Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Fantasy Golf: The Zurich Classic Preview

You have to hand it to the folks at the Zurich Classic for coming-up with a way to make one of the Tour's most ignorable events interesting by turning it into a two-man affair. It went from an event with a couple of headliners that I might watch twenty minutes of on Sunday to one with twelve of the best players in the world that will now grab my attention for parts of four days. Well played gentlemen. Treat yourself to an extra beignet this weekend. 

So who's gonna win? Well the obvious pick would be the team of Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson especially considering that Rose is one of the "A" list players who actually has a strong track record at TPC Louisiana with a win in 2015, a tie for 8th in 2014 along with two other top 20's. Right behind them would be the team of Jason Day and Rickie Fowler with Day finishing 5th last year and 4th in 2014. 

Her name is Tori Slater and
you should google that.
I am, however, reluctant to use a top tier player in a somewhat gimmicky format on a gimmicky course so instead, I'm hedging a bit and going with Daniel Berger for three reasons: (1) He likes the course having finished T20th last year and T6th in 2014; (2) he's partnered with Ryder Cup stud Thomas Pieters and (3) so I have an excuse to post a picture of his girlfriend (didn't see that coming). 

If you're looking for a team that might excel sheerly by getting under everyone else's skin, then look no further than the combo of Bryson DeChambeau and Rory Sabbatini (think Marmalard and Niedermeyer). And if you're looking for a darkhorse pick, check-out Jason Dufner and Patton Kizzire. Dufner won the damn thing in 2012 and Kizzire finished T8th last year.

But that's not the real reason I brought-up Dufner. It was really just a cheap segue into a brief commentary on what he did at the RBC Heritage the week before last.  During the final round, he missed about a four foot putt by a mile, made the next one and then proceeded to drop his putter in disgust on the spot and leave it there for his caddie to retrieve. If you haven't seen the video, here you go:
Somehow a debate ensued on-line (of course it did) over whether this was a dick move or not. Those who said it was not pointed-out that Dufner's caddie had to put the flagstick back anyway so he was going to be right there and that's what he gets paid for. Others speculated that maybe he gave Dufner a bad read on the first putt. 

Allow me to offer the perspective of someone who has had the occasional issue with caddies and has spent many a back nine looking over his shoulder to make sure he's not about to get a freshly cleaned sand wedge buried in the back of his skull. What Dufner did was a serious dick move and, if you don't think it was a dick move, then there's a good chance that you're a dick.

You can give a caddie the stink eye, openly question his read or even take your club over and slam it down on your bag but don't embarrass him by just nonchalantly dropping it in the middle of the green and walking away. That would be like sitting in a meeting full of people, throwing an apple core at the trash can, missing and then telling your assistant to go pick it up. That's some degrading fraternity pledge level shit right there. Next thing you know Dufner's going to tell his caddie he's got to guzzle a bottle of Mad Dog 20/20 and then fuck a goat which really isn't as bad as . . . hmmm nevermind.     

Email the Fantasy Golf Report at fgr@fantasygolfreport.com.   

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