In this week’s RotoWire Golf Rundown, Keith Stewart of Read The Line and RotoWire’s Len Hochberg break down the American Express tournament. How do the scores get so low, why have so many long shots won the tournament, plus Len and Keith’s favorite DFS and betting plays.

All right welcome back it’s Tuesday morning it’s time for the roota wire rundown I’m Keith Stewart from read the line of course I am joined by the award-winning Senior Golf writer from RotoWire that’s Len hawber across from me now Len I know you are an expert in

And around all of golf but I want to know has anyone this year picked a oneandone backto back with a 200 to One winner in Chris Kirk followed by a 4 to One winner in Grayson Murray I’m gonna say no and I’m gonna say I mean you know probably some people

Were on Chris Kirk Chris Kirk’s good golfer 59 guys in the field sure someone will have them even at 200 to1 but Grayson Murray at 400 to1 no I mean people people weren’t even picking him when he was in the final three of the playoff uh so uh no to anyone who had

Any of those out there can congratulations and uh let’s hope for a little more normaly this week well I tell you the most interesting thing I read about graceon I don’t know if you saw this but the 39 foot putt he made in the playoff to win was longer than the

Accumulation of all the putts he made in the final round which added up to about 30 feet so seen that it’s uh that’s golf for you and speaking of making putts we got a fast forward we’re back on the mainland now we’re only three hours behind we’re out in Palm Desert Little

Palm Springs maybe little Sinatra out there I don’t know whatever you like but one thing we like at the American Express is that we’re charging and we’re maxing out that black card for birdies and this place it as it turns out year after year you know we heard John ROM

Comment about it one time Len break it down for me why is this place so easy it seems like for the PGA Tour well Keith and I’d love to hear your your thoughts on on this well but as well but two things come to mind here you know

Whenever there’s a big time birdie Fest and Rah won last year at 27 under I think those always give the Lesser golfers a punchers chance I think that the harder golf courses two under five under they really identify the best golfers so at a course where you can get

To 2500 or three courses you can get to 2500 2700 somebody can get hot on an easy course and just start draining putts and I just think it lends itself to a lesser Guy having the greatest day of his life and coming away with a win

And also in the past not certainly not this year and not last year but for a lot of years the old Bob Hope had some really lean years and some lean fields and there weren’t a lot of good golfers in there which would lend itself to Lester guys winning the tournament uh no

Not calling out you Andrew Landry or anything like that but uh I don’t know if that’ll happen this year we’ve got a pretty stout field but those are two reasons that come to mind for me for me it comes down to basically yardage you know you brought it up and and how hard

Is the examination this week well it’s not very hard we have three golf courses that we’re going to play lint Country Club we’re going to play PGA West and the Nicholas tournament course and then we’re going to play PGA West again in the stadium course and those three

Courses over the first 54 holes are all in the top 10 shortest on the PGA tour I mean 16 of the 30 par fours they’re going to face this week are under 425 yards and nine of the 12 par fivs they’re going to face on those three

Golf courses are under 550 well those are like par fours in a US Open so it’s no surprise to me that nearly 80% of the holes uh the birdie rate’s over 15% and you’re like Keith that’s a lot of numbers and everything but in a field of

156 that means there’s like 25 guys birding every hole and I’m not counting the proam people that are playing along side so I I just think the golf courses are just too darn easy and you know one of the other points I wanted to make was

That why are long shots so relevant in this tournament and I think you maybe touched upon that but you got to expound upon that a little bit more I mean why is the separation so slim between the Scotty sheffler and the and the Xander Schley and the Patrick kentley your

Three favorites and guys that are over 200 to one like a Grayson Murray yeah well I I think if we knew that we probably wouldn’t be sitting here we’d be sipping something on the French Riviera uh you and me and just counting our our winnings so but uh

Until then we’ve got to we’ve got to go on at this way well there’s no doubt I mean even the distraction of the proam format the rotation to the three different golf courses I think it’s tough to when you’re just continually changing what’s happening during the

Week um to get somebody like a Scotty Sheffer to be as comfortable as I’d like to be over four days at a major championship course so I think I think the advantage just isn’t n there and as a result you know we might spend more

Time as we break down the names as we always do when we try to wrap up this little uh Feast that we have in the rundown every Tuesday it I know you’re probably going to spend more time down in the seven and sixk range but you know

Tradition is one thing in golf so let’s start at the 10K guys and break down the board for the DFS for me and and let me know and let everyone know that’s listening in um who you’re featuring in your lineup cards this week well Keith I

Will say that I will try and get through this a little bit Bri briefly but my my full article is up on RotoWire and not right now 16 Guys across all price ranges and I explain my reasoning for picking each and every one of them but

Starting at the top I am going to avoid Scotty sheppler once again uh the highest price guy uh still you know has not shown that he can get it done with the putter he can do it get it done with the other 13 clubs better than anybody

Else but um until then until we can see that he’s going to start to make some pots and therefore be able to close out tournaments it’s going to be tough to justify his high price of over $1,000 I’m gonna start with Patrick Klay who’s always played well here in the

Desert this is an interesting year for Klay because he’s got a lot on the line first of all it’s about time he really make a dent in the majors and if not win one at some point yes he had one good major 2009 19 Masters the year tiger won

Other than that he’s he hasn’t even uh mattered in the in the majors and he he’s also put himself out as the face of the players on the PGA tour so he’s got a lot of pressure a lot going on he just got married let’s see what Patrick kley

Can do this is a good place for him he’s always done well well here Sun JM and Tom Kim I also like at the top of the board getting into the 9000s JT Poston you’ve really been on him the first couple of weeks of the year the guy can

Make putts like nobody’s business Eric Cole until he has a bad week I’m gonna say he’s can continue to have good weeks and Shane Lowry making his um State Side debut in 2024 I think this sets up nicely for him he seems like a very you know easygoing guy likable guy I think

He’ll have fun in the proam format it’s not for everyone he could really throw some guys off their game I think he’s going to enjoy it and enjoy dealing with the crowd and the and his amateurs over three days before getting to hopefully before getting to Sunday quickly in the

Sens one guy I want to point out Rio hisatsune 21 years old Japanese player really coming on has his tour card via the DP World Tour he won in France earlier this year he’s had some good weeks sixth in the Zozo uh he’s already up to 75th in the world we’ve got to

Keep an eye on him not just this week week but a lot of weeks going forward and in the sixes one guy I like PGA Tour rookie Alejandra toasty from Argentina uh we talked last week about the rookies and some of the bigger names he’s not

One of the bigger names but he might be the best of the bunch he won on the corn Ferry last year he was 10th in Mexico I think he’s going to be a comer this year and certainly as for as a $6,000 golfer I like him this week now you know I love

To ask you one or two all questions during the rundown at some point on the DFS board at matching prices at least if I if I saw that correctly we have Kevin kizner and Michael block now I know that neither’s going to make your card but if

You had to pick one of the other you knew you know I gotta have some fun with you who would you take would you take the PGA professional or would you take the new NBC commentator gosh that that’s a tough one and I was surprised to see Kevin kizner

That low I expected him to see him at 62 63 he hasn’t been playing well he was hurt last year he now seems to be transitioning from playing but um you know and and I would like to say that Michael block did not just get a a

Handout to get in this tournament he’s the he was the section champ he earned his way into this tournament so it wasn’t like a gift but all that said I think uh I don’t think either one will be playing on Sunday but I’d still have to go with kizner until proven otherwise

Yeah I got to take kiz myself I mean there’s a difference between being a tour pro and um being a club pro so at the end of the day I think Kisner’s you know what five six time winner on tour I I think he’s definitely earned our

Respect and and our vote there now as far as my end when it comes to the the betting side of things I know you want some names as well I’m gonna go triple Taylor on you this week yes I know it sounds crazy but when you look at the pre-tournament odds

On average over the last 10 years it’s like you know 135 to one you know six of the winners have been over 66 to one so we got to go a little further down the board if we’re going to give oursel the best chance I mean don’t get me wrong

Patrick kentley’s pretty good in the desert but this tournament tends to reward guys that get hot with the putter they like the rotation of the golf courses and there’s three guys I have my eye on the first one comes in right around 50 to one and that’s Taylor

Montgomery he was a guy a year ago that racked up some top 10 in the fall and then he kind of like just fell off the map well his ball striking went away the putter never went away but the ball striking went away well the ball striking is back he was second in

Approach last week he was like 10th Tia Green in the field at the Sony as a result he finished 13th and he lives out in Vegas so you know he’s a desert guy he’s played here before finished fifth last year I love him I also saw some really nice things out of Taylor

Pendrith last week who’s coming in at 90 to1 he finished 10th at the he had a really strong fall in fact I was talking about him here going into the RSM classic to close out the season but he’s had four top 15s in his last five starts hitting the ball really well

Another guy with his like uber length could take advantage of some of these golf courses certainly the par fives and then the last one is Nick Taylor and he’s coming in right around 120 to one Nick Taylor looked really good last week sent him out to the desert remember a

Year ago at the wmpo finished second to Scotty sheffler so he’s comfortable playing in that type of climate on those types of golf courses and he’s got a little win Equity since last year you know being everyone’s sweetheart winning the Canadian open so those are three names I would definitely watch you want

To continue watching us at the Roa wire rundown Len tell them when they have to come see us we are here every Tuesday Morning uh at 11:15 East Coast time 8:15 my time bright and early get up for you guys but no we’re here every Tuesday morning

We’ll be back next week for the farmers and then going forward for the rest of the season as well you can see us on my Twitter page on the RotoWire golf Twitter page on the Roa wire Facebook page and also the roota wire golf YouTube Page live uh and pick one yeah

No doubt you know you can find me all the time I’m your host Keith Stewart of the RTO wire rundown so glad to be joined each and every week by Len hawber from RotoWire you want to find me you just read the line if not come check us

Out again next week at the rundown

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