Jon Rahm punctuated his fourth career PGA Tour victory at the Memorial Tournament last week.
He became just the second Spaniard to ascend to No. 1 in the world rankings, following Seve Ballesteros.
Rahm had entered the week at +2000 odds to take home the title.
The fiery competitor rewarded anybody that invested in his stock.
The field for the Memorial was stacked, with 27 of the top 30 players in the world in action.
Sandwiched between a pair of top-tier events in the Memorial tournament and the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, the field for this week’s 3M Open from TPC Twin Cities in Minnesota looks very different than what we saw last week, with just seven of the top 50 in the rankings set to compete.
Scheduling and the fact that this is only the second edition of this event are the two biggest reasons for the drop off in the level of competition.
Despite the lack of star power, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Tony Finau and Tommy Fleetwood make up a solid quartet of big guns vying for the championship this week.
Last year’s tournament ended in thrilling fashion with Matthew Wolff making a long eagle putt on the 72nd hole to eclipse Bryson DeChambeau by one stroke.
Here is our first look at the field for this year’s edition of the 3M Open.
Betting Odds To Win The 3M Open – Top-10
Dustin Johnson +1100
Brooks Koepka +1400
Tony Finau +1400
Tommy Fleetwood +1400
Paul Casey +2000
Matthew Wolff +2200
Harris English +2800
Lucas Glover +2800
Bubba Watson +3300
Russell Henley +3300
Johnson has had two wild weeks
At the Travelers Championship, Dustin Johnson captured his 21st career title, besting Kevin Streelman by a stroke in Hartford.
Then he showed up at Muirfield Village last week and laid an absolute egg, shooting consecutive rounds of 80 to miss the cut by a ridiculous 13 shots.
It wasn’t as if DJ was firing on all cylinders prior to that win at the Travelers, as he had just two top 10’s in his previous 14 PGA Tour events.
Trying to figure out which Dustin Johnson will show up at a tournament he’s playing for the first time would be an exercise in futility.
He’s capable of dominating a field at will or playing uninspiring golf, based on his elite expectations.
Dustin Johnson’s Four Events Since PGA Tour Return
Tournament Results
Memorial Tournament CUT
Travelers Championship WIN
RBC Heritage T-17th
Charles Schwab Challenge CUT
He’s still the best bet among the top four players because they all have a degree of scar tissue to contend with this week, despite playing against an inferior field.
Brooks Koepka has gone T-32nd, seventh, CUT, T-62nd since the hiatus while admitting he’s still battling his knee injury.
Tony Finau led on the back nine last Saturday at the Memorial, but then collapsed, shooting 10-over-par over the course of the final 24 holes.
Tommy Fleetwood hasn’t played anywhere in the world since March.
Of those four, I still trust DJ the most, but believing that he’ll get it done easily is difficult to count on.
Wolff returns to the scene of his first PGA Tour title
Last year’s debut 3M Open was one of the most dramatic all season long, with Wolff draining a lengthy eagle putt on 18 to defeat DeChambeau for his first tour title in just his third start as a professional.
He returns having very nearly added to his tour haul at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit earlier this month, where DeChambeau returned the favour to earn the victory.
Wolff followed that performance with a missed cut at the Workday Charity Open but then had a solid tie for 22nd showing at the Memorial.
The 21-year-old young gun is a bit erratic with his play week-to-week as he learns the nuances of being a professional, but he has the firepower and success around this track to double dip.
Matthew Wolff’s Six Events Since PGA Tour Return
Tournament Results
The Memorial Tournament T-22nd
Workday Charity Open CUT
Rocket Mortgage Classic 2nd
Travelers Championship CUT
RBC Heritage CUT
Charles Schwab Challenge 54th
At +2200 odds, you’d be hard pressed to find much better value for a player this week in Minnesota, keeping in mind that he might disappoint but has tremendous boom potential.
Few players can say they’ve played as consistently solid since the tour returned than Lucas Glover, despite not having any flashy results.
He’s made the cut all five times teeing it up, having finished no worse than T-38th but no better than T-20th.
His results have been T-38th, T-21st, T-20th, T-21st, T-23rd
He’s been strong tee-to-green, gaining strokes on the field in each event, so if his occasionally balky putter can behave, he should be in the mix.
You can do worse than believing in Glover at +3300 to finally have that breakthrough week that seems on the cusp of occurring.
Henrik Norlander +5000
Prior to last weekend, Canadian golf fans might’ve best remembered Henrik Norlander as one of the four golfers Mackenzie Hughes defeated in a playoff at the 2016 RSM Classic.
After bouncing back and forth from the Korn Ferry Tour and the PGA Tour, Norlander seems to have found his groove.
He’s made his last four cuts, culminating in an impressive tie for sixth showing at last weekend’s Memorial Tournament.
His three prior events resulted in T-31st, T-12nd and T-41st showings.
In a field that doesn’t boast tons of star power, he could be just the guy to look for at +5000 odds.
TRENDING DOWN
Bubba Watson +3300
After a very solid tie for seventh finish at the Charles Schwab Challenge in the return to golf, it looked like Bubba Watson might find himself in the winners circle soon.
What has followed, however, has been disastrous for the two-time Masters champion.
He had a pedestrian T-52nd at the RBC Heritage, and then missed three straight cuts. Only last week did he finally make it back to the weekend at Muirfield Village, but it was an uninspiring T-32nd result.
Just like his personality, Bubba’s game has long blown hot and cold (he began 2020 with T-6th and T-3rd showings) so his play is volatile and unpredictable.
In a weak field, of course Bubba could pop up and steal a tournament, but his recent history suggests that might be a tall order.
*All Betting Information appears as listed by Bodog on Tuesday, July 21, 2020
TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced cookie brand Oreo as the team’s helmet sponsor for the upcoming NHL season.
The new helmet will debut Sunday when Toronto opens its 2024-25 pre-season against the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Arena.
The Oreo logo replaces Canadian restaurant chain Pizza Pizza, which was the Leafs’ helmet sponsor last season.
Previously, social media platform TikTok sponsored Toronto starting in the 2021-22 regular season when the league began allowing teams to sell advertising space on helmets.
The Oreo cookie consists of two chocolate biscuits around a white icing filling and is often dipped in milk.
Fittingly, the Leafs wear the Dairy Farmers of Ontario’s “Milk” logo on their jerseys.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
MacKenzie Weegar wasn’t bitter or upset as he watched friends live out their dreams.
The Calgary Flames defenceman just hopes to experience the same feeling one day. He also knows the road leading to that moment, if it does arrive, will likely be long and winding — much like his own path.
A seventh-round pick by the Florida Panthers at the 2013 NHL draft, Weegar climbed the ranks to become an important piece of a roster that captured the Presidents’ Trophy as the league’s top regular-season club in 2021-22.
Two months later following a second-round playoff exit, he was traded to the Flames along with Jonathan Huberdeau for Matthew Tkachuk. And less than two years after that, the Panthers were hoisting the Stanley Cup.
“Happy for the city and for the team,” Weegar said of Florida’s June victory over the Edmonton Oilers. “There was no bad taste in my mouth.”
His sole focus, he insists, is squarely on eventually getting the Flames to the same spot. The landscape, however, has changed drastically since Weegar committed to Calgary on an eight-year, US$50-million contract extension in October 2022.
Weegar has watched a list that includes goaltender Jacob Markstrom, defencemen Chris Tanev, Noah Hanifin and Nikita Zadorov and forwards Elias Lindholm and Andrew Mangiapane shipped out of town since the start of last season — largely for picks, prospects and young players as part of a rebuild.
Despite that exodus, he remains committed to the Calgary project steered by general manager Craig Conroy.
“It’s easy to get out of all whack when you see guys trying to leave or wanting new contracts,” the 30-year-old from Ottawa said at last week’s NHL/NHLPA player media tour in Las Vegas. “I just focus on where I am and where I want to be, and that’s Calgary.
“I believe in this team. The city has taken me in right away. I feel like I owe it to them to stick around and grind through these years and get a Stanley Cup.”
The hard-nosed blueliner certainly knows what it is to grind.
After winning the Memorial Cup alongside Nathan MacKinnon with the Halifax Mooseheads in 2013, Weegar toiled in the ECHL and American Hockey League for three seasons before making his NHL debut late in the 2016-17 campaign with the Panthers.
He would spend the next five years in South Florida as one of the players tasked with shifting an organizational culture that had experienced little success over the previous two decades.
“There’s always going to be a piece of my heart and loyalty to that team,” Weegar said. “But now I’m in a different situation … I compete against all 32 teams, not just Florida. There’s always a chip on my shoulder every single year.”
Weegar set career highs with 20 goals — eight was the most he had ever previously registered — and 52 points in 2023-24 as part of a breakout offensive performance.
“I think my buddies cared a lot more than I did,” he said with a smile. “All I hear is, ‘fantasy, fantasy, fantasy.'”
Weegar was actually more proud of his 200 blocked shots and 194 hits as he looks to help set a new Flames’ standard alongside Huberdeau, captain Mikael Backlund, Nazem Kadri, Blake Coleman and Rasmus Andersson for a franchise expected to have its new arena in time for the 2027-28 season.
“You have to build that culture and that belief in the locker room,” said Weegar, who pointed to 22-year-old centre Connor Zary as a player set to pop. “Those young guys are going to have to come into their own and be consistent every night … they’re the next generation.”
Weegar, however, isn’t punting on 2024-25. He pointed to the NHL’s parity and the fact a couple of teams surprise every season.
It’s the same approach that took him from the ECHL a decade ago to hockey’s premier pre-season event inside a swanky hotel on Sin City’s famed strip, where he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the game’s best.
“From the outside — media and even friends and family — the expectations are probably a bit lower,” Weegar said of Calgary’s outlook. “But there’s no reason to think that we can’t make playoffs and we can’t be a good team (with) that underdog mentality.
“You never know.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept 17, 2024.
Jose Maria Celestino da Costa was named vice-president and head of soccer operations while Marianne Brooks was appointed vice-president of partnerships, Kelly Shouldice as vice-president of brand and content and Joyce Sou as vice-president of finance and business operations.
The new six-team women’s pro league is set to kick off in April.
“Their unique expertise and leadership are crucial as we lay the foundation for not just a successful league in Canada, but one that stands among the top sports leagues in the world,” NSL president Christina Litz said in a statement. “By investing in top-tier talent and infrastructure, the Northern Super League is committed to creating a league that will elevate the game and set new standards for women’s professional soccer globally.”
Da Costa will oversee all on-field matters, including officiating. His resume includes stints with Estoril Praia, a men’s first-division team in Portugal, and the Portuguese Soccer Federation, where he helped develop the Portuguese women’s league.
Brooks spent a decade with Canucks Sports & Entertainment, working in “partnership sales and retention efforts” for the Vancouver Canucks, Vancouver Warriors, and Rogers Arena. Most recently, she served as senior director of account management at StellarAlgo, a software company that helps pro sports teams connect with their fans
Shouldice has worked for Corus Entertainment, the Canadian Football League, and most recently as vice-president of Content and Communications at True North Sports & Entertainment, where she managed original content as well as business and hockey communications.
Sou, who was involved in the league’s initial launch, will oversee financial planning, analysis and the league’s expansion strategy in her new role.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
