Fantasy Golf: The U.S. Open Preview

I was due for a stumble and, if you followed my advice last week, at least you didn't waste a Dustin Johnson or Brooks Koepka start. It must be noted, however, that I did pick Lucas Glover to win a golf tournament against professionals and for that my fantasy golf credentials were temporally suspended. Fortunately for all of us, my appeal will push that off until at least the week of the Olympics which will spare you having to hear me extol the virtues of Fabrizio Zanotti's short game. (It's sublime by the way).

TWEET OF THE WEEK

Apparently a bit of a scuffle broke-out at a Korn Ferry Tour qualifier this week. Suffice it to say that if I am Player A in this scenario, Player B's dad is going tail over teakettle right into a very deep greenside bunker right after he decides to run his fucking yap (you have been warned . . . help people look for their damn ball). 

GOLF ANALYSIS FOR THE EASILY DISTR . . . HEY DID YOU SEE THAT?

As fate would have it, I still have Jon Rahm at my disposal after much waffling prior to The Memorial between picking him, Patrick Cantlay or Collin Morikawa (I picked Cantlay in case you hadn't heard). I therefore believe that destiny is calling along with Rahm's recent five year run at the Farmers Insurance Open of 1st, T29, T5, 2nd and T7. He claims to not have hit any shots during his time in isolation like I claim that Friends isn't one of my favorite shows of all-time so I think he'll be ready.

Don't discount the California effect. Some guys dig it and some clearly don't as evidenced by the fact that four of the favorites, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, have combined to win one tour event there. ONE. (Spieth won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in 2017). Apparently the greens roll funny which is undoubtedly related to all of the goddamn socialist vegan homosexualism they encourage and foster.  

So who does play well in Libtardistan besides Rahm? Well the aforementioned Mr. Morikawa is from Los Angeles and won the PGA Championship in San Francisco. He's pretty good. And Xander Schauffele was born in San Diego, went to Long Beach State University and then transferred to San Diego State University which explains why he's always smiling. Oh yeah, he finished T2 here four months ago and no one in the history of golf has ever been more due to win a major considering he's finished top ten in eight of the sixteen he's entered.*  

Tony Finau and Patrick Reed have track records at Torrey Pines almost as impressive as Rahm's and they present an interesting dichotomy because one is a tall lanky athletic guy and the other is a complete douche. Goes to show that there's more than one way to do it.

I literally just reshuffled the entire middle of my line-up after a third glass of wine while listening to the Velvet Underground so you decide how you feel about Corey Conners, Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman being unceremoniously dumped for Paul Casey, Sam Burns and Max Homa. I feel pretty damn good about it at the moment. Meanwhile, Jason Kokrak is a lead-pipe lock for a quality showing (things only wine-buzzed people say about guys who've never finished better than T17 at a major). 

The sleeper crop is a little thin and by "a little thin" I mean "really fucking thin." I'm giving Ryan Palmer a slight nod over Kevin Streelman at the $7,100 level and Brendon Todd is the sub-$7,000 guy by default because I have no interest in the likes of Adam Hadwin (Canadian), Tom Hoge (name's too short) or Mackenzie Hughes (sounds like he plays the second footman on Downton Abbey). Maybe you could talk me into Martin Laird if I crack a second bottle of pinot noir. Maybe.

So that's the preview. Hopefully everyone who was annoyed by the recent lack of pop culture references and footnotes will now be satisfied and leave me alone. (I don't actually hope that).

One and Done Pick: Jon Rahm

In the PGA Tour's defense, he
should've been excused from
the tournament for this shirt.

Other Guy I'd Pick: Xander Schauffele

Sleeper Pick: Brendon Todd

DraftKings Top Ten Values

Jon Rahm	$11,200
Collin Morikawa	$9,500
Xander Schauffele	$9,300
Tony Finau	$8,900
Paul Casey	$7,900
Sam Burns	$7,700
Jason Kokrak	$7,600
Max Homa	$7,300
Ryan Palmer	$7,100
Brendon Todd	$6,900

                          HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE CHART (SORT OF)

I know this isn't technically a "historical performance chart" because (1) they play one of the Farmers Insurance Open rounds on the North Course, and (2) it's not setup for a U.S. Open in February but it's no coincidence that the one major Tiger won on a broken leg was at a place where he also won the regular tour event seven times. No way that overplayed drama goes down at Bethpage or Oakmont. Just sayin'.  

	DK Price	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017
Jon Rahm	$11,200	T7	2nd	T5	T29	1st
Jordan Spieth	$10,900	MC	T55	T35	DNP	DNP
Dustin Johnson	$10,700	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	MC
B. DeChambeau	$10,400	DNP	DNP	DNP	MC	MC
Brooks Koepka	$10,100	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP	MC
Rory McIlroy	$9,900	T16	T3	T5	DNP	DNP
Justin Thomas	$9,700	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Colin Morikawa	$9,500	DNP	T21	DNP	DNP	DNP
Xander Schauffele	$9,300	T2	MC	T25	MC	MC
Viktor Hovland	$9,200	T2	DNP	MC	DNP	DNP
Patrick Cantlay	$9,100	DNP	DNP	MC	T51	DNP
Patrick Reed	$9,000	1st	T6	T13	T23	DNP
Tony Finau	$8,900	T2	T6	T13	T6	T4
Hideki Matsuyama	$8,800	T53	T45	T3	T12	T33
Webb Simpson	$8,700	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Will Zalatoris	$8,600	T7	DNP	DNP	MC	DNP
Scottie Scheffler	$8,500	MC	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
Daniel Berger	$8,400	DNP	DNP	MC	DNP	MC
Tyrrell Hatton	$8,300	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Corey Conners	$8,200	T37	DNP	DNP	T29	DNP
Louis Oosthuizen	$8,100	T29	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Cameron Smith	$8,000	MC	T64	T9	T20	T33
Justin Rose	$8,000	DNP	MC	1st	T8	T4
Abraham Ancer	$7,900	DNP	DNP	MC	T20	DNP
Paul Casey	$7,900	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	T28
Tommy Fleetwood	$7,800	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Matt Fitzpatrick	$7,800	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Sam Burns	$7,700	T18	T49	T40	MC	DNP
Phil Mickelson	$7,700	T53	MC	DNP	T45	T14
Sungjae Im	$7,600	T32	T36	T52	DNP	DNP
Jason Kokrak	$7,600	T29	T21	T20	DNP	MC
Shane Lowry	$7,600	DNP	DNP	DNP	MC	T33
Gary Woodland	$7,500	T48	MC	T9	T12	T20
Joaquin Niemann	$7,500	DNP	T49	T72	DNP	DNP
Sergio Garcia	$7,500	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Bubba Watson	$7,400	MC	T6	DNP	DNP	DNP
Adam Scott	$7,400	T10	DNP	2nd	DNP	DNP
Brian Harman	$7,400	DNP	DNP	MC	MC	T9
Harris English	$7,300	MC	T71	MC	T8	T14
Si Woo Kim	$7,300	MC	DNP	T29	T35	W/D
Marc Leishman	$7,300	T18	1st	T43	T8	T20
Billy Horschel	$7,300	MC	T68	8th	T54	T64
Max Homa	$7,300	T18	T9	DNP	DNP	MC
Lee Westwood	$7,300	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Matthew Wolff	$7,200	W/D	T21	DNP	DNP	DNP
Charley Hoffman	$7,200	W/D	T9	MC	T35	T54
C. Bezuidenhout	$7,200	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Branden Grace	$7,200	DNP	DNP	MC	DNP	DNP
Garrick Higgo	$7,200	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Stewart Cink	$7,200	DNP	T55	MC	MC	T20
Ryan Palmer	$7,100	T2	T21	T13	T2	DNP
F. Molinari	$7,100	T10	MC	DNP	T45	T14
Carlos Ortiz	$7,100	T29	MC	MC	DNP	DNP
Matt Kuchar	$7,100	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Matt Wallace	$7,100	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Kevin Streelman	$7,100	T37	T45	MC	T29	T67
Cameron Champ	$7,000	MC	T16	MC	DNP	DNP
Matt Jones	$7,000	T48	T73	T13	MC	DNP
Charl Schwartzel	$7,000	T18	DNP	MC	DNP	DNP
Kevin Na	$7,000	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Robert Macintyre	$7,000	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Ian Poulter	$7,000	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Russell Henley	$7,000	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Kevin Kisner	$6,900	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Zach Johnson	$6,900	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Brendon Todd	$6,900	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Dylan Frittelli	$6,800	T53	T73	MC	DNP	DNP
Lanto Griffin	$6,800	T7	MC	DNP	T12	DNP
Mackenzie Hughes	$6,700	MC	MC	T29	MC	T54
Adam Hadwin	$6,700	T18	DNP	DNP	T35	T49
Tom Hoge	$6,700	MC	5th	MC	T12	DNP
Martin Laird	$6,600	MC	T55	T43	MC	T74
Patrick Rodgers	$6,500	MC	T9	MC	MC	T4
Brendan Steele	$6,500	DNP	MC	MC	T29	T20
Jimmy Walker	$6,500	MC	T30	MC	T63	MC

Footnote

* Sometimes I write things that make movie scenes suddenly appear in my head (sometimes?) and that one inspired John Cleese leading the posse in Silverado with the indelible line "You idiot . . . he's hit everything he's aimed at!" Not exactly sure where Silverado sits in the pantheon of modern westerns because it's got a hint of cheese ball to it and Kevin Costner chews-up a lot of scenery even by his own standards. It's probably somewhere just above The Quick and the Dead but just below Tombstone. I'll take 3:10 to Yuma over all of them and, if you let Hell or Highwater slide into that category, . . . case closed.

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