Pebble Beach Pro Am 24 (Signature Style)

This week the PGA Tour stays in California for The Pebble Beach Pro Am. But this isn't your fathers Pebble. the Pro-Am is now a PGA Signature event. It's whole different ball game.

How much does that change how we go about betting this week? The MoJoKing has opninons. Strong opinions. Get ready to be blown away.....quite possibly by the weather on the course.

It’s fast, it’s fun, it’s Hidden Gems Golf.


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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to Hitting Gems Golf, wherewe dig a little bit deeper to find
secret treasure for you Betty and DFS. Yes, hello all, I am

(00:22):
the Mojo King and this is episodenumber seventy four of Hidden Gems Golf,
brought to you by the Mighty nineteenmedia groups and sponsored by Sky Goolf.
Today we'll be discussing the new andimproved possibly Pebble Beach program. Now,
before we get into the review oflast week or the preview of this week,
let's talk about change. As anyonewho knows me will tell you,

(00:45):
I don't like change. I ama creature of habit. Little alterations throw
me completely off. How does thistie into the Hidden Gems Golf podcast,
particularly this week's podcast. Well,there are a whole lot of changes happening
with the PGA Tour, like theloss of John Rahm earlier and now Terrell
Hatton. Then there's the new schedulewith these elevated events excuse me, signature

(01:08):
events, and then the revamped PebbleBeach program itself. I understand why the
tour had to make these adjustments andadapt once the live tour created a threat.
I get it, and it maywork it probably will, but on
a personal note, I just don'tlike it. Change is not my friend.

(01:30):
I will get into the details duringthe preview, but I will say
in all seriousness, the weather willbe the one thing I am most interested
in this week's tournament. And that'ssaying something. Hi. This is sports
talk show host Gerald Brown super excitedto be a part of the newest show
on nineteen media groups, Heavy inthe Pay with yours truly an NBA champion,

(01:57):
former NBA player, the original badboy mister Rick Mahorn. Now,
this show will not only just focuson the NBA, but we got the
Major League Baseball cover, we gotthe NFL covered better, yet we got
sports talk cover like none other.We're gonna give you the realers of it
all, and we're gonna give youstuff that is engaging and thought provoking.

(02:20):
Don't go anywhere, because it allgoes down where Heavy in the Pain Pete.
Let's briefly discuss last week's Farmers Insuranceresults. It was a tough time
up top four hitting Gems golf,as some JM missed the cut right on
the number. It was tough timefor our first Hidden Gem selection as well.
When Peter Malnatti also missed the cutright on the number, as did

(02:44):
Vince Wareley, also on the number, but luckily for the home team,
the other four recommendations played on intothe weekend. Granted, Lantho Griffin probably
would have rather had gone home,as he ended up sixty four, but
the rest of them did us proudtop forty, finishing four under and tied
for thirty seventh. I believe hewas in the top ten by the end

(03:06):
of Friday. I thought he mighthave a shot. The same could be
said for Maverick McNeely, who alsoended up tied for thirty seventh or four
under. He was thirteenth after Saturday, but struggled in the final round.
Last weeks hitting Jim Crown Jewel wasDoug Gim, who fought his way up
to thirteenth place. Thank you,mister Gim for rallying my weekly bankroll.

(03:29):
Side note, being nearly thirty seventhwas enough for Maverick to grab his tour
card for this season. He hadbeen playing with a medical exception. Expect
to see him in a lot oftournaments this season and talked about on this
podcast often as well. That's beena foreshadowing for you. You're welcome.
This is the ninety Media Group presentation. All right. This week we will

(03:53):
be discussing the AT and T PrebbleBeach program, the Signature Edition being played
on two courses at Pubble Beach GolfLinks in Pebble Beach, California. Along
with the Signature Event label, thereare quite a few changes to the format
of this event. In prior years, the tournament was played on three courses,
there was a cut after the thirdround, the amateurs played the first

(04:15):
three days. The fields were massive, with one hundred and fifty six pro
golfers competing. None of that istrue for this year. There will be
no Ted Potter Junior taking down thegolf elites like back in twenty eighteen.
For the most part, only elitesare here in this year's event. The
field is down to eighty and itwill also have no cut to worry about.

(04:36):
Amateurs have been cut down from threedays to two days. The courses
have also been cut down from threeto two. Bye bye Monterey Bay.
Speaking of the courses, every golferwill see Spyglass Hill for one round.
The course was built back in nineteensixty six by Robert Trent Jones Senior.
It is a par seventy two sevenforty one yards. The courses, rough

(04:59):
and fairways are are made of ryegrass POA mix, while the greens are
a POA. This course is furtherinland than its counterpart and therefore is more
protected by the wind. This issomething to keep in mind during windy days,
especially if you're playing Showdown on calmwind days. This course is certainly
considered the harder of the two.That other course is Pebble Beach itself.

(05:20):
It was built in nineteen nineteen byJack Neville and Douglas Grant. It is
a par seventy two but only sixnine hundred and seventy two yards, making
it the third shortest course on thePGA Tour. Like Spyglass, it features
a POA rye mix on its fairwaysand rough while having POA on its greens.

(05:41):
The greens tend to be on theslow side and they are always on
the small side. They're literally thesmallest on tour. Three rounds will be
played at Pebble Beach. Tournament historycan tell us a lot and absolutely nothing
at the same time. Last season, justin Rose one with the score of
eighteen under follow by Brandon Todd andBrandon three strokes behind. In twenty twenty

(06:04):
two, it was Tom Hogy winningat nineteen under, followed by Jordan Speith
and Bo Hostler. In twenty twentyone, Daniel Berger took this event down
at eighteen under, with Maverick mcneelie, Jordan Speith and Patrick Cantlay close behind.
This was the COVID year, andinterestingly enough, there were no amateurs
and no Monterey Bay. In twentytwenty, Nick Taylor won at nineteen under

(06:27):
four strokes ahead of Kevin Streelman,Phil Mickelson and Jason Day. Shorter hitters
can clearly compete here, and somelonger shots have a decent shot as well.
Of course, all of that historyis just that history, with all
the changes, especially with the fieldstrength, I have to take all of
that with the grain of salt.Also a factor is your favorite subject,

(06:49):
and mine the weather. It maybe a true wildcard this week. The
courses have been so prior to Thursdayanyway, and it's expected the rain over
the first two days of the event. But the true shocker will come in
on Sunday when big winds are expected. If they play through them, it
will be chaos on the leaderboard potentially. As far as comps, the RSM

(07:12):
seems like the most similar tournament.Other comps I have listed are the Wyndham
Classic, the Wells Fargo, andlast week's Farmers. All right, enough
of that, let's get to thepicks. Not full disclosure, I hate
this tournament at least as far asbetting up top goes. I don't think
this course highlights any particular style ofplayer, and certainly not any specific player.

(07:33):
The unusually strong field for this year'stournament also causes more confusion. Should
the history of loan shots doing wellhere be ignored because of the higher talent?
I don't know? And then,of course the true wild card is
the weather. Honestly, it's alltoo much for me to have any confidence
in my selections. With that said, force me into a box to pick

(07:56):
three favorites, I'd go with Zandershoffli, Victor Hobwin and Max Homer. But
let's dig deeper, shall we,And now your featured presentation. All right,
full disclosure. I hate this tournamentas far as hitting gems selections as
well, for all the reasons Ijust mentioned, plus the change in field
size and the lack of cut makingit much harder for your guy to make

(08:20):
it to the finish line. Withall that said, my first selection is
no surprise. He's one hundred andninety seventh ranked player in the world twenty
eight year old Mavick McNeeley. Lastweek I mentioned Maverick was coming off an
injury. This event was actually wherehe got hurt last year, which was
particularly unfortunate considering he had two consecutivetop fives at Pebble Beach and he happened

(08:45):
to be my one and done selection. Maybe I jinxed him this year.
Not nearly as much will be expectedfrom him, as he is one hundred
and fifty to one. He hasnot finished in the top thirty in over
a calendar year, and his statsover that time have been just as ugly.
But the talent is there and heclearly has the ability to play well
at Pebwell Beach. I personally won'tbe shocked if he shows out this week.

(09:09):
Next up is the fifty eighth rankedplayer in the world, twenty nine
year old Christian Bizudenhot. He's atone hundred to one. Bazudenhut splits time
playing in both the PGA and theDP World Tours. Most of his success
has been at the ladder here inthe US. He has had plenty of
ups and downs, especially so farsince early October. His last four PGA

(09:33):
starts sixth fifty six second miscut.That miscut was last week at the Farmers.
But he has played in Europe aswell and has three top tens there.
So am I confident he won't flameout this week? No, not
at all, but he has theupside to climb up the leaderboard and possibly
make it into the top twenty andbeyond. Lastly, we'll have our first

(09:58):
catch a falling knife pick of theyear, the two hundred and twenty fifth
ranked player in the world, thirtyeight year old Webb Simpson. Web has
fallen on tough times of late,as his three hundred and fifty to one
odds on DraftKings shows he is nearlythe longest of the long shots this week,
and that is with good reason.The seven time PGA champion has looked
mostly awful for two years now.It's fair to ask if he's completely washed

(10:24):
up. He might be. However, if you were going to give Web
a chance to hang with the bigboys in one event, this would probably
be the one well outside of theWindom. Of course, I think he
could possibly possibly be this year's JustinRose, a craft event playing well when
distance is no longer a factor.Also on website is his sixty six aunt

(10:46):
the Sony Open, which was hislast event. Yes he was sixty six,
but if you look at his statisticsgame, everything was going well except
for the putter. That's something Ibelieve that Webb can turn around at any
time as long as the rest ofits game is up to par. If
he puts up the same bite thathe did at the Sony and he gets
the partner to behave a little bitbetter, he can't be right there at

(11:07):
the end. All right, that'sit. That's all I got. Thank
you for sticking with me. Iappreciate you, and I am gone keep
digging, keep digging. So anywaybye. I didn't master the bypart ahead,

(11:50):
so anyway bye. Listen to bothof them, because the first one
was like a scream.