The PGA Tour is finally back! Well there’s been fifteen events so far that are listed on the 2018/2019 PGA Tour schedule, but people say that this is the first real tournament of the season. It is Tiger’s first event of the season, though. Except he played at the Hero World Challenge and The Match. Either way, it’s the first tournament a lot of casual golf fans are tuning in to. There’s no football, basketball is in peak-slug mid-season form, and baseball nerds are still tweeting about how many more days until pitchers and catchers report. So while the majority of us American sports fans are stuck inside wishing it was any month besides January or February, we might as well watch some golf on TV.
Jim Nantz has to trade in Tony Romo for Nick Faldo as CBS gets it’s first crack of the season at covering golf this week. If I was Jim Nantz I’d be ecstatic to have my co-worker who quotes Imagine Dragons back instead of the color commentator who the internet cannot stop fellating. Hopefully this year CBS will make some type of small improvement from last year but it does not look well. The 15-minute coverage gap is still in place, and I guarantee that Saturday and Sunday’s coverage will be delayed due to some insignificant Big Ten basketball game. Our only hope for CBS to show the tournament without coverage gaps or delay is if Tiger goes on a birdie run during this time.
Tiger obviously will dominate the coverage this week. His career record at Torrey has already been the leading story line and unless he misses the cut, CBS will continue to hammer us with this. Credit to Tiger though, he will dominate the coverage of an incredible field this week. Jason Day returns as the champion, Rory’s playing Torrey Pines for the first time, Rose, Rahm, Spieth, Finau, and current FedEx Cup leader Xander Schauffele are all playing as well. Rickie is the face of the sponsor along with the dude from Whiplash, J.K. Rollins or whatever his name is. Let’s see if Rickie can steal a win along with the sod that luckily Farmers has insured.
While those guys will deservedly take the featured group spots, there are a couple great lesser known groups I’d love to watch. El Camarón, Viktor Hovland, and Joey Garber are
all playing together. A 37-year-old Mexican rookie, the current US Am champ, and a rookie whose flow makes Tommy Fleetwood look like Hulk Hogan. I also want to see my boy Sam Burns, my Baylor Boy Stephan Jaeger, and big boy Braden Thornberry play together. We might get a shot or two out of these groups but don’t expect much.
As far as who my dumb ass predicts who will win this week, I am going with someone whose game is like Tiger’s from the early 2000’s when he dominated here. Someone who can hit it long and keep it in the fairway and who hits towering iron shots. But I don’t think that’s going to be Tiger this week. I have no expectations for him this week, but he has not looked great since the Tour Championship. Rahm, Leishman, JDay, and Brandt are all popular picks this week. Some lesser known players to consider are Cantlay, Noren, and 2018 Rookie of the Year Aaron Wise and Runner-Up Rookie of the Year Keith Mitchell. I’m going with Noren. I’m also betting a lot on him to beat Spieth for the tournament. So load up on Spieth to win. See y’all on Twitter during the coverage gap.
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