Bet Golf! Mike Kern previews Monday's Legacy Classic and the Ritz Carlton Spring Classic, plus Friday's Cactus Tour event for women
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Until the real thing resumes, which hopefully could be sometime by the middle of June, we give you our weekly dose of minor-league golf for your betting perusal. Or something like that.
The Golden State Tour is holding the Legacy Classic in Phoenix, a 54-hole event that starts Monday. Two weeks ago, there was a 36-hole tournament played on this same course. It was won by Nicolo Galletti, who is, for whatever reason, not in the scheduled 75-man field. But some other guys who played well in that are teeing it up again. Which you would figure only makes sense, right?
Anyway, the favorite is Dylan Wu, who was having a good season on the Korn Ferry Tour before that was put on hold. He was fifth last week, and sixth here two weeks back. So why not? He’s going off at 5-1.
KK Limbhaust is next, at +550. Which I guess makes him pretty much the co-fave. He was third here, and has four top three finishes in his last five starts. So there is that.
Jeremy Paul is listed at 11-1. He and his twin brother Yannik have been nothing if not consistent. Yannik is 14-1, by the way.
Colton Yates, who has three straight top 10s, is also 14-1.
You can get 50-1 on Kaleb Gordahn, even though he was sixth here. Just saying.
Sam Triplett is also 50-1. He’s the son of Kirk, who won a few times on the PGA Tour. He had a victory in December, and is second on the Outlaw Tour money list.
There are 17 blokes at 500-1, if you’re into buying lottery tickets.
And in Florida. . .
There’s also a one-day event taking place on the West Florida Golf Tour, the Ritz Carlton Spring Classic on Monday in Bradenton. It’s hard to find a whole lot of information on how to properly handicap it, so I would advise you to tread carefully if you tread at all, but I can tell you that the fave is Jazz Janewattananond (I couldn’t make that up if I tried), at +450, followed by Jimmy Stanger at 6-1 and Erik Barnes/Michael Visacki at 8-1 and Daniel Chopra at 9-1. There are 74 guys participating. And again, some 15 of them are 500-1, if you’re so inclined to really go the longshot route. And some do. If not, you might remember that Chopra at one time played on the PGA, European and Asians tours and has 14 worldwide wins. So that would seem to be something. He’s now 46, so maybe that explains his odds. But without knowing much else, I think that might be enough for me to take a shot.
A little Cactus juice
On Friday on the Cactus Tour there’s the Desert Canyon Golf Classic in Scottsdale, Ariz. And it’s for women. Honestly I can tell you almost nothing about it, for any number of reasons. So be it. I have my parameters. But that doesn’t mean you can’t do the necessary research (love the double negative). It’s only a 40-person field. Nina Harigae is +150, and Sophia Popov +200. So I presume they must be worthy. Hey, there are 15 at +1000. I can tell you that Popov is a 27-year-old German who has played in three majors with a high finish of 57th in the 2018 LPGA Championship. And Harigae, who’s three years older, won the 2007 U.S. Amateur Public Links and is a member of the LPGA Tour. She too has played in three majors, and actually done well. Except two of them were eight years ago. And that’s about it for my level of expertise in this matter. Sorry. A good man has to acknowledge his limitations.
Until we catch up next, best of luck out there. Somebody has to win. Which means somebody has to cash a ticket. Or two.