Fantasy Golf: The Honda Classic Preview

This preview is coming to you live from inside a law firm conference room where I am being forced to observe a deposition while thanking every god in the universe from Krishna to Poseidon that I don't do this kind of lawyering for a living anymore. At the moment, I'm watching an eager young barrister ask the same question 19 different ways because he loves the answers so much. It's his job (kind of) but it's starting to take on the feel of a princess going around the room and asking everyone to tell her how pretty she is in their own words. Also, fucking shoot me.  

TWEET OF THE WEEK

The Warriors is one of the most simultaneously underrated and overrated movies of all-time. It's basically an implausible opening scene that results in a gang getting setup for murder followed by about five well choregraphed street fights and then a perfectly placed Joe Walsh song. Here's a tagline from IMDB.com that sums it up to perfection:

These are the Armies of the Night...The Baseball Furies...The West Harlem Boppers...The SoHo Hi-Hats...The Bowery Lizzies...The Turnbull AC's...The Gramercy Riffs...And *these* are the Coney Island Warriors. They're in the Bronx, 27 miles behind enemy lines. Between them and safety stand 20,000 cops...and 100,000 sworn enemies. They've got one way out...one chance...one night.

It's not much of a plot and, other than a young James Remar* doing James Remar shit, the acting is pretty bad. The best thing you can say about the dialogue is that there is some and only about 50% of it is hokey. But I am here to tell you that it is completely mesmerizing from the opening scene to the aforementioned Joe Walsh song which is a very long way to introduce this tweet.  

GOLF ANALYSIS . . . CAN YOOOOUUUU DIG IT?

If you're thinking "man he sure did just write a lot about The Warriors so we're probably not getting much golf this week," you're right. We've got a gap in the schedule between Riviera and Arnie's event which means you'll be paying a very steep price for the likes of Matt Jones and Mito Pereira - two frontrunners to take over the title role in the 2022 "Tringale Rule."

Sungjae Im is the obvious choice after winning here in 2020 and backing it up with a T8 in 2021 but, if you reference the chart below, you will see that not one player on it has more than two top then finishes the last five years or any other real sign of consistency for that matter. That would, however, include Tommy Fleetwood who has a pair of top five finishes on only two trips so maybe he's the answer to this riddle.

The rest of the picks are a veritable who's who of feast or famine led by the likes of Jhonnatan Vegas, Gary Woodland and Brendan Steele - all top tens or missed cuts just waiting to happen. We'll balance that out with some reliable grinders in K.H. Lee and Stewart Cink.  

And since we really have no idea who's going to play well this week, let's have some fun. Rickie Fowler had a nice run here from 2016-2019 including a win and just made his first cut of 2022 so we'll take a flyer on him. In the same vein, we'll go with Harry Higgs as our sleeper even though he only has four top tens since the start of 2020 and he looks like the older less talented brother of Matthew Stafford who kept telling him in high school (between Bud Lights) that he shouldn't trust anyone else's advice about his future.    

One and Done Pick: Sungjae Im

We're sticking with Sungjae for now
but, if Tommy comes to me in a
dream tonight, that could change.

Other Guy I'd Pick: Tommy Fleetwood

Sleeper Pick: Harry Higgs 

DraftKings Top Ten Values

Sungjae Im	$11,000
Tommy Fleetwood	$9,900
Alex Noren	$9,300
Jhonattan Vegas	$8,500
Gary Woodland	$8,200
K.H. Lee	$7,700
Rickie Fowler	$7,600
Brendan Steele	$7,200
Stewart Cink	$7,100
Harry Higgs	$6,700

This week we honor the actor who played the iconic role of Cyrus with the vigor and passion of a true thespian. That would be the pinnacle of his career as his second most notable credit was playing Alec Lowndes on three episodes of One Life to Live. Quite the range when you think about it. He passed away in 2014. Godspeed Cyrus.  

                                      THE ROGER HILL MEMORIAL

                                HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE CHART

Michael Thompson won here in 2013 and has made the cut four years in a row so I guess he's worth a look. Lucas Glover's track record isn't awful but picking Lucas Glover is like buying a beige car. Hey, at least you'll probably never get pulled over. 

	DK Price	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017
Sungjae Im	$11,000	T8	1st	T51	DNP	DNP
Louis Oosthuizen	$10,800	DNP	MC	DNP	T24	T21
Joaquin Niemann	$10,600	T25	MC	T59	DNP	DNP
Daniel Berger	$10,400	DNP	T4	T36	T29	MC
Brooks Koepka	$10,100	DNP	MC	T2	DNP	MC
Tommy Fleetwood	$9,900	DNP	3rd	DNP	4th	DNP
Billy Horschel	$9,600	DNP	T42	T16	MC	T4
Shane Lowry	$9,400	T36	T21	DNP	T49	DNP
Alex Noren	$9,300	T46	DNP	MC	3rd	DNP
Matthew Wolff	$9,200	DNP	T58	DNP	DNP	DNP
Keith Mitchell	$9,100	T53	MC	1st	MC	DNP
Matt Jones	$9,000	1st	T47	T36	DNP	DNP
Mito Pereira	$8,900	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Patrick Reed	$8,800	DNP	DNP	DNP	MC	DNP
Brian Harman	$8,700	DNP	T47	MC	T33	T48
Cameron Young	$8,600	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Jhonattan Vegas	$8,500	T30	T27	T16	T72	T4
Aaron Wise	$8,400	T13	T35	DNP	T33	DNP
Mackenzie Hughes	$8,300	T36	2nd	MC	T59	T66
Gary Woodland	$8,200	DNP	T8	T36	T49	T2
Russell Knox	$8,100	MC	MC	T51	MC	MC
C. Bezuidenhout	$8,000	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Ryan Palmer	$7,900	DNP	T17	T4	MC	T37
Taylor Moore	$7,900	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Denny McCarthy	$7,800	T3	MC	MC	MC	DNP
Lee Westwood	$7,800	MC	T4	DNP	DNP	DNP
C.T. Pan	$7,700	T3	MC	MC	T17	T37
K.H. Lee	$7,700	MC	T38	T7	DNP	DNP
Ian Poulter	$7,600	MC	T27	DNP	MC	T43
Nicolai Hojgaard	$7,600	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Rickie Fowler	$7,600	T65	MC	T2	MC	1st
Brendon Todd	$7,500	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Chris Kirk	$7,500	T25	MC	MC	T33	DNP
Michael Thompson	$7,500	T19	57th	T16	T24	MC
Aaron Rai	$7,400	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Greyson Sigg	$7,400	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Lucas Glover	$7,400	T19	MC	T4	T17	T21
Sepp Straka	$7,400	T33	T27	MC	DNP	DNP
Camilo Villegas	$7,300	T8	MC	DNP	T68	MC
Charles Howell, III	$7,300	DNP	DNP	DNP	MC	T52
Garrick Higgo	$7,300	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Lucas Herbert	$7,300	T46	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Martin Kaymer	$7,300	MC	DNP	67th	W/D	T4
Brendan Steele	$7,200	T3	T4	MC	DNP	T14
Nick Taylor	$7,200	MC	DNP	T30	DNP	DNP
Sam Ryder	$7,200	T8	T53	DNP	DNP	DNP
Taylor Pendrith	$7,200	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Zach Johnson	$7,200	T8	67th	T59	DNP	T27
Dylan Frittelli	$7,100	MC	T58	MC	11th	DNP
Hudson Swafford	$7,100	MC	T21	T73	T64	MC
Stewart Cink	$7,100	T19	T53	T75	T46	T27
Doc Redman	$7,000	DNP	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
Henrik Stenson	$7,000	MC	T58	DNP	DNP	DNP
Kevin Streelman	$7,000	T36	T47	T71	DNP	DNP
Rory Sabbatini	$7,000	MC	T35	T36	T17	MC
Beau Hossler	$6,900	T60	T38	DNP	DNP	DNP
Charl Schwartzel	$6,900	T53	T17	T16	DNP	DNP
J.J. Spaun	$6,900	MC	DNP	DNP	MC	T21
Matthew NeSmith	$6,900	T36	T38	DNP	DNP	DNP
Patrick Rodgers	$6,900	MC	T21	T30	T33	MC
Doug Ghim	$6,800	MC	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
J.T. Poston	$6,800	MC	T35	T36	DNP	T27
Nate Lashley	$6,800	T36	DNP	DNP	MC	DNP
Vaugh Taylor	$6,800	MC	T42	T59	T59	MC
Harry Higgs	$6,700	T19	T58	DNP	DNP	DNP
John Huh	$6,700	T19	MC	T59	T24	MC
Sung Kang	$6,600	MC	DNP	T51	MC	T52
Jimmy Walker	$6,500	T58	T21	MC	T33	T21
Brandon Hagy	$6,500	2nd	T21	MC	MC	T21

Footnote

* We like to toss around the expression "hardest working man in show business" (at least I do) but checkout James Remar's body of work. From Ganz in 48 Hours to Dexter's dad to appearing in six of the 1,789 episodes of Grey's Anatomy . . . that's quite a run. 

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