PGA Preview with Keith Stewart: WW Technology Championship

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00:00We still got to get the golf in this week.

00:05The swing season is back.

00:06They're down in Mexico.

00:08Keith Stewart from Read the Line is with us every week, day early this week, because he's

00:12so excited about this Mexico field that we have for the worldwide technologies down at

00:17Diamante that he wants to get in the mix.

00:19Keith, good to see you as always, my man.

00:21How are you?

00:22Mike, it's great to be with you on this fine election day.

00:25I missed you last week so much I had to do it a day early this week.

00:29Let's get at it.

00:31Let's get at it indeed, because we are back.

00:33We only got a couple left here before we pack up the tent until Hawaii and the tournament

00:39and the century right after the new year.

00:41So let's try to get ourselves a few winners here to finish the swing season.

00:45We go to Mexico, as I mentioned, for the Worldwide Technology Championship at Diamante.

00:51And we have a pretty decent field here, Keith, to be honest, I guess.

00:55The Racermen, Cam Young, the Gim Reapers here, Harry English, Bo Hosler, Maverick McNeely.

01:03Can Maverick make it through the whole four rounds this week?

01:06I guess that's something that we have to question too.

01:09What do you think of the field to kick some things off here, Keith?

01:13Well, you know, these guys, they need the points.

01:17And if we've learned anything in the week that they are off, it's that the PGA Tour

01:20is going to make it tougher and tougher for them to keep their cards.

01:23So I think that for most of these guys, you know, it's not the strongest field in the

01:27world, but these are your middle tier guys.

01:29These are the bread and butter guys that you and I make so much money off of throughout

01:32the course of every single year and throughout the season in these sort of regular events.

01:38You know, yes, I get it.

01:39Scotty Scheffler and Zandy Shoffley aren't walking through that door.

01:42But you know what?

01:43I mean, there's a lot of guys in that 30 to 1 range that we can make some serious money

01:48on this week.

01:49And guess what?

01:50We're not doing that on a Sunday without some cockamamie parlay or something like that

01:54that you're putting together or on a Saturday trying to hit like a six game winner.

01:58You know, I mean, the fact is, is that you still get the four day lottery with golf and

02:02let's try to win one this week.

02:05Let's indeed try to win the one this week.

02:07Now, Keith, same course, right, as the past couple of years, of course, EVR won this event

02:13last year, Eric Van Royen.

02:15And that helped them out because that got them in all those early January and February

02:20signature events that he got to play.

02:21And so that's a big it's a big tournament for that to the Todd father, Henley Hovland

02:26a couple of times.

02:27Any changes to the track down here at Mexico?

02:31So a couple of years ago, we used to play a golf course called El Chameleon over in

02:34Mayakoba, different coast of Mexico.

02:37Now we're down in Baja.

02:38And the first time we saw this golf course, Tiger Woods design back in 2014 was last year.

02:44El Cardinal, a tribute to his Stanford Cardinal, right at Diamante, where there's 36 different

02:50holes.

02:51This is the Tiger course.

02:52And last year heading in, the first thing we saw is that there was 97 acres of fairway.

02:57Just to give you a little perspective on that, like at a U.S. open, there'll be 25 acres

03:00of fairway.

03:01So we've got some room here.

03:03The fairways are 60, 70 yards wide and the golf course was 7,400 yards long.

03:07So we said, oh, everyone's just going to bomb away and here we go.

03:10But you know what?

03:11Last year, only one guy in the top 10 that we finished with, where EVR won at 27 under,

03:18was in the top 25 of driving distance on the PGA Tour in 2023.

03:23It turned out that it was a Matt Kuchar, Matt Hughes, Justin Suh sort of shootout, right,

03:28where these guys had to go super, super deep.

03:30I mean, we had 23 rounds last year of 64 or better and 11 of them were on the last day.

03:35We had 16 guys that had four rounds in the 60s on their card.

03:40It was ridiculous, the scoring, and it's going to be ridiculous again this year because

03:43wide open fairways are going to allow these guys to attack these greens and make plenty

03:47of birdies.

03:49It certainly does.

03:50Let's get to the card here, Keith.

03:52And I want to do the outrights first, and I have to mention this just because I love

03:55this guy because he gave me one of my biggest first round leader hits ever.

04:01I think it was two years ago when the Smother Man, also in Mexico, hit and it was a 130

04:08to one first round leader I nailed him with.

04:11And look at this.

04:12You got him on the card this week.

04:13I love it.

04:14Let's go.

04:15Well, I'll tell you what.

04:16Every time I say his name in my head, I always kind of hum Pearl Jam's Nothing Man, right?

04:21Smother Man.

04:22You know, I mean, you just have to say it.

04:23It's absolutely fantastic.

04:24And you know what's even better?

04:26This guy leads the field right now.

04:28If you look back just 24 rounds, he's number one in this field in tee to green.

04:33That's a fact, Carver.

04:34I'm telling you this play and pass Palom, which is the like funky, spongy, grainy grass

04:40that we get down there, seaside in Mexico and in some of the Island events is his best

04:44putting surface.

04:46So I love the Smother Man coming in hot with his ball striking.

04:49And you know what?

04:50Last year he had some success here as well.

04:52It's a triple digit winner, but I mean, look at this field.

04:55I mean, the favorite is Max Grazer at 16 to one.

04:57He's never won.

04:58So, I mean, I like our chances of trying to hit a big one here or somebody in that middle

05:03tier, like a Harry Hall, Harry kids in the hall.

05:06He's sitting there at 30.

05:07I love how he has played recently.

05:10Guy makes a ton of birdies.

05:11I mean, that is the thing this week.

05:12You have got to be able to score and he's second in the field and birdie or better.

05:16That's Harry Hall.

05:17He's had a couple of good finishes in a row.

05:19He was good at the Zozo where it was tight ball striking and needed to make birdies.

05:22And he was great at home at the Shriners, Lucas Glover, the glove man.

05:26You know what?

05:27He has been reinvigorated this fall.

05:29He won twice in 23 comes back this year.

05:31He doesn't make the playoffs.

05:32Well, you know what?

05:33He said it on a Sirius XM show.

05:35He goes, I need to get, I need to get better.

05:37These kids are better than me and I'm a major champion.

05:40He's only one of two major champions in this field.

05:42The other one being Danny Willett, who did he will it?

05:45But you know what?

05:46Lucas Glover, he's sitting there at 30 to one and a guy that just finished 13th, third

05:50and third.

05:51And then one more guy, Harry English, four wins.

05:54And one of those career wins wasn't my Acoba on past Palin in this event, probably six

06:00different names ago.

06:01Harry English is a four time winner on the PGA tour.

06:04Can go deep in these types of events and he's been playing very well this fall.

06:09He certainly has, Keith, I kind of, I like Harry English on my card as well here.

06:14Placements for you, including Bo Hassler, who has had a very good swing season.

06:19All right, so top 10 with English, right?

06:22He was sixth at the Black Desert Championship.

06:25He was ninth at the Shriners.

06:26He'll get us another top 10 this week.

06:27Top 20s.

06:28Hassler, one of those guys in the fall.

06:32You know how I love to look at these things, make a little bit of comparison.

06:34The last two years, if you look at what Hassler has done and combine it with his form right

06:39now, there's only two golfers that are better than him on that list of that rankings that

06:43I made.

06:44One's Kuchar and the other one's J.J.

06:45Spahn.

06:46Hassler is a moneymaker in the fall.

06:47We love him.

06:48Sam Stevens, birdie machine.

06:51This guy, he gets hot and you know what?

06:53He's got what?

06:54Two straight top 25s.

06:56He's going to hit another time here, get us a top 20.

06:58And then the third guy in the 20s, Jacob Bridgman.

07:01Bridgman is another one of those guys, a ball striker, a putter, and he's been on a hot

07:04streak lately.

07:05I love him.

07:06Top 40s.

07:07I'm going Joe Highsmith, minus 106.

07:09I know a minus number.

07:10Hey, we're just trying to win money here, man.

07:12It's not about winning.

07:13It's about winning money.

07:14That's what betting is, right?

07:16Vince Whaley, plus 110.

07:18Vince was another guy.

07:19He was 10th on that list that I created that had Kuchar number one and Hassler number three.

07:23Vince has really improved his putting and I like his chances to score and go deep here.

07:27And then the other one, Smotherman for a top 40, plus 163.

07:31Hey, he finished T23 here last year, right?

07:34The guy can score and make birdies on this golf course.

07:38Joe Joe Highsmith, who of course is the hole-in-one master of 2024, as everybody knows.

07:44Our boy Joe Joe has had quite the year with that.

07:46All right, head to heads.

07:47Who are we going after?

07:49We're going after Mav McNeely.

07:50You brought him up in the open, right?

07:52And Bo Hassler's going to take him down.

07:54Mav McNeely, he's ranked 35th in the field for birdie or better.

07:58Hassler is one-third of that.

07:59He's ranked 10th.

08:00He's just going to make more low scores.

08:02Hassler takes him down there.

08:04And then Max Grazerman versus the Gim Reaper.

08:06Grazerman is the best putter in the field.

08:08He's the best player in the field.

08:10Doug Gim, everyone keeps talking about this guy, but here's a little fact, right?

08:14He's got one top 20 in his last 19 starts.

08:17One top 20, right?

08:18So you can talk all you want about his model numbers, but the fact is, is that Max Grazerman,

08:23he's got three runners up in his last five starts.

08:27How about that for Max?

08:29I was a little surprised to see.

08:30I get it.

08:31He's the best player in the field.

08:32I was very surprised to see him as the favorite there.

08:36Maybe it's Cam Young's week, Keith.

08:38You never know.

08:39Maybe Cam Young finally gets a win on the PGA Tour.

08:43Keith, great job as always.

08:46Let's cash some tickets down in Mexico next week.

08:49Bermuda, Butterfield.

08:52Let's go, baby.

08:53So you get only a couple more.

08:54Butterfield and then the RSM in Sea Island.

08:58So we've only got a couple left before we pack some things up.

09:01Keith, tremendous job as always.

09:03Keith Stewart, Read the Line.

09:04Check him out here with us every week.

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