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 on DraftKings and FanDuel in both Cash Game and GPP formats. For more updates throughout the week follow me on twitter @_bschnarr
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The Memorial Recap
Jordan Spieth – MC
At the beginning of the week I was BIG on Spieth given the price reduction with all of the options. I thought given his recent performance more people would be off of Jordan and I would have the chance to roster a top-end player at a great price. As the week went on it became apparent that Spieth would see one of the highest ownership numbers among the players priced above $9000, making me lean towards lower owned options in GPP’s such as Rory McIlroy, Hideki Matsuyama and Jason Day.
Tony Finau – T13
I initially thought because of the prices of players surrounding Finau that he might slip through the cracks in GPP’s. As the week went on and everyone was hyping up Finau it became apparent that he would be one of the highest owned players on the slate. Despite the ownership I still used Finau in GPP’s and had him in both of my cash game line-ups.
Kevin Na – MC
Kevin Na has the second highest ownership of any player priced below $8000 and with all of the great options within this price range I was comfortable fading Na entirely in GPP’s. The decision worked out as Na missed the cut and reminded everyone that great recent performance does not always equate to guaranteed success.
Partick Cantlay – 4th
Cantlay’s price surprised me upon my initial look. Despite missing the cut the prior week Cantlay has been the most consistent player over the past year making it to the weekend every single tournament except for the Masters. Despite the price increase, it was not looking like ownership would be overly inflated given multiple options for the week with the great field. I went back to Cantlay for GPP’s which paid off but took him out of cash line-ups.
$7400 Range
You could make a case to play and of the players in this range this week. With that being said, I was a fan of all six players this week and had ownership of all six with Cantlay, Johnson and Hadwin leading the pack for me.
St. Jude Classic Preview
The PGA Tour is heading to Memphis Tennessee to play TPC Southwind, a par 70 measuring 7,244 yards. While some top players choose to take the week off or get some early US Open Practice, others have chosen to attend the St. Jude Classic. This list includes; Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson to name a few. As far as the course goes, there is a whole lot of water for players to contend with and only two par fives which should change your process slightly.
The short course, potential hazards and thin fairways may lead you to lean towards accuracy off the tee here but that really isn’t necessary. Over the years we have seen many different types of players do well here. The fairways are thing but the rough isn’t necessarily penal, as long as players aren’t too wayward off of the tee they should be able to avoid serious hazards.
Instead of focusing on length or distance off the tee I think a greater focus should be put on approach shots for the week. With water coming into play approaching the green becomes that much more crucial to avoid a big number. To be specific, the course features ten water hazards and 94 bunkers so lots of trouble can be found even if you are just a few yards off on approaches.
On the greens this week we see bermuda and a stimpmeter of 11.5-12. Finding players who putt better on bermuda and at that speed can be an indicator of success on the greens for the week.
Finally, par four scoring is critical this week as we see two more then usual. This also means that par five scoring is less important than usual with only two par fives instead of four.
Picks
Tony Finau, Byeong-Hun An, Keagan Bradley
These three see themselves priced right next to one another on DraftKings ($9300, $9200, $9000). All three have been shown solid form as of late and have all placed within the top 10 several times this season. I would guess ownership would still go mostly to Finau, followed by An and then Bradley. Personally, I am leaning An out of the three for GPP’s and Finau for cash games but I will update as the week goes on.
Brandt Snedeker – DK: $7600 FD: $10700
Snedeker is very cheap this week on DraftKings, which makes him a point of interest for me. Although he has been shaky this season Snedeker is in an interesting range with the likes of Lucas Glover, Chez Reavie, Shane Lowry and Corey Conners. I suspect Snedeker will lead the group in terms of ownership but I will be relying heavily on our ownership projections within this range to depict where I will be going in GPP’s.
Joel Dahman – DK: $7100 FD: $8700
On paper Dahman seems to be a great course fit. Dahman has been performing extremely well as of late but his ownership has not shot up despite solid performances for his salary. I will very likely be on Dahman and overweight in GPP’s.
T.J. Vogel – DK $6500 FD: $8000
If you haven’t heard about T.J. Vogel yet you should google his name and see his impressive resume of Monday qualifying wins. Vogel has made three straight cuts in events he has qualified for and if you need a filler and plan on MME some contests I think he’s worth throwing into a few line-ups.
Early Cash game thoughts:
Tony Finau, Charles Howell, Lucas Glover
With three writers, there are lots of opinions being given out to VIP members later in the week closer to lock. I will be going over all of these plays and my thoughts for cash later in the week on our company SlackChat.
Other DFS Army PGA Golf Tools and Articles
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