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00:00We still got to get the golf in this week.
00:05The swing season is back.
00:06They're down in Mexico.
00:08Keith Stewart from Read the Line is with us every week, day early this week, because he's
00:12so excited about this Mexico field that we have for the worldwide technologies down at
00:17Diamante that he wants to get in the mix.
00:19Keith, good to see you as always, my man.
00:21How are you?
00:22Mike, it's great to be with you on this fine election day.
00:25I missed you last week so much I had to do it a day early this week.
00:29Let's get at it.
00:31Let's get at it indeed, because we are back.
00:33We only got a couple left here before we pack up the tent until Hawaii and the tournament
00:39and the century right after the new year.
00:41So let's try to get ourselves a few winners here to finish the swing season.
00:45We go to Mexico, as I mentioned, for the Worldwide Technology Championship at Diamante.
00:51And we have a pretty decent field here, Keith, to be honest, I guess.
00:55The Racermen, Cam Young, the Gim Reapers here, Harry English, Bo Hosler, Maverick McNeely.
01:03Can Maverick make it through the whole four rounds this week?
01:06I guess that's something that we have to question too.
01:09What do you think of the field to kick some things off here, Keith?
01:13Well, you know, these guys, they need the points.
01:17And if we've learned anything in the week that they are off, it's that the PGA Tour
01:20is going to make it tougher and tougher for them to keep their cards.
01:23So I think that for most of these guys, you know, it's not the strongest field in the
01:27world, but these are your middle tier guys.
01:29These are the bread and butter guys that you and I make so much money off of throughout
01:32the course of every single year and throughout the season in these sort of regular events.
01:38You know, yes, I get it.
01:39Scotty Scheffler and Zandy Shoffley aren't walking through that door.
01:42But you know what?
01:43I mean, there's a lot of guys in that 30 to 1 range that we can make some serious money
01:48on this week.
01:49And guess what?
01:50We're not doing that on a Sunday without some cockamamie parlay or something like that
01:54that you're putting together or on a Saturday trying to hit like a six game winner.
01:58You know, I mean, the fact is, is that you still get the four day lottery with golf and
02:02let's try to win one this week.
02:05Let's indeed try to win the one this week.
02:07Now, Keith, same course, right, as the past couple of years, of course, EVR won this event
02:13last year, Eric Van Royen.
02:15And that helped them out because that got them in all those early January and February
02:20signature events that he got to play.
02:21And so that's a big it's a big tournament for that to the Todd father, Henley Hovland
02:26a couple of times.
02:27Any changes to the track down here at Mexico?
02:31So a couple of years ago, we used to play a golf course called El Chameleon over in
02:34Mayakoba, different coast of Mexico.
02:37Now we're down in Baja.
02:38And the first time we saw this golf course, Tiger Woods design back in 2014 was last year.
02:44El Cardinal, a tribute to his Stanford Cardinal, right at Diamante, where there's 36 different
02:50holes.
02:51This is the Tiger course.
02:52And last year heading in, the first thing we saw is that there was 97 acres of fairway.
02:57Just to give you a little perspective on that, like at a U.S. open, there'll be 25 acres
03:00of fairway.
03:01So we've got some room here.
03:03The fairways are 60, 70 yards wide and the golf course was 7,400 yards long.
03:07So we said, oh, everyone's just going to bomb away and here we go.
03:10But you know what?
03:11Last year, only one guy in the top 10 that we finished with, where EVR won at 27 under,
03:18was in the top 25 of driving distance on the PGA Tour in 2023.
03:23It turned out that it was a Matt Kuchar, Matt Hughes, Justin Suh sort of shootout, right,
03:28where these guys had to go super, super deep.
03:30I mean, we had 23 rounds last year of 64 or better and 11 of them were on the last day.
03:35We had 16 guys that had four rounds in the 60s on their card.
03:40It was ridiculous, the scoring, and it's going to be ridiculous again this year because
03:43wide open fairways are going to allow these guys to attack these greens and make plenty
03:47of birdies.
03:49It certainly does.
03:50Let's get to the card here, Keith.
03:52And I want to do the outrights first, and I have to mention this just because I love
03:55this guy because he gave me one of my biggest first round leader hits ever.
04:01I think it was two years ago when the Smother Man, also in Mexico, hit and it was a 130
04:08to one first round leader I nailed him with.
04:11And look at this.
04:12You got him on the card this week.
04:13I love it.
04:14Let's go.
04:15Well, I'll tell you what.
04:16Every time I say his name in my head, I always kind of hum Pearl Jam's Nothing Man, right?
04:21Smother Man.
04:22You know, I mean, you just have to say it.
04:23It's absolutely fantastic.
04:24And you know what's even better?
04:26This guy leads the field right now.
04:28If you look back just 24 rounds, he's number one in this field in tee to green.
04:33That's a fact, Carver.
04:34I'm telling you this play and pass Palom, which is the like funky, spongy, grainy grass
04:40that we get down there, seaside in Mexico and in some of the Island events is his best
04:44putting surface.
04:46So I love the Smother Man coming in hot with his ball striking.
04:49And you know what?
04:50Last year he had some success here as well.
04:52It's a triple digit winner, but I mean, look at this field.
04:55I mean, the favorite is Max Grazer at 16 to one.
04:57He's never won.
04:58So, I mean, I like our chances of trying to hit a big one here or somebody in that middle
05:03tier, like a Harry Hall, Harry kids in the hall.
05:06He's sitting there at 30.
05:07I love how he has played recently.
05:10Guy makes a ton of birdies.
05:11I mean, that is the thing this week.
05:12You have got to be able to score and he's second in the field and birdie or better.
05:16That's Harry Hall.
05:17He's had a couple of good finishes in a row.
05:19He was good at the Zozo where it was tight ball striking and needed to make birdies.
05:22And he was great at home at the Shriners, Lucas Glover, the glove man.
05:26You know what?
05:27He has been reinvigorated this fall.
05:29He won twice in 23 comes back this year.
05:31He doesn't make the playoffs.
05:32Well, you know what?
05:33He said it on a Sirius XM show.
05:35He goes, I need to get, I need to get better.
05:37These kids are better than me and I'm a major champion.
05:40He's only one of two major champions in this field.
05:42The other one being Danny Willett, who did he will it?
05:45But you know what?
05:46Lucas Glover, he's sitting there at 30 to one and a guy that just finished 13th, third
05:50and third.
05:51And then one more guy, Harry English, four wins.
05:54And one of those career wins wasn't my Acoba on past Palin in this event, probably six
06:00different names ago.
06:01Harry English is a four time winner on the PGA tour.
06:04Can go deep in these types of events and he's been playing very well this fall.
06:09He certainly has, Keith, I kind of, I like Harry English on my card as well here.
06:14Placements for you, including Bo Hassler, who has had a very good swing season.
06:19All right, so top 10 with English, right?
06:22He was sixth at the Black Desert Championship.
06:25He was ninth at the Shriners.
06:26He'll get us another top 10 this week.
06:27Top 20s.
06:28Hassler, one of those guys in the fall.
06:32You know how I love to look at these things, make a little bit of comparison.
06:34The last two years, if you look at what Hassler has done and combine it with his form right
06:39now, there's only two golfers that are better than him on that list of that rankings that
06:43I made.
06:44One's Kuchar and the other one's J.J.
06:45Spahn.
06:46Hassler is a moneymaker in the fall.
06:47We love him.
06:48Sam Stevens, birdie machine.
06:51This guy, he gets hot and you know what?
06:53He's got what?
06:54Two straight top 25s.
06:56He's going to hit another time here, get us a top 20.
06:58And then the third guy in the 20s, Jacob Bridgman.
07:01Bridgman is another one of those guys, a ball striker, a putter, and he's been on a hot
07:04streak lately.
07:05I love him.
07:06Top 40s.
07:07I'm going Joe Highsmith, minus 106.
07:09I know a minus number.
07:10Hey, we're just trying to win money here, man.
07:12It's not about winning.
07:13It's about winning money.
07:14That's what betting is, right?
07:16Vince Whaley, plus 110.
07:18Vince was another guy.
07:19He was 10th on that list that I created that had Kuchar number one and Hassler number three.
07:23Vince has really improved his putting and I like his chances to score and go deep here.
07:27And then the other one, Smotherman for a top 40, plus 163.
07:31Hey, he finished T23 here last year, right?
07:34The guy can score and make birdies on this golf course.
07:38Joe Joe Highsmith, who of course is the hole-in-one master of 2024, as everybody knows.
07:44Our boy Joe Joe has had quite the year with that.
07:46All right, head to heads.
07:47Who are we going after?
07:49We're going after Mav McNeely.
07:50You brought him up in the open, right?
07:52And Bo Hassler's going to take him down.
07:54Mav McNeely, he's ranked 35th in the field for birdie or better.
07:58Hassler is one-third of that.
07:59He's ranked 10th.
08:00He's just going to make more low scores.
08:02Hassler takes him down there.
08:04And then Max Grazerman versus the Gim Reaper.
08:06Grazerman is the best putter in the field.
08:08He's the best player in the field.
08:10Doug Gim, everyone keeps talking about this guy, but here's a little fact, right?
08:14He's got one top 20 in his last 19 starts.
08:17One top 20, right?
08:18So you can talk all you want about his model numbers, but the fact is, is that Max Grazerman,
08:23he's got three runners up in his last five starts.
08:27How about that for Max?
08:29I was a little surprised to see.
08:30I get it.
08:31He's the best player in the field.
08:32I was very surprised to see him as the favorite there.
08:36Maybe it's Cam Young's week, Keith.
08:38You never know.
08:39Maybe Cam Young finally gets a win on the PGA Tour.
08:43Keith, great job as always.
08:46Let's cash some tickets down in Mexico next week.
08:49Bermuda, Butterfield.
08:52Let's go, baby.
08:53So you get only a couple more.
08:54Butterfield and then the RSM in Sea Island.
08:58So we've only got a couple left before we pack some things up.
09:01Keith, tremendous job as always.
09:03Keith Stewart, Read the Line.
09:04Check him out here with us every week.