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Our Bold & Weird Predictions for the 2022 Season

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Our Predictions for the 2022 Season

If you’d told me at the beginning of 2021 that Phil Mickelson would win more majors than Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka (as well as roughly 7.9 billion other people) combined, I’d have waved you off. Same if you’d told me that Tiger Woods wouldn’t play a single PGA Tour event, Bryson DeChambeau would contend in a Long Drive Championship, Patrick Reed wouldn’t make the U.S. Ryder Cup Team or that yelling “Brooksy” could get you ejected from East Lake.

What’s the point? The point is that plenty of weird stuff is going to happen this golf year. Some we’ve got a solid handle on. The rest we can only hope surprises us. So here are 22 predictions for the 2022 PGA Tour season, beginning with our safest, most concrete bets and then get increasingly more absurd.

1. The U.S. Team will win the Presidents Cup.

Let’s start on an extremely sturdy limb: Team USA will beat their International opponents in the Presidents Cup because they basically always do. And although their 2019 victory in Australia required a Sunday comeback, a burnt-out Royal Melbourne was decidedly unfriendly to the visiting American side. This year’s event at Quail Hollow should be better-suited for their big-stadium styles of play. Plus the U.S. has 12 players in the top 16 in the world. The International team has one.

That’s not to diminish the intriguing possibilities for the International side, though. Here’s how that team could look:

Louis Oosthuizen

Abraham Ancer

Hideki Matsuyama

Cameron Smith

Sungjae Im

Joaquin Niemann

Corey Conners

Mackenzie Hughes

Lucas Herbert

Adam Scott

Min Woo Lee

Carlos Ortiz

And that ignores plenty of intriguing candidates like Cameron Davis, Sebastian Munoz, Si Woo Kim, Garrick Higgo, Mito Pereira, Erik van Rooyen and others. But when you’re staring down a super-side on the U.S. Team, it’s tough to keep up regardless.

2. Tiger Woods will play a PGA Tour event.

Other than occasional paparazzi shots from doctors’ appointments, we’ll likely next see Woods in public at the Genesis Invitational in February, where he could return to the scene of his crash and turn the page, one year later. After that we should see Woods at the Players Championship for his World Golf Hall of Fame induction.

I doubt he’ll play before Augusta National, and even that could be a long shot. But if he continues to progress on his current schedule, we’re going to see Tiger Woods tee it up on the PGA Tour in 2022. Count on it.

3a. Tiger Woods will win the PIP.

Do we even know for sure that Woods hasn’t won the 2021 PIP, for that matter? Sure, Phil Mickelson has been talking a big game, but still…

Regardless, even if we see another Mickelson major run in 2022 (crosses fingers), if Woods plays even one event on the PGA Tour plus the new-fan-favorite PNC Championship, he’s got this one in the bag.

3b. You’ll start listening to the Drop Zone podcast more frequently.

Good news: Drop Zone stock is still available for a reasonable price. There’s room on the bandwagon. Check out the embedded pod below or on Apple or on Spotify to listen to our extremely fun gameified season preview, which includes several bold predictions and an all-new stock market golf game. We’re delighted to have you aboard!

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4. We’re destined for some delicious hot-mic moments.

We’re approaching the one-year anniversary of Justin Thomas’ unfortunate hot-mic moment from last Tournament of Champions. We’ve just passed the two-year anniversary of Patrick Cantlay’s extremely entertaining hot-mic moment at the 2020 TOC. But this year? We’re getting more. That’s because we’re getting much more golf, period, thanks to the new ESPN+ deal which is revolutionizing PGA Tour Live, basically quadrupling the amount of streaming coverage and getting more cameras — and more microphones — on players when they might not quite expect it.

5. ESPN+ is going to rule.

It’s cheaper than the old PGA Tour Live. When you sign up, you get every other piece of ESPN+ content, too. The streams will show more groups, more players, more hours, and they’ll be synthesized like a broadcast, which should help pacing. Look, nobody is going to argue that Thursdays and Fridays on the PGA Tour are edge-of-your-seat television. But the core demographic of “yeah, lemme throw this on in the background at work and maybe bet on a few matchups while I’m at it” should find this change extremely satisfying.

6. The Genesis Scottish Open will be the schedule’s best addition.

It’s always been a joy to get a taste of ‘cross-the-pond golf in the lead-up to the Open Championship, but the crescendo will feel even better now that it’s official. The PGA Tour-European Tour (DP World Tour, we should say) Strategic Alliance has yielded something great: The Genesis Scottish Open, a PGA Tour event the week before the Open at St. Andrews. The final rounds will be broadcast on CBS and everything! Everybody loves to watch Scottish golf. Now we have more of it. Sure, next year we can get greedy about holding this event at a linksier course, but let’s take this step by step and celebrate the wins where they come.

7. Patrick Cantlay is going to win a major championship

We haven’t seen Cantlay play a round of stroke-play golf since the Tour Championship, and he hasn’t finished better than T15 in any of his last nine majors, but we’re assuming he has been doing a little practicing and is otherwise the same stone-cold killer that showed up in the playoffs and Ryder Cup. As such, I like his chances to bag a big one more than anybody else on Tour this year.

8. Mito Pereira is going to win PGA Tour Rookie of the Year.

After a bizarre 2021 with basically zero actual PGA Tour “rookies” we have a healthy crop of 27 this season! It’s going to be a crowded field filled with talented Korn Ferry Tour graduates but the best of ’em all will be Mito Pereira — this season, at least. He’s already logged six made cuts in seven starts and is going to edge out Taylor Pendrith and Cameron Young to finish in the top spot. Then he can celebrate with an all-Chilean pairing alongside Joaquin Niemann at the Presidents Cup.

9. Tiger and Charlie Woods will win the PNC Championship.

They nearly won this one, after all, and in another year they should be that much better.

10. Martin Trainer is going to retain his PGA Tour card

It’s put-up-or-shut-up time for my former employer Martin Trainer. He won the 2019 Puerto Rico Open and rode out his winner’s exemption for the rest of the ’18-’19 season, plus the ’19-’20 and ’20-’21 seasons, and then took advantage of a Covid extension to keep status this year. But in the 70 starts following that victory he recorded exactly zero top-25 finishes on Tour. He missed roughly a zillion cuts. He endured the questioning that comes with being a struggling full-time professional golfer. But at the end of this season, that winner’s exemption will expire, which means he’ll need to retain his Tour card on the basis of his play.

Good news! In that 71st start since his victory, Trainer looked like a golfer reborn. He held the 54-hole lead and even owned the lead on the back nine on Sunday before several Jason Kokrak birdies (plus a couple Trainer bogeys) left him T5 for the week, his second-best PGA Tour start ever. A few more showings like that and our embattled Tour pro will be playoff-bound with a 2022-23 card under his belt.

11. Viktor Hovland will win the Mexico Open.

Take a look at Viktor Hovland’s professional wins: Two at Mayakoba, a seaside town in Mexico. One in Puerto Rico. Another at this year’s Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. He’s golf’s Resort King. So when the Tour announced the addition of this year’s Mexico Open, and when it became clear that event would be held at Vidanta Vallarta, an oceanside course in Vallarta, Mexico, an immediate favorite emerged. They can get a head start inscribing Hovland’s name on the trophy.

As long as he actually plays the event.

12. The Saudi Golf League will continue to be more smoke than fire.

Until a rival league siphons off several big names from the PGA Tour, they just won’t find much traction. And thus far, they haven’t siphoned off several big names. The Tour seems to have ceded ground in certain battles, like approving waivers for pros to head to this year’s Saudi International, but they seem in good position to win the war — or at least this iteration.

13. Bryson vs. Brooks will continue, just not so overtly.

There was a notion that this fall’s Match between Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka would put the whole thing to bed. And maybe it did in like, a branding sense. But a close watch of the proceedings suggests that nothing actually got resolved. These two didn’t really communicate in any meaningful way. They certainly didn’t connect. With Koepka’s continued surliness and DeChambeau’s expanded influencer/vlogger/Long Drive status, their gap in personalities only seems to be getting wider. As a result I don’t think we’ll get any Mich Ultra ads on the subject — but there’s going to be spiciness nonetheless. Especially if we finally get the tournament pairing in contention we’ve been wishing for.

14. The Tour’s Netflix show is going to be a game-changer.

The effect of Netflix’s Drive to Survive series on Formula 1 fandom has been well-documented. Can the PGA Tour replicate some percentage of that success with its upcoming behind-the-scenes show? I think so.

Sure, the PGA Tour is better established on American soil than F1, but there’s a whole lot of room for golf’s audience to grow. Netflix, as I understand it, commands a hefty audience. And so whenever the Tour show — which has already begun filming interviews with a high-powered cast — is actually released, I think golf should expect to see significant positive effects across the board. PIP points for everyone!

15. Bones Mackay is going to win the MVC.

That’s “Most Valuable Caddie,” if you’re voting at home. Mackay had filled in on Justin Thomas’ bag for a few starts in the past, but this fall he took over from Jimmy Johnson full time. Why the MVC award? Because Thomas, for the first time in his career, looked off in 2021. Yes, he won the Players Championship. Yes, he was No. 2 in the world as recently as June. But he was off on the greens and looked more frustrated than we’re used to seeing him. Those both *seem* like areas where a confident, experienced, self-assured caddie could help.

But that brings us to the other reason Bones will win the MVC: We don’t actually have any idea how to measure a caddie’s effectiveness! Because he’s a household name (in golf nerd households, at least) Mackay is more likely to get credit with fictitious voters for this fictitious award. Many congratulations headed his way.

16. This is the year we stop comparing golfers to football players.

While Bryson DeChambeau has been bulking up and introducing us to new semi-mythic characters from the long drive world like golfer-slash-Viking Martin Borgmeier or Thor-lookalike Kyle Berkshire, each of whom can carry driver about the length of your average par-4, something has quietly been happening: the best golfers in the world are still pretty small.

Six of the top nine golfers in the world are 5’10 or less. Six of the top nine golfers in the world weigh 170 pounds or less. If you gathered them in an elevator you would have no worries about capacity nor structural integrity. These are athletes, for sure! But they’re skilled athletes with incredible balance, hand-eye coordination and flexibility.

Why is this a bold prediction? Because we’re probably going to forget about it pretty soon. The big-fella golf prospects always garner a disproportionate amount of attention, and there’s no doubt that crops of 130 mph-swingers are on the way. But when it comes to winning golf tournaments, for every Finau, DeChambeau and Koepka there’s a lithe sniper like Morikawa, Schauffele or Ancer shooting up the leaderboard.

17. Max Homa is going to make the U.S. Presidents Cup team.

He was reasonably close to making last year’s Ryder Cup, and when he didn’t it only took Homa about a week to go out and win the Fortinet Championship. Homa’s season was decidedly uneven but 2022 will bring much-needed consistency, pleasing Homa’s Twitter fans. Here’s who will join him on the team:

Collin Morikawa

Justin Thomas

Bryson DeChambeau

Patrick Cantlay

Xander Schauffele

Sam Burns

Dustin Johnson

Jordan Spieth

Matthew Wolff

Tony Finau

Brooks Koepka

As I reach the end of that list I realize I’ve left off Scottie Scheffler, but I don’t know who I can boot. Luckily I’ll be wrong in more ways that just that one.

18. Someone’s going to win the Career Grand Slam.

Only five pros have done it: Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Gene Sarazen. But a few more are close, and this is the year. Maybe it will be Rory McIlroy at Augusta National. The idea of Jordan Spieth winning at Southern Hills sounds plausible. Phil Mickelson winning the U.S. Open at Brookline seems only marginally more likely than Koepka winning both the Masters and the Open Championship, or Morikawa winning the Masters and the U.S. Open. Maybe J.T. will win three of ’em. Maybe Schauffele will do ’em all in one year. One way or another, it’s happening.

19. Viktor Hovland AND Matthew Wolff will have better seasons than Collin Morikawa.

What did we decide to call these guys again — the Big Three? The Little Three? The Young Three? Either way, Morikawa has jumped out to a seemingly insurmountable career lead, claiming two majors, five Tour wins, a European Tour title, Ryder Cup heroics and likely soon the title of World No. 1. It’s going to be impressive, then, to watch his compatriots battle back with some stellar play of their own. Matthew Wolff is decidedly back, and even if he plays a limited schedule of events I expect that he’ll contend as often as not and plow his way back towards the top 10 in the world.

Hovland finished 2021 better than anyone, winning in Mayakoba and the Bahamas in his final two starts, so all he has to do is more of [gestures vaguely] that.

This isn’t me hating on Morikawa, who is obviously a terrific player and owns the most important and durable of all golf skills: elite iron play. But as they tiptoe towards their mid-20s the back-and-forth between the Three Musketeers will continue.

20. By year’s end, the top three players in the world will be Europeans.

While we’re buying Hovland stock, let’s unleash a proper prediction: At the end of the year, despite the grousing about a Ryder Cup blowout and American dominance, the OWGR will look like this:

1. Jon Rahm

2. Viktor Hovland

3. Rory McIlroy

Plot twist: There won’t be another Euro inside the top 20. Still, that elite squad will fly the flag for the continent. That’s pretty good, right?

21. Xander Schauffele’s dad will fill up an entire bathtub with dollar bills, set it up behind the 18th green at East Lake and watch contentedly from the tub, lighting a cigar with a bill while his son hits his approach shot, sealing a Tour Championship victory and that sweet FedEx Cup money.

The prize fund has jacked up to $75 million now, which includes an $18 million payday for the winner. Hey, you’re telling me you can’t picture it?

22. Tiger Woods will win the Open Championship.

We’re done doubting this guy.

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The Bogey Man’s Guide to Accidental Course Exploration: Or, How I Found My Ball (Eventually) in the Rough of Life

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Ah, golf. The gentle game of precision, patience, and occasionally, profound personal humiliation. You know, the kind that makes you question all your life choices, particularly the one where you decided to spend your Saturday morning chasing a tiny white ball around 18 acres of manicured torture.

Boo here, reporting live from the depths of a particularly thorny patch of “rough” that I’m fairly certain wasn’t on the course map. My mission? To recount a tale of a golf shot so spectacularly off-target, it became less about breaking par and more about breaking new ground. Literally.

It was a glorious Tuesday. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and my swing felt… well, it felt like something. I was on the par-4 7th, a hole notorious for its deceptive dogleg and a bunker that swallows balls faster than a hungry teenager devours pizza. My plan was simple: a nice, controlled fade, landing gently just short of the green. A textbook approach, really.

What actually happened was less “textbook” and more “abstract expressionism.” My driver, bless its misguided heart, decided that “fade” was merely a suggestion, and “controlled” was a concept best left to professional pilots. The ball, a brand-new, gleaming Titleist Pro V1 (because, you know, optimism), launched with the trajectory of a startled pheasant and veered sharply right. So sharply, in fact, it cleared the cart path, hopped over the maintenance shed, and disappeared into what I can only describe as a dense, untamed jungle previously known as “the woods bordering the 7th fairway.”

Now, a lesser golfer, a more sensible golfer, might have declared it lost, taken a drop, and moved on with their dignity mostly intact. But I, dear readers, am Mr. Bogey Man. And the Bogey Man doesn’t abandon his children, especially when they cost $5 a pop.

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So, armed with a 7-iron (optimism again, clearly), a profound sense of misplaced determination, and a faint hope that perhaps a deer had picked it up and was using it as a chew toy, I plunged into the abyss.

The first five minutes were a blur of tangled vines, unseen roots, and the distinct feeling that I was being watched by small, judgmental woodland creatures. My pristine golf shoes quickly became mud-caked relics. My carefully tucked-in shirt became a casualty of low-hanging branches. I swear, I heard a squirrel snicker.

Then, a glimmer! A flash of white amidst the green. “Aha!” I cried, startling a family of robins. I pushed through a particularly stubborn bush, only to find… a discarded plastic water bottle. My heart sank faster than my last putt from 3 feet.

I pressed on, muttering to myself about the unfairness of golf, the existential dread of lost balls, and whether it was too late to take up competitive napping. Just as I was about to give up and declare the ball a permanent resident of the arboreal underworld, I saw it. Nestled perfectly at the base of an ancient oak, gleaming defiantly, was my Pro V1.

The triumph! The sheer, unadulterated joy! It was like finding the Holy Grail, if the Holy Grail was spherical and prone to slicing. I carefully extracted it, brushed off a few leaves, and held it aloft.

Then I looked around. I had no idea where I was. The fairway was a distant, hazy memory. The cart path? A myth. I was utterly, gloriously lost.

It took another fifteen minutes of bushwhacking, a brief but intense wrestling match with a particularly aggressive thistle, and the accidental discovery of what I’m pretty sure was a very old, very moldy sandwich, but I eventually stumbled back onto the course. My playing partners, who had long since finished the hole and were contemplating sending out a search party (or at least ordering another round of drinks), looked at me with a mixture of pity and amusement.

My score on the 7th? Let’s just say it involved a number that would make a mathematician weep. But the story? The adventure? The sheer ridiculousness of it all? Priceless.

So, the next time your ball decides to take an unscheduled tour of the local flora and fauna, don’t despair. Embrace it. See it as an opportunity for accidental exploration. You might not break 80, but you’ll definitely have a story. And isn’t that what golf is really about? (Besides the frustration, the lost balls, and the occasional snickering squirrel, of course.)

Until next time, keep those swings (mostly) in bounds, and remember: even a bogey can be an adventure.

Boo

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Make watching golf more interesting.

Does the idea of sports betting intimidate you? Stick with me and learn how to make watching sports with your partner more engaging and fun.

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Hey there, ClickItGolf fam!

I’m the Sports Betting Babe, and I’m here to shake up your Sundays and sprinkle a little extra thrill on your tee times. I know most of the guys on here already love golf, but this one’s for the ladies, especially those of you who’ve been watching golf with your boyfriend or hubby and secretly thinking, “Wait, can I actually bet on this stuff?”

The answer is yes, you absolutely can and you should.

I’m going to make golf betting super easy to understand, a little sexy, and a whole lot of fun. You don’t need to be a pro or know who won the Ryder Cup in 1999. You just need to know how to make smart, simple bets and enjoy the ride.

Let’s Start with the Basics: How to Bet on Golf

Betting on golf is like picking your favorite brunch spot. You check the vibe, pick someone reliable, and hope it all works out. Here are the easiest ways to get started:

1. Pick the Winner (Outright)

This one’s like calling your shot. You’re betting on who will win the whole tournament. Odds are listed next to each golfer. For example, +1200 means a $10 bet would win you $120. Favorites are usually listed around +800 to +1400 and less favorites, or long shots, are usually +5000 and up. Big swings, big rewards.

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2. Top 5 / Top 10 Finish

If you’re not ready to go all-in, no worries. These bets are like hedging your weekend plans – low commitment, still fun. Bet on a golfer to finish strong (in the top 5 or 10) instead of winning outright. It’s a safer bet, but still gives you a reason to cheer all weekend long.

3. Matchups

This one’s juicy. Sportsbooks will pit two golfers against each other, and you just pick which one finishes higher. 

For example, if you see a matchup like Viktor Hovland vs. Tony Finau, and you think Viktor is trending hotter, bet on him to beat Tony. Even if neither of them wins, if Viktor finishes 8th and Tony finishes 9th, you win. It’s a simpler way to stay engaged without needing to track the entire tournament field because even if they’re not winning the tournament, you’re winning your bet. It’s low drama, high payoff.

Bonus? It’s a perfect way to gain low-key bragging rights during Sunday brunch.

4. Live Bets

Tournaments stretch over four days. That means the odds shift, players rise and fall, and you can jump in with bets mid-tourney. It’s like shopping sales in real time—see who’s hot in real time and grab the value before it’s gone.

Why Women Should Love Golf Betting

Golf is the perfect sport to ease into betting. It’s slow enough to follow, exciting enough to matter, and gives you tons of chances to win over the weekend. Plus, nothing gets a guy’s attention like a woman who casually drops, “I’ve got Rickie to finish top 10. Let’s go.”

You don’t need to know every stat or swing path. You just need to be curious, confident, and down to learn. The goal? Make betting approachable for women and show the guys we can hold our own.

Why I Love ClickItGolf

ClickItGolf is all about making golf more fun and accessible and I’m all about the same. Whether you’re here for gear deals, course perks, or just that perfect swing tip, this site is your clubhouse. Adding a little betting action into the mix? That’s just next-level fun.

So, ladies go grab your iced coffee, fire up the PGA app, and get ready to make golf weekends a lot more interesting.

Follow me here at ClickItGolf or on Instagram @sportsbettingbabe_official and let’s turn birdies into bankroll.

See you on the green (and in the winner’s circle).

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Meet the Sports Betting Babe: ClickitGolf’s Newest Voice Bringing Style, Smarts, and a Whole Lot of Fun to the Game

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Hey ClickitGolf family,

I’m thrilled to introduce someone who’s about to shake up your sports weekends in the best way possible.

She’s smart, stylish, funny, and knows her way around a betting slip—please welcome The Sports Betting Babe to the ClickitGolf crew.

Now before you assume this is just another picks column or dry rundown of odds, let me stop you right there. The Sports Betting Babe is anything but ordinary. She’s not here to act like a Vegas oddsmaker or overwhelm you with stats. She’s here to make sports betting fun, flirty, and totally approachable—especially for the ladies.

So who is she?

She’s the kind of woman who can turn heads at a cocktail party in heels one night, then toss on a tee and jeans the next morning to watch a game on the couch with wings and a cold beer. She’s sharp, relatable, and yes she actually loves sports. Not the fake kind of “I’m just here for the vibes” love, but the “I scream at the TV when my parlay falls apart in the 4th quarter” kind of love.

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She lives for big Sunday slates, nail-biter golf finishes, buzzer-beaters, and 9th-inning home runs.

But here’s the best part, her mission is to bring more women into the sports conversation, and she’s doing it through betting.

Betting… but make it fun and responsible

The Sports Betting Babe isn’t trying to be your gambling guru. She’s not claiming to have inside info on who’s winning the Masters or who’s hitting a triple-double tonight. What she is doing is giving you the tools, confidence, and attitude to get in the game and have a damn good time doing it.

She believes sports betting can be empowering. It’s a way to connect, to learn, and yes, to make Sunday brunch with your partner a little more competitive. She’s all about responsible fun, setting limits, understanding your bets, and never taking it too seriously.

More Than Just Golf

Yes, she’ll be writing about golf betting often (because we are ClickitGolf after all), but don’t be surprised when she drops takes on NFL Sundays, March Madness upsets, NHL playoff runs, and MLB long shots. She’s a cornucopia of sports knowledge, and she’s bringing it all to the table served with a smile and a wink.

Her First Article Drops Tomorrow

Her debut piece hits the site tomorrow:
👉 “Ladies, Let’s Bet on Golf—Your Intro from the Sports Betting Babe”

It’s part pep talk, part how-to, and all personality. Whether you’ve never placed a bet in your life or you’ve been riding parlays for years, this one’s for you.

Follow Her Journey

Want more from The Sports Betting Babe?
You can follow her on Instagram at @sportsbettingbabe_official for daily takes, behind-the-scenes fun, and maybe the occasional outfit inspo for your next girls’ night and game day.

We couldn’t be more excited to welcome her to the team. Get ready for bold opinions, plenty of laughs, and a whole new way to fall in love with sports.

Stay tuned,
Bobby

#ClickItGolf #SportsBettingBabe #GolfBetting #SportsBettingForWomen #SmartIsSexy #GameDayFun #ResponsibleGaming

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