AT&T Byron Nelson Will be Nothing More Than a Putting Contest
The PGA Tour heads to TPC Craig Ranch for this week's AT&T Byron Nelson, which will serve as a warmup for next week's PGA Championship.
The AT&T Byron Nelson is one of the oldest tournaments on the Tour, but its struggled to find a permanent home. The tournament has been in existence since 1944, but has been hosted at over 10 different courses. The latest home for it, is TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas. This will be the second-straight year it will be hosted here.
And for hardcore golf fans and bettors like me, I'm sad to say that this course is as boring as they come.
If you want my full betting preview and picks for the event, check out my article here.
TPC Craig Ranch is Easy and Boring
I don't need every golf course that the PGA Tour to competes on to be so difficult that golfers are grinding to stay at even par, but I would like there to be at least some uniqueness to the course or something that challenges at least one part of their game.
That's not the case at TPC Craig Ranch. It boasts some of the widest fairways on Tour, the greens are larger than average, and there's almost nothing that professional golfers need to worry about in terms of hazards or difficult bunkers.
AT&T Byron Nelson @ TPC Craig Ranch
— PGA Splits 101 (@PGASplits101) May 9, 2022
-Par 72, 7468 yds
-5th widest fwys, 12th largest greens
-Played -2.43 in 2021, 2nd easiest
-Rowlett Creek, TX winds only defense
-Soft last year, expect firmer
-Zoysia fwys, Bermuda rough, Bent greens
-All par-5s under 570
-3 par-3s over 215 pic.twitter.com/ct9BmehLkx
If you see the tweet above, you'll see the numbers. This course has the:
- 5th widest fairways
- 12th largest greens
- 2nd easiest course in 2021 at -2.43 average score
Unlisted in the tweet above, but it's also the easiest around-the-green/scrambling course on Tour, and it has the highest birdie/bogey ratio at 2.13.
All of this means, that this event is basically just going to turn into a putting contest. Whoever putts the best will win, which takes almost all of the excitement out from it.
I guess we know why Jon Rahm decided to not show up for the event.
Rahm isn’t too happy with the easy conditions at the AmEx ? pic.twitter.com/mkj0gOqZgo
— Flushing It (@flushingitgolf) January 23, 2022
If you want to back the best putters in the field this week, here are the top five in strokes gained: putting, alongside their odds to win via WynnBET.
- Beau Hossler (+27500)
- Kelly Kraft (+75000)
- Tommy Fleetwood (+4500)
- Martin Trainer (+75000)
- Kevin Kisner (+12500)
You can track Iain's bets on Betstamp here.