Taylor on top in Vegas

Given the construct of its field, the Butterfield Bermuda Championship won’t be for the faint of heart. Yet, it also increases the possibility of record-high scoring in PGA TOUR Pick ‘Em Live. To play or not to play isn’t even questioned. Though you fight to stay alive, your body starts to shiver. For no mere gamer can resist the evil of the thriller. Register for PGA TOUR Pick ‘Em Live here and monitor Rob’s and Glass’ progress as Influencers. For a broader explanation of the format and FAQs, click here. TOURNAMENT TO WIN Rob … Henrik Norlander (+8000) As eager as I was in launching the board, I can’t justify pointing an arrow at anyone longer than these odds, so we’ll start here and adjust as always (unfortunately). The Swede’s strongest skills keep the ball in play from tee to green, so he’s a lottery ticket with the putter. A lot like Sepp Straka, who broke through at The Honda Classic – I’ll never forget it! – Norlander has multiple seasons of experience without a victory on the PGA TOUR, so if he wants to make a change, he can start with the man in the mirror. This is his third appearance at Port Royal. He cashed in the inaugural edition in 2019 when you’d expect a ball-striker to step out front. Five of his six career rounds on the course are under par. Glass … Vaughn Taylor (+20000) Absolutely NO REASON this week not to have fun with this pick PRE-TOURNAMENT, so let’s dance. His last top 10 was in a similar field in Puerto Rico last March when he picked up T7. You bet I’m grasping at straws! His last win on TOUR came out of nowhere when he won at Pebble Beach in 2016, so I’m looking to recreate history in Bermuda this week. The format allows us to reload once the pipe dream wakes up covered in bogeys. TOP 10 Glass … Ryan Armour (+625) Traditional Horse for Course has witnessed Brian Gay pulling this off at an, ahem, extended age, so he’ll believe as well. Nothing wrong with a bit of veteran love this week as they know how to survive the elements and keep the ball in play in tough situations. Rob … Austin Eckroat (+625) It’s black and white. Although he’s one of my Sleepers, rising for this finish would be a bonus. Good thing we’re likely going to have multiple opportunities to pivot! Actually, I noted that he’s the only rookie with as many as three paydays and without a top 10, so that’s the kind of bulletin-board material that I expect to inspire him. He’s also not a debutant what with a T22 here last year. TOP 20 Rob … Austin Eckroat (+225) This is where I plan on retaining the investment even if given a choice. Getting back more than double the virtual investment is sufficient. His proclivity to find fairways and greens is the peace of mind we all want if this bet proves to be a hit-it-and-hope experience. It’s as easy as 1-2-3, at least in theory. Glass … Kevin Yu (+300) Won’t be intimidated by the field and has enough chops throughout the bag to factor this week. Always the most conservative of the three BIG BETS of the week as the window can get sticky or stuck closed on the weekends. I’m going to ride the youth to figure out a way to crash the party in Southampton. ROUND 1 LEADER Glass … Austin Smotherman (+7000) Start early so you can play often! Fantastic player tee to green means I’ll need a hot ROUND, not week, with the flat stick to cash in here. MC here last year but posted 67 in the second round suggests he might have figured it out. If not, I have all morning (minus the one-hour time difference) to adjust. The front nine on which Smotherman opens doesn’t have the four most difficult holes on the ledger, so I’d start on this side first. Rob … Henrik Norlander (+7000) I’m always so impressed at Glass’ positive energy for the FRL. I mean, why not, but rotating the bingo ball and hoping that my guy is B1 (be the one!) requires so much more luck than know-how. I can’t beat it. With threatening weather in the forecast, it’s possible that R1 won’t finish on Thursday, but if there isn’t a delay, scoring should be equitable across the waves, anyway. In other words, even though we always want to target an early starter, keep a finger on eject unless your guy matches Taylor Pendrith’s course-record 61. Norlander is my outright and he goes off in the second threesome (off 10). He’ll have signed his card by the time I’m lucid, so firing up the glowing rectangle to see if I’m in position to deposit 1,750 coins could be almost as much fun as any Halloween party that I’ve attended. Whatever happens here, enjoy it out there this weekend. NOTE: While Glass and Rob typically stick with their selections as detailed in Pick ‘Em Preview, they are allowed the right to make changes at any time. Responsible sports betting starts with a game plan. Set a budget. Keep it social. Play with friends. Learn the game and know the odds. Play with trusted, licensed operators. CLICK HERE to learn more at HaveAGamePlan.org.

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Seamus Power says most people don’t realize that there is an Irish language. Or, Gaeilge, to be more precise. “I sometimes tell people and they think I’m kidding,” he says. “They think it’s just a way of speaking English with a funny Irish accent.” Actually, Gaeilge is the first and official language of Ireland, recognized by the European Union. Irish uses the same alphabet as other European countries and the United States, but the phonetics are very different. It also has its own font. Many of the words bear little resemblance to English or Spanish or other more common languages, Power says. Sentence structure is different from English, too. Instead of “My name is Seamus Power,” he says the Irish way would be “Seamus Power is my name.” So in Gaeilge, he would write: Seamus de paor ainm dom. (The phonetics simply don’t translate well on paper or the Internet, though, so we won’t try here.) English, with that “funny Irish accent” that Power mentioned, is spoken by the majority on the island and is also an official language. But there are several areas called Gaeltacht where Irish speakers predominate. “I don’t think Irish will ever go away,” Power says. “We’re very proud of having our own language.” Power was born in Waterford, Ireland and grew up playing golf against Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry. He started learning Irish, as most kids do, in what would be elementary school over here in the States. The classes continue until students graduate from high school. There are even summer camps where kids can go to improve their Irish. “So everyone’s got some level of it,” Power says. The 30-year-old Power, who came to the United States to play golf at East Tennessee State and now has a home in Charlotte, doesn’t get to speak Irish very much anymore. When he’s home in Ireland, though, he often hears Irish words used in English conversations – for example, someone might say “buachaill maith” instead of using the expression “good boy” or “good man.” “It’s funny because there’s different dialect even throughout Ireland in Irish,” Power says. “You kind of pick up where they come from when they speak Irish.” Power’s first name is the Irish word for James while Liam is a shortened version of William and Sean is John. At the Olympics last year, Power even gave his American caddy John Rathouz an Irish name – Sean Teach Francach (the latter two words translate to house rat). While Power says he was a pretty good student of the Irish language, his best courses were math, chemistry and physics. He also has a keen interest in history and enjoys reading about World War I and World War II, as well as Irish, American and European affairs. “I read more history books than I do novels,” Power says. “When I finish a novel, it’s funny, but I feel like I didn’t really get much out of it where I feel like I’m always learning when I read a history book.” Irish history is particularly rich, dating back to the Stone Age. He doesn’t remember concentrating that much on the subject in high school but his interest has grown in recent years. “There’s so many significant time periods it’s unbelievable,” Power said. “When I came to the U.S. and went to history class, there was like two history classes, one was pre-1865 and one was post, and I was like, this is fantastic. “I remember back in Ireland, we started 10,000 B.C., when we started learning history and we go from there. … I didn’t study it particularly in school. I was okay. I never focused on it. “But in the last few years, I just always enjoyed it, I tried to learn some stuff, see what happened, see what the world could have been and the reason it is where it is now, that sort of stuff.” And the Irish language is a big part of that long history. “Ireland is very proud,” Power said with a smile. “Very stubborn history. So, language is something we would like to have, like to hang on. “We don’t always use it. If someone tried to take it away, everyone would be up in arms about it.”

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DUBLIN, Ohio — The Memorial Tournament presented by Workday has another player who appears to be running away with the tournament. Billy Horschel will get a chance to finish the job. One year after Jon Rahm built a six-shot lead — only to withdraw after the third round because of a positive COVID-19 test — Horschel delivered a gem at Muirfield Village on Saturday with a 7-under 65 for a five-shot lead. Not only did Horschel make seven birdies, he has gone 44 consecutive holes without a bogey on a course where the greens have been getting increasingly firm under more sunshine that this tournament is used to seeing. Horschel chipped in for birdie on his opening hole. Everything else was simply solid, with only one other birdie putt outside the 10-foot range. He was at 13-under 203, five shots clear of Aaron Wise (69) and Cameron Smith (72). Horschel cared more about how he was playing — very well — than the size of his lead. “I just go to the tee understanding I’m leading the tournament. I know I’ve got however many shots I have ahead,” he said. “I’m not going to be protective, I’m not going to be overly aggressive. I’m going to play the way I have the last three days. We’re going to hit the golf shots that are required, and I know if we do that it’s going to give me the best chance to be victorious come tomorrow.” He will be going for his seventh PGA TOUR victory. Daniel Berger had a 67 and six shots behind along with Jhonattan Vegas and former Open Champion Francesco Molinari, who hasn’t had a top-five finish since the 2019 Masters. “I’m just happy to be up there,” Molinari said. “Billy is a really good player, but in golf you never know. On a course like this, it’s showing today that if you hit the fairways you get plenty of chances and you can shoot 6-, 7-under par. If you start missing fairways it’s a whole different challenge. I think there’s going to be an outside chance, but it’s just nice to be kind of up there.” Smith started with a one-shot lead and ran into trouble immediately, with bogeys from the bunker on the first two holes. He played alongside Denny McCarthy, who on three occasions in the first hour was putting for birdie from closer than where Smith was putting for par. It was a struggle for Smith to get back to even for the day, but by then, Horschel was starting to pull away from everybody. He took the lead with a wedge to 3 feet for birdie on the par-5 seventh, and then stuffed his tee shot to a front pin within 6 feet on the par-3 eighth. He made birdie on all the par 5s. The four times he missed the green, he chipped in on No. 1 for birdie and made tough saves from bunkers and a delicate pitch behind the 12th green that ran quickly away from him. Smith saved himself one shot at the end. The greens are firm enough that anything in the rough makes it hard to stop near the hole. Smith’s shot from deep grass right of the 18th fairway bounded to the back of the green with a front pin. The Aussie went with a flop shop that trickled near the hole and settled 3 feet away for par. Rory McIlroy started the third round just three shots out of the lead, but as everyone else around him was piling up birdies, McIlroy was stuck on pars. He didn’t make his first birdie until the 11th hole and shot 73 to fall nine shots behind. Defending champion Patrick Cantlay began his round by pulling his tee shot into a stream and making double bogey. He atoned for that with a pair of eagles, finished with three straight par putts from outside 8 feet and shot 69. He was seven beind. That would appear to be too far back — the largest comeback at the Memorial is five shots, most recently 15 years ago by K.J. Choi. Then again, players have rallied from seven shots behind to win the last two weeks by Sam Burns at Colonial and by Justin Thomas at the PGA Championship at Southern Hills. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s any different,” Wise said. “Anything is possible.”

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