Jake The Sports Guy

30/04/2025

Week 6 Ryder Cup Standings according to TUGR.org:

Team USA 🇺🇸
1. Scottie Scheffler
2. Collin Morikawa
3. Xander Schauffele
4. Bryson DeChambeau
5. Justin Thomas
6. Russell Henley⬆️
7. Patrick Cantlay ⬇️
8. Luke Clanton
9. Denny McCarthy
10. Keegan Bradley ⏫
11. Akshay Bhatia ⬇️
12. Sam Burns ⬆️
-
13. JJ Spaun ⏫
14. Maverick McNealy ⬆️

Team Europe 🇪🇺
1. Rory McIlroy 🇬🇧
2. Jon Rahm 🇪🇸
3. Tommy Fleetwood 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 ⬆️
4. Ludvig Åberg 🇸🇪 ⬇️
5. Tyrrell Hatton 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
6. Shane Lowry 🇮🇪
7. Sepp Straka 🇦🇹 ⬆️
8. Aaron Rai 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 ⏫
9. Viktor Hovland 🇳🇴 ⏫
10. Sergio Garcia 🇪🇸 ⏬
11. Alex Noren 🇸🇪 ⏬
12. Robert McIntyre 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 ⬆️
-
13. David Puig 🇪🇸 ⬆️
14. Justin Rose 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 ⬆️

Another win for Jaoquin Niemann at LIV Golf Mexico City clinches his automatic qualifying spot for the US Open in June. The first LIV exemption ever! Just two more weeks until Major #2!

Golf Schedule this week:
PGA Tour: CJ Cup Byron Nelson (TPC Craig Ranch)
LIV Golf League: Korea (Jack Nicklaus Golf Club)
DPWT: Off Week
Asian Tour: Maekyung Open (Namseoul Country Club, South Korea)

23/04/2025

Week 5 of Ryder Cup Standings according to TUGR.org

Team USA 🇺🇸
1. Scottie Scheffler
2. Collin Morikawa
3. Xander Schauffele
4. Bryson DeChambeau
5. Justin Thomas ⬆️
6. Patrick Cantlay ⬇️
7. Russell Henley
8. Luke Clanton ⬆️
9. Denny McCarthy ⬇️
10. Akshay Bhatia
11. Wyndham Clark
12. Sam Burns
-
13. Keegan Bradley
14. JT Poston ⬆️

Team Europe 🇪🇺
1. Rory McIlroy 🇬🇧
2. Jon Rahm 🇪🇸
3. Ludvig Åberg 🇸🇪
4. Tommy Fleetwood 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
5. Tyrrell Hatton 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
6. Shane Lowry 🇮🇪
7. Sergio Garcia 🇪🇸
8. Sepp Straka 🇦🇹
9. Alex Noren 🇸🇪
10. Aaron Rai 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
11. Viktor Hovland 🇳🇴
12. Paul Casey 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 ⬆️
-
13. Robert McIntyre 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 ⬇️
14. David Puig 🇪🇸

Justin Thomas back in the winners circle after a long drought with an exciting finish at the RBC! Not much movement in the standings but an important event for LIV this week as there is only one more event left before the US Open automatic qualifying spot is finalized which currently would go to Joaquin Niemann.

Golf Schedule this week:
PGA Tour: Zurich Classic of New Orleans (TPC Louisiana)
LIV Golf League: Mexico City (Club de Golf Chapultepec)
DPWT: Hainan Classic (Hainan Island, China)
Asian Tour: Off Week

16/04/2025

Week 4 of Ryder Cup Standings per TUGR.org:

Team USA 🇺🇸
1. Scottie Scheffler
2. Collin Morikawa
3. Xander Schauffele
4. Bryson DeChambeau ⬆️
5. Patrick Cantlay ⬇️
6. Justin Thomas
7. Russell Henley
8. Denny McCarthy ⬆️
9. Luke Clanton ⬆️
10. Akshay Bhatia ⏬
11. Wyndham Clark
12. Sam Burns
-
13. Keegan Bradley
14. Brooks Koepka ⬆️

Team Europe 🇪🇺
1. Rory McIlroy 🇬🇧 ⬆️
2. Jon Rahm 🇪🇸 ⬇️
3. Ludvig Åberg 🇸🇪
4. Tommy Fleetwood 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
5. Tyrrell Hatton 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
6. Shane Lowry 🇮🇪 ⬆️
7. Sergio Garcia 🇪🇸 ⬇️
8. Sepp Straka 🇦🇹
9. Alex Noren 🇸🇪
10. Aaron Rai 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
11. Viktor Hovland 🇳🇴 ⬆️
12. Robert McIntyre 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 ⬇️
-
13. Paul Casey 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
14. David Puig 🇪🇸 ⬆️

A historic week for golf as Rory McIlroy completes the career grand slam. One of the most entertaining and drama filled Sundays in recent memory at the Masters probably since Tiger’s win in ‘19. Great start to majors season and for golf as a whole to have basically the Super Bowl of golf be so fun to watch. Next up, PGA Championship in 4 weeks!

Golf Schedule this week:
PGA Tour: RBC Heritage (Elevated Event)
Corales Puntacana Championship
LIV: Off Week
DPWT: Volvo China Open
Asian Tour: Off Week

Discover the most accurate golf rankings for Pro and Junior players worldwide. Get insights, trends, and head-to-head matchups.

14/04/2025

Did this last year and correctly picked the NBA champion (even though they were the heavy favorites). Here is the list of teams that meet the criteria to win the NBA Championship in 2025.

Criteria is that you must be in the top 15 in offensive and defensive rating. Only the ‘04 Pistons were below that line and they were 16th in offense. Here are the teams that qualify:

Offense/Defense

West
Thunder 3/1
Rockets 12/5
Clippers 15/3
Timberwolves 8/6
Grizzlies 6/11

East
Cavaliers 1/8
Celtics 2/4
Knicks 5/13
Pacers 9/14
Bucks 10/12
Pistons 14/10

Some things to note too, Golden State has been the #1 defense since the All Star break (Jimmy Butler trade) and the Clippers have been top 5 in offense and defense in that same time frame (healthy Kawhi).

On paper, the Finals should be Celtics-Thunder which I believe are the two best teams in each of their respective conferences.

However, I’m buying the Clippers hype and I think they make the Finals if they can stay healthy which is a huge IF. Boston should be there to represent the East again barring injury and the favorites to repeat.

It’s going to be an exciting playoffs! Who do you think is going to win the Finals in 2025? Comment your prediction below!

02/04/2025

Week 2 update of Ryder Cup teams according to TUGR:

Team USA 🇺🇸
1. Scottie Scheffler
2. Collin Morikawa
3. Xander Schauffele
4. Patrick Cantlay
5. Justin Thomas
6. Russell Henley
7. Bryson DeChambeau
8. Akshay Bhatia
9. Luke Clanton
10. Denny McCarthy
11. Keegan Bradley
12. Sam Burns
-
13. Tony Finau
14. JJ Spaun

Team Europe 🇪🇺
1. Rory McIlroy 🇬🇧
2. Jon Rahm 🇪🇸
3. Ludvig Åberg 🇸🇪
4. Tommy Fleetwood 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
5. Tyrrell Hatton 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
6. Shane Lowry 🇮🇪
7. Sepp Straka 🇦🇹
8. Sergio Garcia 🇪🇸 🔼
9. Aaron Rai 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🔽
10. Robert McIntyre 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
11. Alex Noren 🇸🇪
12. Paul Casey 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
-
13. Viktor Hovland 🇳🇴
14. Laurie Canter 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

We are one week from the biggest week in golf! Many will be fine tuning to gear up for the most coveted prize in the sport. LIV Golf’s first US event of their season and hopefuls will head to TPC San Antonio to try to scoop up the last spot at Augusta.

Schedule this week (Notables):
PGAT: Valero Texas Open (Cantlay, Akshay, Spieth)
LIV: Miami @ Trump National Doral (Rahm, Bryson, Sergio)
DPWT: Off Week
Asian Tour: Off Week

26/03/2025

A fun exercise for me as we are getting ever so close to Masters week is to compare the current Ryder Cup standings to my favorite ranking system for professional golfer, TUGR.org, as we are only 6 months out! The majors will definitely change things in the coming months but here’s the 12 “best” players accoording to TUGR for each team as of the end of March.

Team USA 🇺🇸
1. Scottie Scheffler
2. Collin Morikawa
3. Xander Schauffele
4. Patrick Cantlay
5. Justin Thomas
6. Russell Henley
7. Bryson DeChambeau
8. Akshay Bhatia
9. Luke Clanton
10. Denny McCarthy
11. Keegan Bradley
12. Sam Burns
-
13. Tony Finau
14. JJ Spaun

Team Europe 🇪🇺
1. Rory McIlroy 🇬🇧
2. Jon Rahm 🇪🇸
3. Ludvig Åberg 🇸🇪
4. Tommy Fleetwood 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
5. Tyrrell Hatton 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
6. Shane Lowry 🇮🇪
7. Sepp Straka 🇦🇹
8. Aaron Rai 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
9. Sergio Garcia 🇪🇸
10. Robert McIntyre 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
11. Alex Noren 🇸🇪
12. Paul Casey 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
-
13. Viktor Hovland 🇳🇴
14. Laurie Canter 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Quick Take: I love Team Europe. On paper, this is a rout. For Team USA, very top heavy. The captain’s picks are going to be interesting unless some bigger names find better form over the coming months in order to make the decisions easier for Keegan Bradley who could very well be a player-captain at Bethpage.

Golf Schedule this week (Notables):
PGAT: Texas Children’s Houston Open (Rory, Scottie)
LIV: Off Week
DPWT: Hero Indian Open
Asian Tour: Off Week

03/09/2024

With the cusp of the NFL Season upon us, here are my 2024/25 season predictions!

Disclaimer: these are all based on no injuries.

NFC:
1. Packers (13-4)
2. Rams (12-5)
3. Cowboys (11-6)
4. Falcons (10-7)
5. Lions (12-5)
6. Eagles (10-7)
7. 49ers (9-8)

Just missed: Seahawks (9-8), Cardinals (9-8), Buccaneers (9-8)

AFC
1. Jets (13-4)
2. Ravens (13-4)
3. Chiefs (11-6)
4. Texans (9-8)
5. Bengals (12-5)
6. Browns (11-6)
7. Steelers (10-7)

Just missed: Dolphins (9-8), Colts (9-8)

All in on the Aaron Rodgers train. Jets are elite in about every category. Now, a healthy Rodgers is going to send them to the promised land and ride off into the sunset against his former team!

MVP: Joe Burrow
OPOY: Garrett Wilson
DPOY: TJ Watt
COY: Matt LaFleur
Comeback POY: Aaron Rodgers
OROY: Xavier Worthy
DROY: Laiatu Latu

30/07/2024

With regular season golf entering its closing stages of 2024, my mind is already thinking of major qualification for 2025 and how some championships have talked about possibly adding additional qualification for LIV players next year.

With that in mind, here is my take on what I believe would be the most fair way to do that:

The PGA Tour has 125 full status members that qualified from the previous FedEx Cup season. Of those 125, 30 make the Tour Championship. Those 30 players essentially all qualify for all 4 majors the following year. For context, 30 out of 125 is 24%.

With that being said, LIV has 54 full status members and 24% of that is roughly 13 players.

All things being fair, I believe the best qualification for LIV would be the top 10 individual finishers and all 4 players from the winner of the team championship. This would put the range of qualifiers between 10-14 players for LIV.

Now, that doesn’t mean LIV gets that many extra guys because 9 out of 10 times a few players in that top 10 will already be qualified by being a past champion. For example, currently 4 of the top 10 are already qualified for all 4 majors in 2025 which only adds 6-8 extra guys for next year. This proposal bridges a gap in the current divide of men’s golf and I think the majors have the best opportunity to help the current situation begin to heal.

This solution helps major fields continue to be the best each year and keeping the elite talent together at these events.

I think I speak for all golf fans when I say that we all want to see all of the best players at majors regardless of what tour they play on. Not doing this hurts the game and is a disservice to the fans. I believe both LIV and the PGA Tour can co-exist, and I think it starts with the games biggest tournaments to try and bring harmony to a very troubled state of golf.

24/05/2024

Celtics lead 2-0. Thoughts.

21/05/2024

My thoughts on Pacers-Celtics ECF!

05/05/2024

As we have reached the over halfway point in the LIV Golf League season, I would like to talk about the last missing piece for making it the most intriguing golf product on the market. This missing piece in no guaranteed contracts.

Currently, no team captain or player under an extended contract can be relegated from the league. I can understand that from a short term business standpoint because you don’t want your bigger names to be one and done early in order to establish continuity with your brand. However, with LIV moving through their 3rd season I believe it’s time to move past that.

This would build much more intrigue to the product and make each event even more high stakes while also making it a more credible league to others because the safety net is gone. This also would allow for a more consistent flow of talent into the league each year. Right now, those at 49 and below are relegated out and those in the 25-48 range are basically free agents come season end.

Imagine the storylines you could make with how the standings look right now? Names like Bubba and Westwood on the verge of being out amongst others who are not pictured. I find that exciting since most golf fans know that a few playing in LIV are past their prime and kind of deserve to be let out to pasture.

I think this is the way forward for the league along with an effort to get the top end of guys an automatic spot in majors. I find LIV a superior viewing experience to the PGA TOUR so getting those 2 things added to the league would, I believe, make it much more intriguing to the average golf fan and help LIV grow into the future.

What do you all think? Fan of LIV, or not? Let me know in the comments below!

20/02/2024

Big week for the Asian Tour again as 20+ LIV players will tee it up for the first International Series event in Oman.

As a golf fan myself, it shows how much the golf landscape has changed since LIV became a thing. The field this week in Oman will be much stronger than the Mexico Open on the PGA Tour.

LIV is in partnership with the Asian Tour and has helped give out more prize money for events like the International Series and given an automatic spot on LIV to the Order of Merit (OOM) winner after all 6 events are played throughout the calendar year.

The top 2-5 finishers for the International Series get a bye to the 2nd round of the LIV qualifying event in December.

The golf world will continue to change as chess pieces move from both sides of the aisle. Will there be an agreement with LIV and the PGAT? Will they always be separate entities? Something has to give.

To me, momentum seems to be building for LIV the longer the two sides stay apart which in the end could spell the decline of the PGAT depending on how long this drags out. I hope the golf world can unite once again in order to have all of the best players in the world playing against each other week in and week out.