Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Fantasy Golf: The WGC-Bridgestone Preview

The schedule change that resulted in the WGC-Bridgestone being played two weeks before the British Open really gutted this sucker as we will be without the services of Rory McIlroy, Henrik Stenson, Danny Willett and Sergio Garcia but fear not as the field will include household names (in their own parents' households) like Michio Matsummura, Brian Stuard, Nathan Holman and Yosuke Tsukada. With McIlroy, Stenson and Sergio skipping, Keegan Bradley and Luke Donald failing to qualify and Tiger off in his new bizarre reality where he shows-up to his tournament on Sunday dressed in his red shirt like he's playing but instead he's grinding through a ceremonial role (that felt more awkward for the viewer than Magic Johnson and Chevy Chase's talk shows), it means that eight of the thirteen 1-2 finishers from the past five years will not be there. So where does that leave us? 

Well, the five 1-2 guys who will be playing are Bubba Watson, Adam Scott, Rickie Fowler, Jim Furyk and defending champion Shane Lowry. The games of Scott and Fowler can currently be rated somewhere between "crappy" and "kinda crappy" and last year's runner-up finish by Bubba was the only time he's placed better than a tie for 19th at Firestone. That leaves Furyk and Lowry as your two horses for the course who are also playing well having both tied for second at Oakmont. Your other options are Brooks Koepka who finished T6th last year and has been on a roll and Justin Rose who finished T3rd last year, T4th in 2014 and T5th in 2012 but he's been having back issues so proceed with caution (see: Tiger Woods).   

Firestone is tough on sleepers so I wouldn't look much deeper than David Lingmerth, Harris English or Emiliano Grillo for your longshot picks. This isn't going to be like last week when I handed you Billy Hurley, III and Jon Rahm (you're welcome). You might find a 100-1 shot sneak into the top ten but that's about as far as he's gonna get before he gets suplexed by security. And that will conclude arguably the most clinical, dry and downright boring edition of the FGR in recent memory. We'll make it up to you in the photography section.

The WGC-Bridgestone Odds
You can always count on Maxim
to clear-up your writer's block.


1. Jason Day - 11/2
2. Dustin Johnson - 8/1
3. Jordan Spieth - 9/1
4. Adam Scott - 18/1
5. Brooks Koepka - 20/1
6. Matt Kuchar - 22/1
7. Justin Rose - 25/1
7. Branden Grace - 25/1
7. Jim Furyk - 25/1
7. Bubba Watson - 25/1
11. Shane Lowry - 28/1
12. Hideki Matsuyama - 30/1
12. Rickie Fowler - 30/1
12. Patrick Reed - 30/1
15. Zach Johnson - 35/1

The One and Done Pick: Jim Furyk

The Sleeper Pick: David Lingmerth
Or your double vision . . .
or something.

Fifteen Guys We Like in DraftKings

Jason Day - $12,100
Brooks Koepka - $9,900
Jim Furyk - $9,500
Shane Lowry - $8,700
Jason Dufner - $8,500
Daniel Berger - $8,200
Paul Casey - $7,800
David Lingmerth - $7,600
Russell Knox - $7,500
Harris English - $7,300
Kevin Na - $7,300
Emiliano Grillo - $7,000
Chris Kirk - $7,000
Kevin Kisner - $6,800
Soren Kjeldsen - $6,700

One and Done Picks to Date

Hyundai:
Dustin Johnson
$148,000
Sony:
Matt Kuchar
$77,604
CareerBuilder:
Ryan Palmer
$75,897
Farmers:
Brandt Snedeker
$1,170,000
Phoenix:
Hideki Matsuyama
$1,170,000
Pebble Beach:
Jimmy Walker
$143,500
Northern Trust:
Sergio Garcia
$0
Honda:
Patrick Reed
$0
Cadillac:
Rickie Fowler
$197,500
Valspar
Ryan Moore
$414,800
Palmer:
Henrik Stenson
$365,400
Match Play:
Branden Grace
$90,900
Houston Open:
Phil Mickelson
$160,760
Masters:
Adam Scott
$37,000
Heritage:
Kevin Kisner
$11,859
Texas Open:
Charley Hoffman
$1,116,000
Zurich:
Billy Horschel
$28,029
Wells Fargo:
Kevin Chappell
$22,642
Players:
Rory McIlroy
$212,625
Nelson:
Marc Leishman
$0
Colonial:
Jason Dufner
$216,913
Memorial:
Paul Casey
$0
FedEx:
Brooks Koepka
$462,933
US Open:
Jason Day
$247,806
Quicken:
Brendan Steele
$28,290

Total
$6,398,458


Email the Fantasy Golf Report at fgr@fantasygolfreport.com

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Fantasy Golf: Quicken Loans National Preview

We're going to try to rebound from our specific instructions to NOT pick Dustin Johnson and Jim Furyk at the U.S. Open. I did, however, qualify the D.J. advice by saying there was a reverse jinx factor due to the fact that I drafted him third overall in a season-long format back in January. That's starting to look kind of shrewd as is Sergio Garcia with the 22nd overall pick.

On the other hand, I also called Shane Lowry the worst pick of a Round 4 which included Hunter Mahan, Keegan Bradley, Matt Jones and Brendon DeJonge. On the other OTHER hand, I called J.B. Holmes the worst pick of Round 2, Steven Bowditch the worst pick of Round 3, Tiger Woods the worst pick of Round 5 and Sang Moon "Out for the Year Due to Military Service" Bae the worst pick of Round 6 so I at least kind of know what I'm doing here. I did not declare a worst pick in Round 1 because it was pretty much chalk, however, Ricky Fowler is starting to look very sketchy at no. 5 overall.     


And that smoothly segues us to this week where our suddenly dimming star is the favorite against a "B" field on an "A" course. Does Rickie finally start to get his act together this week? Maybe. But, based on current performance and the results from when this event was played at Congressional back in 2012-14, there appear to be better options in Jim Furyk, Bill Haas and Brendan Steele. The wild card this week is Bryson DeChambeau who has gotten back on track after his mini rookie slump. He's obviously a big stage player with strong showings at the Masters and U.S. Open. We'll see if playing at Congo is enough to get his attention.   


The Quicken Loans Odds
Featuring an old favorite this week.

1. Rickie Fowler - 14/1

2. Patrick Reed - 16/1
3. Jim Furyk - 20/1
4. Gary Woodland - 25/1
5. Charley Hoffman - 28/1
6. Marc Leishman - 28/1
7. Bill Haas - 30/1
8. Justin Thomas - 30/1
9. Byeoung Hun An - 30/1
10. Brendan Steele - 33/1
11. Ryan Palmer - 33/1
12. Bryson DeChambeau - 33/1
13. Jamie Lovemark - 40/1
14. Kevin Chappell - 40/1
15. Tony Finau - 40/1

The One and Done Pick: Brendan Steele


The Sleeper Pick: Billy Hurley, III
Gulp. Is that a Taylor Made?

Fifteen Guys We Like in DraftKings

Jim Furyk - $11,300
Ryan Palmer - $10,200
Brendan Steele - $9,900
Bill Haas - $9,200
Tony Finau - $8,500
Jason Kokrak - $8,300
Jamie Lovemark - $8,200
Kevin Streelman - $8,100
Kyle Reifers - $7,700
Adam Hadwin - $7,500
David Hearn - $7,400
Jon Rahm - $7,300
Smylie Kaufman - $6,700
Ben Martin - $6,600
Billy Hurley, III - $6,400

One and Done Picks to Date

Hyundai:
Dustin Johnson
$148,000
Sony:
Matt Kuchar
$77,604
CareerBuilder:
Ryan Palmer
$75,897
Farmers:
Brandt Snedeker
$1,170,000
Phoenix:
Hideki Matsuyama
$1,170,000
Pebble Beach:
Jimmy Walker
$143,500
Northern Trust:
Sergio Garcia
$0
Honda:
Patrick Reed
$0
Cadillac:
Rickie Fowler
$197,500
Valspar
Ryan Moore
$414,800
Palmer:
Henrik Stenson
$365,400
Match Play:
Branden Grace
$90,900
Houston Open:
Phil Mickelson
$160,760
Masters:
Adam Scott
$37,000
Heritage:
Kevin Kisner
$11,859
Texas Open:
Charley Hoffman
$1,116,000
Zurich:
Billy Horschel
$28,029
Wells Fargo:
Kevin Chappell
$22,642
Players:
Rory McIlroy
$212,625
Nelson:
Marc Leishman
$0
Colonial:
Jason Dufner
$216,913
Memorial:
Paul Casey
$0
FedEx:
Brooks Koepka
$462,933
US Open:
Jason Day
$247,806

Total
$6,370,168