The First Cut LIVE on CBSSN - FedEx St. Jude Championship & the Fight for the Top 50

[Music] [Music] welcome to the first cup podcast I'm Rick gaming and we are here to get you all things playoffs that's right the postseason for you golf Fanatics is starting this week in Memphis Kyle Porter is here to join me KP they're letting us do this with no bumpers live on the air just you and I this this seems like a bad idea well it's it's a terrible idea I mean yesterday we we went like 10 minutes on Michigan Statewide receivers on a professional golf podcast so who who knows what we're going to come up with today but uh fun week into of the Season we've got a lot to talk about we've got a lot to sort of try and figure out I think I think there's a lot of interesting story lines you get different story lines always entering the playoffs and I think we've got a lot to kind of break down and and discuss today yeah there certainly a lot of different takes and angles that we could attack this from and we have been over the course of the last couple of weeks as we've been heading for this moment but now it's now it's just a Sprint you know the PGA Tour released their 2025 schedule today but the 2024 schedule is no longer a marathon it is a Sprint to the Finish Line just three events remaining and the first two determine your position at the final leg the Tor Championship when we get to East Lake and if that wasn't enough KP we're going to eliminate a portion of the field every single time so in Memphis this week we're getting the top 70 players in the FedEx Cup standings the top 50 will move on to Colorado next week and only the top 30 will advance to the Tour Championship we have certainly spent plenty of oxygen on this podcast trying to decide uh if playoffs are needed if this is the right format should there be another way to to do this even better but th this is the format that we have for now it's been adjusted over the last couple of years yeah I think I think one interesting thing to note about that uh that breakdown is it's not it doesn't just affect these playoffs right it's it's not just for uh qualifying for the BMW Championship and getting to the Tour Championship where there's whatever the number is 50 million 60 million dollars available there's 100 million overall for the playoffs I I can't remember exactly what the Tour Championship final 30 breakdown is but that that top 50 that top and especially the top 50 is a is a is a reference point for what we're going to see next year for 2025 because the top 50 in this year's FedEx Cup playoff or in the FedEx Cup standings get into the signature events for 2025 which we just saw the schedule release today we know what those Signature Events are we know where they're going to be and there's some exemptions there there's some hey if you're in the top 30 in the world if your name is Tiger Woods if you're you know there's a there's a bunch of different uh potential qualifying uh exemptions but for the most part uh this is like this top 50 is is pretty meaningful for not just the last two events of this year but also getting into next year as well is there another sport comp out there where in golf so much of what you do now dictates the opportunities that you're going to have in the future it's not like if the New York Yankees win the 2024 World Series they don't start 10-0 in 2025 you know everybody starts at 0 and o on opening day again but in golf a lot of what we're going to see in the future is being determined right now I'm not sure there's another great comp for that well I I think it's uh I think it's the drafts like the NFL and NBA draft right we talk about and and it's almost the inverse of it because in in those Sports when you're when you're bad you get a top pick well in this in golf when you're good you get into uh the best event so that that is a little bit of the uh that that's the only compact I think of the top of my head Rick that that that would that would kind of match up with um with sort of what you're talking about yeah I'm trying to think I mean even in tennis which is another individual Sport and this certainly stretches my lack of tennis knowledge you know Novak jokovic um I'm sure that he is in whatever event that he wants next year because of his you know career Arc and what he has done this year but do you have to qualify for every single tennis event I really don't I really don't know well isn't think the I think I I I'm with you I don't know either and I think the point there is like we get so wound up about these uh very obscure in the weeds type things in golf and then you look at another sport like I I I follow tennis like like a normal sports fan and I don't I don't I don't know how they make up the fields you know and so I think that's it's it's almost a tell of like most people who follow golf follow golf they don't know how the US Open field is made up they don't know how the Memorial Field or the the Pebble Beach Field gets put together uh which I think is a is a really interesting thought when you consider for you and I how much we how much oxygen like you said in time and energy we spend yelling about this stuff yeah probably certainly too much now the um the way that we run from here so all year long we had won FedEx Cup points uh distribution list basically if you win a regular PGA Tour event you get 500 points there are some tweaks that are made for Signature Events or for opposite field events but throw that all out the window because we're rocking a new points system starting this week where everything gets quadrupled KP and the interesting thing about that is once you've made it to the dance once you're in the top 70 you have a chance to make a run at this and you might not overtake Scotty Sheffer or Xander Schley and have the lead start the Tour Championship but you can certainly do what we've seen Billy horel do what we've seen Lucas Glover do what we've seen other guys do uh significantly improve their position and give themselves a realistic chance of winning the Tour Championship yeah I mean we we we saw this with Glover last year I'm glad you brought up poral we talked about him uh yesterday on the first C podcast back in 2014 after the first so back then there was four playoff events and after the first one he was 82nd in the stand Indians I think it was top 100 moved on to the next one and then kind of kind of uh moved on from there similar to what we have now but he was 82nd he finishes T2 in the next event and then he wins the next event I think it was the BMW and then he wins uh the T championship and uh the FedEx Cup and so it's certainly not something that happens often but I'm curious Rick I'll throw it back to you is there anybody that is obviously there's nobody that's 82nd because we've already cut the the the group down to 70 but is there anybody in that I know we're going to talk about players who can win this tournament specifically that are outside the top 50 later on in the show but is there anybody outside the top let's say 40 that you think has a realistic not realistic but that you would say hey this this guy if he gets a little bit hot like horel did like Lucas Glover did last year this guy could make a run at the FedEx Cup yeah I'll give you two names I think that um Tom Kim is interesting I believe he's 43rd this week he has proven to have plenty of Firepower he went through a little bit of a slump but he is really now starting to get back to what we saw remember when he won you know what twice in his first handful of starts he was coming off that President's Cup I mean stock was at an all-time high on Tom Kim and we're actually starting to see some of the metrics get back into that range if he goes out and you know finishes inside the top three at TPC South Wind improves his position maybe he wins this week or next week I I think that he gives himself a realistic opportunity when he does get to East Lake and then a little bit farther down the board I I don't think that he's going to hoist a FedEx Cup probably at any point in his career But Eric Cole who is a uh rookie our rookie of the year who went through a miserable stretch of golf in in 2024 is starting to get back to that 2023 version of himself at the right time time and he had another top 10 last week that just quietly flew under the radar so I don't see I don't see our FedEx Cup champion being Eric Cole but I see him improving his position as we get going over the course of the next uh week or week and a half two weeks yeah you and I you and I both love Tom Kim um as it relates to sort of this part of the season and where he's at and how kind of undervalued I think maybe he he is right now I I think this is a hard question because you're not looking at somebody like Mark hubard right who who's who I believe he's like 65th or 64th or something like that who is down there because that's kind of he's bumping up against maybe not his ceiling but getting close to it you're looking for somebody like a Victor havin who or I am who's uh 54th or 57th somewhere in that range who is down there because of other reasons because he changes swing because he's been Str whatever like we know Victor hin ceiling it's winning the FedEx Cup which he did last last year so to me I I have to go with somebody like a I would say hin for me is the guy outside the top 40 or 50 that you look at and say hey he he legitimately could get hot over this stretch and rip off two wins and three starts that wouldn't that wouldn't be like the craziest thing in the world that he goes back Tob back to win the FedEx Cup yeah he hasn't even sniffed his ceiling uh at all this year and there's still plenty of juice to squeeze out of that so it'll be TPC Southwind this week it is in Memphis the forecast is hot and humid are going to be sweating through their pants KP and this is a golf course literally I'm not even kidding yeah literally sweating through their pants and this is a golf course that we have seen on the schedule uh frequently I mean it's a staple it's just been bounced around from you know the FedEx St Jude classic which used to be played in in June that was a regular full field event and then it took a couple years of designation with a WGC status and now it is the the first of three legs of the FedEx Cup playoffs so this the field 70 no cut and um the the strength of the field it does look a lot like those wgc's that we have seen this golf course host in the past yeah and I think what's what's interesting about events like this that have been played at the same Golf Course for such a long time now obviously this specific event the playoff event has only been played there twice but there's been a PJ Tour event there for you know quite quite a while is you get the um the repeat uh like good players right you get guys where you have a history of like oh this guy plays well at this golf course Justin Thomas is a name that has stood out as I've been kind of looking through the numbers this week where where you look at JT and you think well he's he's been I guess better than last year but still not great JT this is legitimately a week where he could play very well just because um the floor has been raised from last year but also his history at this golf course is is really solid like we talked about this yesterday it's really really good so I I think it's is it a is it a fascinating interesting golf course not necessarily but I think it is from the standpoint of you get some some history some development over time of like oh Rory maroy plays really good golf here um sah theala plays very good golf here according to the Rick run good uh newsletter that I read this morning so I I think I think it is actually pretty interesting from that standpoint uh in a way that you know some of these playoff events that move around like next week at the BMW we have no data on how guys play at that golf course in in Colorado so I do think it provides some some Intrigue um and some um some projections I guess from from that standpoint yeah so what Kyle's referring to is we're going to Castle Rock next week which I believe the last time it was on the PGA tour schedule was 2006 so none of the guys that will be playing next week have played Castle Rock at least in actually you know what maybe Adam Scott that's a good call if Adam Scott might be the only guy it's um I think it's 8,100 yards on the scorecard but at altitude it's going to play it's going to play a lot shorter than that don't worry about that too much KP and it is also worth noting that our defending Champion Lucas Glover not here to defend he did not uh he did not make the FedEx Cup playoffs he finished 77th and then to put a bow on so I feel like I feel like I'm at the end of the show doing the errors and the updates but to put a bow on Justin Thomas for those who were wondering what KP might have been mentioning uh did not make the FedEx Cup playoffs last year so the fact that he's even in this year despite not having uh his best 2024 certainly an improvement over his 2023 campaign we're going to see who is a potential lock for Colorado and who is going to try to punch their ticket to the mile high city but first we're going to take a quick break [Music] [Music] well welcome back to the first cut podcast we are focusing in on the FedEx Cup playoffs this week at TPC South Winds but KP there are guys that are just taking this one step at a time yes the goal is to get to East Lake for the Tour Championship but you've got to get to the BMW Championship in Colorado next week first now I was teasing this a little bit earlier but we are going going to Castle Pines Golf Club which by the way I play I believe there's multiple courses at Castle Pines I played the other course not the one the pros are going to play KP this summer altitude that ball that ball never comes down my friends you're GNA see some moonshots next week yeah it'll it'll be like uh the new version of the remember when they used to go to the uh was it the Mexico uh the WGC Mexico championship and they and you'd be like well Rory's hit like two drivers this week because he can't keep it on the planet uh it's a it's a it's a interesting sort of wrinkle into uh into golf that we we don't normally see which uh it's confusing Castle Pines Golf Club at in the city of Castle Rock is that how you say it I think that's right so Castle Rock as far as I remember is outside of Denver is it's kind of in that like angle wood Cherry Hills Cherry Creek region uh but I believe it is Castle pin's Golf Club but within that I think that there are multiple courses at Castle Pines sure normal normal stuff as usual I uh I I gave this away a little bit but 2014 was the last time the BMW Championship went to Colorado that was at Cherry Hills do you remember who won that uh that was well that was Billy horel that was bil horel that's right he would go on to win the Tour Championship as well and win the FED X cup so yes correct Kyle Porter he is on a roll now only 50 spots are going to advance and there are a couple of notables right outside that marker right now we talked about a few of them but uh you know Eric Cole starting to have a good year KP he's 54th Justin Rose a little little bit of a Resurgence he's and then of course the big one here on the outside looking in would be Victor havin who gave a very uh transparent um response in his presser yesterday about what has gone wrong in 2024 and he essentially boiled it down to saying he wasn't thrilled with the the shot shape that he had he wanted to see a little bit more of a draw or excuse me of a of a cut and he changed some things that messed up the pattern and the feels and it messed up his ability to control his Club face and now he's been working through that for seemingly the entire year yeah I I said this to you yesterday I really appreciated his transparency in God that take that we're showing Clips right now that takeaway is just crazy like he the it looks very DJ like but um I appreciated his transparency because a lot of times you get these guys that are up there trying to explain what they're doing and they do it in language that they know that people like you and I are not going to understand and so it almost it's almost like a way to say what's wrong but without really giving it away uh if that if that makes any sense and I thought havin was like No i' just been trying to hit a cut and I can't do it and now am I like I can't square up the ball I can't find them the center of the club face you're like brother I understand I understand that one like I got I I get all that so I you know Shawn Martin tweeted out the uh I think it was a quote from the same press conference uh but today about how havin said I don't I don't know when it's going to click and I think people thought and I think Hollin might have thought it clicked at the PGA Championship he finished his third he had a legit chance to win that event with Bryson and and Xander involved coming down the stretch clearly it is regressed a little bit not a ton but a little bit since then and so I I I would love for it to cck starting in the playoffs cuz I would love to see Victor havin again at the T Championship he's he's electric he's so fun to watch I think he's such a great personality for golf but um yeah he's I think he's the big storyline in terms of you know is he going to get into that top 50 now again we talked about it earlier he's going to be in the Signature Events anyway because he's ranked what 11th in in the like top 15 in the world and he's probably not going to fall out of the top 30 which those guys get no matter where they finish in the FedEx Cup into those Signature Events for 2025 so I don't know that there's a ton of drama there but uh I just for his sake and going into 2025 I'd love to to see him uh find some momentum going into to next year yeah I know he I know he wants to defend his his FedEx Cup you don't want to sit at home watching uh somebody win the FedEx Cup that you you snapped up last year and in fact if if Victor does not improve Pro his position inside the top 50 this entire playoff run will not have a defending champion in any event which I imagine has never happened before so we will keep an eye on that Victor havin currently the seventh best player in the world in the owgr rankings uh I want to talk about minwu Lee KP because we we haven't talked a lot about minwoo recently a lot of the conversation was entering 2024 there was a ton of excitement and rightfully so for this young exciting talented golfer who's fun on social media to be playing on the PGA tour fulltime for the first time and it maybe hasn't gone the best for him he has a couple of runner-up finishes at the the cognizant classic that's the event that used to be called the Honda he had another runner up at the rocket mortgage he's playing a little bit better as of late but it's just been a lot of good not great finishes for Mino and he currently sits 62nd so he is going to have to have a decent week to get himself into the top 50 you know I I think I I love meno and I would love nothing more than for him to win a couple of these events that would be awesome he's such a golf needs more characters he's a great character he's he's like fun to talk to and be he's he's great I think I underrated and I'm curious from a from a statistical standpoint your take on this I think I underrated how much his poor iron play would affect uhh his like his ceiling if that makes sense like he's he's a bad Iron player like he's just not very good he does everything else he drives it well his short game is is is pretty solid he's just a he's a below average iron player and he's been that way for the last six seasons if you if you look at no matter what tour you're looking at PGA Tour European tour whatever it is it's he just can't raise that floor of his approach play and as we know Rick it's really really hard on the PGA tour to contend to win if you are not a good iron player that is the has is and pretty much has always been the number one indicator of like who's going to who's going to be a really good long-term player on the PGA tour so does that I mean is that kind of what your take is on him as well yeah the the problem is the the value of those second shots the value of those approaches translates to like every golf course in the world and when you have a buil-in there uh it it it goes really well now he has to overcome his ability or you know his his peers picking up shots on him there and he has to do it with the putter which is the most uh volatile part of any golfers game or with the driver and there are just some weeks where hey he might not drive it well he might hit 10 obb he it might not be a golf course where he can extend himself so he's just kind of um and and you look at where his wins are I I mean or excuse me where his better finishes are like rocket mortgage yeah that makes that makes sense he can kind of just bomb it around there without much uh concern for for accuracy or anything like that so it does make sense I I imagine he's going to put a lot of work in this off season and see if he can uh button up that aspect of his game because it would open up a lot of a lot of great options for him yeah and I think the encouraging thing if if your meno is two of his what is that six best performances were at the Masters in PGA Championship in terms of in terms of iron play in terms of TAA green so it I think he can do it you know it's interesting I'm looking through his best approach play weeks this season number one H or uh cognizant classic uh that was his best approach play week of the Season where did he finish T2 uh his fifth best approach play rocket mortgage where did he finish T2 so it you know we talk about these guys like col Mora if he putts well he contends to win it's almost like and you would rather be in that category than where minwu is if if he hits his irons well you Contin tend to win because that's more of a you kind of just are who you are type thing putting uh is more volatile you can have those great weeks but um you know those weeks where minwu has hit his irons very well he's contended to win so I think that is something man if he can raise the floor on that a little bit um whether it's in these playoffs or going into 2025 he can be a really really good player on the PGA tour what I find so interesting about this this event in this time of year is you've got guys that are surging to the Finish Line you've got guys that are kind of leaking oil as we get there and I want to talk about Max hom real quick here KP because I believe for the first time in a long time uh he is not going to improve on the previous year's version of himself um he has lost the driver he has lost Strokes in that category in nine straight events he has not been able to make it up in the other facets of his game and since the Masters where he finished T3 great week just one other top 20 finish that was a T8 at the Wells Fargo a place he also uh has played well out in his career but this is this is not a good time for Max hom to be playing some of the high highest leverage events that we have on the tour yeah and I think you know a couple things here it after that Master's performance you kind of thought oh okay like this is the next step this is the the con the the continued evolution of of maxom and then it just it's kind of fallen off from there right and um the thing that he said at the Open Championship was expectations are a hell of a drug and I think his point in saying that was I think he has and always will struggled with his expectations of himself of knowing like hey I've done all this other stuff I've played well on a writer cup what I haven't done is taken it to the next level at the major championships and so then you do it at the Masters and all of a sudden okay there's your new there's your new Baseline maxom contends in majors and and that can be like if that is your North Star and I'm not saying I I haven't talk to him and I'm not saying this is his Northstar but if that's your Northstar that's a treadmill that's it's really really hard to keep up with that and I think he just mentally has gotten a little sideways I don't I don't think it's like a long-term hey maxom is not good anymore type deal but I think I think a good mental reset this offseason will uh will be will be helpful for him yeah some of these guys need a couple weeks off to get everything mentally and physically in order but no rest for the weary just yet we're going to look up the standings and see who has their ticket punched to the Tour Championship and those who can position themselves for a run at that $18 million top prize we're going to continue this conversation after a quick break [Music] [Music] welcome back to the first cup podcast where we are prepping you for all things FedEx Stu championship and also the FED X cup as the PGA Tours playoffs are starting this week and KP let's go to the top of those FedEx Cup standings it is uh two men who have forged their path this year towards almost seemingly guaranteed spots at top of the field at the Tour Championship not completely guarant Scotty sheffler has just a hair under 6,000 FedEx Cup points he's got a 2,000 point lead over Zander Schley who has A500 point lead over Rory mroy and then it starts to get into normal FedEx Cup standings situations where uh the next five or six guys are only separated by 500 points or so even with those huge jumps in points in the playoffs it is very very very likely that we start the Tour Championship with Scotty sheffler at 10 under par and Xander Schley at eight underpar yeah I mean I I went and did the math on this this week Rick and when I'm doing math you should probably be checking me but um I I will take Colin morca if we could throw that graphic back up that that would be helpful uh Colin morca is fourth in the FedEx H standings right now he's got uh 2,456 points so let's say he wins these first two events their two thou their first place is worth 2,000 points each so he would get to 4,456 and then 6,456 so he would have 6,456 points going to the Tour Championship all Scotty shuffler would have to do Rick to maintain his lead over the fourth place guy winning both of the first two events is to finish like T8 and T10 in those two events and then he would still maintain that lead over somebody like a more going to the Tour Championship T8 and T10 is basically Scotty's four right now so all that math H having been said like it's going to be almost impo and and we're talking about the fourth place guy not the 24th Place guy or the 44 those guys have no chance even like like they're mathematically eliminated for C from Catching Scotty Sheffer the only reasonable players that could catch him you see on this list right here so I it's very hard to Envision anybody being I mean we were talking about this on Wednesday or on uh Tuesday the race is for third in that Rory in that Rory position it's not for first or second really because you start with 10 under at at at the Tour Championship if you're first it's eight under I believe if you're second the race is for seven under you want to start the Tour Championship if you're a normal player even if you're a very good player that's not named Xander or Scotty in third that's your goal and then and then kind of see what happens at the Tour Championship over the course of 72 holes yeah the man in eth Hadi Matsuyama who has had a great year and beat nearly every single other golfer on the schedule this year uh cannot get first place at the Tour Championship he just cannot he could win each of the first two events he can't get to first place can't yeah he can't get to Scotty cannot start the Tour Championship at 10 under part it's just mathematically impossible and you're you're right that that third position and this is what we were starting to get at late on Tuesday and it really kind of opened my eyes up to a lot of the different combinations and permutations I've already given Scotty first at the Tour Championship to start and Xander second after that wide open wide open because it doesn't even matter if Scotty and Xander go one two this week one two next week they're not going to get a bigger lead to start the Tour Championship it's only going to be those two shots from for whoever starts in first seemingly Scotty sheffler but to get yourself in a position where you can go from let's say 13th to third over the next two weeks means that you could be one of them one of the players in Striking Distance when we do finally decide this over the last 72 holes on the golf course yeah so if you if you shift the entire FedEx Cup rankings down two spots and just pretend like Rory's leading and then all of a sudden you bring I think Patrick Klay is 11th benan is 12th or 13th you start to bring guys like that into it that they can like that race is far more interesting to me because I think there's value to be had because like you said they they almost get this artificial bump at the Tour Championship because even though Scotty and and Xander are out here the Gap gets close to two stroke or I guess it would be three Strokes from first place if you're in if you're in third you start at seven under to Scotty's 10 under uh so I think that rate is actually the most intriguing part of these first two events because I mean I talked about this a lot on Tuesday I think there's a ton of value in Patrick Klay at 11 like Patrick hlay could go out and win the FedEx Cup even though if you look at the standings right now you're like there's no way Patrick can can win the FedEx Cup as long as he gets to third or even fourth or fifth then he's like kind of in the conversation at Eastlake to win that that t championship and and obviously automatically win the FedEx Cup right if it was strictly based on points very few guys would have a chance but because we're going to we're going to exchange those points for starting Strokes when we get to East Lake there are a lot more guys who have a chance so let's put this into perspective a little bit Xander schley's lead over Rory mroy is500 points so the gap between second and third is 1,500 points the gap between third Rory mroy and golfer number 49 will zalatoris is also, 1500 points that's crazy and we didn't even talk you didn't even throw Scotty in there right and then Scotty's 2,000 ahead of that which is just which is just Bonkers yeah it is Bonkers I mean I the lead of from Scotty to Rory is is uh bigger than the lead from Rory to me right the lead from a Rory is is 3500 points and yes as long as you have more than negative 1,000 FedEx Cup points which at this point Kyle you have zero which is which is more than that so so yes you and I are closer to Rory mroy in the FedEx Cup Standing as as Rory is to Scotty that's right that's that's that's incredible and it speaks to honestly like all joking aside it's speaks of the years that that Xander and and Scotty have had and I think I you made an interesting case in I think it was in your in the Rick run good newsletter this week about is this the best way to determine a champion where or to determine like a season long race right because and and you know the the the flip side of that argument is like okay well we're really determining a playoff champion and in the NFL playoffs you don't you could be 17 and0 or 18 19 and0 you don't get points for that it's just the playoffs and it's like well if that's true then let's just start everybody at zero for the play you know like there's a lot of weird I mean golf is obviously the weirdest but there's a lot of weird things it's like a middle ground for golf that's not quite like other playoffs but it's also not quite a season long race so all that to say I think I think Scotty's probably going to win the whole thing anyway so it won't it won't really matter yeah that that seems right although I will say this um he has not had a lot of success at East Lake you know he's he's coughed up some Strokes to the field there it it is weird because he started at 10 under in the past Victor tracked him down it just it's it's I think Scotty's just better than he's ever been and better than a lot of guys have ever been but it's it's only two strokes over 72 holes and there are a lot of guys lurking who could snatch it up from yeah I guess I should have said I think Scotty or Xander is going to win because Xander's been the opposite he's been un he's like the best player in East Lake history him and Rory and yeah he will almost certainly be within two of of Scotty it would be I mean which side of Xander and Scotty versus the field would you take in terms of the of the FedEx Cup right now so if I if I decide right now I would take the Scotty and Xander side of it yeah I would I don't even I I think they're going to start one and two and then also if they do that good luck beating them over 72 holes there either of them let alone both of them well yeah I think that's the thing is both of them you you could one guy can have a bad week but both of them especially with how I wonder what the odds are on that I'm sure there's like implied odds because you have because you have odds on each one of them individually winning the FedEx Cup but I I wonder what the like the the two versus the other 68 I mean because there's like 35 there's like 45 guys that have no chance of winning the FedEx Cup so it's really like 13 or something I'll see if I can find those odds we're also going to turn our attention back to this week's event in Memphis and talk about some guys who we think can win that golf tournament we've got much more to discuss but first we're going to take a quick break [Music] [Music] welcome back to the first cup podcast live on CBS Sports Network KP I did a little bit of homework during the break there and I am happy to alert you that the implied odds for either Xander Schley or Scotty Sheffer to win the FedEx Cup is approximately 75% of the wow now I did not I did not Dej these odds I did not deju these so so there so let's call it 65% of the time but Scotty Sheffer is minus 120 to win the FedEx Cup so he is already that o implies over 50% Xander has the next shortest odds at 4 to one that's about 20% of the time again these are not dejus or anything like that but it's it's definitely over over 50% yeah and we're looking at the odds for for for this week at the at the St Jude and and you kind of get a sense of why the overall FedEx Cup odds are so are so short right because Scotty's plus 330 to win Xander's plus 800 to win this is just this week and if one of them I mean I again we've talked about it there's no way they're not gonna almost no way they're not going to start first and second at the Tour Championship I I would want to be on the Xander side of things Rick I I don't I don't I would not want to be at those numbers I would not want to be on the Scotty side I would I I I'm like you I would take either versus the other 68 guys but if you made me pick between the two I would want Xander at uh potentially at this tournament this week the at the plus 800 but definitely at the overall uh FedEx Cup uh odds sheet yeah I I tend to agree with you let's turn our attention to this week in general though I'm going to need a winner and I'm going to need a sleeper out of you I've got mine in mind let's start with the winner of this week's FedEx St Jud Championship yeah I've got I've got sah theala winning I kind of changed this around a couple times um but I I just I love the way he's been playing he's had some good finishes at this golf course he's got a couple uh top 15s here over the last couple years um I yeah I I think he's going to make a little run in these playoffs he's had such a such an electric year he's on the cusp of making his first uh national team the the US team for the President's Cup so I'm pretty fired up about sath I I I think his course history here is very solid and I'm excited to see him or see what he can do at at um at TPC Southwind this week you're much more Brave than I he's 55 to one I went closer to the top of the board and found Colin morawa we've talked about this a lot this year best player in the world without a victory and he's doing it in a very colum morawa esque way I think when you look at TPC Southwind the ability to play out of the Fairway and not have to battle that kind of unpredictable 3-in Bermuda is going to be an asset and then he's the best second shot player in the world who recently fixed his putting so there's a lot of good things to like about morawa but he is much much shorter than sah he is 12 to one then if if sahith is your is your pick to win I'm going to ask you for a sleeper the way we defined this KP was outside the top 50 in the FedEx Cup standings who did you find there well this guy probably actually has shorter odds than my winner but he is outside the top 50 whereas whereas s is not but got I've got Victor hin to win you know we we were talking earlier about it's it's about ceiling right and and you look outside the top 50 in the FedEx Cup right now and there there's just not a lot of guys that are that far away from what I would say their ceiling is you know spe You could argue but he's kind of a mess right now you could argue that jain's a mess but I'm actually encouraged by the way he talked through his struggles on Tuesday that sounds like a weird thing to be encouraged by but I I think he's just very aware of what is going wrong and very I think he's on the right path to fixing it you know and I think that you know you hear some guys and they're like man I went on all these wrong paths for so long until I before I got back to where I needed to be and I think I think hin is close to getting back to where he needs to be and and his ceiling is the highest to me out out of all those guys outside the top 50 yeah and I think that once it does click that's what'll happen it'll just click and'll be be fine he's just got to get that kind of switch in his brain to go in the in the right direction I went uh with Eric Cole again I don't think Eric Cole's going to win the FedEx Cup but I think that Eric Cole has been putting together a bunch of really well-rounded starts as of late and when you start gaining Strokes in all four major categories it's one of the best predictors that we have about future success not a lot of guys are able to do it Eric Cole has done that recently and he's got to make a move if he wants to get to the BMW Championship and so does Victor hind who would be potentially defending next week Scotty versus Xander has been the story all year long and as we get to the Finish Line it Remains the story we've got more conversation to have about the FedEx Cup playoffs but first we're going to take a quick [Music] break welcome back to the first cup podcast live on CBS Sports Network KP you and I and many others have been ating the year did it belong to Scotty sheffler did it belong to Xander Schley we're actually getting some responses from players this week uh Victor hin said two majors sounds pretty nice so he sides with Xander schley's season and then Rory mroy uh pointed out that winning the Masters would be pretty good also winning uh an Olympic gold medal would be pretty good for Rory so he opted to trade for Scotty sheffer's career uh excuse me season uh no surprises there from either of those guys no I I don't think so um I I don't I think you have to go Sheffer I think you know it's it would be different if Xander had won like four or five times with two majors but the fact that he's W the fact that sher's won seven times and he's he were I mean he's getting us to look up stats from 2007 2009 tiger Tiger stats from 2007 and 2009 of when the last time somebody won eight times nine times 10 times in a season I mean he could he could legitimately win eight nine or 10 times um this this year depending on how the playoffs go so I I would go shuffler right now but if Z if if Xander wins two or three events in the playoffs then I think it gets a lot more interesting yeah we could also be dusting off the history books uh if Rory mroy were to win the FedEx Cup it would be four for Roars KP yeah it would be that would go with five race to Dubai uh which is kind of the European tour version of uh of the FedEx Cup so to have basically nine season long races at the age of of 35 on both those tours would be pretty pretty outrageous pretty outrageous indeed that right there is Kyle Porter and we do this first cup podcast nearly every single day of the year if you want to watch us yeah that's available just go to the golf on CB BS YouTube page and tune in to our live streams to our Recaps nearly round by round every single event of the year or of course if you're more inclined to listen that's available as well on Spotify on Apple podcast or wherever you get your pods that again is the first cut podcast wherever you get your pods [Music]

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