Tipico Tips: Gold in the Summer Games

It’s been five years since golf made its return to the Summer Games in Rio, and this week some of the world’s best will fight for the gold medal in Japan. Due to how the field is selected, a lot of the world’s best are not making the trip, and some due to other various reasons, both personal and medical. This was the same thing that happened in Rio in 2016, and if you look at the leaderboard, for the most part, the talent found the leaderboard more often than not. There is no cut, which is a benefit to the better golfers, and I truly believe a large portion of this field does not have a chance. The course they will be playing is close to 7,500 yards with plenty of long and short holes which should hopefully make for some great viewing!

Gold medal winner picks

Sungjae Im +3000

Something I don’t typically do is bet with a large narrative implication, but that is what I have done here. The number is also close to what I make for Im, but I’m giving him the bump due to all the prep I know he’s doing. For those unaware, all South Koreans must serve in the military, but there are some caveats, one being winning a medal at the games. Im decided it was better to withdraw from The Open Championship and not risk the travel and everything else to better prepare for these games. Si Woo Kim did the same thing. However, last we saw him he was withdrawing from the John Deere Classic, and I’m not 100% sure if it is injury related. Im played solid golf the last four weeks, and I don’t mind some of the extra speculation I’m doing because as I mentioned, I still make him close to +3000 without factoring in these intangibles. I have to believe he’s played the course and employed strategies to best tackle it. I will take the plunge and root hard for him for both my wager and his future golf plans.

Jhonattan Vegas +7000

If I am going to take a stab at course fit, on the other side of Sungjae is Vegas. He found some form in June and continued to play well at the 3M Open, coming up just short but with a strong effort. He may not always stand out in PGA events, but with the weak bottom half of this field, his talent and form propel him up. I think the +7000 is a solid offering, even before factoring in any potential course fit. It’s educated guess work by looking at scorecards and overhead photos, and without putting too much stock into it, there is potential that his distance will come in handy on the handful of extremely long par 4s. His improved iron play has been the catalyst of his recent form, and that is something we can count on to a degree to carry over in the short term. He would be a bit of a surprise, but the number is worth the bite.

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