00:00Welcome back to Newswire here on SportsGrid. We got Keith Stewart in the house. PGA Tour, of course, coming to the end of the line here over the next couple of months.
00:07And we're going to break it all down, especially with the Ryder Cup on deck.
00:10But first, we've got the FedEx St. Jude Championship, and it's a huge event coming up.
00:16We thought we would bring in Keith to get the very latest. Keith, thanks for coming on Newswire. I really appreciate it.
00:20Craig, it's a pleasure to be with you. I mean, Tuesday, playoffs, PGA Tour. Let's get after it.
00:26All right, so let's get started and talk about the FedEx Championship.
00:31And as we know, things can go sideways in this. We've seen this several years ago. We've seen it before.
00:36Scotty Scheffler is still the current favorite, and he's about as big as a favorite as we've seen, plus 280.
00:42Xander, 16-1. Thomas, 22-1. Fitzpatrick, 24-1. And Tommy Fleetwood is 25-1.
00:49I know you really enjoy this time of the year, Keith, because it really shows who's got the guts, right, at the end of the season.
00:54Well, there's no doubt about that, and these guys have a lot more to play for than even just the FedEx Cup standings.
01:01I mean, yes, there's a lot of money on the line and everything, but there are a lot of guys where this Ryder Cup situation,
01:07where I really feel like there's two or three spots that are open for about five or six players.
01:12And, Craig, it's got to be on these guys' minds. I mean, we saw what happened with Cam Young last week.
01:17We certainly know that he's from New York, going to Beth Page.
01:20It's got to be a huge goal for him to play on that Ryder Cup, like a lifetime bucket list goal, not just a goal for the year.
01:26Being from New York, and Chris Goddorup, that story, of course, you've got the European side,
01:31somebody like Matt Fitzpatrick that's playing so very well.
01:33He'd love to close off a win this week, and he's played very well there at TPC Southwind before in the FedEx St. Jude Championship.
01:40I think right now, when I look at it, the markets are really interesting on Fitzpatrick, Sepp Straka, two names.
01:48Let's kind of go into some possibilities here.
01:51Certainly, Matt Fitzpatrick, he had the second-best weekend at the Wyndham Championship, Craig.
01:57He kind of just quietly snuck into a tide for eighth place.
02:00So if you had him top ten at the beginning of the week as the pre-tournament favorite down there in Greensboro,
02:05well, then you cashed, right? And this week, now he's coming in off four straight top eights.
02:10If you want to play him straight up, he's plus 2,200 on FanDuel.
02:14But you know what? Scotty Scheffler, he's back in the field.
02:18So if you're a little shy to go against Scheffler, and you like a guy that could win or come in second place,
02:23you could play a guy like Matty Fitz at plus 2,000.
02:25You're not going to take a huge hit for some of these guys at the top of the board.
02:28Now, you mentioned Sepp Straka. I love Sepp Straka down here at TPC Southwind.
02:34And the reason for that, and it's a little bit of secret sauce, is that they have Zoysia Fairways down there.
02:39And Sepp's record on Zoysia is incredible.
02:42Not to mention the fact there is a ton of water off the tee, and Sepp is extremely accurate.
02:47You look at one of his career wins at the Honda, which is now the Cognizant, which was down there at PGA National.
02:52Tons of water off the tee, Bermuda grass, Bermuda on the greens.
02:56You know, Sepp is the type of guy that can handle this type of golf course.
02:59And he's won already a couple times this year, one of which was a signature event against the same style of field.
03:07Now, Scotty Scheffler's odds, Keith, they give you a lot of different options here on how you could potentially bet him.
03:13You know, clearly, him finishing top 10 is not something that I would invest in here, because that's minus 230.
03:21You'd have to, like, pair that with something else.
03:22But how would you potentially look at maybe betting him, like, per se, if you don't think he's going to win?
03:30Well, if you don't think that he's going to win, boy, then, I mean, I would just play the field, because there's a ton of great talent in there.
03:38But if you think he's going to win, then I think you need to start to compound your interest.
03:42And what that list shows you is that you could take him for, you know, let's say a low USA.
03:48You could also – I don't know about first-round leader, because great players tend to start slow and work their way into the lead, maybe like a third-round leader.
03:55You could also see there that you could take Scotty versus the field, and you could also take him to win, which is like a plus 280 market right now.
04:01You add all of that up, and you could probably get to about 8-1, you know.
04:05If you really want to, like, kind of hedge your bets, then the best play on Scotty right now, because he's sub-3-1 pre-tournament, is to go and to wait until the live markets start.
04:16You know, the tee times haven't been released yet, but once they are, let's say he's an afternoon starting time on Thursday.
04:22Well, in the morning, if somebody goes out and they get really, really hot, that number might jump from 3-1 to maybe 3.5 to 4-1, and that might be the time to jump on it.
04:30Maybe he has an even par round on Thursday, and the live market is something to touch.
04:35But under 3-1 with four rounds to go is not the time to play him.
04:39If you feel very confident in Scotty, then I would say load up on all those props that you just saw there,
04:44and I would absolutely say, you know what, you've got to feel pretty good after his performance at the Open Championship.
04:50All right, meanwhile, the Ryder Cup is, I mean, coming fast and furious here.
04:54And, you know, what's interesting, Keith, is that, you know, Europe certainly has had their fair share of success
04:59in surprising Team USA, especially when it's on their soil.
05:03But this one, of course, is on Team USA's soil.
05:05So they are minus 135, followed by Europe at plus 155, and a tie is 11-1.
05:12As you see this sort of stacking up here as we get closer, is there a chance that Europe can win,
05:18or is it the home field advantage is too much?
05:20Well, there's definitely a chance that they could win.
05:23You look at the top of the team there on the European side.
05:26You're going to have Rory, you're going to have Jon Rahm, Victor Hovland, Terrell Hatton.
05:30You have some of the best players in the world that have played very, very good in major championships this year.
05:35We're 12 days away from the points list being solidified for the U.S. squad.
05:40You know, the guys at the top of the list there, Scottie Zander, J.J. Spahn, your U.S. Open winner,
05:45Russell Henley, of course, you've got Bryson.
05:49You know, I mean, we are stacked at the top two.
05:51There's going to be a lot of decisions to be made in 20 days when Keegan has to come up with his six captains picks,
05:56and that's not a lot of time.
05:57This playoffs is going to play out for both sides.
06:00Do I think Captain Luke Donald has an edge over Captain Keegan Bradley?
06:03I certainly do.
06:04If Keegan plays, then I think there's a huge edge, and I think that that gives them the best chance.
06:10So I wouldn't bet Europe quite yet, but I tell you, that number is really intriguing.
06:15Should Keegan want to play and be captain at the same time, Craig?
06:19Yeah, yeah.
06:19And, you know, I would like to follow up with that because we've seen this, you know,
06:23really go in a lot of different directions with the Ryder Cup.
06:26Sometimes the country dominates.
06:29You know, sometimes it's close going down to the end.
06:31And do you think the talent speaks to some of the odds where it just seems to me that, you know,
06:36if Europe just gets off to a good start, those odds are going to change significantly?
06:40Oh, if Europe jumps out to an early lead in the matches, then you know what?
06:45That New York crowd, which could be a huge proponent and propel, you know, the U.S. side,
06:51might become more of a detriment.
06:52I mean, we know what it's like to play in the New York area if you're a team and you're not playing well.
06:56Jets, Giants, Mets, Yanks, whoever it may be.
06:58The U.S. side has got to use the crowd to their advantage.
07:02The biggest thing that the European side can do is get out to that early lead.
07:06And if they do, then they take the crowd out of it.
07:09And I tell you what, they have more of a chance.
07:10Again, Luke Donald versus Keegan, I think that's really the matchup you want to watch as far as the captains go.
