The Tour says goodbye to the U.S. for the next few weeks and hello to Asia for the 2019 Asian Swing. Up first is this week’s CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges where Brooks Koepka is your defending champ.
Here is where we stand so far:
We clearly aren’t experts.
Now, on to this week’s picks…
I really should pick Kevin Na…RIGHT?
Nah, this is a Brooks or JT event, so… because I am the last to enter my pick and Dan already picked Hovland … I’m picking Justin Thomas.
He finished T4 at Houston and won the CJ two years ago. He seems to really like this event. Thomas is a “can’t go wrong” pick.
We’re kicking off the Asian swing in South Korea by picking the reigning PGA Tour Rookie of the Year who is also from South Korea, Sungjae Im.
It’s a home game for Im who grew up playing Nine Bridges, the venue for this week’s CJ Cup. He’s also coming off his best finish (runner-up at the Sanderson) and literally won the Korean PGA’s Genesis Open last week.
While world no.1 Brooks Koepka is the defending champ and wants all the headlines, Im doesn’t need any stinking headlines.
The 21-year-old goes about his business quietly and efficiently as evidenced by his 35 starts last season which you probably didn’t hear about because he never won.
So what? That didn’t stop him from racking up $3 million in earnings and being the only rookie to make it to the Tour Championship.
Nothing is Im-possible. Sorry. We’ll see ourselves out.
Is it just me, or does the Asian Swing this season seem extra juicy? We’ve got a skins game with Rory, Tiger, Jason, and Hideki. We’ve got the first WGC of the season. We also have a brand new event, the ZoZo Championship in Japan where Tiger will be teeing it up.
Before we get to those events though, we have the CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges this week.
It would be easy to take Brooks this week since he is the defending champ, but since when do I take the “easy” picks? Nope, this week I am rolling the dice and taking Viktor Hovland.
In his very short time on Tour, Hovland has pretty much done everything but win a tournament, and how he has not won a tournament yet is beyond me. Since turning pro he has played in 6 Tour events, making the cut in all 6. He has finished in the top 25 in all but one of those starts and has a pair of top 10 finishes under his belt.
What better week than this one for Hovland to break through for his first win.