Every week of the year the PGA Tour plays on a new course. There are some examples in other DFS Sports of environments impacting performance, such as Coors Field in Baseball; Golf, however, offers an entirely unique environment each and every week. This article will break down the week’s PGA course and attempt to find what skill sets are needed for success. This article will then combine the course breakdown with the DFS Army Domination Station & VIP Research Station and give a few players to target in both Cash Game and GPP formats. For more updates throughout the week follow me on twitter @_bschnarr
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Course Preview
Golf is back! And by back I mean the one-week off-season that was really just Golf’s version of the All-Star Game is over. If you did not follow the President’s cup you did not miss much on the course, the United States dominated the International team. Off of the course is where the United States really shined, if you have not seen it already I really think you should stop what you are doing and watch this.
The tour returns to Silverado Country Club in Napa, California for the first event of the season. Although this event falls into the “swing season” which usually results in fewer top end players we see a field with a few solid players including Tony Finau, Zach Johnson, and Phil Mickelson, fresh off of his Presidents Cup victory. The tournament will also feature plenty of new faces as all of the Web.com graduates will be in the field looking to make a name for themselves.
The course is played on Silverado Country Club’s North Course and has been since 2014 for those looking at course history. The course is a par 72, playing at just over 7200 yards. The length is deceiving however with all four par threes playing over 180 yards (two of those over 200), we see par fours anywhere between 360 – 460 yards, which is very short for PGA standards. The four par fives are also realistically reachable in two by the majority of the field. With tougher par threes scoring on the par fours and fives will be crucial for success this week.
Off of the tee, we have seen both accurate players and bombers have success here in Napa. I am not putting too much thought into one over the other but would lean distance. Although the course is lined with trees the immediate fairway is forgiving and players will still have birdie opportunities on plenty of holes if they are a bit wayward off of the tee.
Shots Gained: Approach is important as always. I will be using our DFS Army VIP Research Station which tracks players strokes gained in relation to the field, giving you their true statistics in all categories. For Web.com graduates I will be looking at recent form to identify who has been playing well.
Overall I will be weighting stats well looking for price discrepancies across DraftKings, FanDuel and Fantasydraft. You will often see early in the year the pricing algorithm’s used can be a little off on different players.
Picks
Tony Finau – GPP – DK: $11,500
Finau is the highest priced salary this week and deservedly so. He is coming into this week with great form following two straight seventh-place finishes. Although they happened in smaller field events these results were against the best in the world. Statistically, Finau is dominating off of the tee recently, a quick glance at our VIP Research Station shows he is right at the top of the field in this regard. On a course with plenty of scoring opportunities, I like Finau’s chances this week.
Keegan Bradley – Cash – DK: $9300
Bradley made ten straight cuts to finish the season. His form is definitely there and although the salary seems high for the quality of tournament field his price is more than fair. Much like Chez Reavie with solid recent performances I would expect Bradley to be cash chalk and feel that this is well deserved.
Chez Reavie – Cash – DK: $8900
Reavie finished the PGA season on a high note making 11 straight cuts. In those 11 tournaments, Reavie finishes inside of the top 25 six times. With a very reasonable price given his recent form and the tournament field, Reavie makes for a great cash game play. Given his recent string of made cuts, this is likely to make Reavie a highly owned player. Although he finished inside of the top 25 over half of his recent appearances he has only finished inside of the top five once. This makes him a potential GPP fade.
Brice Garnett – GPP – DK: $7600
The leading money winner among Web.com tour graduate has shown to have a knack of finishing near the top of leaderboards this season. In his last 10 starts Garnett has been red hot with two wins and seven finishes inside of the top 20. His up and down play makes him an unnecessary risk in cash formats but I like his high ceiling for GPP formats.
Final thoughts
In the first event of the year, there is lots of uncertainty. Later on, in the week our Domination Station and PGA Research Station will be out with projections, stats and plenty of information that can help with building lineups. Throughout the week our VIP members also have access to our Slack Chat which gives members the opportunity to bounce ideas off of one another which is great for getting a feel for what others are thinking.
Other DFS Army PGA Golf Tools and Articles
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