Fantasy Golf: The Honda Classic Preview

We've had two pretty epic weeks of golf for February. Not just on the PGA Tour but here on the east coast the weather has been so good that I've barely had time to somberly ponder my own existence (if not that of all mankind) and get my clubs regripped. Before you know it, it's going to be March and hope will spring as I rue the worn grip on my 9-iron. But I digress.

Anyone who can read between the lines or just the lines as they are clearly written knows that I hate LIV Golf and all that it stands for. If those knobs had just gotten in front of a microphone from the start and said "hey we did it for the money" . . . fine. But instead they chose to hide behind the petty gripes of being a pampered professional golfer and the so preposterous that they clearly thought it might work line that "we're growing the game."

Grow this.

With all that being said here are some mildly spun facts about how great golf is right now.

• The top four players in the world are almost inarguable and it's both cool and rare that you can say. Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler and Cameron Smith have won three of the last four majors and, if not for Smith's defection to LIV, they, along with Rory McIlroy, would currently be the top four ranked players in the world. I don't know that as a mathematical fact but Patrick Cantlay is currently 4th and one spot ahead of Smith but Cantlay doesn't have a major so he can't be considered one of the best players in the world. Sorry, I don't make the rules. 

• Between the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, Rahm, Scheffler and Rory have won five times in 2023 and Smith won the Australian PGA Championship in November.  

• All of those guys will convene in Augusta, Georgia from April 6th through the 9th to compete against each other on the greatest tournament golf course in the world. And they will be joined by, among others, Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Max Homa and Collin Morikawa.

• And oh yeah, the other LIV Golf guys will be there too which means Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed and Brooks Koepka. And if you've been watching Full Swing on Netflix, you now know two things: (1) People who write about and teach golf full-time should never be asked to provide commentary on anything, and (2) Brooks is a big fucking baby. 

It's setting-up to be a great season, despite my grip situation. 

TWEET OF THE WEEK

Always cool when a news story causes five people to text "dude tell me this isn't you." 

Your honor I thought I was going to win pic.twitter.com/aeEDGzI939

— Matt Margolis (@ItsMattsLaw) February 20, 2023

GOLF ANALYSIS

Sungjae Im is the obvious pick this week so of course I immediately found myself leaning towards Shane Lowry. Then I overthought that decision and settled on Denny McCarthy (for now). I'm pretty sure this is a case of premature panic based on the fact that I opened the season with a Jon Rahm win and have been drowning in failure ever since. We'll see if I can pull myself together by the end of the day but I doubt it.

As for the rest of the picks, let's just say that the designated events have gutted the fields of their now less favored step-brothers like a striped bass. Our headliners this week are ranked 18th and 20th in the world and then it falls-off a cliff from there. Add-in the unpredictability of PGA National (yes it's "Bear Trap" week so please shoot but just graze me), and who knows what in the hell is going to happen?

I am feeling some very limited confidence in Adam Svensson and Robby Shelton who both come in playing well and have at least one good past performance here. And we'll give Harry Higgs the sleeper nod over the slightly less intriguing candidates like Ben Martin, Dylan Fritelli and ZZZZzzzzzz . . . .   

One and Done Pick: Denny McCarthy 

Show us your menacing face
Denny! . . . OK we'll work on it.

Other Guy I'd Pick: Shane Lowry

Sleeper Pick: Harry Higgs 

DraftKings Top Ten Values

Shane Lowry	$10,400
Chris Kirk	$9,900
Denny McCarthy	$9,100
Adam Svensson	$8,700
Harris English	$8,400
Robby Shelton	$7,800
Beyong Hun An	$7,600
S.H. Kim	$7,400
Adam Schenk	$7,200
Harry Higgs	$7,000

This week's historical performance chart honors last Saturday's NBA Slam Dunk Contest winner and, if you haven't seen it yet, do yourself a favor and click here.

                                        THE MAC MCLUNG FLYING WORD 

                                          THAT RHYMES WITH "DONKEY"

                                       HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE CHART

Based on the limited useful information below, you could make a mild case for picking Alex Noren but every time I put my faith in that guy he let's me down. Apparently he's less Swedish like a Volvo and more Swedish like an Ikea dresser.  

	DK Price	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018
Sungjae Im	$10,700	MC	T8	1st	T51	DNP
Shane Lowry	$10,400	2nd	T36	T21	DNP	DNP
Chris Kirk	$9,900	T7	T25	MC	MC	T33
Billy Horschel	$9,700	T16	DNP	T42	T16	MC
Alex Noren	$9,500	T5	T46	DNP	MC	3rd
Min Woo Lee	$9,400	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Matt Kuchar	$9,300	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Aaron Wise	$9,200	MC	T13	T35	DNP	T33
Denny McCarthy	$9,100	T30	T3	MC	MC	MC
Ty Detry	$9,000	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Taylor Pendrith	$8,900	T25	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
J.T. Poston	$8,800	T42	MC	T35	T36	DNP
Adam Svensson	$8,700	T9	DNP	DNP	T59	DNP
Jhonattan Vegas	$8,600	T42	T30	T27	T16	T72
Sepp Straka	$8,500	1st	T33	T27	MC	DNP
Harris English	$8,400	DNP	DNP	T17	T12	T33
Adrian Meronk	$8,300	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
C. Bezuidenhout	$8,200	T25	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Cameron Davis	$8,100	DNP	T33	T8	T59	DNP
Garrick Higgo	$8,000	T66	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Ben Griffin	$7,900	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Robby Shelton	$7,800	DNP	MC	T11	DNP	DNP
Stephan Jaeger	$7,800	T48	DNP	DNP	T78	MC
Aaron Rai	$7,700	T66	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Lee Hodges	$7,700	T9	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Hayden Buckley	$7,600	MC	DNP	69th	DNP	DNP
Justin Suh	$7,600	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Beyong Hun An	$7,600	DNP	MC	T4	T36	T5
Nick Hardy	$7,500	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Ryan Palmer	$7,400	T70	DNP	T17	T4	MC
Danny Willett	$7,400	T48	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Davis Riley	$7,400	T48	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
S.H. Kim	$7,400	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Brandon Wu	$7,300	MC	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
Erik Van Rooyen	$7,300	DNP	T60	MC	DNP	DNP
Padraig Harrington	$7,300	MC	MC	MC	DNP	MC
Webb Simpson	$7,300	DNP	DNP	DNP	T36	T5
Charley Hoffman	$7,300	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Adam Long	$7,200	DNP	MC	T27	DNP	DNP
Greyson Sigg	$7,200	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Russell Knox	$7,200	T55	MC	MC	T51	MC
Adam Schenk	$7,200	MC	T36	MC	T30	T29
Dylan Frittelli	$7,100	T16	MC	T58	MC	11th
Zach Johnson	$7,100	MC	T8	67th	T59	DNP
Peter Malnati	$7,100	DNP	MC	MC	T36	T49
Harry Higgs	$7,000	MC	T19	T58	DNP	DNP
Luke Donald	$7,000	MC	MC	T11	DNP	MC
Aaron Baddeley	$7,000	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Ben Martin	$6,900	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	T33
Kevin Tway	$6,900	MC	DNP	MC	MC	MC
Chesson Hadley	$6,800	DNP	MC	MC	T20	MC
Ryan Moore	$6,800	DNP	MC	DNP	DNP	T49
Ryan Armour	$6,700	MC	T58	MC	T12	MC
Doc Redman	$6,600	MC	DNP	MC	DNP	DNP

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