With the Olympics in its wake and the World Golf Championships to look ahead to, BettingExpert reviewed a packed schedule for the sport.
Joe Ryan was joined by golf experts Matt Cooper and Ed Quigley to review golf’s progress at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and preview the upcoming WGC FedEx St Jude Invitational at TPC Southwind.
Discussing the World Golf Championships event, Quigley emphasised that ‘controlling your iron’ could be the key to success in ‘small target areas’ and a ‘tight, trappy course’.
“TPC Southwind just outside of Memphis in Tennessee, I wouldn’t say it’s a particularly short course – 7244 yards from par 70 – but as Matt touched on at the top of the show, this is far from a bomber’s paradise,” Quigley explained. “This is a really tricky, trappier event full of idiosyncrasies, I think it’s fair to say.
“There’s a lot of twists and turns on this track, and not very often you can have a straight shot or a clear line of sight in, so your ability with accuracy off the tee to be able to control your shots is going to be imperative here.”
Highlighting further challenges with the course, Quigley noted the history of the location at TPC Southwind.
He added: “That then ties into the amount of dangers there are on this course. You’ve got water on over half the holes. You’ve also got rivers and ravines and even an old working windmill because it is the site of an old dairy farm. You’ve got over 100 bunkers as well.
“You could say on any golf event that you don’t want to go in the bunkers and you don’t want to hit it in the water, but that is a particularly salient point on this course given that there’s just so much danger heading around.
“The final point to flag up would be the size of the greens. By their surface area, they are well below with regards to their size for the PGA Tour average, so no surprise at all to see green’s regulation stats are pretty well down the pecking order for this tournament.”
