Based on the news at the top of the email, I think it’s safe to say that tournaments like the CJ Cup Byron Nelson will be going the way of the Dodo Bird.
There’s a handful of them that come to mind, who currently occupy unwanted space in the TOUR’s schedule, pull weak fields, and are typically birdie-fests.
These events lack juice and draw weak viewership numbers.
So, it seems that the TOUR, whos CEO Brian Rolapp came from the NFL, are intent on embracing a scarcity model, which, in theory, should allow them to sell partnerships at a premium.
Their bet is that quality is better than volume.
And with that intro, we bring you to McKinney, Texas, just outside of Dallas, where Scottie Scheffler leads a field that includes only about three other people in the Top 50 of OWGR.
Scottie shot 31-under last year. His odds to win this year are +175, which is… gross.
In an effort to make the CJ Cup less of a birdie-fest, they have made all of the greens smaller over the last year.
We will see how that holds up.
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Weekly Bets: 2026 CJ Cup Byron Nelson
We’ve partnered with Keith Stewart at Read The Line to share his weekly golf betting picks with the Caddyshanks crew. If you’re the type who enjoys breaking down matchups, spotting trends, and hunting for value, you’ll feel right at home in the RTL community.
Use code CADDYSHANKS2026 to redeem.
Keith Stewart’s Picks
Jordan Spieth (+2000 DraftKings)
In four starts at TPC Craig Ranch, Jordan Spieth has finished T9, 2, MC, and 4. I guess Spieth likes sleeping in his own bed! A top 20 at the PGA Championship and a brief lead in Miami. Spieth has seven top 25s in 13 starts this season. Those results still seem to be missing a piece of Spieth’s game. In 2026, the irons have been great at times. The driver has been excellent recently, and nobody is better with a wedge. If Jordan wins again, the most likely spot is a course where he is extremely comfortable, and in a region he knows infinitely well.
Eric Cole (+8000 DraftKings)
In his last three events, Eric Cole has finished T14, T6, and T6 at Myrtle Beach. Cole’s an incredible iron player and putter. In two starts at TPC Craig Ranch, Eric has finished T23 and T5. Eric can score, and on a course with little pressure off the tee, he can just get it in play. The approach, proximity, and putter take over. Eighth in the field for BoB%, Cole has gained an average of 8.4 strokes combined with his flatstick and irons over his last two starts.
Caddyshanks Picks
Scottie Scheffler (+175 DraftKings)
Scottie Scheffler’s odds are so low that I actually don’t recommend betting him this week, unless he gets off to a slow start and you can find a live number you like. Also, look into the “without Scheffler” markets.
The only reason I have him on the card this week is because I committed to “bet Scottie every week” at the beginning of the year. It hasn’t been working out.
Brooks Koepka (+2500 Draftkings)
Everything about Brooks game is working right now except for one very important thing – his putter. If, and it’s a big if, he gets it going? He’s gonna win some tournaments.
Sungjae Im (+5600 Draftkings)
It was only a few weekends ago in Florida that Sungjae was in contention, his odds are quite long this week, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was hanging around this weekend near the top of the board.
The Truist Championship was wide open on Sunday.
Plenty of names were within striking distance. Alex Fitzpatrick had the overnight lead. Rickie Fowler, Cameron Young, Nicolai Højgaard, Tommy Fleetwood, and a handful of others were all close enough to make things interesting.
But it was Kristoffer Reitan, the 28-year-old from Norway, who stepped up, closed the deal, and walked away with the trophy and the signature-event check.
Not bad for a guy still getting settled on the PGA TOUR.
Reitan’s Breakthrough Came Fast
Reitan’s road here has not exactly been smooth.
He had a brief stop at Texas before choosing the professional route, then went through the grind of trying to establish himself in Europe. He has spoken openly about the ups and downs, but eventually found his footing again.
Last year, he finished inside the top 10 on the Race to Dubai, earned his PGA TOUR card, yet hadn’t finished in the Top 10 in a single event this year.
Then came Quail Hollow.
Reitan began Sunday one shot behind Alex Fitzpatrick, but stayed steady while the leaderboard around him got chaotic. He closed with a 2-under 69, finished at 15-under, and beat Rickie Fowler and Nicolai Højgaard by two shots.
That is a life-changing week – good for him.
Alex Fitzpatrick Was Right There
Alex Fitzpatrick started the day with a one-shot lead and had a real chance to win his first solo PGA TOUR event.
Instead, Sunday got away from him.
He shot 2-over on the day and finished solo fourth, which is still a great result, but it will probably sting considering where he stood entering the final round.
Still, Fitzpatrick has been playing well since getting his PGA TOUR card, and this feels more like a sign of things to come than a collapse to worry about.
Meanwhile, his brother Matt cooled off with a T52 finish after his own ridiculous run of three wins in three starts.
Rickie And Nicolai Made Their Sunday Push
Rickie Fowler and Nicolai Højgaard both finished T2, two shots behind Reitan.
For Fowler, it was another reminder that he still has plenty left when the putter cooperates and the ball-striking shows up.
For Højgaard, it was another strong week from a player who keeps looking more and more comfortable on big stages.
Neither one got the trophy, but both made Reitan earn it.
Cam Young Gave Us All A Putting Reminder
Cameron Young has been one of the hottest players on the planet lately.
And yet, on Sunday, he missed multiple putts inside four feet.
You know, just in case you think you should make every four-footer.
Young still finished T10, but the round was a good reminder that even the best players in the world can look human at times.
Other Notable Finishes
- Tommy Fleetwood: T5
- Ludvig Åberg: T8
- Cameron Young: T10
- Rory McIlroy: T19
- Matt Fitzpatrick: T52
What’s Next?
The PGA Championship at Aronimink.
Odds For The 2026 PGA Championship
Odds are subject to change and may vary by sportsbook.
| Player | Odds |
|---|---|
| Scottie Scheffler | +450 |
| Rory McIlroy | +850 |
| Cameron Young | +1200 |
| Jon Rahm | +1600 |
| Bryson DeChambeau | +1800 |
| Xander Schauffele | +1800 |
| Ludvig Åberg | +2000 |
| Matt Fitzpatrick | +2200 |
| Tommy Fleetwood | +2200 |
| Brooks Koepka | +4000 |
| Collin Morikawa | +4000 |
| Justin Thomas | +4000 |
We’ll see you Wednesday with our PGA Championship picks.
For the second week in a row, the PGA TOUR is hosting a Signature Event.
Hopefully, that is the last time I ever have to write that sentence.
The TOUR’s limited-field, no-cut, guaranteed-money events were basically a LIV-response experiment – a way to financially compensate top players enough to keep them from jumping ship.
And they kinda stink.
In terms of retaining talent, maybe it worked and maybe it didn’t. But I can tell you this: the average golf fan does not care about the purse size.
We watch sports for community, unscripted drama, and meaningful storytelling.
When you remove the cut-line and guarantee the money, it limits the amount of meaningful stories and drama that can play out.
Beyond that, if you’re the type of sicko who watches golf every week, it gets a little stale seeing the same 70 guys over and over again.
Bring back the cuts. Long live the cuts.
With that tangent out of the way, we get back to the actual golf tournament being hosted at Quail Hollow this week.
Like last week, it’s a brutish course.
Both Doral and Quail Hollow play ~7600 yds, and both have a demanding set of closing holes.
The last three at Quail Hollow are referred to as The Green Mile, but by now, you’re probably pretty familiar with the course. It hosted the PGA Championship last year and the Presidents Cup in 2022, and has been a regular stop on TOUR for some time.
Rory McIlroy has won here four times; he is the odds leader this week, with Scottie Scheffler taking the week off.
The course suits McIlroy’s game perfectly – it requires distance and accuracy off the tee as well as emphasis on ball-striking.
Okay, I could write that about most courses, most weeks, but you get the point.
If you want to win at Quail Hollow, you’ve got to bring your complete game with you.
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Weekly Bets: The Truist Championship
We’ve partnered with Keith Stewart at Read The Line to share his weekly golf betting picks with the Caddyshanks crew. If you’re the type who enjoys breaking down matchups, spotting trends, and hunting for value, you’ll feel right at home in the RTL community.
Keith Stewart’s Picks
Rory McIlroy (+600 FanDuel)
Twelve starts at Quail Hollow, four wins, and nine top 10s. Needless to say, Rory McIlroy will be there on Sunday afternoon. Enjoy the sweat.
Akshay Bhatia (+6600 DraftKings)
Pundits will push the driver narrative this week, and they are right. What will give you an edge is picking players who move the ball right to left. For righties, that’s a draw, but for Akshay Bhatia, that is his patented fade. Complementing his edge off the tee is an approach game that has gained strokes in eight of his last nine starts. One last point, Bhatia is ranked third on the TOUR for strokes gained putting. For the North Carolina kid, this venue is a great fit.
Caddyshanks Picks
Xander Schauffele (+1125 Draftkings)
Xander has as good a course history at Quail Hollow as you can have without winning, and he’s quietly been gaining strokes T2G and OTT in his last few starts. He hasn’t truly been in contention on a Sunday yet this year, but it’s coming soon.
Si Woo Kim (+2400 Draftkings)
Si Woo has been playing really well to start this season, and he has contended, but he hasn’t won yet. He played his way into the final group last week at a similarly demanding golf course, and I like him to do it again this week.
Sepp Straka (+4500 Draftkings)
Sepp won last year, albeit at the Philly Cricket Club and not QH, but that doesn’t matter. What matters most is that he quietly grabbed a back-door Top 10 last week, and he could be a sneaky pick to repeat at champ.
I won’t lie, I’m pretty excited for this one.
First off, Trump National Doral Golf Club – aka The Blue Monster – can be an absolute brute. It stretches over 7,700 yards, and those closing, water-lined holes are one of the toughest finishing stretches we see anywhere in pro golf.
Tiger Woods once put it plainly, talking about the 18th:
“It’s one of the toughest par 4s you’ll ever play if it’s into the wind.”
Good news if you like carnage – wind might be a factor on Saturday, with gusts up to 20mph. Unfortunately, it may thunderstorm on Sunday, but it’s Florida so that could change by the time you’re reading this.
Additionally, there’s some real history here.
The Blue Monster has crowned winners like Jack Nicklaus, Tom Weiskopf, Lee Trevino, Raymond Floyd, Nick Faldo, Ben Crenshaw, and of course, Tiger Woods. Always nice when a course brings a little pedigree with it.
It’s a Signature Event, so a strong field is expected, but this one will be missing a few stars; Rory McIlroy, Matt Fitzpatrick, Ludvig Åberg, Xander Schauffele, and Patrick Cantlay are all sitting it out.
In fairness, it makes sense. The schedule right now is a bit of a gauntlet – Signature Event (Cadillac), Signature Event (Truist), then straight into a major at the PGA Championship. Not exactly a light stretch, and this week is clearly where some guys are choosing to take a breather.
Someone at the PGA TOUR should do a better job with the schedule.
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Weekly Bets: The Cadillac Championship
We’ve partnered with Keith Stewart at Read The Line to share his weekly golf betting picks with the Caddyshanks crew. If you’re the type who enjoys breaking down matchups, spotting trends, and hunting for value, you’ll feel right at home in the RTL community.
Keith Stewart’s Picks
Collin Morikawa (+2000 bet365)
The first player I looked for on property at Trump National Doral was Collin Morikawa. Since returning from his PLAYERS WD, Morikawa has finished T7 and T4. Is Collin healthy? Not only did he swing beautifully, but his driver speed looked fast, much quicker than in his last two starts. If you need one player to hit a 200-yard approach, I’m picking Morikawa. If Morikawa was contending with injury concerns, imagine how confident he will be swinging, not that he feels good!
Keegan Bradley (+6500 Caesars)
Keegan Bradley is one of the best mid- to long-iron players in the field. With the number of approaches around 200 yards during each round, Doral is playing right into the best part of Bradley’s game. A Southeast Florida resident, I don’t worry about the Bermudagrass or the short game. Twelfth at the RBC Heritage, Keegan has two top 8 finishes on the Blue Course in four starts. Bradley’s ball striking is solid in the wind, which is another characteristic I’m focusing on this week.
Caddyshanks Picks
Sam Burns (+3100 Draftkings)
Sam Burns has played quite well over the last 9 months, particularly with his approach play and putter, but he’s also got the length necessary to beat it around Doral.
Hideki Matsuyama (+3100 Draftkings)
If you’ve been reading this newsletter for awhile, you know I love betting Hideki, and you know it rarely ever works out for me, but we will always have that final round 62 to win the Genesis Invitational. He hasn’t won yet this year, but he will. He’s top 20 in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, Approach and Around-the-Green.
Scottie Scheffler (+310 Draftkings)
Admittedly, the “bet Scottie every week no matter what” strategy hasn’t played out very well this season, but he’s averaging 5.1 birdies per round so far for the year – the best mark on TOUR. The wins are coming.
That’s all folks – see you next week for the Truist Championship.
Team golf has its place, but if LIV Golf has taught me anything, it’s that team golf is best when it’s the exception, not the rule.
One of those exceptions is this week at the Zurich Classic, and even that barely qualifies.
This event just doesn’t have much juice, mostly because a lot of the top players skip it. The PGA TOUR should probably try to fix that, or just leave team golf to the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, but I’m just a lowly golf newsletter writer. No one at the PGA TOUR has asked for my vision of the future just yet.
Anyway, the first and third rounds are better ball. The second and fourth rounds are alternate shot.
This is also a tricky event to make picks for, especially since first-time teammates have won here before, so you can’t lean too hard on course history.
Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry were one such team back in 2024.
This year, Rory is skipping it, so Lowry found a new partner in Brooks Koepka.
A win would go a long way for Brooks – it would secure a two-year exemption and get him into all the Signature Events.
Another reason this event is tough to handicap is that Data Golf doesn’t have betting tools or live coverage for it, so we’re flying blind.
Ready, fire, aim.
The Details
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Featured Groups:
ESPN+ has announced featured groups for Thursday & Friday.
Weekly Bets: The RBC Heritage
We’ve partnered with Keith Stewart at Read The Line to share his weekly golf betting picks with the Caddyshanks crew. If you’re the type who enjoys breaking down matchups, spotting trends, and hunting for value, you’ll feel right at home in the RTL community.
Keith Stewart’s Picks
Aaron Rai – Sahith Theegala (+2150 DraftKings)
Looking for a breakout team? Pair a scorer with an extremely consistent ball striker. Aaron Rai works for the highway commission. The man paints straight lines with his golf shots. Precise, consistent, and calm. Sahith Theegala is a pure scorer. Together, they have eight appearances in the Zurich Classic and six top 25 finishes. I love Rai to keep Theegala out of trouble, and Sahith to help Aaron convert on the greens.
Chad Ramey – Justin Lower (+7200 DraftKings)
In his last three Zurich starts, Chad Ramey has finished ninth, second, and eighth. Justin Lower has two more top 10s in his last four starts in New Orleans. Neither guy is an elite player on the PGA TOUR, but when it comes to this team competition, they get it done. Ramey’s consistent ball striking and Lower’s ability to go low pair perfectly. With the reduced strength of the field, maybe two guys can break through as Griffin and Novak did one year ago.
Caddyshanks Picks
Brooks Koepka & Shane Lowry (+1450 Draftkings)
They’ve got the shortest odds in the field behind the Fitzpatrick brothers, so this is a storyline pick. With a win, Brooks secures his spot on the PGA TOUR for years to come.
Billy Horschel & Tom Hoge (+7000 Draftkings)
Horschel has won here as a solo and as part of a duo, and that’s about all you can hang your hat on with this team, but it’s a week to throw darts so here we are.
Blades Brown & Luke Clanton (+7000 Draftkings)
They’ve got to be the youngest team in the field, and I am pretty sure their combined age is still younger than Matt Kuchar, who’s also in the field. It would be a lot of fun to see two young guns in contention on Sunday.
