It was a very successful week at the WM Phoenix Open. On our Wednesday Night Ball Knowers After Dark Premium show, Kyle played Chris Gotterup at $8,300 in DFS and Gotterup was a top 12 value play according to our projections.

The team had additional group calls on Hideki, Si Woo, Maverick McNealy, Pierceson Coody, Michael Thorbjorsen, and Stephan Jager. Here is our content recap video from our weekly podcast shows:

The other data point to keep in mind is that Pebble is an extremely high-variance golf course. The skill separation slope in the last three years has been 0.72, 0.52, and 0.81. Tour average is 1, and golf courses that fall higher than that are typically spots where it’s easier for better players to separate. Pebble Beach is the opposite of that. Thus, statistically, if you are looking for specific golf courses to fade Scottie Scheffler at based on the concept of high variance, this is about as difficult of a golf course for Scheffler to separate on that he will play all year.

It's very easy to understand why Pebble is such a high-variance course: a ton of wedges, tricky, unpredictable Poa greens, cold and windy conditions, and a strong devaluation of off-the-tee skill. All of these factors formulate a perfect recipe for Pebble Beach to be a variance fest.

The last two years that Pebble was a signature event, it has played 2.16 strokes under par compared to the prior three years where it hovered around -0.9. This a product of both a stronger field strength and mild weather conditions. This year, it’s going to be wet, rainy and cold. We’ve had really beautiful weather both in Southern and Northern California over the last couple weeks, but a cold front is coming in next week, where we expect to see temperatures in the low to mid 50s, along with wind and rain.

The temperatures are a bit colder than we saw last year, but Pebble features temperatures in the 50s, along with rain nearly every year. Now in 2024, the really bad conditions caused a cancellation, and players were treated to a pillowy soft golf course. In 2025, there was one round on Saturday that was rather difficult, but overall it was mid-50s temps, moderate winds, and periodic rain.

These conditions still produced a scoring average of -2.15. If we go back to 2023, which is the hardest it has played over the past 5 years, there was even more wind and rain, with a total of 0.3 inches, sustained winds of 15-25 mph, and it rained three out of the four days. Point being, these conditions are pretty normal, and I would expect the golf course to play marginally harder than it did in 2025, but for a 7,000 yard, par 72, soft golf course to hold up against the modern professional golfer, we really need gale force winds and firmness, which are not in the forecast for this week.

For the rest of Andy’s Pebble Beach Preview article, check it our here.

I selected Maverick McNealy last week who had one of the worst Sunday rounds I have seen in a while. Going into the final round, he was inside the top 3 and in the final pairing with Hideki. He finished the tournament T13, totaling $188,000 for the week.

For the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, I am picking one of my favorite golfers on the PGA Tour, Viktor Hovland.

I am sure you already know this but if you don’t, Viktor Hovland won the 2018 US Amateur at Pebble Beach (see the picture above).

He had a great WM Phoenix Open week, finishing T10. He gained 4.72 strokes on approach and 3.5 strokes with the putter in Phoenix. If you look at Hovland’s statistical profile, he hasn’t lost strokes on approach since the 2025 Open Championship. Pebble Beach is a second shot golf course so approach play is even more crucial this week.

With some bad weather lurking this weekend, I believe in Hovland to prevail in the rain or in windy conditions.

Patrick Reed is earning his PGA Tour card the proper way

*DISCLAIMER The title of this newsletter edition isn’t a shot at Brooks Koepka for getting his PGA Tour card back because Brian Rolapp created a pathway for a handful of LIV players to return. 

Patrick Reed announced last week that he is leaving LIV Golf and wants to make a grand return to the PGA Tour. Since Reed doesn’t qualify for the Returning Member Program, due to not winning a major or Players in the past couple years, he has to serve his one-year suspension before being eligible to play in PGA Tour sanctioned events. 

Reed has quietly been plotting his return for a while now. The PGA Tour and DP World Tour have a partnership where the top 10 players in the DP World Tour season long points list who don’t already have their PGA Tour Card may receive one. 

Since the last LIV tournament back in August, Reed has played in 10 DP World events and 3 Asia Tour events. These are all OWGR sanctioned events, and over the last three weeks, Reed has won two times on the DP World Tour. He is currently No. 1 in the DP World Tour, sitting atop the leaderboard with 2,259.70 points. 

If you look back at last year’s rankings, Jordan Smith was the last player in the 2025 standings to earn his card last year and he earned 2,203 points. Reed already has more points than Smith did all of last year and it’s only early February. 

It’s safe to say Patrick and his wife Justine (if you know you know) will be making their way back to the PGA Tour next season. 

As we know, Patrick Reed has been a very controversial figure in golf. He called out Jim Furyk in the post Ryder Cup press conference back in 2018 for not being paired with Jordan Spieth, got caught twice for moving sand behind his golf ball in the 2019 Hero World Challenge and at the 2021 Farmers Insurance Open, and finally threw a tee at Rory on the golf range at the 2023 Dubai Desert Classic. Oh, and also his wife is certainly quite the character on social media and offline. 

However, the PGA Tour misses a moxy and cocky type of character like Patrick Reed.  He isn’t afraid to voice his frustration to the media. Reed is compelling and creates storylines that will garner more eyeballs on the PGA Tour. 

With the way that Patrick Reed is playing right now, he is live to win the Masters. However, if you follow the Brian Kirschner theory of contending the previous year at a tournament, Reed is dead. He finished 3rd last year. 

I am happy Patrick Reed will be making his return to the PGA Tour next season. In the meantime, let’s see if he can win a major or at least really contend this year.

Can Charlie Woods propel college golf?

Every year, college golf is growing and growing. Golf Channel keeps elevating their coverage of college golf, specifically with televising the team and individual NCAA Championships. Additionally, they televise much of the US Amateur tournament, which is primarily match play. 

Yesterday, Charlie Woods committed to Florida State University, joining young phenom Miles Russell who ranks first in the AJGA rankings and 12th in the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR). 

Being the son of Tiger Woods, whenever Charlie plays in a big junior tournament people are always posting where he is in the standings. He made major headlines last spring when he won the Team TaylorMade Invitational and finished T9 at the Boys Junior PGA Championship. 

When Tiger and Charlie have played in the PNC Championship, everyone is glued to their TV to watch the father son duo play. Obviously people want to see Tiger play, and furthermore see what condition he is in, but it’s been fascinating watching his growth as a golfer. Charlie is currently in 11th grade so he has two years until he steps foot in Tallahassee, Florida. 

I wasn’t alive when Tiger won his three US Amateur’s in 1994, 1995, and 1996. I can’t speak of the magnitude and influence that a young Tiger Woods had, however, I would be lying if I haven’t been thinking about what impact Charlie Woods can make for college golf. 

Charlie very likely won’t be the player that Tiger is, but if Charlie can play some solid golf in college and potentially play his way into the US Amateur match play, people will want to watch him on TV. I know I am sounding a bit ambitious but people want to see this kid play due to his last name. He has the same mannerisms as his father that he has showcased at the PNC Championship with fist pumps, twirling the club, and early walk ins on birdie putts.  

We shall see how the rest of Charlie’s junior career shakes out but it would be awesome if he can turn into a really solid college golfer and hopefully good enough to play professionally. 

I will be maxing the 150 entry albatross tournament on underdog this year as I have in years past. 15 dollar buy per entry and generally a pretty decent size overlay in previous years. The structure is major by major. First round stats at the masters. This year there is 12 roster spots and you are drafting in a group of 6 like in years past. That is a total of 72 picks.

We at Inside Sports Network have developed a tool (please see below) for anyone playing this year that will tell you who is qualified for what / who is on track to be qualified for each major. The tool also shows all recent major finishes since 2017 and summarizes the number of top 10s /5s in the same time frame. It should make drafting a team for everyone significantly easier.

Feel free to reach out to us directly with any questions here and make sure to tune into inside golf podcast next week where Andy and I talk through our favorite plays for the slate.

It was certainly a profitable week for our staff and our subscribers. Shoutout to Josh Segal (myself) and Kyle Hewett for having outright tickets on Chris Gotterup to win the the WM Phoenix Open. A bunch of our subscribers had Gotterup tickets too which makes it a huge community win for the discord.

Additionally, shoutout Jake and Dave in the discord for cashing their Seattle Seahawks preseason bets to win the Super Bowl.

Finally, shoutout to “bgalluci” in our discord for taking home 37k in NFL Playoff Best Ball on Underdog.