The Canadian Open 23

It seems that the 4th of July fireworks have come early in golf! This is odd, considering that it isn't even June yet. Even more strange, that the PGA Tour isn't even in the United States!

This week the Tour is in Toronto for the Canadian Open. But that is just a piece of the picture. The bigger news was apparent merger that will take place between the Liv & the PGA. It's a shocking turn of events.

TheMoJoKing has a couple of things to get off his chest. Who are the obvious losers if the merger does indeed happen? And the Mo turns his focus to this weeks tournament. We have a new course and am interesting field to discuss. And of course, there are the hidden gem selections.
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It's Hidden Gems Golf.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Nineteen Media Group is celebrating our secondanniversary and we want you to celebrate with
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(00:23):
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media for a chance to win thesedope prizes, and most importantly, thank
you for being part of the journey. Welcome to Hitting Gem's Golf, where

(00:45):
we dig a little bit deeper tofind secret treasure for your betting and DFS
pleasure. Yeah Baby, Hello all, I am the Mojo King and this

(01:06):
is episode number sixty six of HiddenGems Golf, brought to you by the
mighty nineteen Media Group. This weekwe'll be discussing the Canadian opening being played
in Toronto. But oh my goodness, had quite a bit planned for the
beginning of this podcast. We havea new sponsor on board, and I
am hyped about it. Hyped,I tell you. It looks like we

(01:27):
also have a second one come inthat I am very beast with as well.
Can't wait to tell you about bothof those. Also, I had
personal stuff to talk about because thisweek week or so is an anniversary of
many things. As I mentioned lastweek, my birthday and my son's birthday
are coming up within the next weekand a half. Good stuff. I

(01:57):
mean good stuff unless you're a hater, in which case I can only say,
looks like I made another trip aroundthe sun, you sucker. Take
that. Take that, But Ido have something that will make haters smile.
This week is also the one yearanniversary of me having COVID, but
a year ago I was spending mydays on the balcony trying to breathe and

(02:19):
hopefully not get my family sick.It was hurtful times, But I live
on, haters, so take that. Take that. This is a ninety
media grow presentation. But speaking ofliving on, oh my, it just
came out in the last few minutesor so that the PGA and the Live
Tour have agreed to emerge. Iam stunned, flabbergasted, shocked. I

(02:44):
think I'm a little bit of Paultoo. The news is just breaking.
There are plenty of details that areyet to emerge, and from my understanding,
this has to go to the PJAboard to be approved. I don't
know enough yet to know if thisis a rubber stamp of approval or if
it can still be shut down.But wow, So we got to go
with the idea that the PGA managementthinks this is a win on their end,

(03:06):
or at least not a loss.It seems like the PGA at the
very least had enough leverage to notfold to Live's demands. But I got
a question for you, what happensif you're a PGA tour player today,
How do you not, on thesurface, look at this as a huge
slap in the face. I mean, for a second, imagine your Patrick
Cantley Lift Tour offered you tens ofmillions, probably hundreds of millions to go

(03:30):
play for them, and you turnedit down. Whether it was out of
loyalty, out of you wanting tokeep your legacy going, whether it was
out of morals and human right reasons, how in the world. Can you
look at this agreement and think,hey, that's well, he has to
be pissed. Ri Mcarroy must bebeside himself. He ratleied so hard on

(03:51):
a PGA's behalf. What about Tiger? I mean, these guys in particular
use their talent and their prestige forthe PGA versus the Lift Tour, and
now you turn around and merge withina couple of months. Now, imagine
that you're not one of the stars, but you're just a ranking file PGA
Tour player. You already know youkind of got screwed by the new schedule

(04:14):
changes and all the limited field eventscoming up next year. But hey,
that was part of the business.It helped the PGA and it was necessary.
Now the lift players are coming backand they're gonna push you farther down
the totem pole. Really, whatabout the bottom end players on those limited
fields, The PJA players I'm talkingabout you were in. You were in
all those events. You were goingto get those bonus pays because everybody's guaranteed

(04:38):
money because there's no cutting. Now. Phil Mickelson, who decided to take
the live money when he said thatthose folks were scary and you know the
rest. Now he takes your spot. How are you okay with this?
Listeners, I'm not saying you haveto be anti live or pro live or
anywhere in between. I'm just sayingthat if you're a player orned a PGA

(05:02):
Tour or the European Tour for thatmatter, this has to be a shocking
turn of events. All right,enough of that funny business. Let's talk
about some good business, shall we. And I'm talking about how the nineteen
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(05:23):
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(06:10):
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the Canadian Open being played at OakdaleGolfing country Club in Toronto, Ontario.
Oakdale was built by Stanley Thompson innineteen twenty six. Well mostly, Oakdale

(06:30):
actually has twenty seven holes. Thefirst eighteen were built by Thompson, but
there were more recent nine built byRobbie Robinson in nineteen fifty seven. In
recent years, twenty seventeen, Ibelieve Ian Andrew did some renovation to that
last nine to make it blend inmore with the original eighteen. This event
will take pieces from that last nine, combine it with some pieces from the

(06:55):
eighteen to create the Canadian Open course. So the tournament is set to be
a are seventy two seven two hundredand sixty four yards. The greens are
a poet mix, while the fairwaysare simply bent grass. Those fairways are
very wide, but if a golferhappens to go wide enough, they will
have to deal with trees and avery thick rough. This is the first

(07:18):
time the PGA Tour is stopping here, so there is some conjecture as far
as how the course will play.But with that said, the first nine
holes are expected to be tougher thanthe last nine. The last nine have
many scoring opportunities, with possibly theeighteenth being an exception. Back to the
fairways, there is plenty of slopeon there, so expect golfers to see

(07:40):
uneven lies whenever they're hitting their secondshot. The greens are also contoured,
so players will have to be precisewhen they hit the greens or have a
nifty putting game going for the week. With those cautions, Aside from what
I've gathered about the course, mostof the pros should tear this place apart.
On a side note, this eventis a big deal for Canada.

(08:01):
It features twenty Canadian golfers and italso will feature performances by the Black Eyed
Peas and Atlantis Morisset. I justthought you ought to know, all right.
Obviously, there's no history at thiscourse, but as far as the
tournament goes, Rory mclroy has wonthe Canadian Open the back to back years

(08:22):
prior to this, so he's theobvious choice this year. Yes, maybe
he's clearly the classier, but thiscourse is expected to be easy, and
I think easy courses brings lesser golfersinto play. I think this field is
much more open than it would looklike on paper. There is no way
in the world I'm picking Rory McElroyform at one and done. I'll look

(08:46):
to see who I have available,but Matthew Fitzpatrick, Terrell Hatton, Tommy
Fleetwood, Shane Lowry all seemed likepossibilities. But quite frankly, I'm much
more interested in the hidden gems thisweek, and now you're featured, all
right. A first is a hiddengem that isn't really a hidden gem,
even though he's the nine hundred andfourteenth ranked player in the world, and

(09:07):
that is twenty four year old LudvidAberg. A Berg is the former number
one ranked amateur in the world,and he earned his PJA card last month.
He did that by coming in firstin the PGA Tour University rankings.
He's also made all three cuts ofhis PJA events that he's played this year.
He's such a good, solid hiddengem that I don't think he's a

(09:30):
hidden gem at all. I expecthim to be pretty highly owned in fantasy,
maybe too highly owned if you're lookingfor a lesser known amateur. Sean
Bennett is also here and has quitea pedigree himself. Next up is the
two hundred eighty four frank player inthe world, forty two year old Aaron
Badly. If you remember early thisseason, Badly was playing really well.

(09:52):
Mid season he seemed to lose allof that, but now he's starting to
return to form. He's made hislast six huts and improved on his results
in each of his last five,including a twenty third and a twenty first
at the Byron Allen and Charles Swabrespectively. A top forties seems very likely

(10:13):
and a top twenty is possible.And my final selection is another crafty veteran.
This one is the five hundred andthirteenth ranked player in the world,
thirty six year old Kevin Chappell.Now, Chapel is an interesting player statistically,
he is not a person who jumpsoff the page and for the most
part. His results don't either,but he does seem like he can do

(10:35):
a little bit of damage on coursesthat have a lot of room off the
tea and when he's playing a relativelyweak field here that is check and check.
He also has had top forties infive of his last six nine team
events, so I'm going to rollwith him here to see if he can
do it again. All right,again, my three selections are Aberg,

(10:58):
Badly and Chapel one Final. Willupdate on the tours merging. Apparently all
golfers, both on the PGA Tourand the Live Tour were blindsided by this
merger. None of them knew itwas going to happen. I'm saying this
is going to be quite a soapopera coming out over the next couple of

(11:18):
days, weeks, maybe even months. I certainly hope Netflix has the cameras
going. Lastly, a quick thankyou to Tyler McDowell for giving me your
heads up on this information. Tyler, you're still the lesser half of Givemick
infringement, but I have to admitI appreciate you on this one. All
right. No more good words forTyler, No more good words for anybody.

(11:41):
I am gone. Keep digging.Mm hmmm, keep digging. Okay,

(12:11):
so keep digging, keep digging,keep talking, keep digging. Let's
keep taking like a million times,keep digging in and then you'll find treasure
in the snow. You know it'srecording your audio not youre not you're dancing,
I know. Did you keep digging? Oh my goodness, Senci sensing

(12:48):
sense fencing, Adam sensing, Adamspencing. This week, my dad will
be disgusting.