Tag: Bud Cauley

Bud Cauley’s comeback, it’s still Knapp Time, a lurking Rory McIlroy and more from Friday at 2024 Cognizant Classic

We have a clustered leaderboard heading into moving day.

The first two rounds of the Cognizant Classic at PGA National’s Champion Course in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, are in the books and we have a clustered leaderboard heading into moving day.

The name leading the way, however, is Bud Cauley, who is making just his second PGA Tour start since returning to action after a three-plus-year absence thanks to multiple injuries, including some from a car accident.

Cauley, who made the cut at the WM Phoenix Open last month, signed for a 6-under 65 on Friday, good enough to get him to 11-under total and the 36-hole lead all to himself, one clear of Garrick Higgo and Austin Eckroat at 10 under.

“I gave myself enough time to prepare at home before I started playing again,” Cauley told the media. “My expectation was to come out and compete, and I felt like my game was in a good spot.

“Saying it is one thing, doing it is another. I’m really happy with how I’ve played. I feel like my game has been trending in the right way. I’ve been hitting the ball well and just needed some scoring things to start.”

He kept the card clean, tacked on five birdies and is now in position to complete one of the best Tour stories of the last decade.

“There were a lot of times where I thought that my career was over. To be back here playing and playing well, it’s nice. It just makes me that much more happy that I kept after it and didn’t stop trying.”

Cognizant Classic: Photos | Merchandise

Round 2 was suspended due to darkness – 14 players didn’t finish, but there will be 13 returning because Chandler Phillips withdrew – so third-round tee times are unavailable until play finishes Saturday morning.

If you missed any of Friday’s action, no worries, we have you covered. Here’s everything you need to know from the second day at the Cognizant Classic.

After dealing with recurring rib injury, Bud Cauley set to make first PGA Tour start since 2020

“He’s been kicking my ass at home, that’s for sure,” Justin Thomas said. “I know how good Bud is.”

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – It’s been so long since Bud Cauley has played on the PGA Tour that he joked on Tuesday that he had to look for his ball marker and think about how many tees he likes to carry in his pocket.

Cauley, 33, is set to make his first Tour start this week at the WM Phoenix Open since the 2020 Fortinet Championship. While competing in Ohio at the Memorial in June 2018, he sustained six broken ribs, a broken leg and a collapsed lung in the single-car accident in which he was a passenger. While he recovered and resumed his playing career, the injury to his ribs never fully healed.

“Out of the blue, my (right) side started to hurt again,” he said.

When he visited the doctor in April 2021, they determined he needed surgery to remove the plates in his chest but during the procedure, they couldn’t take them out because the bone had grown on top of the plates.

“So stitched me back up, said, ‘I think we’ll be OK, we took a little scar tissue out, you’ll be fine,’ and then like 12 days later, my incision popped open,” Cauley recalled, noting that his wife, Christy, noticed his shirt was wet. “Take my shirt off, there’s just a hole in the side of my chest.”

More surgeries followed and they didn’t heal well. He suffered from a seroma, the abnormal accumulation of serous fluid in a dead space containing plasma and lymphatic fluid, and C. diff. colitis, an infection of the colon from antibiotics. “Everything that could go wrong seemed to go wrong,” he said.

He tried to hit balls a couple months after his first surgery once his incision had healed and hit about four shots and stopped. Then he didn’t hit another golf ball until September.

“After a year goes by and two years goes by, your optimism starts to fade a little bit,” he said.

With his optimism for recovery nearly depleted, Cauley, who has made 198 career Tour starts and banked nearly $10 million in career earnings, conceded there were conversations with his wife that if his latest surgery didn’t work out, it might be time to pursue other career opportunities.

“When you grow up doing it every day and you play golf every day, and when it gets taken away, it does change your perspective on just how fortunate we are to be able to play golf and even to get to do the thing that you enjoy doing,” he said.

His latest surgery seems to have given him a new lease on his playing career. He made two rehab starts on the Korn Ferry Tour last month in The Bahamas, finishing T-21 and T-35. He has 27 Tour starts left on a major medical extension after finishing No. 83 on the 2020 FedEx Cup, needing to earn 391.355 points to keep his card.

“My golf swing is virtually the same. I’m lucky that even though I’ve had so many things happen to my side, I haven’t lost any speed or anything, and my range of motion is the same,” Cauley said.

Justin Thomas, who arrived at the University of Alabama a semester after Cauley turned pro following his junior season, has been playing with him back home in Florida and said he’s ready.

“He’s been kicking my ass at home, that’s for sure,” Thomas said. “I know how good Bud is and I know his raw talent … He’s just too good of a player to not have won out here at some point.”

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The American Express odds, predictions, picks and PGA Tour best bets

Analyzing the sports betting odds to win the 2020 American Express, with PGA Tour betting odds, picks, predictions and best bets.

The PGA Tour is in La Quinta, Calif. this week for The American Express. Tony Finau, Paul Casey, Francesco Molinari and Rickie Fowler highlight those in the field for the event hosted by Phil Mickelson. Below, we look at the best PGA Tour bets to win the 2020 American Express

The event is played on three courses and features a 54-hole cut. All three tracks were designed by Pete Dye and play to a par of 72. The key stats for the week are:

  • Strokes Gained: Approach
  • Par 4 Efficiency: 350-400 Yards
  • Opportunities Gained
  • Proximity: 100-125 Yards

Pay added attention to golfer success on Dye-designed courses with Bermuda greens.

The American Express – Tier 1

(Photo Credit: Kyle Terada – USA TODAY Sports)

Odds provided by BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated Tuesday at 3 a.m. ET.

Sungjae Im (+1800)

Im debuted at this event with a T-12 result last year. He enters the week 35th in the Official World Golf Ranking following last week’s T-21 finish at the Sony Open in Hawaii. He’s still looking for his first PGA Tour victory and will be one of the more motivated golfers in a rather weak early-season field.

Kevin Kisner (+2800)

Kisner enters the week as the sixth-best golfer in the field by the OWGR measure, but he’s seventh by the odds at BetMGM, representing moderate value for the three-time PGA Tour champ. He made the cut here each of the previous three years, but with a top finish of T-25 (2017). Only four golfers who made the cut last week gained more strokes per round on approach than Kisner’s 0.85.

The American Express – Tier 2

(Photo Credit: Butch Dill – USA TODAY Sports)

Chez Reavie (+6000)

Reavie’s coming off a missed cut last week in Hawaii, but he made the weekend each of the last four years in La Quinta. His best finish was a T-12 in 2017. The 37th-ranked golfer in the world ranks third in the field in Opportunities Gained on Pete Dye courses with Bermuda greens.

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Bud Cauley (+6600)

Cauley leads this week’s field with 2.01 strokes gained per round over seven rounds played on the Stadium Course in La Quinta, according to Data Golf. He missed the cut last week in his first event since a T-9 finish at the Houston Open. He was T-3 here in 2017 with T-14 finishes in 2016 and 2018 before missing the weekend last year.

The American Express – Longshots

(Photo Credit: Kyle Terada – USA TODAY Sports)

Cameron Davis (+10000)

Davis finished T-9 at 7-under par in Hawaii last week. It was a Saturday round of 71 which was the difference for the 36-hole co-leader. He averaged 0.85 strokes gained per round on approach, but it was his 2.00 SG per round tee-to-green which had him contending. Davis finished T-28 here a year ago.

Doc Redman (+12500)

Redman’s worth a roll of the dice as our deepest shot for the week with a $10 bet returning a profit of $1,250 with a tournament win. He missed the cut last week for his third MC in nine events to begin the 2019-20 PGA Tour season, but his runner-up finish at last year’s Rocket Mortgage Classic was in a much stronger field than the one slated to tee off this week.

Get some action on this tournament by signing up and betting at BetMGM. If you’re looking for more sports betting picks and tips, access all of our content at SportsbookWire.com.

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