Week 1: The Sentry

Breaking down all you need to know about The Sentry and much more!

Weekly Content Schedule

Re-Watchables

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:

Sunday

Inside Golf Podcast: The Sentry Betting & DFS Preview

Hold The Green: The Sentry Preview

Monday

Inside Golf Podcast: Live DFS Show

Tuesday

Hold The Green: The Sentry Best Bets

Wednesday

Inside Golf Podcast: Insiders Only Premium DFS Show

Statistical Spotlight: Putting

With Kapalua having one of the highest green-in-regulation percentages on the PGA Tour, it will be essential for players to have a hot putter this week. Since 2021, the average winning score has been 29 under. If the average winning score is that high, you must be able to make a ton of birdies early and often.

We want to identify not only the best putters in the field, but as Andy stated on his Sunday pod, players who have shown the ability to spike with the flatstick. Andy explains the importance of this trait and identifies the top player in “nuclear putting” in this clip:

One of our favorite tools in “The Rabbit Hole” is is the ability to identify a players floor/ceiling in the common statistical categories.

Over all rounds in 2024, here are the top 8 players in the field with the highest percentage of gaining at least 3 strokes putting:

(via The Rabbit Hole)

Player Profile: Byeong-Hun An

(via Korea JoongAng Daily)

Byeong-Hun An will win in 2024, and Kapalua is fairly logical spot for the inevitable breakthrough. An finished fourth at this event last year as a debutant, gaining strokes in all four major categories. The Korean possesses all the tools I am looking for this week. He ranks first in this field in driving distance, and he will be able to bomb away with reckless abandon. An also ranks top-10 in long-iron approach play, and he has greatly improved his putting over the last year as well. Finally seeing the ball go through the hoop at the Korea Championship in October, An should be brimming with confidence in his return to Maui.

In case you forgot, Byeong-Hun An hit one of the greatest shots we saw last season on the DP World Tour. Maybe he will bring out the driver off the deck in Kapalua, if the opportunity presents itself.

One and Done Selection

Each week, we will highlight one player that you should be thinking about taking in your O&D pool. To start the year off, we will highlight Sungjae Im.

Sungjae has great course history at Kapalua, finishing 3rd last year and 8th in 2018. He ranks 3rd in the field in strokes gained on easy golf courses and has gained strokes putting here in 3 straight starts. As stated before, making birdies will be key this week, and Sungjae has shown throughout his career he can do it.

If you don’t plan on using Sungjae during the Florida swing, where majority of people will deploy him, I believe this is the best spot to use him.

(via NBC Sports)

Closing Stretch

Andy Lack

January Ryder Cup Rankings

Okay, as everyone knows, 2025 is a Ryder Cup year. Yet not just is it a Ryder Cup year, it’s also a Ryder Cup year at Bethpage: a golf course very special to me, and even more pertinent to my ISN colleague, Brian Kirschner, who lives just a 5 iron away. In fact, Bethpage was how our friendship began. The first time we ever met, I stayed in his childhood bedroom before we woke up at 4:30 am the following morning to tackle the Black course.

To share my excitement about my favorite event coming home to New York, I wanted to create a monthly Ryder Cup power rankings for the next nine months leading into the event. On the first week of every month, I will track my projected team, based on who I believe it most likely and should be at Bethpage. Each month, I will move players up and down accordingly, and it should be a fun way for everyone to track how the teams stack up as we near the September festivities. Hope you enjoy.

United States

  1. Scottie Scheffler

  2. Xander Schauffele

  3. Bryson DeChambeau

  4. Collin Morikawa

  5. Patrick Cantlay

  6. Justin Thomas

  7. Brooks Koepka

  8. Sam Burns

  9. Tony Finau

  10. Sahith Theegala

  11. Akshay Bhatia

  12. Wyndham Clark

The Bubble

  1. Russell Henley

  2. Keegan Bradley

  3. Davis Thompson

  4. Cameron Young

  5. Billy Horschel

  6. Maverick McNealy

  7. Mac Greyserman

  8. Will Zalatoris

Team Europe

  1. Rory McIIroy

  2. Jon Rahm

  3. Ludvig Aberg

  4. Viktor Hovland

  5. Tyrrell Hatton

  6. Tommy Fleetwood

  7. Shane Lowry

  8. Matt Fitzpatrick

  9. Robert MacIntyre

  10. Rasmus Højgaard

  11. Aaron Rai

  12. Sepp Straka

The Bubble

  1. Alex Noren

  2. Stephan Jaeger

  3. Harry Hall

  4. Thorbjorn Olesen

  5. David Puig

  6. Tom McKibbin

  7. Niklas Norgaard

Josh Segal

What are your expectations for Happy Gilmore 2?

Around seven months ago, Netflix and Adam Sandler announced that they will be making a sequel to Happy Gilmore. For many, Happy Gilmore was their favorite childhood movie growing up. The duel between Happy Gilmore and Shooter McGavin has sustained longevity and relevance since it premiered in box offices in 1996. 

This can be attributed to Happy’s unique hockey style, slap shot-esque golf swing that has been practiced by many at your local driving range. We have all tried the Happy Gilmore swing in our lifetimes, and most times we probably made a fool out of ourselves.

For those who might have missed it, Netflix released a Happy Gilmore 2 trailer on Christmas:

My expectations for Happy Gilmore 2 are the same as I had for Space Jam 2 featuring LeBron James: tempered.

Space Jam was also a very popular childhood sports movie, starring Michael Jordan and the cast of Looney Tunes characters. Happy Gilmore, along with both Space Jam movies, featured a ton of cameos from athletes and celebrities. 

There have been rumors of certain former and current professional golfers making cameo appearances: Jordan Spieth, Bryson DeChambeau, Rory McIIroy, Xander Schauffele, Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa, Keegan Bradley, Rickie Fowler, Corey Pavin, Lee Trevino, Jack Nicklaus, Fred Couples, and John Daly. 

Additionally, if you watched the trailer, it is confirmed that Travis Kelce has a scene or two in the movie. That shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone at this point who keeps up with pop culture. 

Don’t get me wrong, I am looking forward to watching the movie whenever it comes out in 2025, however, I am trying to be realistic. It is difficult for a sequel to live up to the expectations of the first movie, especially when it’s been almost 30 years since the original Happy Gilmore was released. 

Happy Gilmore is such an iconic movie, especially for golf fans. I am anticipating this sequel to be similar to Space Jam 2, a movie with numerous cameos and an underwhelming plot.

Should the Eagles and Saquon Barkley go for Eric Dickerson's rushing record?

I was fortunate enough to attend multiple Eagles games this season, including last Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys. I witnessed Saquon Barkley surpassing 2,000 rushing yards on the year. He is the 9th player of all time to do so in a single season. 

The lead discussion topic on the radio and in the NFL media circuits is, “Will the Eagles and Saquon Barkley try and break Eric Dickerson’s single season rushing record against the New York Giants?”

Barkley is 101 rushing yards away from breaking Eric Dickerson’s single season rushing record. However, the Eagles have nothing to play for against the Giants. They are locked into the two seed in the NFC playoff bracket.

I believe the Eagles will rest Saquon and the rest of the starters this weekend, and if that is ultimately what occurs, I would agree with the decision.

The Eagles had a very early bye in week 5, so they should take advantage of being able to rest their starters. You aren’t going to just throw Saquon out there with our backups on offense. The Eagles can’t afford to risk injury to not only Saquon, but for the entire O-Line unit, which is the heartbeat of this team. 

As much as it would be awesome for Saquon to break the record in front of a home crowd, against the New York Giants who didn’t want to pay him in the off-season, and with Twitterless Steve from ISN in attendance, it’s not worth all that. This team has their eyes set on hoisting a Lombardi Trophy in February. 

Shoutout to our own Kyle Hewett for speaking the Giants win into existence:

Flex of the Week 💪

Our first “Flex of the Week” winner goes to our very own Boston Capper, co-host of the Hold The Green podcast. Last Saturday, Capper recorded his first hole-in-one of his career! I guess drinks are on Capper at our first ISN event?

An additional shout-out goes to Kyle Hewett, who made it to the final round of the “DraftKings NFL Best Ball $4M Monster Millionaire contest”. Kyle finished in 27th place out of thousands of entries and took home $10,000.

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