Fantasy Golf: The Farmers Insurance Open Preview

In the immortal words of Opal Fleener to Coach Norman Dale, "the sun don't shine on the same dog's ass every day but mister, you ain't seen a ray of light since you got here" which is how Jay Monaghan and the PGA Tour had to be feeling as they kicked-off 2024. Between Jon Rahm completely abandoning their left flank and Grayson Murray winning, it must have felt like a month-long full solar eclipse. (To quote Andrew Cotter on Murray from the from the January 16th edition of the best golf podcast out there, "he's got some interesting opinions").

And then out of nowhere, the moon got its ass out of the way, the clouds parted and Nick Dunlap came shining through. Even Sam Burns must have recognized the moment as he was kind enough to clear the path by closing with a pair of double bogeys. This had the added benefit of relieving me from beating myself up for not picking him over which I tortured myself for days after considering him for all of six seconds.     

Anyway, it was only a case of insomnia at 3:34 a.m. on Wednesday that led me to the discovery that this tournament starts in a little over eight hours so let's get on with it.

TWEET OF THE WEEK

I'm doing my best to stay out of the political arena these days but this one is for Ron DeSantis who, by the numbers and almost any objective way to evaluate a human being, was the worst candidate of a generation.

The haters said I couldn’t do it. And they were correct. Honestly great call from the haters

— drew janda (@drewjanda) December 11, 2023

GOLF ANALYSIS

We backed-up a strong week in Hawaii with an even better one with the Christian Bezuidenhout (2nd), Adam Hadwin (T6), J.T. Poston (T11), Scottie Scheffler (T17), Tom Hoge (T17), Eric Cole (T21) and Sungjae Im (T25). Unfortunately I managed to torpedo all of my lineups with either Rickie Fowler (MC) or Patton Kizzire (MC). They, along with everyone who failed to wish me a happy birthday on Facebook, are dead to me until further notice.    

I do actually think about this stuff. For example, in the key $8,500 - $9,500 demographic, we have five strong options this week in Sepp Straka, Sahith Theegala, Keegan Bradley, Tony Finau and Jason Day. Someone had to be the odd man out in that price range and for me it's Bradley who never seems to respond well when expectations for him are high and this week they're higher than the Grubhub driver who stole your french fries last night.

The rest of the picks are your usual compendium of players who do well on these courses and have shown some signs of life lately. And with that, I will now return to not sleeping.

One and Done Pick: Sahith Theegala 

We're predicting a monster year from Sahith
that includes a win here or in Scottsdale.
Or both. It's literally too early for me to tell.

Other Guy I'd Pick: Sungjae Im

Sleeper Pick: Lanto Griffin 

DraftKings Top Ten Values

Sungjae Im	$9,900
Jason Day	$9,500
Tony Finau	$9,300
Sahith Theegala	$8,700
Sepp Straka	$8,600
Justin Rose	$8,300
Luke List	$7,800
Taylor Moore	$7,300
Sam Ryder	$7,200
Lanto Griffin	$6,800

A pithy name for this week's chart is unfortunately one of the victims of my current writing circumstances which is ironic because it may be the most useful one of the year. Perhaps no other course(s) on tour offer a more predictable outcome.

                                              GENERIC HISTORICAL 

                                             PERFORMANCE CHART

	DK Price	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019
Xander Schauffele	$10,600	T13	T34	T2	MC	T25
Patrick Cantlay	$10,500	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	MC
Colin Morikawa	$10,200	3rd	DNP	DNP	T21	DNP
Max Homa	$10,100	1st	MC	T18	T9	DNP
Sungjae Im	$9,900	T4	T6	T32	T36	T52
Ludvig Aberg	$9,700	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Jason Day	$9,500	T7	T3	MC	T16	T5
Tony Finau	$9,300	T9	MC	T2	T6	T13
Min Woo Lee	$9,100	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Eric Cole	$9,000	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Keegan Bradley	$8,900	2nd	T65	DNP	T16	T35
Harris English	$8,800	MC	DNP	DNP	T71	MC
Sahith Theegala	$8,700	T4	T25	DNP	DNP	DNP
Sepp Straka	$8,600	DNP	T16	T32	MC	T13
Hideki Matsuyama	$8,500	T9	T30	T53	T45	T3
Nicolai Hojgaard	$8,400	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Justin Rose	$8,300	T18	T6	DNP	MC	1st
Adrian Meronk	$8,200	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Daniel Berger	$8,100	DNP	T20	DNP	DNP	MC
C. Bezuidenhout	$8,000	DNP	T46	DNP	DNP	DNP
Will Zalatoris	$8,000	MC	2nd	T7	DNP	DNP
Keith Mitchell	$7,900	DNP	MC	MC	MC	MC
Shane Lowry	$7,900	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Luke List	$7,800	T25	1st	T10	T36	T40
Stephen Jaeger	$7,800	T53	MC	DNP	DNP	T66
Ben Griffin	$7,700	T31	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Patrick Rodgers	$7,700	MC	T62	MC	T9	MC
Adam Svensson	$7,600	MC	79th	DNP	DNP	T35
Beau Hossler	$7,600	MC	MC	MC	T9	T57
Nick Dunlap	$7,600	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Akshay Bhatia	$7,500	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Emiliano Grillo	$7,500	T44	MC	MC	MC	T52
Ryan Fox	$7,500	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Ryo Hisatune	$7,500	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Aaron Rai	$7,400	52nd	T6	DNP	DNP	DNP
Billy Horschel	$7,400	DNP	T11	MC	T68	8th
Taylor Montgomery	$7,400	T31	T11	DNP	DNP	DNP
Taylor Pendrith	$7,400	T60	T16	DNP	DNP	DNP
Adam Schenk	$7,300	T20	T56	MC	DNP	T57
J.J. Spaun	$7,300	MC	T34	MC	T30	MC
Mackenzie Hughes	$7,300	DNP	MC	MC	MC	T29
Michael Kim	$7,300	T44	DNP	T53	DNP	MC
Taylor Moore	$7,300	T11	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
Alex Smalley	$7,200	T37	T56	DNP	DNP	DNP
Davis Thompson	$7,200	T69	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Justin Suh	$7,200	T20	DNP	T37	MC	DNP
Sam Ryder	$7,200	T4	MC	T10	MC	T43
Tom Hoge	$7,200	DNP	MC	MC	5th	MC
Alexander Bjork	$7,100	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Austin Eckroat	$7,100	MC	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
Chesson Hadley	$7,100	DNP	MC	MC	MC	MC
K.H. Lee	$7,100	DNP	DNP	MC	MC	MC
Matt Wallace	$7,100	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Thomas Detry	$7,100	T37	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Gary Woodland	$7,000	T62	T39	T48	MC	T9
Nicholas Lindheim	$7,000	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Nick Hardy	$7,000	T44	MC	DNP	DNP	MC
Scott Stallings	$7,000	MC	T46	MC	T49	T43
Carl Yuan	$6,900	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Greyson Sigg	$6,900	DNP	T34	MC	DNP	DNP
Lee Hodges	$6,900	MC	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
Maverick McNealy	$6,900	T31	T30	MC	15th	DNP
Stewart Cink	$6,900	DNP	DNP	DNP	T55	MC
Vincent Norrman	$6,900	T44	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Will Gordon	$6,900	MC	DNP	T42	T21	DNP
Cameron Champ	$6,800	T53	T46	MC	T16	MC
Doug Ghim	$6,800	MC	T34	T37	MC	T20
Lanto Griffin	$6,800	T37	T30	T7	MC	DNP
Francesco Molinari	$6,700	DNP	T62	T10	MC	DNP
Jhonattan Vegas	$6,700	T25	T39	MC	T30	MC
Joel Dahmen	$6,700	DNP	MC	MC	T55	T9
Seamus Power	$6,700	DNP	DNP	MC	DNP	MC
Kevin Streelman	$6,600	T60	T39	T37	T45	MC
Matthew NeSmith	$6,600	MC	T34	T48	T30	DNP
Robby Shelton	$6,600	T67	DNP	T16	T36	DNP
Ryan Moore	$6,600	DNP	DNP	MC	DNP	MC
Garrick Higgo	$6,500	T53	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Davis Riley	$6,400	MC	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
Brandt Snedeker	$6,200	DNP	MC	T32	T3	T62
Hayden Buckley	$6,200	MC	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP

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