Fantasy Golf: The Farmers Insurance Open Preview

I'm going to try to write this while "participating" in my son's Zoom college counseling night so it's a race against time to finish this before I turn the gas on the stove and start taking deep breaths. For those who have not endured this process yet, I can tell you that it might be worse the second time around because you've heard all of the earnestly delivered useless information before and no one thinks they have more important things to say than the assistant dean of admissions at a marginally above average liberal arts college. It's like spending hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to send your kid to Fyre Festival for four years in the hopes that they'll end-up with the next Mark Zuckerberg* as their roommate.   

TWEET OF THE WEEK

And of course the tour guides are just future members of the admissions team . . . 

GOLF ANALYSIS THAT REALLY TRIGGERS THE SENSES

We get our first full field kick-ass line-up of the season and I am all here for it. I don't know about you but I'm relying more and more on sports to fill my entertainment voids and, despite my traditional love of college and pro basketball, it doesn't even feel like they exist right now. I heard Dick Vitale shouting about something the other day and reflexively yelled at Alexa to shut the fuck up. 

So thank god for golf and bring on Rahm and Rory and Xander and even Patrick Reed for chrissakes. The Farmers usually delivers the goods and is on a great recent run of winners that include Rahm, Justin Rose, Jason Day, Marc Leishman and Brandt Snedeker. I expect the same this year with at least one of the young studs like Matthew Wolff, Scottie Scheffler or Viktor Hovland being heavily involved.  

It's impossible not to pick Rahm based on his track record. The moment you even think about it, you just picture him at the top of the weekend leaderboard and think "don't be a fool." Same for Tony Finau who is a virtual lock for a top ten even if he has no chance of winning. As for the youth movement, I'm going with Wolff who has been playing like crap lately which is no indicator for him as his last win was preceded by a run of T50 . . . T80 . . . MC. He just feels due.

Leishamn and Day are the light versions of Rahm. And Gary Woodland is a great fit for this place as evidenced by his four consecutive top 20's before missing the cut last year. As noted last week, I'm riding the Talor Gooch train to its final destination whether that be a win or a slew of missed cuts (so far so good with a T21 last week). And I just pick Max Homa any chance I get because it's impossible not to root for Max Homa.

As for the bargain guys, Tom Hoge has a real affinity for these courses and, I know I'll hate myself for it later but I can't resist taking J.B. Holmes at a place where he's contended in the past even if he's a missed cut waiting to happen. 

This week is all about passion!!!

One and Done Pick: Jon Rahm

Other Guy I'd Pick: Matthew Wolff

Sleeper Pick: Tom Hoge

DraftKings Top Ten Values

Jon Rahm	$11,300
Tony Finau	$10,700
Matthew Wolff	$9,100
Marc Leishman	$8,700
Jason Day	$8,600
Gary Woodland	$7,800
Talor Gooch	$7,600
Max Homa	$7,400
J.B. Holmes	$6,900
Tom Hoge	$6,900

All kinds of good intel in this week's chart if you believe in past performance. From Brandt Snedeker to Patrick Rodgers, there are plenty of guys who find new life at Torrey Pines. Only question is whether they'll find it this year. 

                                     THE LARRY KING MEMORIAL**

                               HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE CHART

	DK Price	2020	2019	2018	2017	2016
Jon Rahm	$11,300	2nd	T5	T29	1st	DNP
Rory McIlroy	$11,000	T3	T5	DNP	DNP	DNP
Tony Finau	$10,700	T6	T13	T6	T4	T18
Xander Schauffele	$10,400	MC	T25	MC	MC	MC
Patrick Reed	$10,100	T6	T13	T23	DNP	W/D
Harris English	$9,800	T71	MC	T8	T14	T31
Sungjae Im	$9,600	T36	T52	DNP	DNP	DNP
Brooks Koepka	$9,400	DNP	DNP	DNP	MC	DNP
Viktor Hovland	$9,300	DNP	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
Hideki Matsuyama	$9,200	T45	T3	T12	T33	MC
Matthew Wolff	$9,100	T21	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Scottie Scheffler	$9,000	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Si Woo Kim	$8,900	DNP	T29	T35	W/D	T18
Bubba Watson	$8,800	T6	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Marc Leishman	$8,700	1st	T43	T8	T20	MC
Jason Day	$8,600	T16	T5	1st	MC	MC
Cameron Smith	$8,500	T64	T9	T20	T33	MC
Ryan Palmer	$8,400	T21	T13	T2	DNP	DNP
Adam Scott	$8,300	DNP	2nd	DNP	DNP	DNP
Billy Horschel	$8,200	T68	8th	T54	T64	T8
Will Zalatoris	$8,100	DNP	DNP	MC	DNP	DNP
Louis Oosthuizen	$8,000	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Rickie Fowler	$8,000	MC	T66	MC	MC	MC
Cameron Champ	$7,900	T16	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
Cameron Davis	$7,900	T36	T57	T58	DNP	DNP
Francesco Molinari	$7,800	MC	DNP	T45	T14	MC
Gary Woodland	$7,800	MC	T9	T12	T20	T18
Corey Connors	$7,700	DNP	DNP	T29	DNP	DNP
Jason Kokrak	$7,700	T21	T20	DNP	MC	T25
Sam Burns	$7,700	T49	T40	MC	DNP	DNP
Emiliano Grillo	$7,600	MC	T52	T12	T33	MC
Jordan Spieth	$7,600	T55	T35	DNP	DNP	DNP
Talor Gooch	$7,600	T36	T3	T51	DNP	DNP
Byeong Hun An	$7,500	T68	DNP	DNP	T49	DNP
Carlos Ortiz	$7,500	MC	MC	DNP	DNP	T49
Charles Howell, III	$7,500	DNP	T20	T6	T2	T16
Charley Hoffman	$7,500	T9	MC	T35	T54	T43
Alex Noren	$7,400	DNP	MC	T2	DNP	DNP
Dylan Frittelli	$7,400	T73	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
Lanto Griffin	$7,400	MC	DNP	T12	DNP	DNP
Max Homa	$7,400	T9	DNP	DNP	MC	DNP
Erik Van Rooyan	$7,300	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Joel Dahmen	$7,300	T55	T9	MC	DNP	DNP
Mackenzie Hughes	$7,300	MC	T29	MC	T54	DNP
Maverick McNealy	$7,300	15th	DNP	T29	DNP	DNP
Adam Hadwin	$7,200	DNP	DNP	T35	T49	T63
Doug Ghim	$7,200	MC	T20	DNP	DNP	DNP
James Hahn	$7,200	DNP	MC	T45	MC	T58
Phil Mickelson	$7,200	MC	DNP	T45	T14	MC
Ryan Moore	$7,200	DNP	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
Doc Redman	$7,100	T64	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Lucas Glover	$7,100	T49	DNP	T67	T33	MC
Rory Sabbatini	$7,100	T36	T70	T20	T14	MC
Sepp Straka	$7,100	MC	T13	DNP	DNP	DNP
Brandt Snedeker	$7,000	T3	T62	T45	T9	1st
Cameron Tringale	$7,000	T55	MC	DNP	73rd	MC
Harold Varner, III	$7,000	MC	MC	MC	MC	T31
John Huh	$7,000	T45	T25	DNP	DNP	T8
Matt Jones	$7,000	T73	T13	MC	DNP	T31
Russell Knox	$7,000	T21	T43	T29	DNP	DNP
Harry Higgs	$6,900	T9	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Henrik Norlander	$6,900	MC	DNP	DNP	MC	T43
J.B. Holmes	$6,900	T16	MC	4th	T33	T6
Kevin Streelman	$6,900	T45	MC	T29	T67	3rd
Tom Hoge	$6,900	5th	MC	T12	DNP	MC
Luke List	$6,800	T36	T40	T12	MC	MC
Martin Laird	$6,800	T55	T43	MC	T74	T8
Patrick Rodgers	$6,800	T9	MC	MC	T4	MC
Kyle Stanley	$6,700	MC	MC	T51	T14	T25
Richy Werenski	$6,700	T73	MC	MC	T20	DNP
Scott Stallings	$6,600	T49	T43	MC	MC	T25

Footnote

* True story that the first two times I typed that name it came out as "Suckerberg" and then "Fuckerberg" and you will never convince me that someone at Google doesn't snicker every time that happens. 

** If you're in the mood for a classic Larry King moment, click here.

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