Some wins are just about golf. Sunday at the Houston Open was about something much bigger than that.

Gary Woodland finished at 21 under par, won by five strokes, and claimed his first PGA Tour victory since the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. What filled those 2,473 days between titles makes this one of the most extraordinary moments on the Tour in years.

In April 2023, Woodland started experiencing unusual symptoms. Loss of appetite. Shaky hands. Partial seizures. Nightmares about dying. An overwhelming, constant feeling of fear. An MRI eventually revealed a lesion on his brain pressing directly against his amygdala, the part of the brain responsible for regulating fear and the fight-or-flight response. He had surgery to remove it in September of 2023.

The surgery worked but the recovery was harder.

Earlier this month, Woodland revealed he had been diagnosed with PTSD. He described breaking down in scoring trailers after rounds or running to his car to hide from crowds. Being startled to the point of tears by a walking scorer approaching from behind. He kept showing up anyway, kept teeing it up, kept grinding through a world ranking that had slipped to 139th and a FedExCup position of 119th.

When he finally made the diagnosis public, he said it felt like a thousand pounds lifted off his shoulders.

Three weeks later, he won a golf tournament by five shots. He birdied four of his first five holes on the front nine, turned with a seven-shot lead, and never gave the field a glimmer of hope.

The practical stuff matters too. The win punches his ticket to Augusta next month and moves him inside the top 25 of the FedExCup standings. But after everything he has been through, the scorecard feels secondary.

After the round he said he hoped anyone struggling with something would see him and not give up. On Sunday he wore custom shoes designed by a seven-year-old girl named Ceci, a brain tumor patient who put the word "Courage" on the side. Woodland said he felt like he was on her team.

It is hard to imagine a better advertisement for not giving up.

✨ NBA First Basket Prop Sheet

Stop guessing on first basket props.

Pine’s First Basket sheet gives you everything you need to identify the most likely opening scorers before tipoff:

Tip Win % – See which teams control the opening possession
1st FG Attempt % – Know who's getting the first look
1st FG Made % – Track who actually converts when it matters
Shot Locations – On Desktop, expand a player to see where they shoot

🏀 Using Jaxon to Find Monday's NBA Edges

Monday's NBA slate is loaded, and rather than eyeball a dozen injury reports and box scores, we ran the matchups through Jaxon with a simple prompt:

Boston Celtics Moneyline (+102)

The market has this listed as essentially a coin flip, which Jaxon flagged immediately as suspicious. Boston owns the fourth-best net rating in the league and the second-ranked offensive efficiency. Atlanta checks in at 13th in net rating at +1.7. The gap between these rosters is not coin-flip territory under any reasonable interpretation.

The books are clearly pricing in Boston's injury report, with Tatum, Brown, and White all listed as day-to-day. Before you ring the alarm, Brown and White didn’t play on Sunday and they still came away with a comfortable win.

If any two of Boston's core players suit up, their statistical profile is a significant mismatch against a Hawks defense that still struggles with perimeter consistency. An implied probability of 49.5% on a team with Boston's efficiency metrics is where the value lives tonight.

Miami Heat Moneyline (+125)

Philadelphia comes in as a slight road favorite, and Jaxon identified this as one of the most straightforward mispriced plays of the night. Miami holds a net rating of +2.3 compared to Philadelphia's -0.3. The Heat rank ninth defensively, and Philadelphia ranks 25th in effective field goal percentage. Those two numbers fall nicely in Miami's favor.

At +125, the books are implying Miami wins this game less than 45% of the time. Jaxon's read is that a team with Miami's defensive profile hosting a Philadelphia offense that cannot generate quality shots should be closer to a pick-em. The Heat bouncing back at home after a bad defensive night is also a pattern worth noting. This is the underdog play of the night.

Minnesota Timberwolves Moneyline (-240)

Not every flag Jaxon raises is about finding an underdog. Sometimes the tool confirms that the favorite is actually still underpriced. Minnesota at -240 implies roughly a 70% win probability against a Dallas team missing Kyrie Irving, Daniel Gafford, and Dereck Lively.

Jaxon pegged the true confidence level closer to 80% given Dallas ranking 26th in offensive rating and 24th in net rating. Minnesota's defensive structure remains intact despite their own absences. The chalk is correct here, and the number may still have value.

🌲 The Pine Line

💯 Some players are hitting their props every night. The streaks, projections, and best odds are all in one place.

⚾️ Two rookies just did something only two others have ever done. Not too late to add them to your next dinger parlay.

🏌️ Tiger’s Masters comeback story took a devastating turn. The consequences go far beyond golf.

🏎️ The four-time champion is considering walking away. It’s not as fun when he doesn’t win every week.

🏈 Cleveland’s GM stopped short of handing Shedeur the keys. His answer still said plenty about the Browns’ QB situation.

🏒 Bruce Cassidy is Out. Here's Where the Value Is for the Golden Knights

by Ed Egros 👉️ Follow on X @EdWithSports

With eight games remaining in the regular season, it would be a shock if the Vegas Golden Knights failed to make the playoffs.  They own the third spot in the Pacific Division and a three-point lead over the last Wild Card spot.  

So, why did they just fire head coach Bruce Cassidy?

Cassidy’s Resumé

In three seasons, Cassidy won 146 games, two Pacific Division titles and one Stanley Cup.  Many hockey head coaches have kept their jobs with less success.

His Replacement

John Tortorella has been a head coach for more than two decades.  Though the Stanley Cup does have his name on it, he hasn’t led a team to the playoffs in more than five years.  

Why the Change?

Vegas is mired in another losing streak, having lost six of its last seven.  That is happening after another six-loss-in-seven-game stretch just after the Olympic break.  When you have a healthy hockey team and expensive talent like Mitch Marner and Jack Eichel, there aren’t too many big moves a team can make besides firing the head coach.  

How to Bet on Golden Knights Futures

Does adding Torts to the bench mean we should bet on Vegas to win the Western Conference or Stanley Cup outright?  As Jaxon’s AI tools pointed out, the Golden Knights allow the fewest shots per 60 minutes and fewest high-danger chances per 60 in the NHL.  

In other words, Cassidy’s defensive scheme was just fine.  Things that had more to do with luck, like scoring goals, were more problematic.  Those problems won’t change with a new head coach.

Maybe Vegas suddenly gets lucky; but, I do not see any value backing this hockey team when the Western Conference is top-heavy and 5v5 goaltending has been so atrocious.

It might be likelier Vegas completely implodes while still making the playoffs.  If so, they’re likely drawing Edmonton in the first round, which gives Connor McDavid and company an easier path to the Cup.  

Given all of the attention in the West revolves around Colorado and Dallas, the Oilers at 6/1 to win the West has value.  

Torts’ First Game

Vegas is a sizable favorite against Vancouver Monday night, which may be the perfect, low-stakes game to ease in a new coach.  Here’s how Jaxon and I suggest attacking it:

Vegas -1.5 vs Vancouver (-117)

Not only has Vancouver allowed more expected goals than nearly every hockey team, it’s easy to say they are the worst 5v5 team defensively in the league:

Goaltending has not helped the Canucks in the slightest.  Kevin Lankinen has a save percentage of .876 and Nikita Tolopilo is at .886.  Even the stars for Vegas who have been unable to light the lamp should be able to against this group

Still not sure what to bet on?

Use the Parlay Generator for instant picks or discover player props on the consistency sheets! Pine Sports has the tools to give you an edge when it matters most.