday. And I don't recall seeing even like six of his shots.

I know that's a conversation for another day with another host, another guest where we'll say lots of bad things, but not for this week. One thing I'd say to that is that, I mean, the guys who watch golf 46 weeks

a year, I mean, that Saturday broadcast at the Pebble Beach program, it's just not for you. It's not who it's intended for. And I know that kind of stinks because you're These are the most loyal, you know, consumers of the product on TV. But I take a step back and look at it from a big picture perspective. For a lot of folks, that might be your casual sports fan, football's just ended. This is the first golf tournament you may be tuned into all year.

Here's Peyton Manning hitting a shot and Steve Young. And then, oh, yeah, here's Dustin Johnson with Bill Nicholson. So, I mean, it's super late back. And obviously, you know, I don't want to get too much into, you know, the specifics of a broadcast. But, you know, maybe that one day of that one event for the all. whole year. It's just, that's not, the hardcore golf fan, it's just not tailored towards you. And it can be frustrating for

I don't know, somebody like, I mean, if I was sitting there as a fan, I would probably be irritated by it, but I don't know, maybe a dose of taking a step back and thinking about it that way would be beneficial for some folks. Yeah, I, I have no problem with, with the perspective you just shared, and exactly where it falls

on the sports calendar, and showing off Pebble Beach, you know, the, the beautiful vistas, the cliffs, the waves, the sound of it all, the way the course looks. It does reacquaint the sports consuming public with the fact that golf, you know, is on the counter and happening now on a weekly basis. And there's a beautiful appetizer for the week we have coming up.

I want to just hit on one fact item from the Pebble Beach Pro Am that blew my mind before we move on and start talking through. Actually, two items I want to tackle. First of all, Phil finished, tied for third, I believe. And you included in the 10 notes to know this item that this is his 108 top three finish of his PGA tour career. That's unbelievable. Yeah, that's 30 years of being at the top of the sport. I mean, only Tiger has more in that span.

and I know that he would have like to have a lot fewer runner-up finishes in that span. The other note I had ready to go until he missed the put on the last hole was that he has the most runner-up finishes on the PGA tour of anybody the last 30 years too. So, you know, it's amazing how close Phil Mickelson could be. He's got 44 wins and he could easily have 55 or 60 if a few things have gone his way day-to-day on Sunday on the PGA tour throughout his career. Of course, that probably wouldn't make him, that wouldn't craft who Phil Nicholson is, probably because he's just known a lot like Arnold Palmer.

He's just known for his big time, you know, the times he didn't pull through when we were all pulling for him. He's known for that almost as much as his great successes. It's a good point. Speaking of guys that were pulling for and it was a very welcome site to some of us, I'm just an unrepentant Jordan Speath fan. Jordan Spieth had his best Sunday in what feels like a couple of years. He had a 67.

And in your 10 notes to know, you include the fact that this is his best score to par. He shot five under in the final round of a PGA tour event since the 2018 Masters. That's unbelievable. how are you upon reflection on the analytics and what you saw out of Jordan Spee, can we start to get a little excited? I mean, the ball striking numbers that day were fantastic. He was nearly six and a half strokes,

T to Green, which is one of the highest single rounds of his entire PGA tour career. I think that's something to be excited about. The biggest thing for Jordan's speak has been just how bad he's been off the T. and Pebble Beach presents a lot of opportunities for players who are wild because the way of the pro am, it's not very penalizing.

So you're able to be wild off the tee. It's still a scoring opportunities. And Phil Nicholson winning its five times in his career. You know, a guy's never been known to be, you know, accurate off the tee. So when Steve hit the ball in the fairway, his metrics in terms of approach shots from the fairway this season are really good. So when he puts himself in those opportunities, you know, that's him saying, I've almost got it.

I'm really close. You know, the thing we've been hearing him in his camp say for about a year now. The problem is he's just so infrequently in the fairway. And so he was able to put himself as a good spot for T-Shok last week at Pebble Beach. And, you know, you see what he's capable of. He's still an elite putter, which is what he's been even during this kind of down period by his standards over the last, you know, 12, 18 months. But that's what he's, you know, he's fully capable. If he can put the ball in the fairway, if it's a venue where he feels comfortable, you know, he's,

He's not that far away. So, yeah, I'm in your camp, too. You know, I think the game is in a better place when he's playing well. You know, all the things he's achieved at such a young age, he still has, it feels like he hasn't won in forever because he isn't won since 2017 open, but he still has the second most wins on the tour by anybody who's currently in their 20s, only behind JT. So it's a testament to just how prolific he was at such a young age.

And, yeah, he's making strides. He's getting closer. So, you know, the best final round scored apart. it's almost tough to believe that it had been, you know, nearly two years since he had shot five under a better on a Sunday. But, you know, that's what we had. So we'll see if we can keep the momentum going. And, you know, at April, at Augustine National, he's one of the best performers in the history of that championship round by round. So we'll see if he can get his game ready for the season's first major.

Yeah, if he's playing the Masters, he's on my card. I'm either going to gamble a little on him. He's in my fantasy lineup. If Jordan Speeth is physically able to play in the Masters, he's got to be on the on the card. You made the point. Let's see if he can carry it over from Pebble down to Los Angeles at Riviera, different ballpark able to hit, you know, miss some fairways at Riviera and still scored, our boy J.B. Holmes last year, won the event by hitting 52.

percent of the fairways, but he was over 70 percent of greens in regulation. Small greens at Riv. Rib plays long. There are seven par fours that are more than 450 yards, which means we get to see some long irons, Justin Ray. It's incredible. We were going to see seven irons and maybe even six irons. And J.B.

putted the eyes out of the last year, too. He led the field and strokes made putting in his win. That's really what, you know, that was a tournament, too, that Justin Tom. It's basically had in the bag on Sunday, and it all kind of fell apart. So I'm interested to see how T-Bounce is back this week. The guy's already won two times on the PGA tour season. He's waiting with that next cup right now. Yeah, no, you'll see him some more along on it because that kind of plays into the strengths of Tiger Woods.

Well, let's go ahead and talk about Tiger Woods. You included in the 10 notes. He is the tournament host. He has played this event 13 times, and he has never won this. event, right? Yeah, it's completely incomplete. This is the first, he made his PGA tour debut at Riviera

28 years ago, and to think that at that court, this is the course he's never broke through and won on. It's pretty amazing, considering that he's basically checked every box can think of, and even ones we couldn't conceive, you know, even coming up with once his career began,

to think that he's never broke through here is it's pretty, pretty incredible. It's the only course he's played more 10 times and not won a career. You know, it's, like you said,

I mean, there are some long irons, long hires a little bit more significant here than your typical PGA tour stock. But the numbers say that Tiger really just hasn't putted well throughout his career here. He, he,

last year is a perfect example of that. He had six three puts. That was tied for the most in the field for the week. He's got another strokes going to putting pro round in his career at Riviera, which is, you know, it's Tiger Woods.

He's one of the best putters to ever walk the earth. It's almost inconceivable that he could, you know, be less than average against the field number, which is what that strokes game number says at a certain venue. But that's what he's been throughout his career at Riviera. So I don't know if there's much more for Tiger Woods to learn at any golf course on Earth, but maybe having a little more of a consistent appearance here at Genesis, like he has the last, you know, three, four years since he's been the tournament host. Maybe that'll put him in a better place on the Greens,

because he's going to need it if he's going to want to contend this week. Yeah, there's a stat that I'm stealing from our pal, Patrick Mayo, with Draft King's contributor. Since 2011, Riviera has ranked as the toughest course on tour for putting from three feet and in. And that's five of the past nine seasons. So nine seasons since 2011, five of those nine seasons, Riviera's been the tough for those, the toughest for those three-four for those shorties, and it has to be the poa, the poa, right? Yeah, absolutely. And those same statistics are reflected in the, when you look at it from 4 to 8 feet, inside 10 feet.

You know, consistently on the PGA tour, it's the venues in California that are at the top of the list in terms of lowest make percentage from those short distances. And the common theme there is the poe, obviously. So like Tori Pines, Pebble Beach, Riviera, those are always at the top of the list in terms of the most difficult to make the best. putts between four and eight feet inside 10 feet and like you said even those shorter ones plenty of misses inside three and he's you know tiger which has six three butts and four rounds i mean that's that's unbelievable i mean that's just completely nearly unprecedented his entire career and it speaks to just how difficult these greens can be sometimes well and and we're talking about you know this will be the last thought on tiger he's had plenty of success in

california at tory pines and at pebble beach just for whatever reason it hasn't translated over maybe this the fact that he played tory already, you know, we'll contribute to whatever it is in terms of his feel, his, his overall sense of putting lines, whatever it may be that works for him to get him rolling the rock a little bit here at Riv. But I want to make sure, because it is so delicious, Justin Ray, that we talk about this matchup. And there are,

we've already properly acknowledged the the absolute cornucopia of wonderful players at this event. But this is, for our intents and purposes, the first of Roy McElroy and Brooks Keppka together at an unbelievable venue, Riviera Country Club, host of U.S. Opens and other majors, ready to perhaps kick off this. kind of small R rivalry that look like it might be coming into existence at the end of last year. What do you think? In a rivalry, it's been waged more in press rooms by reporters asking about it than actually on the court. In all sports, rivalries, they manifest themselves naturally over time and as much as we desire for it to happen. You know, golf is just a sport where when you've got 144 players or 120 or whatever, whatever, it is. in any given week trying to win a tournament,

it's just usually not going to, usually not going to end up with the top two names you want there at the end. We wanted it with Phil and Tiger for so many years and never really got into a major, only got on a few Sundays throughout the years. I remember a few years ago, Dustin Johnson and Jordan Speed were in a playoff in a playoff event, I think was Northern Trust in 2017.

That was the first time ever that there was a PGA tour playoff between the guy ranked number one and the guy ranked, number two of the world. And it hasn't happened since either. So it's just so rare for it, for you to get that kind of head-to-head rivalry type thing, you know, on the same course at the same time. And if it does come to fruition, we should just be happy that we actually see it, because it's just so hard for it to happen. It's not like the NBA where typically the two best teams make it to the playoffs in either conference. You can get, you know, Celtics Lakers back in the day or whatever it might be.

It's not the same as, you know, major league baseball. You know, typically we've got two teams going head to head or even like tennis, which is, I guess, a better correlate because it's an individual sport, you know, you face your opponent head to head and then you march and get to the final to get, you know, Federer Adolf or Jokovic or whatever might be. It just doesn't happen that way because of the nature of golf. So I hope we can get to that point because there's been a lot of interesting

close coming out of it. Rory's deferred a lot. Kepka's kind of kicked the kick the fire, made it a little bit bigger, you know, with some of the things he said about, you know, Rory having not won a major championship since he's been, Brooks has been at the top of the game. And, you know, it's certainly interesting. And I hope it can grow into something that would be,

you know, something to captivate us here in the sport for the next 10 years or so. But we can only hope to see it kind of manifest itself on the golf course. And, you know, I've got a good opportunity this week with both guys playing here at Riviera. Yeah, and we were blessed last year. We had two instances in the latter half of the season of Brooks and Rory paired together with the tournament on the line. And they each got one. Brooks beat Rory at the WGC event down in Memphis at the end of July. And then Rory came back at the tour championship. They played in the same group. It basically heads up. And he was able to hold off Brooks and take down the tour championship. Now, we know for this one thing about Brooks, which is he seems to be motivated by extrinsic stuff,

like a regular tour event kind of thing. He's made it pretty clear. It doesn't really get the juices flowing. But what we have this week that might get the juices flowing a little bit, Justin, is Rory McElroy reclaiming the world number one ranking this week, taking it from Brooks, who held it for, what, 40-some consecutive weeks? Right. And the last tournament, Brooks Kepka played when he was not number one in the world,

was the BGA championship last year, which he won. So, I mean, it's a first. Game on. Yeah, I've got another one, too. So this is, Kepka doesn't have a top 15 finish. any of his last four starts, right? Worldwide. The last time he went four starts without a top 15 finish,

he went to the 2017 U.S. Open and he won. So there's this, you know, just like you said, he seems to kind of need something to get under his skin to kind of really kick him into high gear, Brooks does. Maybe losing the number one ranking, however temporary or however for long that might be, maybe that's something that does it. You know, he's not the betting favorite,

this week. I think he's, Brooks's fourth or fifth down the list. Behind guys like John Rom, who's been a human torch for about nine months and JT's been great. Rory, of course, he's got like six top five in the last eight starts. So, you know, there's not a lot of talk about Brooks Kepka. Tiger

Woods is there. Dustin Johnson's played great at Riviera over the years. This is kind of maybe the perfect storm for maybe Kepka goes out there Thursday, throws a 64 on the board and says, all right, boys, come get it. You know, the king's back. So, you know, I don't know. It's certainly something throughout the years that we've seen with Brooks that, you know, when something kind of gets to him that's, you know, not just respects, but maybe maybe just something that kind of says he can't do it, he answers the bell.

Yeah, I love this. I opened up the book while you were discussing where he might fall. In my book, he's available right this second at 23 to 1 the same odds as Bubba Watson. So he is way behind. He's like one, two, three, four. He's like seven or eight guys down. He's behind Tony Fee now and behind Zander Shafley in the book that I'm looking at. Boy, oh boy, Brooks at 23 to one.

That just feels like value. That feels like incredible value to me. Yeah. I mean, anytime you can get him in any tournament on any course with that kind of value, it's probably, it's worth a second look for sure, at least. All right, Justin, before we move on, I want to tell everybody about the Chrome Soft X triple track golf ball. Phil Mickelson's using it. There's a new one out this year 2020. It features Calloway's triple track technology to help improve alignment. I'm not sure if everybody witnessed the unbelievable

short game performance that Phil Mickelson put on this past Saturday. Saturday at Pebble Beach from virtually every bunker that he found himself in, plus some short game chip-ins from off the green. He has used a triple-track golf ball on tour since the beginning of 2019. He used a ChromeSoft X triple-track golf ball last year to win at Pebble Beach. The design on these balls features, this is the science part, Vernier hyperacuity. You can look that up. but spelled V-E-R-N-I-E-R hyperacuity, and that basically translates into crazy improved visual alignment.

In fact, 88% of the golfers using the triple track are finding themselves better aligned. The triple track golf balls continue to be a popular choice on tour for elite players like Phil, Zander Shafley, and Francisco. Mel Mulanari available right now at Callawaygolf.com. All right, back to the Genesis.

You mentioned a bunch of the names. Let's try and help folks, you know, building their fantasy lineups, their DFS lineups, or just want to sprinkle a little bit of cash out there. You have to play Rory. You have to play John Rom. You have to play Justin Thomas, right? Is there any reason that either any of those three guys, Now, you're not going to be able to build a DFS lineup with all those guys,

and your fantasy lineup might not accommodate all those guys. But you have to figure out a way to play at least two of them. Is there anybody else that you put in that tippy, tippy top tier category? Probably not in that one, two, three with those guys. I mean, those are in arguably the three hottest players in the world right now. You know, ROM contends every week he plays. Rory essentially is in that same boat. Justin Thomas, like I said,

already won twice this season. Thomas nearly won this tournament last year. JT is one of the best scoring averages in the history of this tournament among guys who haven't won it yet. So, I mean, yeah, I don't think I would necessarily put anybody else in that class.

I certainly like a handful of other players to succeed this week. You could probably make the argument for Tony Fee now to be near that class. But I think that those three are kind of head and shoulders. The way I felt about Dustin, Johnson going into Pebble Beach last week as kind of the head and shoulders favored above

everybody. I think those three guys are maybe maybe a step, step and a half above the rest of the field going to the tournament. I'm glad that you mentioned Tony Fee now. He has a good track record at this venue in terms of his second place finished a couple years ago. He's been kind of, you know, top 60 other, you know, not incredible. But I'm wondering and I'm a guy that likes stories that likes narratives. He has been prominent with his tributes to Kobe Bryant. And I know without having done any research whatsoever that there will be some acknowledgement. You know, Tiger and his team will do something in the way of a tribute to Kobe this week. And it, you know, story wise to me, the best story would be Tiger Woods winning this event.

and making it a tribute to Kobe Bryant because of the similarities between Tiger and Kobe. A lot of great golf journalists have written about. Jason Sobel wrote about it. Kyle Porter wrote about it. Some other folks made the connections. But Tony Fienow as a guy who's a prominent basketball fan, a prominent Lakers fan. And as close as he got at the Phoenix Open a couple weeks ago, that also could be. a cool L.A. story. You agree?

Yeah, I agree 100%. I mean, it'd be a really popular win too. You know, it's well documented how many times Tony's gotten really close to breaking through with another win here in the last few years. Just a really hard luck loss to Webb Simpson at Phoenix a few weeks ago. I think the PGA stores announced it's going to involve something with the eight hole this week, which would be saying. So, I mean, and Tony, I mean, he's finished six or better in three of his four starts around the world this year. You mentioned his runner-up finished two years ago here. It was 15th last

year, which is, you know, nothing to shake your head at. I mean, I can't think of anybody who would be a more popular winner this week than Tony King now, just, you know, universally like on the BGA tour. And then with that basketball background, his family, you know, he's, I think Javari Parker is his cousin, I believe. It's, you know, a lot of strong ties there. And that would be a great way to break through. you're going to picture him, you know, maybe throwing the jersey on, walking the 72nd hole. You mentioned Tiger winning, having would have been, you know, that'd be an amazing story this week too.

To see him get his 83 win, you know, that's one more basket than Kobe's 81 points. Oh, wow. A memorable night. I love that. Yeah, so, I mean, either one would be an awesome story. Obviously, Tiger would take precedent in terms of, you know, leading newscasts and things like that.

over Tony Fiena win, but yeah, no, I think Tony is a great, Tony has been my pick this week to win just because of his form here, his ball striking metrics across the board, his resume at Riviera, I really like Tony Fina a lot. He'd be a popular winner.

Well, let's, as is our way, cover off a couple names that are not in this tippy top tier that you're interested in, that you're kind of excited about to see them, that may be a little below the radar. Yeah, so I have a very advanced algorithm here that points to one particular player.

I'm going to explain it. Very complicated, scientific. 2014, Bubba Watson won at Riviera. Two years later, 2016, Bubble Watson won at Riviera. Two years later, 2018, Bubble Watson won at Riviera. This complicated algorithm says 2020, two years later, we should probably look for Bubble Watson to at least contend Riviera. So that's my very sophisticated system saying maybe Bobba would be in the mix here. You know, they every two years type thing. That's some data.

That's some high class stuff. This is why we have you on the podcast, Justin Ray. Now, look, if you... The kind of things you can only get through years of experience and very significant data analysis. No, but Boa's a great fit here. He's won here three times, like I said. Westies have a real great propensity for winning at Riviera. I don't know if it's shot shape or what it might be, but Phil's one here twice.

Mike Weir's one here twice. It's the course that's yielded as many lefty winners is basically anywhere. So, yeah, Bubba is interesting. You know, he's not the same player he was years ago, but he kind of popped out of nowhere a couple years doing one here too. Another guy who I saw at, I think, 35 to 1 in one place I've seen him at 41. He hasn't had a great last couple of months. But Justin Rose has been one of the best players on the,

planet the last five years. And to get value at him around 40 to 1, 35 to 1 anywhere, it's pretty staggering to me, especially since this is the guy who has the second best scoring average of anybody at Riviera over the last 10 years. So, Justin Rose, I think, is not in the same

kind of form he was maybe a year ago at this time. But he's a guy so incredibly talented, so experienced, you know, great track record here. I think he's somebody who's really interesting. Another guy, too, who you mentioned, is making his first start of year. He won his last start of the year, the Australian PCA

championship, Adam Scott has an unbelievable track record at Riviera as well. He's third and Kunu scored a par of the last five years in Riviera. He has the third best scoring average at Ribb the last 10 years. A lot of reasons to point to Adam Scott to find him in a decent

value for your draft Kings or daily fancy line of whatever it is or maybe to even win outright. So, you know, those are a couple of veteran guys who their bigger name, but, you know, I could see them definitely being in the mix this week. There's one other player, and you actually mentioned him, and it was surprising because I thought he would be a little more under the radar.

But it's a guy who's a stalwart on the European tour, hasn't played a lot in the United States yet, South African named Eric Van Royan. He finished runner-up three times in the European tour last year, one last year. He's a long guy. He's an outstanding putter. I wouldn't be surprised if Van Royan contended in a major championship this year. I don't know if maybe this week is the week to pick a guy who hasn't played in a ton of events in the United States yet. It's kind of a big stage and a big event.

I might want to see him playing a few more events in the U.S. before going that far. But he's a really talented guy. He's kind of in another year in his career over the last 18 months. And now he's in the top 50 in the world. So, you know, props to you house for pulling Eric Van Roya now, looking at guys in the field this. Well, I would tell you this, one of the things that's interesting for him and Brandon Grace, the South Africans are comfortable with this kikuyu grass.

We're going to hear the broadcasters talk about kikuyu probably 7,000 times this coming weekend, and I can't get enough of it. But, you know, that's the predominant. The golf season doesn't start until Ian Baker finch this kikuyu with his Australian accent. Well, this is it. The official kickoff. But yeah, Van Roy and Brandon Grace. I'm just, you know, if you have to round out a lineup,

they're a little bit, they're far enough down that you can get some decent prices for them. I'm going to let you go because you, if you're willing, will grace us with some thoughts and observations as each of the majors come up. But before I let you go, I'm just going to end with this question. Who's going to win the Masters? Justin Thomas. Wow. Okay. His iron play is as good as anybody.

He's hit kind of another level in terms of his ball striking here over the last 12 to 18 months. Justin Thomas' career finishes in Augusta, 39th, then 22nd, then 17th, and then 12th last year. So he's on a very promising trend upward. So in that five seconds, I had to think about it. I'll go Justin Thomas. Great job. He's available right now. 14 to 1, jump on it before he gets down to single digits, everybody.

Justin Ray, always a pleasure. Thanks for making your 2020 debut. We'll talk to you as it gets warm down in Augusta, Georgia. Thanks as always for having me, man. Really enjoyed it. All right, thanks, Justin. Talk to you soon. All right, my thanks, as always, to Justin Ray.

We're about to enjoy the season debut of Harry. But first, a quick word from some friends. Friends, Mizan and Maine, par-saving pals, have you ever worn a dress shirt? I know that you have. We all have, and subconsciously it reminds us of a straight jacket. How about this good news? Mizan and Maine has made dress shirts better by making dress shirts for men that are actually comfortable. The secret is the fit and the fabric.

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Sharks.com. Of course you know him and recall him from his many appearances on this show, making his 2020 debut on Fairway Rollin. It is our beloved buddy, Harry Ganyangong. How are you, buddy? Pleasure to be on. I love being. I love being on this show. You know, I love talking golf with you. Well, look, it is the big time, Harry. The season is really underway now. We're at the end of the California swing. We're at the iconic Riviera country club. Tiger is the host. We have nine out of the top ten golfers in the world assembled for this event.

It's time to break out the big guns. And you, my friend, are a big gun here on Fairway, rolling. Appreciate it. You know, this field is, I can't wait for this way. I can't wait for Thursday. The field in this, like you just mentioned, it's fantastic. I mean, it's as good as any major that we're going to get. And I just had our pal, Justin Ray, from the 15th Club on.

And we were talking about how wonderful this stretches that we have. Now we have incredible tournaments. If this can really hold, if this field that Tigers bringing together, if folks can build their schedules now in this new sort of compressed, major schedule era that we're in where we have Riviera in February. And honestly, Tori Pines has been getting, always gets a great field. That's in January. But if we get this kind of major field in February and then we have the players

championship in March and then we have the Masters in April, the PGA Championship, the U.S. Open, the British Open. And we're basically like February through July, just looking at unbelievable golf. And then August, you know, we have the fun FedEx Cup tournament where, you know, you go from 120 guys down to 30 guys and a bunch of those guys can win. It's a really great golf schedule now. Do you agree with me? Oh, absolutely.

And especially like you didn't mention this week. Like, I mean, we have guys that we haven't seen all year yet. We haven't seen on the PCH or barely seen on. European tour. Henrik Stenson's been invisible for the most part lately. He's there. Adam Scott. I mean, we have guys that Matthew Fitzpatrick, who's been playing on the, a little bit

on the PGA tour a little bit, and Matt Wallace, who was a surprise player from last year to, he's here too. Danny Willett, you know, Eddie Pepperow's playing in this. So a lot of guys that are on the European tour, Tiger brought over, and we've got a modest playing. He hasn't played in the States. and I don't think he's played all year yet. So we got plenty of guys here that, you know,

play on the European tour that are big names that are here in Los Angeles this week. Yes, sir. So let's jump right into it. I know it's kind of early in the week, but I know that you've been looking at it and giving, you know, building out some, some thoughts, some guidance to give out to your own folks at Odd Shark.

Who is catching your fancy this week? Well, you know, it's definitely right now. Currently is Bubba Watson, and you can get him at like 23, 25 to 1 to win it all. Top 10, top 5, top 20 came out. I saw this morning I was looking through. And for top 10, you can get Bubba at 2 to 1. He's played five tournaments so far this year. And in the past couple of years, he's been shaking erratic at times. But he's made five tournament appearances so far this year. He's got five cut. made. He finished six at Torrey Pines. He finished third here in Scottsdale, the waste management's been open. In all five of those tournaments, he's got top 20 finishes in them. And in odd, excuse me, on even years, he wins this tournament. He won it in 18. He won it in 16, and he won it in 14.

In 2015, he finished 14. And last year he finished 15. So top 10, at plus 200 is definitely a great value with Bubbo Watson and especially with the way he's been playing. I was at that, the TPC waste management open here in Scottsdale on that Saturday and played great there too. I caught a couple holes of his. I followed him around a little bit from what I could because the crowd was so crazy. I mean, let me tell you, it's insane. Have you ever been to it? I haven't been.

It's on my golf bucket list. Everybody says, I have to get there. I want to spend, you know, a half of a day out in the bleachers at 16. But really, I just want to be with everybody. It's such a huge event, enormous crowds. I just want to watch, walk around with the group. And everybody says it's overwhelmingly friendly and positive. It's such a nice event to be at.

In addition to, you know, the alcohol-fueled sort of hilarity that ensues, right? Who's FEC Beyond Belief? Of course. Yeah. And I've actually been lucky enough to be on 16th hole one year where it's just, it's, it's, it's obviously people talk about it. And it's something that, um, uh, it's unlike anything else in golf and in sports. It's just crazy. It's basically an anomaly in itself with, uh, how crazy it is on 16th, on the 16th hole there.

But it still, like I said, it, listen, be my guess. come on out anytime and we'll go because we'll have a we'll have a blast maybe next year or something like it's it is something that it was I think that was on Saturday 289,000 people just on Saturday one day at one venue I mean this is the thing

I don't think there's anything that Riles that maybe the uh Indianapolis 500 they can get you know a couple hundred thousand people out for that thing because it's a giant track but but this this by far um I think is the biggest American uh...

And let me tell you the following, the following for Bubba is just everybody loves the guy. And again, like I said, he finished third this past year. And again, to get back on track in terms of the Riviera, I really like him at 23 to 1, possibly to win the whole thing. But again, especially top 10. You can get him at 2 to 1. Two times your money is great. I also like Justin Thomas top 10 at minus 125. He finished second there last year.

In 2018, he finished 9th. So he's getting a feel for that course, too. He's really enjoying it. So those are the two guys that I have a feel for so far this week. Okay. Well, now, would you call one of those two guys your Maverick driver pick of the week? Because, Harry, I have to tell you, the Maverick driver is in play. We're talking about the brand new driver by Calloway Golf.

Phil Mickelson has been playing with it. The last two weeks, top five performances. In both weeks, and this driver, it has their brand new Callaway artificial intelligence design flash face that's engineered to promote fast ball speeds across a more expansive area in each model and loft. And it's a great combination of low spin and high MOI. That's a scientific term. I think it means it helps the ball go further. and interchangeable weights to help you fine-tune your trajectory. One of those two guys, your Mavik driver pick of the week, Harry.

Wow, you sold me on that. You sold me already, you house on that. But still, yeah, you know what, by the way, Phil, you know, third all time on the money list of Riviera with two wins, two second place finishes. He's been playing really well so far. I think he's going to turn 50 in June. So that's good to see him out there and playing well. I played good in Palm Springs too.

So that was good to see. But I still'm going to go with, listen, it's an even year. Like I said, Bubba's won in 2014, 2016, 2018. I'm going to go 2020. I'm going to go Bubba at 23 to 1. I love it. Well, I have a guy. This is going to be sound, it's on the one hand kind of chalky,

but on the other hand, it feels like a rare instance of value, a guy without a great track record at. this venue, but I just am rooting for, now look, I'm rooting for one thing and one thing only. That's Tiger Woods to win and make a great tribute to Kobe Bryant. I want Tiger to get his historical 83rd win to break Stam's record this week in Los Angeles and have that tie in with Kobe. That's what I'm rooting for more than anything else. But for the purposes of, of, you know, making a pick.

and what I'm really rooting for is the direction of the season that I'm hoping for. Brooks Kepka, Harry, is available right this second at 23 to 1 to win this tournament. And you can get Brooks right now

at let me look, let me pull up the top 10 odds right now. Brooks Kepka available at 2 to 1 plus 200. Now, we know one thing about him and we talked a little bit about this with Justin Ray. Brooks loves it when people sleep on him, dismiss him, forget about him. This is the first time this week at Riviera will be the first tournament that he's going to play,

not ranked number one in the world because Rory just displaced him. The last time Brooks Kepka played a golf tournament not ranked number one in the world, that was the 2019 PGA, which he went out. and won. And the last time Brooks Kepka played a tournament coming off of four straight results outside the top 15. So he's been, you know, you look at his early season results so far. He's been over in the Middle East kind of scuffling around a little bit. All of his results outside the top 15. The last time, four straight results outside the top 15. That was in 2017. The tournament he played was the U.S. Open. And he won that one also, Harry. So I am absolutely.

I'm loving 2 to 1 to top 10, 23 to 1 to win. I mean, you're not going to get these kinds of odds on Brooks Kepka for the whole rest of the season. No, and I'm looking right now, you got me very interested here. I'm looking at top 5 and get him at 5 to 1, top 5 as well. I mean, those are great odds. For Brooks, like, there's nothing that's happened to him to put us off of him. He had the knee surgery. He had a setback with it.

So he didn't play in the president's cup, but he's been, all indications are he's been healthy since. He was off in the Middle East. I think he's ready to come back here to the United States, play in this incredible field and remind all of us the place that he thinks he occupies in the golf hierarchy. Yeah, I mean, I think that's a great point. I mean, you know, he's over in Dubai and he's playing in those tournaments. Maybe you would know better than me if he's just, you know, going through the motions as getting some prep in for the tour. I think also, you know, I think that maybe with Rory being number one in the world now, maybe that's got him motivated to just come out and maybe it, like he said, maybe this week, maybe in the very near future to get back at that number one position because I'm sure he loves it. Rory's deservate of it.

You know, Rory's, uh, Roy, Rory may play, uh, really well here too, uh, this week, too. I think he finished fourth last year. Uh, again, we discussed, uh, last time I was on, Rory playing a lot of tournaments, uh, changing a schedule around. So he plays a lot more in the United States, uh, which is always good to see. Uh, it's great having him in the field always, definitely. But, uh, this might be a situation where not being number one anymore just really motivates Brooks Kepka to really do something more than he's already

done and to get that number one position back. I mean, my fingers are crossed. Now, let's, let's mention one or two guys that are not, you know, tippy top names. And well, this will be our sort of parting shot for everybody. Tell me a guy or two that's not like the most prominent name that you're looking at or that you think might be a little bit of value going into Riviera this week. Because I feel, I mean, it's just a stacked, incredible assembly of the world's very best

golfers. It really is. You know, I think also, I think maybe here, I'm looking at maybe a top five, top 10, maybe a guy from Mexico, Abraham Answer. I like the way he played in the President's Cup. He was playing tough. He played tough. He really showed up a lot.

He was playing, making some great pucks. So he's a possible situation where I think he might come out and shoot really well. He's looking right now at top five. he's at 13 to 1. And a guy who's spending champ who played well, who's been playing well lately, played well at Pebble Beach. And that's J.B. Holmes.

J.B. Holmes have been playing good in these tournaments lately to start the season. You can get him at 15 to 1 for a top five finish. So that's very interesting. I like the way he's been playing. He's been really crushing the ball and spotting where it's caused. him problems before, he's been really good. And at top 10, you can get J.B. Holmes at 6 to 1. Yeah, I like him a lot.

I mean, that's good value. Like, he shows us when he's comfortable. I mean, he did a, he had a great. When he's comfortable, exactly. Sometimes that's not so easy for him to do because sometimes on the weekends, he's a guy that sometimes, you know, might shoot 67, 68 on Thursday, Friday, and then come out with a 75, 74 on the weekend. Yeah, you're absolutely right.

Well, I'm my, my parting shot, I'm going to put folks on Kevin Nah. So I have a plus 237 to top 20, 17 to one, Harry, Kevin Nah, to finish in the top 10. Now listen, he's the last eight months or so. He's won twice on tour. He won the Greenbrier in 2018. So that's three events, you know, in kind of like 20 months or so. plus he loves Riviera. Three top five finishes at Riviera and another top 10.

And, and, and, you know, Kevin nine in some kind of form, I mean, that 17 to 1 to top 10, I think we just need to end this podcast so we can go jump on that right away. Well,

not, not been, like you're right, he's been fantastic. And he's all, this might be, I mean, you would know again,

probably a little better, but he's 28th in the world rankings. that's got to be maybe his highest ever. And he's 10th in FedEx Cup points right now. And I know that's a bit deceiving because a lot of these guys haven't played in the tournament yet. And starting maybe this week is a lot of these guys' first tournament for the season. But still, 28th in the world, Kevin Nye, you wouldn't think so. But that's where he's at.

And he won in Las Vegas. I know. This is what I mean. That was the Shriners event. You know, that was barely. That's not even six months ago. Kerry, I think we've done it. Welcome to Fairway Rowland in 2020.

We'll check in with you periodically. We'll be checking out all of your wagers at oddshark.com. We could follow you on the Twitter because you put all your stuff up there. What's the Twitter handle again? Hey, Joe, I've just started a couple months in. I've got my own sports gambling radio show slash podcast. It's called Best Bet Corner.com. So you can always catch my picks.

and of all different sports on the website, and also on that website, you can listen to the show, my weekly show that I have once a week on that as well. Yeah, well, and obviously everybody could get your stuff every Wednesday on the Ringer podcast network against all odds, the degenerate trifecta with Cousin Sal. Harry, we did it. It's a triumph. Best of luck to all of us. Good return on investment to everybody this week, right?

It's been too long, Joe. I love this. You know I love it. So yeah, anytime you need me, anytime you want me, I love talking golf with you. So yeah, good luck this weekend at Riviera. And thanks for everything. All right, H-Dog, we're off and rolling. All right, there we go, my par saving pals.

What a week. We can't wait to talk to you about how everybody did. Next week, we're back. We're going to recap the Genesis. We're going to recap whoever it is that. wins this thing. You know it's going to be somebody unbelievable. And we'll do a little preview of the WGC event coming up

in Mexico. Until then, my par saving pals, let's hit him straight out there.