Starting the new year by recapping the Hawaiian swing and looking ahead to this weeks American Express Championship (January 16, 2024)
Welcome back it is 2024 and we are on episode 9 of the push cut podcast the LI swing has completed and we have a couple tournaments to recap at the centry Tournament of Champions Chris Kirk wins in true dog fashion with a clutch five iron shot from 209 yards
On the 71st hole hits it to 2 feet for a tap in birdie to give himself a one shot lead going to the par 572nd that was enough for him to make an easy par on the last to win the tournament he finished one shot ahead of Saw and two ahead of
Spe this tournament can be somewhat anticlimactic uh it’s similar in my opinion to Augusta where the last five holes are really easy um and buriable so for someone like Kirk who’s playing in the final group if you’re tied or within one shot of the lead and you have three
Or four holes in hand on the guys in front of you um there’s not many times where it looks tight and it actually will come down to being um very exciting on the last hole these these guys are too good I mean the 18th par five widest Fairway on
Tour probably they said nobody missed the Fairway the entire week so Chris Kirk great story um maybe a little bit of a boring golfer to watch for some people but um I don’t mind seeing him win it’s a great great comeback story as everyone’s heard of his triumph over alcohol abuse and
Severe anxiety um and honestly I’m never going to complain about this tournament first one to start the year off it’s been anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks over Christmas break not getting to watch the best players in the world play um it’s in a beautiful place that makes you
Anxious and and want to go get out and play golf depending on where you live so it’s always exciting in my opinion to start the year off with some big names um obviously a few less now that they’re going to live but hopefully something will come of it
And we’ll see the Sentry Tournament of champion start to host a lot of the best players in the world again pretty soon some notable finishes Scotty sheffler is doing Scotty sheffler things finishes T5 and has a negative Strokes game fting week again the guy is unbelievable I mean
He’s probably top three in basically every stat Strokes gained um except for cting so he’s too good and I think he’s a very reactionary artistic style putter so I expect him to win probably four or five times this year and definitely I would put money on him to win at least one
Major he’s just too good like he’s dominating every aspect other than putting and he’s going to be able to find his putting stroke for a week he literally just has to not lose Strokes if he breaks even for strokes gain putting in a week he’s probably going to
Win so I expect him to have another big year col more cow I believe is going to have a Revenge season like I think he looked really good um his putting looked really good at the Sentry and they he was not missing with the double cross um
For his shots he if he can eliminate the any Miss to the left and get back to his buttercut that moves like half a yard essentially I think he’s have going to have a really good bounceback season Xander finished T10 which honestly isn’t one of his best finishes
At this tournament he usually eats this course alive he just looked like he was stuck in neutral didn’t look very comfortable over his putting um but I expect him to be there at almost every tournament and have a pretty solid season again this year would love to see
Him break out and win a major or just win three tournaments um but who knows the guy’s very consistent he just has trouble finishing it off in the last couple years this seems Patrick kley finished T12 again his floor much like xanders is just so high that on a mediocre week
He’s finishing close to top 10 um I expect him to come out of the gates pretty well and have a good start to the first quarter first half of of the season three more names uh finishing top 15 Eric Cole Rookie of the Year just riding a massive wave of momentum playing some
Awesome golf um he looks like he’s here to to stay for good for sure maxom didn’t really have it but finished T14 um he’s also elevated his floor to the point where mediocre week is like top 20 top 10 and uh I hope that he can really bring it in the majors this
Year and lastly OE Patia I’m really excited to watch this kid play consistently on the PGA tour I love his swing uh just an exciting electric kid to watch and uh he looks a lot more comfortable on the PGA tour now and as he should be getting a win off his off
His chest uh last year and having full access to all the PJ tour events this year I expect him to continue to become more comfortable and put up some some really good rounds and tournament scores moving on to this past week’s Sony Open in Hawaii Grayson Murray wins
In dramatic fashion buring the 72nd hole to get into a three-way playoff with Ben on and Keegan Bradley they then go back and play the first playoff hole on the 18th again where Grayson Murray Hoops a 38 1/2 foot putt for birdie to win his second career PGA Tour event I didn’t realize this but Murray was one of the best players in the world as a junior he won three consecutive Callaway Junior World titles for his age category from 2006 to 2008 and was the second youngest ever to make a cut on the corn
Fer tour at age 16 he also qualified for the US Open in Mar at Maran in 2013 at the age of 19 his first win was at the barbasol championship July 2017 but similar to Chris Kirk’s story Grayson endured a lot over the next 5 years struggling with
Alcohol abuse and severe anxiety while playing on the tour Grayson retells the story in an article by Cameron morfit on PJ tour.com the first time he probably should have gotten sober he said was when he spent a month as an inpatient at the Hazelden Betty Ford in Minnesota 2
Years ago after treatment I got out and did pretty well for a while he said like everyone you think you can get back to to having a couple it just was a slippery slope and I got back in it the second time he might have straightened
Up was when he plowed his rented scooter into oncoming traffic at the Butterfield Bermuda championship in the fall of 2022 he took 50 stitches half of them on his face I should have died he said if I didn’t have my helmet on I probably would have died it should have been my
Rock bottom but I had to keep going I felt like I was still Invincible that aura of invincibility was shattered in Mexico last April playing on his past Champion status as the winner of the 2017 barbasol Championship Murray posted a first round 68 in valarta Mexico with an early second round tea
Time the sensible play would have been to eat up rest well and prepare for round two but that’s not what happened I went out to the pool he said played pool volleyball and I had too many and woke up the next day before my round and started to chug some alcohol before just
To get rid of the jitters I got out there and shot like 80 I got home and had an anxiety attack that lasted 4 days it was the worst feeling ever I did not want to go through that ever again he continued and that was the last time I had a
Drink after getting sober Murray’s game came back immediately last year in May he won the Advent Health Championship on the corn fairy tour finished third in June at the UNCC Health championship finished top 10 in consecutive PJ tour events in July at the John Deere and barbell and then one
Again on the corn fairy tour in September at the Simmons Bank open securing his PGA Tour card with the win this week he also gets himself into all the signature events for 2024 some notable finishes at the Sony Ben on finished tied for second losing out in the playoff and that’s following
A fourth place finish at the century playing really really good golf to start this year JT Bon finished sixth which was also following up a fifth place finish at the century the week before and lastly again our rookie of the year Eric Cole finishes 13th following a 14th Place
Finish at the Sentry so those are three guys that came out and played the first two events this year and are off to a incredible start this week we’ve got the American Express as always this tournament is played at three different courses the peep die Stadium Course the country club
And the Nicholas tournament course because of the three course structure this is one of the least predictable events on tour so for my picks this week I’m going to go with a couple of the stars who are playing well and have played well at this tournament as well as some of the aformentioned
Um players who started the year off with two great finishes my first pick is Scotty sheffler to finish top 10 I mean he hasn’t finished outside the top 10 in his last four starts and I don’t expect him to do that this week uh that’s aboutus 115 my second I’m parling Patrick
Kentley and sunj M both will finish top 20 together that’s plus 226 um this tournament statistically you need to be a great iron player and very accurate off the te both of these guys guys exhibit that and are those are two strengths of their games I expect them
To continue to play well they both had a good start at the centry tournament champions and I expect them to continue that this week I’m also parlaying Eric Cole and JT Poston to both finish top 40 together that’s about plus 177 combined ride the hot hand until it falls off um JT
Poston’s finished top 10 both tournaments this year and Eric Cole top 15 so I feel like top 20 is very doable for these guys again uh both strong iron players and both really good Putters and fairly accurate so I like the that play as well and my last one is Andrew puam
To finish top 40 at plus 100 he finished top 10 last week at the Sony Open he’s super accurate off the te and he’s a really good Putter and he also has a very good history at this tournament I think he’s finished in the top 30 and three of his last four
Starts my current results for the year the Sentry I went two or four just broke even each of those plays were around plus 100 the Sony last week I went four of five and am up three units on that week and three units total for the year
Let’s keep it rolling with a good start to the season and we’ll see you guys next week
