Fantasy Golf: The Genesis Invitational Preview

Good news and bad news from last week. We hedged a bit with Hideki Matsuyama who stumbled out of the gate with a 74 but then made the cut by a whisker and salvaged a T29. That means we at least didn't waste Xander Schauffele (T10) and now have him available to redeem his missed cut at Augusta last year and bring home the major he's been promising us since he finished T5 at the 2017 U.S. Open. Of course that could all end-up being bad news depending on how it plays out but you know me. I like to keep it positive. 

While we're on the topic of the Waste Management, let's note what an overwhelming success these juiced-up tournaments are. Last week's top ten included Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Tyrrell Hatton, Sam Burns, Sungjae Im, Jordan Spieth and the aforementioned Mr. Schauffele. That's a lot of Ryder/Presidents Cup team energy. And the field this week is just as strong on a course where all of those guys plus the likes of Rory McIlroy, Colin Morikawa, Max Homa, Tony Finau and Viktor Hovland have had recent success. (I just accidentally typed "Viktor" as "Viktory" so that kind of settles this week's debate).

When it comes to easy targets, the PGA Tour is like an antelope with a torn ACL but it appears they may have gotten the response to the LIV "challenge" at least partially correct. If nothing else, they were able to keep all of the cool guys (except for D.J.) while LIV is stuck trying to market the dorks by using team names borrowed from a Tuesday night 9-hole league. Put another way, the PGA Tour had about a million people roll through the gates in Arizona last week and LIV will be lucky to hit that number for the season. Pfffft. 

TWEET OF THE WEEK

I've had four dogs in my life - two adopted rescues and two purebreds. With all due respect to the high strung and medically fragile purebreds (Jay and Butter), the rescues (Potts and Charlie) hold the top two spots in my rankings so I'm a strong proponent of adoptions. As accurately noted below, however, some candidates are harder to place than others.  

dog shelters: don’t buy puppies, consider adoption instead

also dog shelters: this is pissfingers. she’s 19 years old and can’t live in a home with children, books or electricity. pissfingers is nervous around hair and needs 400 acres of land and an orchard of extinct fruits.

— Happy Niall Year 🇺🇦🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🦖🦕 (@nialltg) March 25, 2021

GOLF ANALYSIS

You could go a lot of ways with this pick because, as noted above, there is no shortage of A-List players who've had good runs at Riviera. This pick used to come down to either D.J. who never seemed to have a bad week here or Bubba Watson who won it three times. Alas, those days are gone but we may have found a couple replacements in Homa who is on a T5 - win - T10 streak and Hovland who has played here twice and finished top five both times. 

I'm going with Hovland because I've convinced myself that he's a lock to eventually win at Riviera. I'm even using the same picture as last year. Don't tell the gambling gods.

The pick among the mega favorites came down to Rory v. J.T. Thomas finished 4th last week and Rory was on an absolute international heater before his T32. Rory gets the slight nod. I'm not ignoring Rahm who will probably finish top ten and Scheffler who has proven that he likes to win tournaments in bunches but you can't pick them all. 

This place is a ball striker's paradise so Matt Fitzpatrick, Hideki Matsuyama and past champion Adam Scott are all locks. From there, however, it starts to get a bit shaky. You've got a bunch of guys who you look at like Adam Hadwin and think "eh . . . maybe." You could always take a flyer on the 1,294th ranked player in the world at $7,300. Seems like good value?   

One thing I do know is that the slimmed-down version of Scott Stallings does not get the respect he deserves. Look no further than the fact that (a) he qualified for the Masters and you probably didn't even know that, and (b) they mailed his invitation to the wrong "Scott Stallings."

One and Done Pick: Viktor Hovland

I hope his friends call him "Vik" 
because I know I would. Until
he politely asked me to stop. 

Other Guy I'd Pick: Max Homa

Sleeper Pick: Scott Stallings 

DraftKings Top Ten Values

Rory McIlroy	$10,500
Max Homa	$9,700
Viktor Hovland	$8,900
Matt Fitzpatrick	$8,300
Hideki Matsuyama	$8,200
Adam Scott	$8,000
Adam Hadwin	$7,500
Alex Noren	$7,300
Scott Stallings	$7,100
Lanto Griffin	$6,500

This week's performance chart honors the most controversial balloon since . . . well, we can't actually think of any controversial balloons. I mean who doesn't love balloons? They're great gifts when you can't or are too lazy to come-up with a better idea, they can make your voice sound funny and, when you tie them to your mailbox, they tell people that you like to party. 

Now everyone just wants to shoot them. Thanks a lot China.   

                             THE BALLOON MAN BLEW UP IN MY HAND

                                  HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE CHART

Worth noting below are the solid track records of Patrick Rodgers and James Hahn who also happened to win this thing back in 2015. And with Hahn still lobbying for a LIV golf invitation, he may have some extra motivation this week.

	DK PRICE	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018
Jon Rahm	$11,100	T21	T5	T17	T9	DNP
Scottie Scheffler	$10,700	T7	T20	T30	DNP	MC
Rory McIlroy	$10,500	T10	MC	T5	T4	T20
Justin Thomas	$10,100	6th	MC	MC	2nd	T9
Xander Schauffele	$9,900	T13	T15	T23	T15	T9
Max Homa	$9,700	T10	1st	T5	T37	DNP
Tony Finau	$9,500	T33	2nd	T51	T15	T2
Sungjae Im	$9,400	T33	DNP	MC	MC	DNP
Colin Morikawa	$9,300	T2	T43	T26	DNP	DNP
Sam Burns	$9,100	MC	3rd	T23	MC	DNP
Patrick Cantlay	$9,000	T33	T15	T17	T15	T4
Viktor Hovland	$8,900	T4	T5	DNP	DNP	DNP
Cameron Young	$8,800	T2	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Will Zalatoris	$8,700	T26	T15	DNP	DNP	DNP
Jordan Spieth	$8,600	T26	T15	T59	T51	T9
Tom Kim	$8,500	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Jason Day	$8,400	DNP	DNP	MC	DNP	DNP
Matt Fitzpatrick	$8,300	MC	T5	T30	DNP	DNP
Hideki Matsuyama	$8,200	T39	MC	T5	T9	DNP
Tyrrell Hatton	$8,100	DNP	DNP	DNP	MC	DNP
Adam Scott	$8,000	T4	T38	1st	T7	T53
Justin Rose	$8,000	DNP	DNP	T56	DNP	DNP
Rickie Fowler	$7,900	T55	T20	DNP	DNP	DNP
Si Woo Kim	$7,900	73rd	MC	T37	3rd	MC
Sahith Theegala	$7,800	T48	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Wyndham Clark	$7,800	DQ	T8	T17	DNP	DNP
Keegan Bradley	$7,700	T48	T60	MC	T51	MC
Seamus Power	$7,700	MC	DNP	DNP	T64	DNP
Corey Conners	$7,600	MC	MC	MC	DNP	DNP
Taylor Montgomery	$7,600	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Adam Hadwin	$7,500	MC	T26	T26	75th	T6
Brian Harman	$7,500	DNP	T43	T47	T51	DNP
Keith Mitchell	$7,500	DNP	DNP	DNP	MC	DNP
K.H. Lee	$7,400	T26	66th	T13	T25	DNP
Nick Taylor	$7,400	DNP	T20	MC	T33	T41
Russell Henley	$7,400	T33	T38	T17	T44	DNP
Shane Lowry	$7,400	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	MC
Alex Noren	$7,300	T48	T12	T59	DNP	T16
J.T. Poston	$7,300	MC	T43	T30	T28	DNP
Tiger Woods	$7,300	DNP	DNP	68th	T15	MC
Tom Hoge	$7,300	MC	T52	DNP	MC	T53
Tommy Fleetwood	$7,300	DNP	DNP	DNP	T28	T37
Beau Hossler	$7,200	T48	DNP	DNP	T15	MC
Billy Horschel	$7,200	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	MC
Denny McCarthy	$7,200	DNP	MC	T37	MC	DNP
Lucas Herbert	$7,200	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Taylor Moore	$7,200	T21	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Brendan Steele	$7,100	MC	T43	DNP	MC	T49
Kurt Kitayama	$7,100	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Matt Kuchar	$7,100	T67	MC	T2	T28	T26
Scott Stallings	$7,100	MC	DNP	MC	MC	T4
Ty Detry	$7,100	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Andrew Putnam	$7,000	T48	T32	MC	MC	DNP
Cameron Davis	$7,000	T48	T43	DNP	MC	DNP
Gary Woodland	$7,000	DNP	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
Hayden Buckley	$7,000	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
J.J. Spaun	$7,000	MC	DNP	63rd	MC	MC
Joel Dahmen	$7,000	74th	MC	T5	MC	MC
Patrick Rodgers	$7,000	MC	T12	T30	T15	T26
Alex Smalley	$6,900	72nd	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Emiliano Grillo	$6,900	T21	MC	MC	DNP	DNP
Jhonattan Vegas	$6,900	T55	DNP	MC	MC	MC
Nick Hardy	$6,900	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Brendon Todd	$6,800	DNP	MC	T56	DNP	DNP
C. Bezuidenhout	$6,800	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Francesco Molinari	$6,800	T55	T8	MC	DNP	MC
Harris English	$6,800	DNP	DNP	DNP	MC	MC
Luke List	$6,800	MC	MC	T30	T15	T26
Sepp Straka	$6,800	T15	T43	MC	DNP	DNP
James Hahn	$6,700	T61	T15	T13	DNP	T14
Sam Ryder	$6,700	T26	DNP	MC	T56	DNP
Mackenzie Hughes	$6,600	MC	T32	DNP	MC	DNP
Martin Laird	$6,600	T39	MC	T43	MC	T9
Lanto Griffin	$6,500	T39	T26	T37	DNP	DNP
Russell Knox	$6,500	T33	MC	MC	DNP	DNP
Chez Reavie	$6,400	T10	MC	T10	MC	T73

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