Golfweek’s JuliaKate Culpepper discusses the latest news and notes in the world of golf.
Golfweek Rewind
Golfweek’s JuliaKate Culpepper discusses the latest news and notes in the world of golf.
Tag: Kevin Kisner
Kevin Kisner doesn’t think 2020 Masters will be played
Kevin Kisner jumped on Barstool Sports’ Fore Play podcast to discuss the 2020 Masters, a yearly golf trip to Augusta National and more.
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If you’re feeling optimistic about the 2020 Masters being played in the fall, you’re not going to like what you’re about to read.
Kevin Kisner has developed a strong relationship with the boys on Barstool Sports’ Fore Play golf podcast, and the three-time winner on the PGA Tour was back on the show for Monday’s episode.
“Honestly right now I think 2020 is gone for the Masters,” said Kisner on the prospects of the event being held in the fall. “I don’t see how we can play it, (Augusta National isn’t) even open in September. What are they going to do, change the whole aspect of the golf course and club to host the Masters? I mean they would, but it would be a totally different golf course than what we play in the spring.”
Coronavirus: How are professional golfers spending their time off?
Masters: Augusta National closing its doors | What about the money?
Kisner added, “I’ve heard the idea floated of taking the (PGA Championship) date seeing as it’s in San Francisco, but who knows if we’ll be playing golf by (May 14-17). I think this is going to be a long, drawn out off-season in the in-season.”
While talking about Augusta National, Kisner also revealed a golf trip for the ages that happens before the Masters: “I always go to Augusta and play a big match with other Tour players and members. We stay and have dinner and spend the night.”
This year’s match was scheduled for March 30. Kisner said Brendon Todd and Jimmy Walker were slated to play, adding that Rickie Fowler, Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth were also planning a trip.
The Aiken, South Carolina native isn’t just a player on Tour. He’s also a member of the PGA Tour Policy Board, giving him a unique perspective on the wild events that led to The Players Championship being canceled after just one round.
“I thought we were all good,” Kisner said after the first round of the Players. “Thursday I got done, got dinner with my family and was getting some treatment and (PGA Tour commissioner) Jay Monahan called and said ‘I need some help from you guys. What do you guys want to do?’ He wanted to poll every player and see if they felt comfortable continuing on.”
“We have a lot of international members with families abroad,” Kisner added. “Not knowing what was going to happen I think just kind of pushed his hand and he had to make that decision with guys not knowing if they were going to be able to travel back and forth and see their families.”
Kisner said he polled seven or eight players around him and they all wanted to keep playing, but there was too much uncertainty. He also revealed there were talks of making the Players a 36-hole or 54-hole tournament.
“We felt comfortable that we weren’t causing any harm to other people. We had very minimal people on site during the tournament,” said Kisner. “There’s not hand-to-hand contact that has to happen between players like other sports. We felt like we could be a unifying sport for the country. At the end of the day, it’s not worth the risk of what we see now has transpired. It would’ve really looked silly over the last two days to be playing golf while all that was going on.”
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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
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
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
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.
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The Man of Steele: Brendan Steele leads Sony Open by 3
Brendan Steele is sleeping on a 3-stroke lead as the 54-hole leader at the Sony Open in Hawaii and seeking his fourth PGA Tour title.
Brendan Steele thrives in windy conditions, which has come in quite handy as gusting winds have turned what is usually a birdie-fest at Waialae Country Club into more of a grind. Steele overcame a sluggish start and played his final 14 holes in 8 under, including birdies on his final three holes, to tie for the low round of the day, 6-under 64, and open up a three-stroke lead over Cameron Smith after 54 holes at the Sony Open in Hawaii. Steele is seeking his fourth PGA Tour title and first since the 2017 Safeway Open.
“I feel like all phases of my game are about as good as they’ve ever been,” Steele told Golf Channel after the third round. “I’m really excited about the trajectory and where things are headed.”
Those confident words pale in contrast to his recent form. Steele, 36, is coming off his worst season on the PGA Tour. He finished 171st on the 2018-19 FedEx Cup standings, and hasn’t recorded a top-10 finish in 38 starts (dating to the 2018 Waste Management Phoenix Open). Much of the blame can be placed squarely on Steele’s flat stick.
Sony Open: Tee times, TV info | Scores | Photos | Updates
“I’ve been working really hard on it for a number of months and I haven’t seen the results that I would’ve liked,” Steele said after the second round, “but I putted pretty well in the fall and worked hard in the short break that we had, and I’ve been really happy with the results so far this week.”
As he should. Steele has canned 42 of 44 putts from inside 10 feet and leads the field in Strokes Gained:Putting (+9.564). He also ranks second in proximity to the hole (27’8″) and first in SG: Approach to the Green (+7.65).
Dialed in.@Brendan_Steele leads the @SonyOpenHawaii by 3 shots. pic.twitter.com/bZ4EsyEkj3
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 12, 2020
Steele, who has plummeted to No. 403 in the world, overcame two early bogeys at Nos. 3 and 4 to drop out of the lead, but bounced back with a 13-foot birdie at 5 and an 8-foot eagle at the par-5 ninth to card 1-under 34 on his front nine. Then Steele stepped his game up a notch as the howling winds that have wreaked havoc all week at Waialae settled down to a more reasonable level. He tacked on birdies at 11 and 12 to regain the lead and closed with three birdies to become the first and only player to reach double figures this week (despite playing preferred lies during the first three rounds) and finish with a 54-hole total of 12-under 198.
If Steele’s putter has been his friend all week, Kevin Kisner said he felt like he couldn’t buy a putt in the first two rounds.
“I think I made more putts than I have the first two days,” he said of Saturday’s 6-under 64 to climb to 8-under 202.
The South Carolina native wasn’t joking. He poured in 117 feet of putts, which was more than his first two rounds combined. Kisner owns the most rounds of 64 or better at Waialae since the 2016 Sony Open with four, including a 60 in the third round two years ago.
When asked by Golf Channel’s Todd Lews what type of attitude will he bring to the golf course on the final day, Kisner didn’t hesitate: “Probably the same old redneck pretty aggressive guy that I normally am. I’m going to try to make birdie on every hole. That’s what I’ve always done. Sometimes it is to a victory and sometimes it is not.”
Smith, the 26-year-old Aussie who is seeking his first individual Tour title, was stuck in neutral for most of the round until he closed with birdies on his final three holes to card 66. Webb Simpson (67)and Collin Morikawa (68) are five back and within striking distance.
“He’s just laying low in the weeds,” Golf Channel’s Paul Azinger said about Simpson, who at No. 12 is the top-ranked player to make the cut.
Graeme McDowell made seven consecutive 3s in round three (Nos. 16 – 4) en route to a 3-under 67, tying the record for consecutive 3s in a round on Tour in the ShotLink era.
Steele, who won his maiden Tour title at the 2011 Valero Texas Open as the 54-hole leader but has failed to convert three 54 holes leads since then, is a savvy enough veteran to know that his three-stroke cushion guarantees him nothing.
“I’ve been out here long enough to know that it’s always difficult and just need to stick with everything that I’m doing and try to keep the pedal down and there will be chances to make birdies tomorrow when you hit good shots and there will be times when you are struggling and have to grind for pars and maybe bogey is even OK,” he said. “So, just keep doing what I’m doing and hope that’s enough.”
QBE Shootout golfers stayed up late to watch the Presidents Cup, too
Kevin Kisner said he enjoyed the late-night TV. In fact, reactions to a U.S. Presidents Cup win around Tiburon were all positive on Sunday.
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NAPLES, Fla. – Kevin Kisner was one of the players rumored to be a possible captain’s pick for the U.S. Presidents Cup team. Instead, he spent the past week at the QBE Shootout at Tiburon Golf Club, where he partnered with Charley Hoffman to finish T-8 among the 12 teams in the field.
Kisner said he enjoyed watching the late-night Presidents Cup broadcast on TV. In fact, reactions to a U.S. win around Tiburon were all positive on Sunday.
“I stayed up and watched all of it and it was great,” Kisner said. “I couldn’t ask for it to go any better.”
QBE Shootout: Tway, Sabbatini run away with it | Prize money
“I watched all of it Saturday night and it was thrilling, a big win for players and especially Tiger,” Billy Horschel said. “But remember the Internationals lost one or two matches they should have won and that made a difference.”
Former European Ryder Cupper Graeme McDowell watched most of the singles matches.
“This week raised the health and sponsorship value of the Presidents Cup. The week was very interesting,” McDowell said. “It was fun watching and usually I watch like 10 shots in a day, and last night I watched probably 110 shots.”
“I went to sleep and watched the highlights this morning,” Bubba Watson said.
Greg Norman, who played for the Internationals in that side’s lone Presidents Cup victory back in 1998 (when the matches were also played at Royal Melbourne), didn’t watch, but wasn’t too surprised the Americans rallied in singles.
“You wouldn’t put it past them,” Norman said.
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QBE Shootout odds, predictions, picks and PGA Tour best bets
Analyzing the 2019 QBE Shootout and which teams of golfers are the best options for the event. Who will win at Tiburon Golf Club?
Twelve two-man teams will compete in the QBE Shootout at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Fla., this weekend. The 54-hole event runs three days, from Friday through Sunday.
The first round is played under scramble rules, whereby both members of each team will play every shot with the better ball being taken each time. Round 2 consists of greensomes, where both players tee off on each hole and the alternate shot is played from the spot of the better ball.
The final round is played under standard four-ball rules with each golfer playing the hole on their own and the best score being taken.
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The 7,288-yard venue plays as a par 72. The teams compete for a $3.5 million purse, but it is not an official money event and no FedExCup points are awarded.
QBE Shootout – Odds, picks and best bets
Odds provided by BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated Tuesday at 1 p.m. ET.
Viktor Hovland-Matthew Wolff (+600)
The two combine for just 42 years of age, making them younger than several of the individual golfers in this event. Hovland is expected to be a top contender for PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, while Wolff came up just short of the award last year.
Hovland, 22, placed solo fourth at last season’s Wyndham Championship for the best result of his young career. He’s ranked 96th by the Official World Golf Ranking, while Wolff, who got his first career win at the 3M Open last summer, is 117th in the world. Their odds are lower as fan favorites, but the youngsters have the length and putting, and the motivation for the early-career win in an uninspired field.
Charles Howell III-Bubba Watson (+800)
Watson, ranked 44th by the OWGR, is coming off a last-place finish at last week’s Hero World Challenge. Howell, ranked 54th in the world, missed the cut at the RSM Classic as his last event. The two combined for four victories in 2018.
Howell finished tied for third here last year with partner Luke List. Watson was sixth with Harold Varner III.
Charley Hoffman-Kevin Kisner (+1200)
Hoffman also finished T-3 a year ago (with partner Gary Woodland), while Kisner finished last with playing partner Cameron Champ. Kisner tied for seventh at last week’s Hero World Challenge exhibition. The two have plenty of length off the tee, and Kisner, who’s the defending match-play champion, can get hot and carry the team with his putter.
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Gannett may earn revenue from audience referrals to betting services. Newsrooms are independent of this relationship and there is no influence on news coverage.
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2 up, 2 down: Carlos Ortiz, Tommy Fleetwood on the rise
Golfweek’s experts dish on the two players who are up and down on the PGA and European Tours.
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Golfweek takes a look at who’s up and who’s down each week on the three major golf tours. Here are the latest rankings for men and women.
The Golfweek/Sagarin ranking for each player is in parentheses.
PGA Tour
Up
Carlos Ortiz (97)
Ortiz’s tie for second on home soil at the Mayakoba Golf Classic was the best of his fledgling career. The 28-year-old shot a pair of 65s in the middle rounds and overcame a double bogey on his opening hole of the final round to shoot 66. Ortiz has been on a roll thanks to a solid all-around game, highlighted by a rank of fifth in SG: Around the Green. He had finished in the top 5 in two of last four starts (Sanderson Farms and Houston Open).
Harris English (68)
English has had an outstanding start to the 2019-20 season after suffering through his worst season last year (No. 149 in the FedEx Cup standings). Playing on a sponsor’s exemption, he finished fifth at the Mayakoba Golf Classic. It marked his Tour-best fourth top-6 finish of the season: T-3 at Greenbrier, T-4 at Houston Open, T-6 at Sanderson Farms. What’s the difference? English said he simply went back to what worked when he was playing his best golf. “Just sticking to that, not trying to reinvent the wheel and just do what I’m good at,” he said.
Down
Kevin Kisner (41)
Kisner has finished T-66 at Zozo, T-28 at the WGC-HSBC Champions and T-76 at Mayakoba. He’s only broken 70 three times in 12 rounds and shot 72, 77 and 74 on Sundays. This week’s RSM Classic is a course he’s won on before so don’t count Kiz out yet.
J.J. Spaun (177)
The San Diego State product is off to an unusually slow start in 2019-20. In six starts, he’s missed two cuts and his best result is a T-36 at Sanderson Farms. At Mayakoba’s El Camaleon, a course where he finished a season-best T-3 last year, he tied for last (T-80). He’s already shot 77 twice and 78 this year, and ranks No. 201 in SG: Tee-to-Green. No bueno.
Euro Tour
Up
Tommy Fleetwood (8)
It wasn’t that Fleetwood was having a bad season, more a case of a frustrating one. The Englishman finished runner-up in the Open Championship, one of seven top 10s this year, but that fifth European Tour win seemed like it would arrive in 2020. The Englishman showed his class to come from six shots off the lead to return a closing 7-under 65 and then defeated Sweden’s Marcus Kinhult in a playoff. The 28-year-old led the field in strokes gained off the tee, averaging +1.49 per round. Fleetwood is fourth in greens in regulation on Tour this year, with a 75 percent average. He’s also fifth in scoring average at 69.69 per round. He could do with improving his putter since he’s taking 30.22 putts per round to rank 171st on Tour.
Marcus Kinhult (108)
The 23-year-old Swede ranked third in stokes gained around the green in the Nedbank Golf Challenge. Kinhult averaged +1.46 strokes gained around the greens, which explains why he got into a playoff with Tommy Fleetwood. He was chasing his second victory of the season following the Betfred British Masters, which Fleetwood hosted at Hillside Golf Club. Kinhult moved to 13th on the Race to Dubai, 36 places better than last year’s ranking of 49th. He has one tournament left and no one would be surprised if he finished the year inside the top 10. The Swede got off to a slow start this season, missing six of his first eight cuts. However, he’s become more consistent as the season as wore on. He’s made the cut in his last 10 tournaments.
Down
Lucas Bjerregaard (348)
The Dane needed a good performance in the Nedbank Golf Challenge to move into the top 50 of the Race to Dubai to make the field in this week’s DP World Tour Championship, Dubai. Bjerregaard finished last and dropped from 49th to 53rd. It wasn’t what anyone would have predicted when he began the season by making the semi-finals of the WGC–Dell Technologies Match Play. However, the 28-year-old struggled the rest of the year, missing 12 cuts on both the European and PGA Tours. Bjerregaard struggled with his iron play this year. He hit an average of 66.16 percent greens this year to rank 119th on the European Tour. Last year he was third in that category, hitting 73.50 percent of greens.
Alex Noren (77)
Needed a good finish in the Nedbank to make it into the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai. The Swede finished T-44 and sits 67th on the Race to Dubai. He was sixth last year, eighth in 2017 and third the year before. In 16 European Tour events this season, Noren failed to rack up one top 10. His poor season comes down to struggles with the shortest club in his bag. He was 18th in putts per green in regulation in 2018. This year he ranks 148th. The former Oklahoma State player is one of the hardest workers in the game. He doesn’t have to look too hard to discover what he needs to work on over the winter to try to get back to his best.
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RSM Classic odds, predictions, picks and PGA Tour best bets
Analyzing the 2019 RSM Classic and which golfers are the best options for the event. Who will win at Sea Island GC?
The PGA Tour’s final full-field event on the 2019 calendar takes place this week in Glynn County, Ga., at Sea Island Golf Club with the RSM Classic.
The key stats for this week via historical data from Fantasy National are:
- Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green
- Strokes Gained: Approach
- Strokes Gained: Short Game
- Strokes Gained: Scrambling
- Par 4 Efficiency: 400-450 Yards
My model looks at the most recent 50 rounds for each golfer in the field.
RSM Classic – Tier 1
Odds provided by BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated Tuesday at 1 p.m. ET.
Webb Simpson +900
Simpson is the top golfer in the field with a rank of 12th by the Official World Golf Ranking. He finished solo third here last season and finished T-7 at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in his most recent event. He leads the stat model with top-five ranks in four of the five key stats.
Kevin Kisner +2200
Kisner won at Sea Island in 2015. After missing the cut the following year, he was T-4 in 2017 and T-7 last season. Ranked No. 34 in the world, he’s third in the field in par-4 efficiency from the key distance. He has gained more strokes per round at this venue than anyone other than Simpson (minimum 20 rounds played) since 2010, according to Data Golf.
RSM Classic – Tier 2
J.T. Poston +5000
Poston missed the cut here each of the last three years, but he’s coming off of a T-24 at the HSBC Champions and T-27 at the Zozo Championship in far stronger fields.
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Brian Stuard +8000
Stuard ranks third by my stat model this week with a top rank of 11th in the field in SG: Around-the-Green. He finished T-23 last week at the Mayakoba Golf Classic and tied for fourth at the Shriners earlier this year.
RSM Classic – Longshots
Luke List +10000
List finished in a tie for fourth last season and tied for 13th in the fall of 2016.
Mackenzie Hughes +15000
The 2016 champion missed the cut each of the last two years, but he’s priced near the bottom of the board with a $10 bet returning a profit of $1500. He missed the cut at the OHL Classic the week before his 2016 victory so his current poor form isn’t a huge concern.
2019-20 winners: Joaquin Niemann – A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier (+2800)
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QBE Shootout adds Bubba Watson, Ian Poulter, Kevin Kisner; reveals 2019 teams
The QBE Shootout added a former champion, a two-time major winner, and one of the contenders for a Presidents Cup captain’s pick in completing its field Tuesday. Ian Poulter, who won the 2010 tournament with Dustin Johnson, plus two-time Masters …
The QBE Shootout added a former champion, a two-time major winner, and one of the contenders for a Presidents Cup captain’s pick in completing its field Tuesday.
Ian Poulter, who won the 2010 tournament with Dustin Johnson, plus two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson and Kevin Kisner were among the 10 announced to the field by tournament host Greg Norman for the tournament, which is Dec. 11-15 at Tiburón Golf Club at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort.
“We are pleased to round out the field with such a quality group of players and equally thrilled with the compelling teams we’ve been able to put together,” Norman said in a release. “These dynamic duos comprised of young guns, recent Tour winners and established veterans are sure to create an exciting three-days of competition.”
The 24-person field features nine players whom won during this past season and a total of 80 career PGA Tour and LPGA victories as well as eight of the top 50 players in the world. There are also eight first-time participants in the annual event.
Kisner, who won the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, was listed by many as a possibility to be one of Tiger Woods’ captain’s picks for the Presidents Cup.
Also competing are: 2019 Valero Texas Open winner Corey Conners; reigning Zurich Classic of New Orleans champion Ryan Palmer; former Australian PGA Championship winner Harold Varner III; Kevin Chappell, who earlier this fall became the 10th player in PGA Tour history to shoot 59; six-time PGA Tour winner Charley Hoffman; four-time Tour winner and two-time Shootout champion Sean O’Hair, and six-time Tour winner Rory Sabbatini.
This year’s QBE Shootout will also feature nine new teams competing for the $3.5 million purse. The three returning teams are defending champions Brian Harman and Patton Kizzire as defending champions, Billy Horschel and Brandt Snedeker who played in 2018, and the return of the team of Graeme McDowell and Poulter, who were paired together in 2008.
Lexi Thompson will be playing for the fourth straight year, and this time will be paired with O’Hair, who won the QBE Shootout with two different partners, Steve Stricker and Kenny Perry. Thompson played with Bryson DeChambeau her first year, and Tony Finau the past two.
Shootout rookies Viktor Hovland and Matthew Wolff also are paired together.
Finau, Patrick Reed, and Gary Woodland, all of whom have played in the Shootout multiple times, were three of Woods’ captain’s picks announced last week. Woods picked himself for the fourth selection.
Friday’s first round will be broadcast live by Golf Channel from noon to 2 p.m. and on Golf Channel Digital from 2-4 p.m. Over the weekend, the final two rounds will be live on Golf Channel from noon to 4 p.m., both Saturday and Sunday.
The QBE Shootout will once again feature a scramble format during the first round, a modified alternate shot format on Saturday, and a final-round four-ball on Sunday.