04-05-17

Plenty of choices this week to say the least!

With probably more than $1.8 million available to the winner, it’s not time to reinvent the wheel!

Will we find the newest member of this special club or a familiar face?

One-and-done

Each week I painfully writhe and wretch trying to figure out the proper strategy to find a player that will hit the top 10. Wins are great but aren’t likely, so I’m satisfied with having a chance to hit the big money. Missed cuts are absolutely the death in this game, but even the surest of things don’t always happen in the reality world of fantasy golf. Remember, fade or follow, it’s up to you.

 

Gamers who are new to OAD must remember that the most lucrative purses, the majors, WGC events, THE PLAYERS and FedExCup Playoffs, are down the road and you’ll need to save some big boys for these events, all 12 of them.

 

 

Last Season: Il Disastro

Season total: $5,978,929; 47 events

• Wins: 2 (Matsuyama, Hoffman)
• Seconds: 0
• Thirds: 1
• Top 10s: 9
• Top 25s: 18
• MC: 8 (Mickelson, FIO; Oosthuizen, SHO; Chappell, Colonial; Casey, Memorial; Woodland, FESJC; Hearn, RBC Canadian; McGirt, Wyndham; Justin Thomas, DBC)

 

2016-17 season: Brand New Day

 

Season total: $1,919,613; 21 events

• Wins:
• Seconds: 1
• Thirds:
• Top 10s: 5
• Top 25s: 7
• MCs (4): Grayson Murray (Safeway Open); Patton Kizzire (SFC); Jamie Lovemark (CB Challenge); Jimmy Walker (FIO); Charl Schwartzel (Genesis); Russell Knox (Honda); Henrik Stenson (API).

 

Event	Golfer	Place	Money
Safeway Open	Grayson Murray	MC	$0
CIMB Classic	Hideki Matsuyama	T-2	$756,000
WGC-HSBC Champions	Martin Kaymer	T-40	$62,000
Sanderson Farms	Patton Kizzire	MC	$0
Shriners	Chris Kirk	T-61	$14,190
OHL Mayakoba	Emiliano Grillo	T-10	$175,000
RSM Classic	Russell Henley	T-10	$150,000
SBS TOC	Brandt Snedeker	T-14	$122,000
Sony Open	Charles Howell, III	T-8	$180,000
CB Challenge	Jamie Lovemark	MC	$0
Farmers Insurance	Jimmy Walker	MC	$0
WMPO	Brendan Steele	T-16	$90,952
AT&T Pebble Beach	Phil Mickelson	65th	$15,120
Genesis Open	Charl Schwartzel	MC	$0
Honda Classic	Russell Knox	MC	$0
WGC-MC	Justin Rose	T-38	$64,000
Valspar	Bill Haas	T-41	$21,451
Arnold Palmer	Henrik Stenson	MC	$0
Puerto Rico Open	Luke List	T-37	$12,900
WGC-Match Play	Rory McIlroy	T-30	$74,000
Shell Houston Open	Jon Rahm	T-10	$182,000

 

Thermometer:

Back in business baby!

Well, kinda.

Top 10’s > not top 10’s but having the winner listed but not as first choice stings.

 

Last week:

My Choice: Jon Rahm — T-10

Close Second: Rickie Fowler — T-3

Outlier: Russell Henley — WIN

Gut Shot: Jamie Lovemark — T-78

Rank Outsiders: Peter Uihlein (T-23), Kyle Reifers (T-61)

 

You let me know when you figure out what’s wrong with Stenson but I have two theories:

He’s hurt. His knee or something else is bothering him and he’s keeping it under wraps. He’s destroyed Bay Hill and GCH the last five years and wasn’t close in either event this year.

He DGAF. He’s won his major. He shot 63 on Sunday and beat legend Phil Mickelson in the process. Motivation out the window? When guys don’t fire at their home event or on courses where they are horses I get concerned. I’m also looking at you, Patrick Reed…

 

 

Keys this Week:

You’ll have to stretch back a decade to Zach Johnson to find the last winner that doesn’t give it a smash off the tee. With the wet conditions developing and the wind howling against the design of the course, I wouldn’t suggest breaking that curse this year. Oddly, Johnson’s win came in very similar conditions when scores were wildly over par. His wedge game and putting were sublime and that’s what it will take again this year if a short knocker is to win.

This is the big-time stuff this week so use a big-time player.

Getting the winner is always nice and you should have plenty to choose from this week. Finding the winner is the difficult part because I believe there are almost a dozen guys who could win this week and gamers would be like “yeah, I get it”.

I want form. I want function. I want tough. I want putts. I want it all.

 

My Weekly Finalists:

I explain in more details in my preview what I’m looking for on the course.

 

Dustin Johnson: He’s fantastic in any conditions and even better is suboptimal weather. For those of you who said he wasn’t going to win two in a row or three in a row, he has. He has plenty of red figures here over the years as well.

Jordan Spieth: With all three of his starts T-2 or better, there’s not much else to type. Oh, he leads the Tour in GIR and is from Texas so a bit of wind won’t bug him.

Rory McIlroy: It’s the career grand slam if he does the business and that’s massive. He’s seen every inch of the ground and posted about every score possible.

Rickie Fowler: Nobody is deeper through all 14 clubs at the moment than Fowler. I love that he’s entering off of 27 birdies last week and didn’t win. He would join Schwartzel, Watson, Scott, Spieth and Willett as first-time major winners here in the last seven years.

Justin Rose: He wins on tough golf courses and this qualifies. He’s done everything but win on this track and has never MC. #SafetyDance.

 

My Choice: Jordan Spieth

Close Second: Rickie Fowler

Outlier: Paul Casey, Phil Mickelson, Lee Westwood

Gut Shot: Jason Day

Rank Outsiders: Charley Hoffman, Jason Dufner, Tommy Fleetwood

 

 

QUESTION(S) OF THE WEEK:

 

Why Spieth?

Simple, he’s the best player of those five on THIS course. He’s had one bad hole in three years at ANGC. He also leads the Tour in GIR and loves to work the ball in the wind. Use DJ or Rory at Erin Hills. Or Royal Birkdale. Or Firestone. Or Quail Hollow (PGA Championship) where Rory has the course record and tournament record at the Wells Fargo. #Options.

 

Should I burn an “off-the-radar” guy?

Of course! The only bad news is that there are plenty to choose from. The Willett backers from last year will tell you this is the way forward. You stick in Tyrell Hatton this week and BLAM! top five, you have Spieth, et. al, to use down the road. Now, about picking which off-the-radar guy is going to kick in the door this week…

 

 

Good Luck!