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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The Open Championship Review
Rory McIlroy – 88.5 DK Points
At the beginning of the week I assumed ownership among the top five salaries would somewhat be split. As the week went along it became apparent that ownership would be going to Rose and DJ which led me heavily onto McIlroy. Fortunately for me, Rory finished with the highest DK Points of the top five salaries.
Rickie Fowler – 67 DK Points
In the next grouping I was really high on Rickie. I thought for multiple reasons that Rickie would be finishing in the hunt on Sunday and I wanted my shares in GPP’s. While Rickie was not the best in this 9K salary grouping he was only beaten by Tommy Fleetwood, good for 2nd out of the 5 9-10K salaries.
Tiger Woods – 80.5 DK Points
I felt given the expected ownership that Tiger was a great fade for the week. Although that was super worrying midway through Sunday, Tiger faltered on the back 9 and his 80.5 DK Points were in no way destroying to my lineups.
Francesco Molinari – 106 DK Points
Sometimes, being wrong works out in DFS. I was unsure whether to be overweight or underweight on Molinari for the week. Because of Woods, Day & Casey above in salary and Noren, Stenson & Mickelson below I thought Molinari would slip through the cracks despite great recent results. Because of this I decided to go overweight with 30% ownership in GPP’s. Molinari ended up 20% owned and was the only player scoring above 100 DK Points on the week.
Henrik Stenson – 56.5 DK Points
I loved Stenson this week with the idea that people may be off of him because of his withdrawal. As the week went on and Stenson clarified that if he tees up he plans to finish on the week I figured his ownership would see somewhat of an uptick. Stenson finished right around 19% across major GPP’s.
Hao-Tong Li – 62.5 DK Points
Li was my favourite pivot against super high owned Tony Finau and Zach Johnson. While the 2% ownership was great the 62.5 DK Points were only average and did not help when the chalk outscored Hao-Tong for the week.
Tony Finau – 79.5 DK Points
Tony was a core cash game play for me and someone I wanted to match the field on in GPP’s.
The Canadian Open Preview
The PGA returns to my home and native land this week for The Canadian Open. The event takes place and Glen Abbey Golf Club, a 7,253 yard par 72. I played this course weeks after the Canadian Open last year and well for me I barely broke 100 Glen Abbey is one of the easier events of the season. Last year we saw the cut happen at -3 while the winner, Jhonattan Vegas was one of three players to shoot -20 for the week.
Glen Abbey features four par fives that are all reachable in two for these pros and success on these holes is absolutely critical for success this week. Although it is only four holes, I will be prioritizing par five scoring on this week and looking for guys who can get us some eagles.
Glen Abbey also has a number of short par fours. In total, there are six par fours measuring between 400-450 yards meaning players will have plenty of birdie opportunities with a wedge into the green this week.
I will also be prioritizing scrambling this week. Although there are multiple opportunities to score this week there are many tricky spots that arise on Glen Abbey if players make mistakes. With over 100 bunkers across the course and many tough shots if you miss the green I think players that can save their pars when they are in trouble will put themselves in a good position to win this week.
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Interesting Players
Dustin Johnson – DK: $11700 FD: $12500
In his three appearances at Glen Abber it seems as if DJ brings his A game, it’s almost as if he has some sort of connection to Canada? With two 2nd place finishes and an 8th in three appearances DJ is always a solid option at this venue. DJ has historically dominated these easy par fives and been able to rack up plenty of fantasy points. However, DJ is the obvious play up top and will certainly garner plenty of ownership despite the missed cut at The Open Championship. It’s very risky fading a top end player in an event with a less than stellar field and I certainly wont be doing so but as of now I do see myself being underweight on DJ in GPP’s. More thoughts to come tomorrow in our SlackChat where I will elaborate on this.
Bubba Watson – DK :$9600 FD: $11600
Bubba garnered barely any ownership last week for The Open Championship and for those few that did he was extremely disappointing. Coming off of a missed cut and being priced between Tony Finau and Matt Kuchar (two popular players both showing form) I could see Bubba slipping through the cracks. Bubba has shown he can compete here before with a 2nd place finish in 2015 and if his putter can get hot I think Bubba could outperform his comparable salaries at a fraction of the price.
Brandt Snedeker – DK: $8500 FD: $11300
If you thought DJ’s 2nd 2nd and 8th place finishes were impressive you clearly did not pay attention to Snedeker’s 1st 5th and 5th in his three appearances. Snedeker is an obvious cash game play on DK and will very likely be one of the highest owned plays in GPP’s this week.
Jhonattan Vegas – DK: $7500 FD: $8700
Not only is he the defending champion, Vegas is looking for a three-peat here this weekend. Despite the terrific recent course history, Vegas is coming into the event struggling. However, in 2017 when Vegas won he came into the event with five straight missed cuts and his 2016 results prior to the Canadian Open are not the greatest either. Vegas is very interesting to me this week and a player I will be writing up in our VIP notes for SlackChat members.
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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