We have reached the final individual event of the 2024 LIV season. This week the players head to Bolingbrook Golf Club, located 30 miles from downtown Chicago. The race for the individual season champion is down to two men, Jon Rahm and Joaquin Niemann. Tyrell Hatton, Cam Smith, Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen and Brooks Koepka have been mathematically eliminated from the season title, but all have an opportunity to finish on the podium for the season.
There is also the storyline about the drop zone. Team members ranked 49th or below in points after Chicago will face relegation unless they play their way back in through the LIV Golf Promotions tournament. Scott Vincent, Keiran Vincent, Branden Grace, Bubba Watson, Kalle Samooja, Hudson Swafford and Anthony Kim are all currently in the drop zone. Pat Perez is one spot above in 48th place. However, Bubba Watson cannot be relegated due to his captain status and Anthony Kim and Hudson Swafford are technically Wild Card players.
The event will be played Friday-Sunday and will air on the CW Network in 100% of U.S. markets, as well as the CW App and LIV Golf Plus. Globally, the event will be broadcast in over 160 international territories Live and On-Demand, free of charge, via LIV Golf Plus.
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LIV Golf Chicago Course Breakdown
Below is the official round one scorecard provided by LIV Golf.
Hole | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Out |
Par | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 35 |
Yardage | 529 | 396 | 562 | 231 | 400 | 156 | 440 | 482 | 457 | 3653 |
Hole | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | In |
Par | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 35 |
Yardage | 430 | 434 | 494 | 154 | 600 | 342 | 408 | 173 | 443 | 3478 |
Bolingbrook Golf Club was designed by Arthur Hills and opened in 2002. Hills re-designed an old cornfield in his creation Bolingbrook, moving more than 2.4 million cubic yards of earth according to a Golftime magazine feature back in 2012. Bolingbrook is a links-style layout with seven lakes spread throughout the course. The two signature holes are the island green on 15 and the 600-yard par five that players will face on hole five.
My initial reaction of water being featured on thirteen holes, along with thick links-style rough, was to focus on accuracy off the tee. However, diving deeper into the hole-by-hole breakdown, the water is easily avoidable on almost all thirteen. The front nine features fairly wide fairways and landing areas and even as the fairways get narrower on the finishing stretch, there is an obvious landing area to avoid taking on the water.
The course will play 7,131 yards, with four par-fours over 450 yards and a 600-yard par five. I don’t anticipate distance being a requirement to win this week, but it will certainly help on nearly a third of the holes. As noted above, the misses have to be pretty severe to get into any real trouble and a majority of fairways are pretty wide. However, I do predict a birdie fest this week, meaning that players playing out of the fairway will have better opportunity to score than those that miss fairways.
In 2021, Bolingbrook hosted a PGA Forme Tour event. This event was won by Mac Meissner at -21. Nine players shot -13 or better on the week. This tournament was four rounds as opposed to the three rounds played on LIV, however, I see winning scores this week getting into the -17/18 range.
LIV Golf Betting Odds - Chicago
Below are the current odds of winning, as presented by BetUS. Odds on different sportsbooks are subject to change.
ROT | ODDS TO WIN LIV GOLF CHICAGO | MONEYLINE |
---|---|---|
1001 | Jon Rahm | +450 |
1002 | Bryson DeChambeau | +750 |
1003 | Tyrrell Hatton | +1000 |
1004 | Joaquin Niemann | +900 |
1005 | Cameron Smith | +1400 |
1006 | Brooks Koepka | +1400 |
1007 | Sergio Garcia | +1600 |
1008 | Talor Gooch | +1600 |
1009 | Louis Oosthuizen | +2000 |
1010 | Patrick Reed | +2200 |
1011 | Richard Bland | +2800 |
1012 | Paul Casey | +3000 |
1013 | Abraham Ancer | +3000 |
1014 | Sebastian Munoz | +3000 |
1015 | Marc Leishman | +3000 |
1016 | Carlos Ortiz | +3500 |
1017 | Dean Burmester | +3000 |
1018 | Matthew Wolff | +3500 |
1019 | Dustin Johnson | +3500 |
1020 | Cameron Tringale | +4000 |
1021 | Lucas Herbert | +4000 |
1022 | David Puig | +4000 |
1023 | Jason Kokrak | +6000 |
1024 | Thomas Pieters | +6000 |
1025 | Adrian Meronk | +6000 |
1026 | Anirban Lahiri | +6600 |
1027 | Charles Howell III | +6600 |
1028 | Caleb Surratt | +7000 |
1029 | John Catlin | +7500 |
1030 | Peter Uihlein | +8000 |
1031 | Kevin Na | +10000 |
1032 | Mito Pereira | +10000 |
1033 | Brendan Steele | +9000 |
1034 | Harold Varner III | +10000 |
1035 | Henrik Stenson | +14000 |
1036 | Matt Jones | +14000 |
1037 | Eugenio Lopez Chacarra | +14000 |
1038 | Charl Schwartzel | +14000 |
1039 | Lee Westwood | +17500 |
1040 | Sam Horsfield | +14000 |
1041 | Andy Ogletree | +17500 |
1042 | Graeme McDowell | +20000 |
1043 | Phil Mickelson | +25000 |
1044 | Martin Kaymer | +20000 |
1045 | Danny Lee | +15000 |
1046 | Ian Poulter | +25000 |
1047 | Scott Vincent | +25000 |
1048 | Branden Grace | +30000 |
1049 | Jinichiro Kozuma | +30000 |
1050 | Pat Perez | +40000 |
1052 | Kieran Vincent | +40000 |
LIV Golf Betting Strategy & Selections - Chicago
Sergio Garcia +1800 (FanDuel)
What a year it has been for Garcia, who has four top-five finishes in twelve starts, including a win in Andalucia. He ranks inside the top-five on the season in fairways and Greens in Regulation percentage, meaning he should be setting himself with plenty of birdie looks this week. Sergio is fourth in the individual player standings heading into this final event and will be looking for a strong finish so that he can end up on the podium in the season long individual standings.
Consistency is the key to this game and so many other things in life. Going for 3rd in individual standings. Let’s go!!!!! pic.twitter.com/zPdvHHyRgq
— Sergio Garcia (@TheSergioGarcia) September 8, 2024
Just as important for Garcia is getting himself and his team ready for the team final next week in Dallas. The Fireballs are currently sixth in the team standings and will not receive a day one bye in the team final. That said, a good finish could catapult them into a spot of getting to face the opponent of their choosing on day one. In speaking with Sergio’s wife Angela last summer, I know that Sergio absolutely loves the team element of LIV and wants nothing more than to win with the Fireballs.
Paul Casey +3300 (FanDuel)
I’ve been chasing a Paul Casey victory all year and he certainly has come close. Casey has finished T9 of better five times this season, including a runner-up and two other top-five finishes. Statistically he ranks fifth in fairway percentage, second in Greens in Regulation percentage and eighth in total birdies on the year. It’s been a phenomenal year for the Englishman, he just hasn’t been able to close the door in one of these events.
Challenging pro golfers to birdie with only one club 😮 pic.twitter.com/01TuGbwVNd
— Crushers GC (@Crushers_GC) August 31, 2024
The Crushers currently sit in first place in the season long standings and would love to wrap up the season with the number one overall seed heading to the team championship. They are neck and neck with Legion XIII so all members of the team will have to be dialed in. I fully expect Casey to be ready to go this week and continue his season of great play.
Peter Uihlein +8000
Peter Uihlein is 29th in the season long standings but is coming into LIV Chicago with back-to-back top-20 finishes. On top of Uihlein’s recent LIV finishes, he has also had success outside of LIV. In between LIV UK and LIV Greenbrier, Uihlein competed and won on the Asian Tour at the International Series England event. It appears that the 35-year-old has found his game again. He ranked 12th in the 2023 season long standings and 3rd in the 2022 season long standings.
A 🧵 on this week's Asian Tour event:
Congrats to Peter Uihlein who played some great golf. From his first tee shot of the event (see below) he looked strong off the tee and that was his strength. He said that he "bullied" the course and that was very much what he did. pic.twitter.com/49EJCzd9NB
— Golf Betting Club (@golfbettingclub) August 12, 2024
Is there something about Chicago and Uihlein? The LIV Chicago event was held at a different venue in the past two years, but Uihlein was near the top of the leaderboard in both. The veteran finished T5 last season and T2 in 2022. With past success in this region and a good recent stretch of golf, Uihlein is worth a shot this far down the board.
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