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 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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Before we begin a big congratulations to longtime DFS Army member Oysterdood on his incredible $100,000 win!
Canadian Open Review
Dustin Johnson – Win
Dustin Johnson didn’t blow out the field but he basically did from a fantasy perspective. DJ finished with over 20 DK points more than anyone else with an incredible 155.5 total DK Points. I wrote up how I would be playing DJ but a little but under expected ownership. I decided as the week went on to try and match the field and set DJ at 30%. DJ ended up being 32% owned in the $5 GPP.
Bubba Watson – MC
I wrote up Bubba as a potential low owned GPP play but as the week went on it became apparent Bubba would garner ownership I became much more comfortable going to lower salaries with lower ownership. Thankfully, others talking up Bubba got me off of him and GPP’s and he was never really a possibility for me in cash game formats.
Brandt Snedeker – T8
Snedeker is another guy who my initial thought turned out to be untrue. I thought Snedeker would garner considerable ownership even with Hoffman right by him in salary. Despite advocating for Snedeker in my initial article and in our SlackChat he did not find his way into my final line-up, oops.
Jhonattan Vegas – T29
Vegas came into the event as the back-to-back champion and despite absolutely horrendous recent form he was able to put out a solid performance. Vegas has shown a history in the past of popping up despite recent performance which put me back onto him for the week, despite concerns about his recent play. Vegas didn’t crack my cash game line-up but ended up being used in 15% of my line-ups.
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Bridgestone Invitational Preview
*I want to emphasize just how important it is to alter your strategy in GPP’s AND Cash Games in these small field no cut events. While many avoid cash games entirely in the no cut events I personally think there is still enough of an edge and I will be sharing these thoughts with all members in our SlackChat.*
The PGA Tour is leaving Canada and heading to Akron, Ohio for the WGC Bridgestone Invitational. As per usual, this event is taking place at Firestone Country Club, a long par 70 measuring over 7,400 yards. As mentioned above, this event is an invitational meaning we have a small field of under 80 players and no cut to worry about.
At 7,400 yards the course is very long but we have seen both long and short hitters perform well here. There are a lot of narratives about which is more important at this event but I will be relying on our Research Station to display exactly which has been more important to success over the years.
With the course being long there will be quite a few approach shots relying on long irons this week, regardless of distance off of the tee. With many long par fours, three par threes over 200 yards and a very long 667 yard par five I will be emphasizing long iron approaches much more than usual for the week.
With only two par fives (par 70) I will be focusing very little on par five scoring, especially with one par five measuring 667 yards. Similarly, with three long par threes I wont really be focusing on these holes either. Instead I will be looking at par four scoring and using our Research Station to show which players have had success over a large sample as well as recent success on similar holes.
Finally, with every player making the cut I will be looking for players who can rack up the fantasy points. Although you should always be doing this it is even more imperative in a no cut event, as a result I will be weighting Birdie or Better % higher than usual. With that being said, the same thought is echoed across the industry and these birdie makers also garner lots of ownership in these no cut events. I will be discussing roster construction later in the week in SlackChat and when I go for the birdie makers versus when I pivot off to lower owned players.
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Interesting Plays
Dustin Johnson – DK: $11700 FD: $12700
Which DJ will we get this week? The one that dominated The Canadian Open or the one that missed the cut at The Open Championship? In these no cut events DJ is usually someone praised by just about everybody. Very few can get on a roll like DJ and rack up the fantasy points. Conversely, DJ is also the highest salary in an absolutely stacked field; although you can still make a very good team with DJ in it you can create a great team by avoiding these top salaries. For me I will base my decision on where I feel ownership will be. If DJ gets too high I’m comfortable fading with a great field and using superstars at a bargain. If it looks more of the field is likely to do the latter I am also comfortable loading up on DJ and hopefully watching him load up on birdies throughout the week.
Tiger Woods – DK: $10800 FD: $11300
The price makes much more sense on FanDuel compared to DraftKings but either way I think Tiger will be very highly owned. This is essentially the event you think of when you think of Tiger winning (outside of Majors, of course) and I’m sure you’ll hear all about his winning record at Bridgestone throughout the week. Recently, Tiger has looked great in recent weeks with a T6 at The Open Championship and a T4 at the Quicken Loans. I’m really not sure what I will be doing with Tiger this week but I will definitely discuss him later on in the week.
Justin Thomas – DK: $8800 FD: $11400
JT sees himself right on the bottom end of salaries of the elite golfers over on DraftKings. Thomas missed the cut in his last appearance at The Open Championship and appears to be trending in the wrong direction with no top fives since March 1st. With all of that said I think you can get JT at a great price and still see relatively little ownership with all of the great options around the same price. I think for GPP’s JT makes a great play and as of now will be someone I am targeting.
$8000-$7800 (Tony Finau, Xander Schaufelle, Marc Leishman, Bryson Dechambeau)
As you scroll through the salaries there are plenty of players at great prices. While many will be going stars and “scrubs” and relying on the low 7k guys (I’ll attempt to identify which of these will be chalk in SlackChat) I think this range will be incredibly interesting and a great place to either eat the chalk or attempt to differentiate your line-up from the field. All four players are viable for different reasons and all guys I will go into greater detail about in our SlackChat.
As always, these are initial thoughts and not necessarily the plays I will be making. As the week goes on I will update my thoughts in our member SlackChat as well as discussing multiple other players and my thoughts for both Cash and GPP’s.
Other DFS Army PGA Golf Tools and Articles
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