Happy Wednesday! There are now over 300 of you who read Shanks every day and over 30k of you who follow us on Instagram. Those numbers may not seem huge, but I can tell you they mean a helluva lot to us. Here’s what a few hundred people look like in a theatre, for example, and I would be nervous as hell to give a speech in front of you. We’re grateful you’re here.

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Here's what we've got for ya today:

• Doin Lines: The Memorial Tournament

• LIV Updates

• College Golf Championship

• Golf Shots Heard Round The World

• Jack vs. Tom

• Golf Data

• Golf Thing We'd Buy If We Weren't Broke

Doin Lines: The Memorial Tournament

By Josey Orr

The PGAT is headed to Dublin, Ohio this week. More specifically, the pros are heading to Jacks Place, Muirfield Village, which always provides a test for the best in the world.

The Memorial Tournament is one of the longest running events on the tour schedule, it’s been going since 1976.

🚩 Location: Muirfield Village, Ohio

💰 Purse: $20M - Winner gets $3.6M

👑 Previous Winner: Billy Ho

⛳️ Field: 120

👀 Watch On: Golf Channel, CBS, ESPN+, Paramount+

Let's Gamble

The field this week includes 16 of the top 20 in OWGR, it’s a designated event, and it’s one of those tournaments that players hold in high regard because it’s hosted by the Goat.

At least three big names will be missing: Max Homa, Justin Rose, and Tony Finau.

The Memorial is one of the most prestigious non-major events on the schedule and it should be another great weekend of golf.

The Course

Muirfield is known for long rough and fast, Bentgrass greens.

Jack also designs his golf courses to test a golfers iron play. This is a second shot golf course and hitting accurate approaches to the right places will be key in holding greens.

Because of my dedication to this newsletter, I have checked the last few days of weather AND looked at the weather forecast for the weekend in Dublin, Ohio.

It’s been hot and dry and will continue to be.

We may have balls rolling through fairways into the long grass and we may have greens that are even slightly faster than usual.

Strike Those Balls

Armed with the above information, plus combing through every piece of Memorial Tournament gambling content I could find, has lead to the following conclusion:

Bet the dudes who are top of the tour in SG: APP (Strokes Gained Approach for the uninitiated).

The top-10 players in SG: APP entering this week are Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa, Wyndham Clark, Jon Rahm, Xander Schauffele, Tom Hoge, Rickie Fowler, Viktor Hovland, Gary Woodland and Rory McIlroy.

In 2022, 51% of approach shots came from beyond 175 yards. Honing in more specifically on the top long-iron players in this week’s field, we find Nate Lashley, Gary Woodland, Jon Rahm, Chez Reavie, Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa, Keegan Bradley, Cameron Young, Viktor Hovland and Xander Schauffele. via The Lines.

💰Shanks Picks💰

It should be noted that Patrick Cantlay has already won this event twice. He seems to always play well here, but because of the way he personally offended me the last time I picked him, I will not be picking him this week. You may not suffer from the same cognitive biases that I do, so go ahead and take him +1000 if you want.

Outright Winners: Rickie Fowler +4000. I know there’s some readers who will absolutely hate this pick, but Rickie has 5 top ten finishes in 15 starts this year. He’s a top ten player in SG: APP.

Top Five: Gary Woodland +1200

Top Ten: I can’t quit betting Cam Young +280

Top Twenty: Shane Lowry +170

Long Shots: Sahith Theegala +5000

The Wild World of LIV

By Chase Majerus

Ok world, you got me. I blew it. I never wrote a recap from the LIV tournament in Washington DC and I feel downright stupid. But so much happened in the LIV Golf world so let’s walk through it.

1. Harold Varner III won the Washington DC LIV event, which is not very surprising. HV3 finished top 10 in the previous 2 events before winning this last weekend. Expect more top 5 finishes from him.

2. Golf legend Jack Nicklaus had some pretty strong opinions about LIV golf this week leading up to the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club saying, “I don’t even consider those guys part of the game anymore. I don’t mean that in a nasty way. This is a PGA Tour event and we have the best field we can possibly have for a PGA Tour event for those who are eligible to be here.”

3. Matthew Wolff is no longer listed on the Smash GC team Twitter, a team captained by PGA Championship winner, Brooks Koepka. Speculation is that there will be some midseason trades amongst the LIV teams but I don’t think that it’s enough to help Smash GC contend for a team title.

D1 Men’s College Golf

By Chase Majerus

It’s worth noting that the NCAA Men’s Golf Playoff has been on since May 26 and doesn’t end until today, May 31. That’s a boatload of golf. So, if you’re a golf junkie and haven’t been watching, let me catch you up.

I am currently watching these high-class shooters play at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona (airing on GOLF Channel) and while writing this, it’s the semifinals for team match play featuring #2 Florida vs. #6 Florida State and #1 North Carolina vs. #5 Georgia Tech. And like I said, boatload of golf, because these four teams already played today to get to the semis, with #2 Florida def. #7 Virginia, #6 Florida State def. #3 Illinois, #1 North Carolina def. #8 Arizona State, #5 Georgia Tech def. #4 Pepperdine. My back hurts just imagining all those swings.

The team match play championship will take place May 31^st with coverage on GOLF Channel 2 to 6 p.m. MT. If I were a betting man, which I am, I’m thinking that based on current play, #6 Florida State will play #1 North Carolina.

The individual play ended yesterday with Florida’s Fred Biondi taking home a huge win. He started the final day in 4^th but shot a wicked 3-under to rise to the top.

Golf Shots Heard Round The World

By Josey Orr

Tiger At The Memorial: Chris Powers from Golf Digest did a cool little breakdown of Tigers Sunday comeback in 2012.

Jack Stats: Eighteen of the most remarkable Jack Nicklaus stats.

Undercover Golf: Playing under the name his initials stand for, J.B. Holmes led his team to a win in a scramble with a $30,000 Calcutta, but only after he was outed.

Jack vs Tom

By Josey Orr

With The Masters and The PGA Championship already in the books, we only have two more majors to look forward to this year: The US Open and The Open.

Why not take a trip into the annals of golf history and watch The Duel in The Sun? The final day of the 1977 Open.

Having separated themselves from the rest of the field, American duo Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus, who did battle just months earlier at Augusta, went head to head under clear skies.

In a final day that would be remembered for years to come, would it be major number 15 for the Golden Bear or could then 27-year-old Tom Watson claim his second Claret Jug?

Watch the 14 Min Video Here.

Golf Data

Scottie Scheffler is doing Tiger Woods things.

Golf Thing We'd Buy If We Weren't Broke

Titleist is debuting their new irons at The Memorial this week.

The four new irons include the T100, T150, T200 and T350. While the company is not providing any specifics on the new models, the irons likely are the follow-ups to the four T-Series irons introduced two years ago.

That's all folks! See you Friday.