Andy and Twitterless Steve are back to dive into Shinnecock Hills and Royal Birkdale, hosts of the 2026 US Open and Open Championship. They reflect on the past tournaments at these venues, the 2018 US Open at Shinnecock and 2017 Open Championship at Birkdale. Additionally, they go through the course changes and how they believe the golf course will play. To conclude, Andy and Steve give some players they have their early eye on to hoist the trophies.

In case you missed it, here are the YouTube links to re-watch any of our shows or if you need to listen for the first time:

Did anyone know that the PGA Tour was going to announce their annual awards this week? Being in the upper echelon of professional golf fans, even I truly had no clue this was being revealed.

It doesn’t make sense why the PGA Tour awards aren’t a bigger thing that fans and players care about. The MVP award across the four major sports in this country, being the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB, is a huge storyline throughout the season and an important resume point when voters consider players for the Hall of Fame. 

These leagues have made a whole entertainment product out of them. The NFL created the “NFL Honors” that takes place during Super Bowl week. It’s an entire theater show like the Oscar’s where they announce all the awards and have celebrity hosts. The other leagues don’t have a big enough award ceremony like the NFL, but fans still watch the show and invest in debating who should win each award throughout the season. 

The PGA Tour has failed to make their season long awards meaningful. I just found out that Scottie Scheffler has won the award four years in a row, which is obviously not shocking to anyone reading this newsletter. But as a complete golf sicko, I couldn’t tell you who has won the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year award in the last five years. I could name the majority of the award winners for the NFL, NBA, and MLB. 

I believe just announcing the awards on a random Monday in December is not the right way to go about this. This could completely be a problem on my end for not caring about the awards, but they just seem not a big enough deal to anyone in the sport. 

Could the PGA Tour create an award show during Tour Championship week? The top players will already be together that week. Professional golf isn’t as big of a sport as the four major leagues, but I believe done right, an official award show can work and would provide value. 

Brian Rollap has way bigger fish to fry than figuring out how to make the PGA Tour awards more relevant. It would be great for the sport that the awards truly meant something for players and for fans to debate about all season.

Side Note: I still find it crazy that the PGA Tour put my logo on a shirt for Scottie. Still never got a shirt!

Bryan

Underdog PGA Best Ball Strategy Guide

We started a small discussion in the golf Discord channel this morning that sent me down a rabbit hole for some Inside Sports Network content during the golf offseason. Andy and Steve are full throttle with what I believe to be one of their best shows of the year: The Major Preview pods. It got me thinking about what I can provide the site in the time we are off until Sony. What did I spend my time doing last year? Drafting Best Ball teams in PGA. We are all about to get an influx of NFL Best Ball cash from Underdog. Do we withdraw? Not in this lifetime. Let’s get some PGA teams underway instead. I will break down who I think are some of my favorite ADPs on Underdog and why below.

The intent is to identify a few of my favorites (at the back end of the draft mostly) that may or may not be in the signature events. But it’s important to note that I would prefer to take guys that I see as prime candidates for an early win that will catapult themselves into a different tier of player for the next rounds. It is obvious that you should stack your teams with guys who are in Pebble, but I will note a few that I expect to play the American Express, the Sony, etc.

I do not want to shy away from the complete studs, but I do want to pop the hood and see who shows up at what events and when over the last few years. I will also combine that with plenty of back-end draft picks that I see with upside to 1) play a lot of golf due to necessity or 2) actually win an early tournament to vault themselves in terms of status at what could be low ownership.

Sam Burns (ADP 17.0) - I think after the first few rounds, I am going to start condensing my pool in the middle rounds quite tightly. Sam Burns will be a big part of what I do. He does not skip the American Express, he is in all the signature events and majors, and he simply has an understanding of how to build his schedule around course fits that work well for him in the smaller events. I would expect to see the trend of him going to places like the RBC Canadian Open, Valspar, and American Express to continue throughout the year. His ADP has risen since I started this. I want to get in now before everyone realizes he is an AmEx guy.

Aaron Rai (ADP 19.8) - This is someone going earlier than others that I would make a priority. He is a good course fit in several places early on, is only in the first signature event, but has winning upside and playing volume upside at this price. I kind of like to think about if a player shows up to an event, would he be one of the betting favorites at a non signature event? Frankly I could see that out of him if he has a pulse at all early on. Great at Torrey Pines historically.

For the rest of Bryan’s Best Ball strategy click, here is the link.

Bexico City

2025 AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open Tournament Preview

The last event of the year is a low-key affair at the La Reserve Golf Links at the Heritage Golf Club in Mauritius. This is the second time La Reserve has hosted, after co-course designer Louis Oosthuizen won at his own course at the end of 2023. The course is a 7,357 yard par 72, with five par threes and five par fives, and we have Paspalum on all the playing surfaces. There are expected to be showers throughout the week, so the course will likely be softer and slower than it would ideally play.

La Reserve has a very odd routing. Rather than returning nines, or even an out and back routing with the eighteenth green near the first tee, the course goes on a journey south, away from the first hole with the eighteenth green at the furthest point of the property from the first tee. This means that many of the holes play downhill as the course travels towards the ocean. It also means that throughout the round there is a predominant wind direction. This quirk could lead to big wave swings where one wave plays most of the course downwind while the other wave plays into the wind if the wind switches. But this week should have a consistent wind from the East, leading to lots of crosswinds. The current forecast has strong winds on Thursday and Friday without a draw bias, before more moderate winds on the weekend.

There were similar conditions last time when the course played to a moderate scoring average of -0.29 with the winner at -17 and 15 players reaching double digits under par. The five par fives and two reachable par fours played under par, but the remaining 11 holes all played over par for the week and are a challenge in the wind. In particular the three par threes on the back nine all play over 200 yards in a crosswind, and the two slightly shorter par threes on the front nine play into the wind, one to a small tabletop green along an exposed ridgeline, and the other over water to a peninsula green. These holes place a premium on iron play, as do the longer par fours. 

Players I’ve Bet:

John Parry (bet at 18/1, would down to 16/1)

• Fourth best strokes gained total in this field over the last six months including top ten in approach play

• Was in the final group last week before finishing t7 ranking 11th on approach

• Weakness has been putting, but gained putting last week

• The defending Mauritius champion, also has recent t3’s at the Alfred Dunhill links and Nexo championship

Dan Brown (bet at 25/1, would down to 19/1)

• Third-best strokes gained total in this field over the past six months off the back of great approach play

• Solid recent form includes a playoff loss in Spain and a t17 in a high class field at Yas Links in his last three starts

• Was t3 last time the event was at La Reserve

• Has a t2 and t10 at Bahrain and Qatar earlier this year, as well as a t10 in a very windy Open Championship at Troon in 2024

For the rest of Bexico’s Preview, click the link here.