Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Fantasy Golf: The Quicken Loans National Preview

If you thought last week's preview was light, prepare yourself to done on half a rice cake spritzed with olive oil this week because I just spent the past twenty-four hours trucking my family up the east coast and all over Massachusetts to end-up in a house with one TV (that's smaller than my laptop) and no air conditioning. In other words, I don't have much to give. Say what you want about the value of abandoning modern conveniences for the sake of blah blah blah. Go ahead. Say whatever you want because I'm not listening anyway.*

But dammit we have a golf tournament to preview and, even thought it sports a field that only goes three deep with real talent, it deserves our undivided attention for at least the fifteen minutes it's going to take me to bang-out these three paragraphs. I couldn't even find a creative pick in the second tier as it appears that the games of guys like Bill Haas, Gary Wooodland and Harris English have all gone south. It therefore has all the makings of a first time winner which is why we're throwing some love at Justin Thomas and Will Wilcox. Who knows? Maybe we'll get another gift like last week when the three favorites and a local hero made it interesting down the stretch. Yeah, and maybe they're delivering the 60" plasma to this sweat lodge tomorrow morning. 

The Quicken Loans National Odds
You know what I always say.
When life hands you lemons . . .

1. Justin Rose - 8/1
2. Rickie Fowler - 9/1
3. Jimmy Walker - 14/1
4. Justin Thomas - 25/1
5. Tony Finau - 33/1
6. Bill Haas - 33/1
7. Gary Woodland - 40/1
8. Harris English - 40/1
9. Brendan Steele - 40/1
10. Danny Lee - 40/1

The FGR Quicken Loans Picks

1. Jimmy Walker
2. Rickie Fowler
3. Justin Rose
4. Justin Thomas
5. Will Wilcox

The FGR One and Done Pick: Justin Thomas

The FGR Sleeper Pick: Scott Brown (But really who in the hell knows with this field?)

Last Week's Report Card: B
. . . bitch about them relentlessly . . . 

1. Jim Furyk - 4th
2. Matt Kuchar - T7th
3. Charley Hoffman - T7th
4. Tony Finau - T22nd
5. Luke Donald - T74th


One and Done Picks to Date

Hyundai: Kevin Streelman - $70,667
Sony: Chris Kirk - $42,280
Humana: Russell Knox - M/C
Phoenix: Hunter Mahan - $36,729
Farmers: Hideki Matsuyama - M/C
AT&T: Dustin Johnson - $281,067
Northern Trust: Jimmy Walker - $24,120
Honda: Keegan Bradley - M/C
WGC-Cadillac: Bubba Watson - $540,000
Valspar: Jim Furyk - $23,600
Palmer: Brooks Koepka – W/D
. . . . and then turn them into a
sweaty winning FGR theme.
Texas Open: Matt Kuchar - $99,200
Houston Open: Louis Oosthuizen - M/C
Masters: Rory McIlroy - $480,000
Heritage: Patrick Reed - M/C
Zurich: Rickie Fowler - M/C
Match Play: Graeme McDowell - $49,385
Players: Henrik Stenson - $130,857
Wells Fargo: Webb Simpson - $624,800
Colonial: Zach Johnson - $78,780
Byron Nelson: Gary Woodland - $15,407
Memorial: Justin Rose - $669,600
FedEx St. Jude: Billy Horschel - $168,000
U.S. Open: Phil Mickelson - $23,822
Travelers: Brandt Snedeker - $147,200
Greenbrier: Kevin Kisner - $500,267
John Deere: Robert Streb - $84,600
British Open: Sergio Garcia - $305,878
Canadian Open: Charley Hoffman - $174,725

Season Total: $4,570,984


Footnote

* Being deep in the heart of enemy territory ain't helping. I've only been here one day and I'm already about to start punching-out cardboard cutouts of Gronk. 

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

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Fantasy Golf: The Canadian Open Preview

This week for the FGR is going to be more about golfing than writing because (a) I've found a swing that is yielding some birdies and therefore makes me want to play as opposed to skulking up to the first hole and sighing as I stick the tee in the ground (it counts for something that I know I'm this high maintenance right? A little something?); and (2) my British Open picks were pretty damn sad considering I chased the dollar bill on the end of the fishing line into traffic by going with the over-hyped Tommy Fleetwood and Shane Lowry instead of Louis Oostuizen, Jason Day and Justin Rose. 


"YOU GOTTA MAKE THOSE SERGIO!"
At least I didn't sell my one and done pick, Sergio Garcia, out for one of she shiny British cut missers so I got three and half good rounds out of him before he inevitably disapointed me. I'm starting to waiver in my belief that Sergio is going to get that major. His final round back nine misses have become almost fatalistic. If Meet the Parents had been based on his golf career, it would have ended with him spiking the ball into the bride's face, burning the altar and painting Mr. Jinx's tail.  

As for this week's Canadian Open, here's all you need to know. Jim Furyk loves Canada. He also loves the Pittsburgh Steelers so that makes perfect sense (you know because Canada has universal health care and Steeler fans are universally insufferable*). And it apparently doesn't matter to Furyk where they play the tournament because they move it every year and here are five of his last seven results: 2nd, T9th, T14th, 1st and 1st. Not to mention, Glen Abbey which is this year's host, is a short course where you can make a lot of birdies - right up his alley.

If you need to look elsewhere because you've already played the Furyk card (like me), I can't find any reason not to like Charley Hoffman this week. He missed the cut at St. Andrews so he's presumably getting at least a two day jump on the favorites who were in Scotland through Monday. He was also cruising before running into his traditional U.S. Open/British Open speed bumps but he's never finished better than tied for 35th at either of those anyway so no real cause for concern there. He should find the level of competition, the easier course conditions and the annoyingly content spectators much more to his liking north of the border.  

The Canadian Open Odds
[To the tune of "Oh Canada"] 
Oh Canada, what's with 
the one piece suit . . . 

1. Jason Day - 8/1
2. Jim Furyk - 14/1
3. Bubba Watson - 16/1
4. Matt Kuchar - 16/1
5. Luke Donald - 22/1
6. Brooks Koepka - 22/1
7. Hunter Mahan - 28/1
8. Graham DeLaet - 28/1
9. J.B. Holmes - 28/1
10. Ryan Palmer - 30/1

The FGR Canadian Open Picks

1. Jim Furyk
2. Matt Kuchar
3. Charley Hoffman
4. Tony Finau
5. Luke Donald

The FGR One and Done Pick: Charley Hoffman

The FGR Sleeper Pick: Greg Owen


". . . I guess it's not that bad . . ."
Last Week's Report Card: C-

1. Henrik Stenson - T40th
2. Dustin Johnson - T49th
3. Sergio Garcia - T6th
4. Jordan Spieth - T4th
5. Paul Casey - T74th
6. Adam Scott - T10th
7. Shane Lowry - M/C
8. Tommy Fleetwood - M/C
9. Brandt Snedeker - M/C
10. Rickie Fowler - T30th

One and Done Picks to Date

Hyundai: Kevin Streelman - $70,667
Sony: Chris Kirk - $42,280
Humana: Russell Knox - M/C
Phoenix: Hunter Mahan - $36,729
Farmers: Hideki Matsuyama - M/C
AT&T: Dustin Johnson - $281,067
Northern Trust: Jimmy Walker - $24,120
". . . since you gave us Elisha Cuthbert."
Honda: Keegan Bradley - M/C
WGC-Cadillac: Bubba Watson - $540,000
Valspar: Jim Furyk - $23,600
Palmer: Brooks Koepka – W/D
Texas Open: Matt Kuchar - $99,200
Houston Open: Louis Oosthuizen - M/C
Masters: Rory McIlroy - $480,000
Heritage: Patrick Reed - M/C
Zurich: Rickie Fowler - M/C
Match Play: Graeme McDowell - $49,385
Players: Henrik Stenson - $130,857
Wells Fargo: Webb Simpson - $624,800
Colonial: Zach Johnson - $78,780
Byron Nelson: Gary Woodland - $15,407
Memorial: Justin Rose - $669,600
FedEx St. Jude: Billy Horschel - $168,000
U.S. Open: Phil Mickelson - $23,822
Travelers: Brandt Snedeker - $147,200
Greenbrier: Kevin Kisner - $500,267
John Deere: Robert Streb - $84,600
Sergio Garcia - $305,878

Season Total: $4,396,259


* Yet nothing compared to Patriots fans and, if you as a fan base have made yourself more detestable to a Ravens' fan than the Steeler fan base, then I have to say "well played sirs . . . your douchebaggery is without parallel."

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

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Fantasy Golf: The British Open Preview

If you were to call golf's four majors before a committee of historians, writers and all-time great players and have each of them makes its case for why it's the best, the presentations would go something like this:

Masters: (a) Our tournament is played at Augusta National every year; (b) Here is the list of players with the most green jackets . . . Jack Nicklaus (6), Tiger Woods (4), Arnold Palmer (4), Gary Player (3), Sam Snead (3), Nick Faldo (3) and Jimmy Demaret (3); and (c) Our tournament is played at Augusta National every year. Eat it.


U.S. Open: (a) We are the national championship; (b) Our tournament is contested every year (except this one) on one of the most highly regarded courses in the country including Pebble Beach, Shinnecock, Winged Foot, Pinehurst No. 2, Oakmont and Baltusrol; (c) Our list of top winners ain't too shabby either with Jack Nicklaus (4), Bobby Jones (4), Ben Hogan (4) Willie Anderson (4), Tiger Woods (3) and Hale Irwin (3); and (d) We were the setting for The Greatest Game Ever Played.


British Open: (a) We've been around since before the U.S. Open could wipe itself; (b) The guy who's won our title the most, Harry Vardon (6), would have won twenty majors if two of them had existed when he played; (c) We play at St. Andrews once every five years and (d) Peter Alliss.


PGA Championship: (a) We got nothin'; (b) Wait, once Rich Beem did this dance and . . . (c) Forget it, we'll take fourth place and sit down.


Players Championship: (a) We give a ton of money to our winner and . . . hey, let go of my arm. Ok ok I'm going . . . easy on the suit.


From my perspective, it's a toss-up between the top three because they can all make a compelling case and anyone who says that one is clearly better than the others lacks objectivity (objectively speaking). This year, however, the British Open has the opportunity to distinguish itself because it's being played at St. Andrews, the U.S. Open was just played on the parking lot of an abandoned warehouse and we have a potentially epic sports rivalry brewing between Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth (cue the record scratch). 


They made it so damn convincing
that we just had to believe.
And that's my reward for getting a two week jump on the British Open Preview. I was ready to blame myself for jinxing us out of the greatest sports grudge match since Danny Larusso improbably (and I mean really improbably) made it to the finals of the All Valley Karate Championships to face his nemesis, Johnny Lawrence.* But then I remembered that when I just received my weekly email asking whether I was "in or out" for basketball, I responded "out" because I'm scheduled to play in two events that I really don't want to miss with a tweaked ankle or a jammed finger and neither one of them is called the BRITISH FUCKING OPEN.

Seriously Rory. You were less than two weeks out. You've got to go into cocoon mode at that point and emerge on July 16th as the resplendent jewfro rocking golf ball crushing butterfly that you are. Not for you but for us. This new golden era of golf was just emerging from the Tiger wreckage and now you've indefinitely hit the pause button because you couldn't just pull-up a lawn chair and say, "I'm going to sit-out for a couple weeks mates because, you know, I'm the best golfer on the planet and I need to keep playing to keep it that way." I think they would have understood.  

Now our best potential storyline scenarios are the following:

1. Tiger wins. If your initial reaction was to mutter an expletive, then you just proved my point. No one in the history of sports elicits a wider range of emotions than Tiger and I can guarantee you that, if he's in contention on Sunday, the roars at St. Andrews are going to make the '86 Masters sound like a junior swim meet (wait, bad example . . . swimming parents are nuts**). You get the point. If you don't acknowledge that Tiger winning at St. Andrews would be the biggest story in golf since at least 1986, then your view is being obstructed by your agenda.   

2. Spieth wins and keeps his Grand Slam hopes alive but he needs to do it in dramatic fashion and preferably in a playoff over one or two top contenders. The Grand Slam chase is cool but the British Open is only going to be great if the British Open itself is great (does that make sense?). 

3. Some combination of at least three of Sergio Garcia, Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler, Jason Day and Henrik Stenson find themselves in a playoff/cage match to see who can drop out of the best player never to win a major conversation first.  

Here is what I think is going to happen. Spieth will play valiantly but get tripped-up by St. Andrews somewhere along the way - probably by the weather as he appears to be on the bad side of the draw (more on that below). That will clear the way for one of our potential first time major winners to make his move and I'm banking that it's either Sergio who has eight top tens at the Open since 2001 and two runner-ups, Stenson who finished 2nd the last time he teed it up and tied for 3rd the last time the Open was at St. Andrews in 2010 or D.J. who is playing out of his mind and should have won it back in 2011.*** In the end I'm going with Sergio as my one and done pick but it's only because I've had him in this spot since January and every other mid-season change I've made has come back to haunt me. 

Remember, however, that I'm limited by the players I've already wasted . . . um used this season so I do not have D.J., Stenson or Fowler at my disposal. If I did, I'd take Stenson based on his recent form and the fact that it looks like he's getting the favorable weather draw by playing Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. Sergio on the other hand will be playing Thursday morning and Friday afternoon (when the weather is supposed to get really dicey) and that scares the crap out of me because no one has ever accused him of "rolling with the punches" or "making the best of a bad situation." Then again, no one has ever accused me of those things either so maybe this is meant to be. The bottom line is that I am not leaving my wingman . . . even if it's Sergio.  

The British Open Odds
Looks like our favorite Brit Rosie
Jones is up to her old tricks again.


1. Jordan Spieth - 6/1
2. Dustin Johnson - 12/1
3. Justin Rose - 18/1
4. Adam Scott - 20/1
5, Rickie Fowler - 20/1
6. Henrik Stenson - 20/1
7. Louis Oostuizen - 22/1
8. Tiger Woods - 30/1
9. Jason Day - 30/1
10. Paul Casey - 30/1

The FGR British Open Picks

1. Henrik Stenson
2. Dustin Johnson
3. Sergio Garcia
4. Jordan Spieth
5. Paul Casey
6. Adam Scott
7. Shane Lowry
8. Tommy Fleetwood
9. Brandt Snedeker
That little minx.
10. Rickie Fowler

The One and Done Pick: Sergio Garcia

The Sleeper Pick: Francesco Molinari

Last Week's Report Card: A-


1. Jordan Spieth - 1st
2. Kevin Kisner - T35th
3. Zach Johnson - T3rd
4. Robert Streb - T14th
5. Jerry Kelly - 17th

One and Done Picks to Date

Hyundai: Kevin Streelman - $70,667
Sony: Chris Kirk - $42,280
Humana: Russell Knox - M/C
Phoenix: Hunter Mahan - $36,729
Farmers: Hideki Matsuyama - M/C
AT&T: Dustin Johnson - $281,067
Northern Trust: Jimmy Walker - $24,120
Not sure what we'd do without her.
Honda: Keegan Bradley - M/C
WGC-Cadillac: Bubba Watson - $540,000
Valspar: Jim Furyk - $23,600
Palmer: Brooks Koepka – W/D
Texas Open: Matt Kuchar - $99,200
Houston Open: Louis Oosthuizen - M/C
Masters: Rory McIlroy - $480,000
Heritage: Patrick Reed - M/C
Zurich: Rickie Fowler - M/C
Match Play: Graeme McDowell - $49,385
Players: Henrik Stenson - $130,857
Wells Fargo: Webb Simpson - $624,800
Colonial: Zach Johnson - $78,780
Byron Nelson: Gary Woodland - $15,407
Memorial: Justin Rose - $669,600
FedEx St. Jude: Billy Horschel - $168,000
U.S. Open: Phil Mickelson - $23,822
Travelers: Brandt Snedeker - $147,200
Greenbrier: Kevin Kisner - $500,267
John Deere: Robert Streb - $84,600

Season Total: $4,090,381

Footnotes


* By the way, if you discover that your son's friends have taken to calling him "Johnny," you might have a problem. See Johnny Lawrence (bully), Johnny Manziel (bust) and Johnny Cade (tragic hero). 

Anytime you can work two Ralph
Macchio references into a British
Open
preview, it's been a good day.
** Forget that they run up and down the side of the pool like hyperactive Labrador retrievers, how about the fact that their kids are underwater and consequently "CAN'T HEAR YOU..." 

*** Paul Casey is another intriguing choice. He has six top tens on the PGA Tour this season including a tie for 6th at the Masters and he tied for third at the Open in 2010. The problem with Casey is that it's nearly impossible to envision him winning a major because he gives off that air of just being happy to contend. He's a pretty good value in a salary cap game like Draft Kings though because he's been happy to contend so often this year.  

Email the Fantasy Golf Report at fgr@fantasygolfreport.com

Friday, July 10, 2015

Fantasy Golf: FGR Rankings Update

We're going to kick-off the British Open preview section with a special edition and for that I want to take you back to the start of the summer of 2012 and ask you to guess who the number one ranked player in the world according to the World Golf Rankings ("WGR) was. Rory McIlroy? Close but he was ranked second. Tiger Woods? Nope. That was prior to his torrid 2013 when he won five times and took over the top spot again. Wait, wait was it then defending Masters champ Bubba Watson? Close again but he was fourth. Lee Westwood? Negative Ghost Rider, he was third. 

At this point, you've either given-up or you're shouting the right answer at the screen which means this is getting annoying for both of us so for those who didn't know, it was Luke Donald despite the fact that his resume at the time included no major titles, only one WGC title (the Matchplay where he didn't face Tiger or anyone else higher than a 4th seed until the final) and only two wins that you would classify as "quality" (back to back European BMW PGA Championships in 2011-12). Based on those relatively meager credentials, we knew something was amiss and the fact that, just over three years later, Donald's tie for 7th at the Travelers Championship "jumped" him from 68th to 65th in the world proves that we were on to his fraudulent claim to the #1 ranking (even though he wasn't really the one making the claim). 

"Luke Donald?!? Well just kiss 
my ass from now on. Not me. 
I'm not gonna take this!"
Now if the Fantasy Golf Report is about nothing else, it is about correcting injustices (forget it, he's rolling) so we set-out to develop a better formula for determining the world's best golfer that didn't give a rat's ass whether a player won the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals Classic or the Transitions Championship (Donald's two most recent PGA Tour wins at the time he was ranked number one). We also wanted a formula that didn't take into account results from the Sunshine Tour and the Asian Development Tour.* 

The initial formula which only gave credit for winning and finishing top ten in majors, WGC events and the Players was very basic and, as it turned out too basic, so we begrudgingly modified it to give nominal credit for PGA and European Tour wins along with success in the FedEx Cup and the Race to Dubai. Those points basically served as tiebreakers between B+ players who could actually win tournaments like Brandt Snedeker and Zach Johnson and those who rarely closed the deal like Hunter Mahan and Steve Stricker. The guiding principle, however, remained the same. Determine who the best players are when they're playing against the other best players on the best courses (and sometimes when they're not playing on the best courses . . . ahem Sawgrass). 

So why rekindle the rankings now after blowing them off for a couple of years? Well, once Rory blew past Donald in the rankings in August of 2012, we all knew who the best player was so there really wasn't any reason to debate it. Then Tiger went nuts in 2013 while Rory swooned and again there was little to debate. Then Rory came back at the end of 2014 and had arguably the greatest three tournament stretch in golf history by winning the British Open, the WGC-Bridgestone and the PGA Championship while Tiger's game started circling the drain again and sanity was restored as the man who is by far the best golfer in the world proved it. And then Jordan Spieth reopened the debate.

As of today, McIlroy has a 1.8481 point lead over Spieth in the WGR (see below). To put that in some perspective, Spieth's lead over third place Bubba Watson is 3.5103. Then it gets bunched with spots four through ten being separated by only 1.2119. But that's per the WGR which counts everything a golfer does from finishing 2nd at the Shell Houston Open to making three 20 footers in a row on the practice green (just kidding but you get the picture). The FGR Rankings don't count any of that crap. All that matters is (a) winning and (b) finishing top ten against the best players in the world. So how do McIlroy and Spieth stack-up if you only measure big game performances? Check this out:        

    FGR Rankings                          World Golf Rankings

McIlroy
180
McIlroy
12.70
Spieth
119
Spieth
10.85
Fowler
94
Watson, B.
7.34
Stenson
87
Johnson, D.
6.76
Johnson, D.
82
Furyk
6.54
Mickelson
80
Stenson
6.49
Watson, B.
77
Rose
6.48
Scott, A.
64
Day
5.68
Furyk
63
Fowler
5.66
Kaymer
50
Garcia
5.55
  
At this point, I'm sure you're saying to yourself "that's outrageous. How can McIlroy have a 61 point lead over Spieth when no other margin in the top ten is greater than 25?" Or you're saying "how freakin' bored do I have to be to still be reading this and how many days until the first preseason game?" Either way, thanks for sticking around and let me explain McIlroy's huge lead by using bullet points so I don't have to bother with a bunch of words to connect my ideas (a/k/a "writing"):
  • Though Spieth won the last two majors, Rory won the two before that so they almost cancel each other out with Spieth getting 98 points for his and Rory getting 90 for his (the more recent the major win, the more points);
  • The FGR Rankings basically count WGC events as half majors because their fields are loaded. In the last twenty-four months, Rory has won two WGC's and finished top ten in two others while Spieth's only top ten is a tie for 9th at last year's Matchplay. The result is a 46-1 thumping by Rory in WGC FGR Ranking points (or WGCFGRRP's for those who like to acronymize** things); 
  • The FGR awards points for winning or finishing top five in the FedEx Cup and the Race to Dubai because those events are also played against strong fields plus they represent a form of sustained excellence. Rory won last year's Race to Dubai and was third in the FedEx Cup. Spieth hasn't done squat in either so that's another 8-0 differential; and
  • The balance of the difference can be found in the fact that, outside of his two major wins, Rory also has four top 10's in the last eight majors while Spieth only has one.
Rory's body of work in the tournaments that matter over the past two years would therefore indicate that we still have some serious separation between #1 and #2. The good news for Spieth is that (a) his next major win will mean a net gain of 48 points; and (b) Rory just wrecked his ankle playing soccer with his friends and is out indefinitely so, while he has padded his resume to build that 61 point lead over the last two years, it could be gone by the time we get to the PGA Championship?

"Hey E . . . we got a little
problem here at the house."
(TANGENT ALERT!!!) While we're here, let's try to imagine that scene as the Rory injury is too important for a footnote. One moment Rory and his boys are drinking beers and kicking it around and the next moment the meal ticket is on the ground writhing in pain. It would be like Johnny Drama practice swinging a 9-iron and accidentally cracking Vince in the nose. If it was a member of Rory's posse who did it, he's about to learn the cruel hard definition of "ostracized."   

OK we're back. Other than having Rory and Spieth too close, the current version of the WGR botches it on a couple of other players. I'm not sure how Rickie Fowler slides all the way to 9th after going 5th-2nd-2nd-3rd in the majors last year and then winning The Players but I guess they're giving Jim Furyk a lot of credit for all of those top tens he had in non-majors against guys like Cameron Tringale, Ryan Palmer and Brendan Steele (all fine players but not exactly Henrik Stenson, Adam Scott and Justin Rose).

And what about Phil Mickelson who, in the last eight majors, has a win and two seconds but sits 21st behind guys like J.B. Holmes (13th), Chris Kirk (19th) and Billy Horschel (20th)? We started with a guessing game so let's end with one. Take a shot at how many top tens those three guys have brought home in the last eight majors. Nope, lower. Keep going. Are you at zero yet? I rest my case.

Footnotes

* Seriously, how can we trust a golf ranking system that includes results from those minor league tours much less the Web.com Tour and PGA Tour Canada? If you're going to drill that deep, then my partner and I should get some love for finishing second in the Newport Flight last week. 

** OMG. It appears that "acronymize" is now considered a real word in some barbaric circles. WTF?!?! 

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

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Fantasy Golf: The John Deere Preview

Ah the "what ifs" of gambling. What if David Lingmerth doesn't make the putt of his life on the first playoff hole at the Memorial? What if I didn't major in romantic poetry in college which clearly led me to picking Mickelson over Spieth at the U.S. Open? ("Though the dull brain perplexes and retards" comes to mind*). What if I hadn't wasted Bubba earlier in the season so I could have started him at the Travelers as the most obvious pick of the year? And finally, what if Kevin Kisner could win a freakin' playoff? That's roughly $4M in earnings that I was THAT close to over the past five weeks and the difference between me being Navin Johnson, gas station attendant and Navin Johnson, inventor/entrepreneur.

This could've been me.
At least I appear to have a pulse and I've gotten back to doling out advice that you should consider following instead of running from like it's someone wearing a "Trump for President" t-shirt. (We try to avoid politics at the FGR but, if you actually think that Donald Trump would make a good president, I don't really give a crap if you read my work). On that light note, let's see if we can keep it going for another week. 

As usual, if Jordan Spieth is in the field, he also gets the top spot but I sure as hell wouldn't make him my one and done pick this week. Steve Stricker is the obviously intriguing choice but it doesn't matter how much you love a course if your game isn't in shape which appears to be the case with him. So I'm going with a slight outlier this week in Robert Streb. It looks like he's finally recovered from his hangover of dominating the fall season and he's ready to win again. Not to mention, who in the hell else am I going to pick? Jerry Kelly? He's old enough to be my older brother for crying out loud.    

The John Deere Classic Odds
John Deere week is
almost too easy . . . 


1. Jordan Spieth - 7/2

2. Zach Johnson - 8/1
3. Kevin Kisner - 18/1
4. Ryan Moore - 25/1
5. Steve Stricker - 28/1
6. Harris English - 33/1
7. Robert Streb - 33/1
8. Brian Harman - 35/1
9. Ton Finau - 40/1
10. Justin Thomas - 40/1

The FGR John Deere Picks


1. Jordan Spieth

2. Kevin Kisner
3. Zach Johnson
4. Robert Streb
5. Jerry Kelly

The FGR One and Done Pick: Robert Streb


The FGR Sleeper Pick: Bo Van Pelt

The One and Done Picks to Date
. . . I SAID TOO EASY!!!

Hyundai: Kevin Streelman - $70,667
Sony: Chris Kirk - $42,280
Humana: Russell Knox - M/C
Phoenix: Hunter Mahan - $36,729
Farmers: Hideki Matsuyama - M/C
AT&T: Dustin Johnson - $281,067
Northern Trust: Jimmy Walker - $24,120
Honda: Keegan Bradley - M/C
WGC-Cadillac: Bubba Watson - $540,000
Valspar: Jim Furyk - $23,600
Palmer: Brooks Koepka – W/D
Texas Open: Matt Kuchar - $99,200
Houston Open: Louis Oosthuizen - M/C
Masters: Rory McIlroy - $480,000
Heritage: Patrick Reed - M/C
Zurich: Rickie Fowler - M/C
Match Play: Graeme McDowell - $49,385
Players: Henrik Stenson - $130,857
Wells Fargo: Webb Simpson - $624,800
Colonial: Zach Johnson - $78,780
Byron Nelson: Gary Woodland - $15,407
Memorial: Justin Rose - $669,600
FedEx St. Jude: Billy Horschel - $168,000
U.S. Open: Phil Mickelson - $23,822
Travelers: Brandt Snedeker - $147,200
Greenbrier: Kevin Kisner - $500,267

Season Total: $4,005,781

Footnote

* And no I cannot quote Keats on demand. I'm not Frasier Crane for chrissake.  

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