Congratulations to Keegan Bradley on winning his fifth career PGA Tour event.  It’s his first victory since a playoff win over Justin Rose at the 2018 BMW Championship.  Keegan had to feel great finally getting over the hump after a handful of close calls over the years.  Another player made an appearance on the leaderboard for the second time in his three starts on the young season, Rickie Fowler.  He had a one shot lead heading into Sunday but shooting an even par 70 was not going to get the job done.  I’m glad to see him playing better and hope that was signs of things to come for him.  The real test for Fowler will come this weekend as the top dogs on the PGA Tour reenter the arena and compete.    

The PGA Tour finishes their fortnite of events in conjunction with the Japan Golf Tour this weekend at the CJ CUPP.  A bulk of the field from last week’s ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP in Japan had to travel across the world to play this weekend in South Carolina.  Congaree Country Club plays host to the 2022 edition of the CJ CUPP after being in Las Vegas at the Summit Club last year.  Rory McIlory makes his return to U.S soil for the first time since winning the Tour Championship.  He has not been sitting around at home, Rory played in multiple events on the DP World Tour in September.  Rory is the defending champion of the CJ CUPP but this will be his first trip to Conagree.  He will lead the best field thus far of the 2022-2023 PGA Tour into the Palmetto state.   

This course hosted the 2021 Palmetto Championship, so there are players who are familiar with the track.  Conagree is a par 71 that stretches out 7,655 yards, that’s massive.  There are two par 4s that are over 500 yards but also two that should be drivable for most of the field.  The par 5 fourth hole is 645 yards which is the second longest hole on the PGA Tour schedule.  While the course is long, it is incredibly flat with little to no rough.  Players will tee off onto fairways but there is no in between fairway and sand and there’s a lot of sand.  This isn’t trap sand, it’s just standing sand all around the course kind of like what we saw at Kiawah and the players will be allowed to ground their clubs.  You will want to as always target players who will have great iron play and approach into these greens.  When these players miss these greens which will happen a lot, Strokes Gained: Around the Green will be vital which goes along with scrambling as well. 

The players dealt with some wet conditions early in the week at the ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP but that won’t be the case this weekend.  We will see clear skies and temperatures starting in the high 60s on Thursday and slowly climb to the upper 70s by Sunday afternoon.    

Good Luck This Weekend!

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