00:00Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid. Great to see Brady Cannon here with us here on the show
00:05as we get ready for a golf tournament in my neck of the woods, the Cognizant Classic, which is coming
00:11up starting tomorrow and Brady's going to of course try to hit a long shot for us. I mean, before
00:17we go to that, let's go back to last week, Brady. I mean, honestly, 100 to 1. I mean, really?
00:23100 to 1? That's the guy who won? I know it's like, I think I may have closed at like
00:2880 to 1.
00:28But we are talking about a historic upset and underdogs winning these tournaments at an encompassing rate that I have
00:37not seen in a long time. I said that last year. It's even crazier this time around.
00:42Well, you know, I think to begin the West Coast swing, we had Chris Godderup win twice. We had Scotty
00:50at the American Express, you know, but Riviera was certainly an outlier with Jacob Bridgman.
00:57And like you say, 80 to 1. Now, Rory was right there. Adam Scott was right there. But I mean,
01:05this kid is definitely on the up and up. And I didn't even really know that he had graduated into
01:11signature event status.
01:13And then, of course, I saw him the week prior at Pebble Beach, where it really kind of unraveled for
01:18him on the 18th hole. But he bounced right back, got his first ever.
01:23I mean, you think about the moment for the kid. And he almost blew it on the putt at the
01:29very end, had a 20-foot putt, needed two putts to get home and win, and left it about three
01:35and a half feet short.
01:36And I was like, oh, my goodness, don't mess this up. He didn't. Gets his first ever PGA Tour win
01:42at Riviera Country Club at the Genesis signature event hosted by Tiger Woods.
01:48Pretty cool. So good for him. And, of course, he withdrew this week from the Cognizant to celebrate, I imagine,
01:55a little bit.
01:56But, yeah, we're out to kick things off in your neck of the woods for the Florida swing.
02:01We shift from Poana and Kukuyu, Craig, to Bermuda grass and palm trees.
02:07Yeah, and I definitely was looking at that grass last week to see if we were going to come out
02:13on top with that one.
02:14But, honestly, I mean, I did see somebody post that they had Bridgman at 80-1 or 100-1.
02:22But that was, you know, arguably, to me, the biggest upset on the golf course that I've seen in years.
02:27So we're not going to try that again this week. But what we are going to do—
02:30Minwoo Lee came close for us. He just had one bad day and then rallied again on Sunday, finished 12th.
02:37But he's a guy to look out for. He's really playing well.
02:41All right. So on the tour this week, I'm going to take a look at it here because I took
02:44a quick look before the show.
02:46But I noticed that everyone seems to be waiting for next week's tournament.
02:50The Cognizant used to be, you know, the biggest tournament here in South Florida.
02:55I mean, it just used to be. And then they would go to Doral and back. But that's all gone
02:58now.
02:59So, you know, naturally, we're getting a few names of people that we're familiar with here.
03:04Ryan Girard, he's 16-1. Shane Lowry, everyone's heard of him.
03:08But, honestly, if you're ever going to nail a long shot, this may be the week to do it.
03:12You're not going to get the same odds because, again, you don't have Scotty here and you don't have Rory
03:16and you don't have Xander and some of the others.
03:18But what do you make of this tournament?
03:20And I think in South Florida, honestly, Brady, we're hoping that this tournament, like, stays alive at this point because
03:25that Florida swing has changed so much.
03:28Yeah, it's unfortunate the way the Cognizant gets slotted into the schedule.
03:32You have two consecutive signature events in Pebble Beach and Riviera, and then we have another two consecutive signature events
03:41coming up with the Arnold Palmer at Bay Hill in Orlando and, of course, the Players' Championship in Ponte Vedra
03:48Beach.
03:49And now, sandwiched in between, you have the Cognizant.
03:52So, you can't really blame these top players in the world who are going to be playing in four out
03:57of the next five weeks, if not, you know, five out of the six or what have you.
04:01And, of course, you have the Masters coming up.
04:03So, it's understandable that these guys are taking a break.
04:07And, unfortunately, the Cognizant takes a real hit.
04:10This is a big boy golf course, PGA National.
04:13You go back in the day, they've done a couple of little changes here to the golf course, Craig, that
04:19have caused really major differences in the scoring.
04:22You go back into the day when, you know, Padraig Harrington and Ernie Els and Rory were winning this thing.
04:29Gary Woodland, Shane Lowry's been knocking on the door a couple times.
04:32They were barely cracking double digits under par for a winning score.
04:37Now it's become, well, I wouldn't call it a birdie fest, but it's getting close.
04:41Jake Knapp opened with a 59 last year in the opening round.
04:45So, we're rooting for some wind.
04:48This golf course and this tournament used to really play very difficult.
04:53The bear trap, of course, 15, 16, and 17 all over water.
04:5715 holes with water here at PGA National.
05:01So, the wind is expected to be about 10 to 15 miles an hour.
05:06If it gets closer to 20 or 25 with some gusts and stuff, this is going to be very difficult
05:11this week.
05:13I think so.
05:14And let's take a look at some winners potentially here, Brady.
05:17And again, I mean, these are, you know, they're still the greatest golfers in the world.
05:22I don't want to take anything away from that.
05:24But when you're picking somebody to win this week, you have to have a specific strategy.
05:27So, I would ask you of that.
05:29Yeah, I think it's all about ball striking and accuracy this week.
05:33You know, I mentioned there's been some changes to the golf course, but I don't believe it's necessarily changed the
05:38formula for winning here.
05:40The fairways are relatively narrow.
05:43The greens are large.
05:44You've got to get it close to the hole.
05:46Hole proximity from about 150 yards or more is very important here.
05:51A lot of sand bunkers.
05:52I mentioned the water.
05:53You can't be, you know, faking it out there and being loosey-goosey with the irons.
05:59Because of the wind and the water, you've got to be spot on and striking the ball purely.
06:04And so, that's really the formula I followed.
06:07You know Daniel Berger of Florida State Seminole who's been very successful here over the years.
06:13I took a shot with him.
06:15I think he could be ready to win again.
06:17You know, he went through that period of injury on the tour.
06:20I think he could be all the way back and no better place than right here in Palm Beach Gardens
06:25where he is very familiar and has done well before.
06:28I went with Berger.
06:30And then also in that 40-to-1 range, another ball striker accuracy guy, Aaron Rye.
06:36And then Haotong Lee who we jumped on a few weeks ago in Phoenix.
06:40He's been playing really, really well.
06:42He's in the neighborhood of 45 or 50-to-1.
06:45And then some longer bombs like you allude to.
06:47You know, we don't have those big names in the field.
06:50So, we're expecting, you know, a 40-50-60-to-1 shot probably to take it home this week.
06:56I went with E. Milano Grillo, I should say, Jordan Smith, and then Mackenzie Hughes, the Canadian.
07:03All those guys in the neighborhood of 60-70-80-to-1.
07:06So, we'll see if we can land on one correctly this week.
07:11Yeah, Rye was red hot last week at the beginning and then fell a little bit.
07:15But maybe he could be a name to keep an eye on this week.
07:17Brady, thanks again for coming on.
07:18We'll catch up next week.
07:19You bet.
07:20Enjoy the Honda or the Cognizant, whatever.
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