Fantasy Golf: The Sony Open Preview

I know there has been a lot of fretting over the economy lately with everything from the price of groceries to booze going through the roof but, for those searching for some peace of mind, I think I found the place. Last weekend I had the good fortune to spend some time in Palm Beach, Florida and I'm telling you the economy there is doing just fine so rest easy. 

When strolling its bustling streets with your head advisedly on a swivel, no sooner do you jump out of the way of a Bentley running a stop sign when a Range Rover almost clips you driving on the wrong side of the road. The aisles of the local Publix are flowing with enough Botox to reanimate a graveyard and there are enough landscapers to turn the Amazon rainforest into an 1,800 hole resort destination (jesus don't give him any more ideas). Life is good there so if it's not where you are, you should definitely go before they mine the bridges.

Am I a hypocrite for mocking the people of Palm Beach while enjoying the ocean in front of their mansions? Maybe but probably not. Do I give a shit either way at this point? Nope. We are entering the era of unbridled absurdity and I am fresh out of fucks to give.  

BLUESKY POST OF THE WEEK

Things are still a bit thin over at Bluesky compared with the old source of social media nonsense and we were scrambling for a worthy post this week when small time real estate tycoon and notorious champion of tax avoidance Keith Wasserman sent out this desperate plea for firefighting services that would otherwise be paid for with the taxes he abhors. By the way, private firefighters are a real thing. Unfortunately for Keith, the ones in California have all been hired to protect the houses of people who were famous before this morning.     

fafo

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— Iivana Lemmetyinen (@alemppu.bsky.social) January 8, 2025 at 5:16 AM

GOLF ANALYSIS

We got off to a bit of a bumpy start in 2025 though we did kind of point in the direction of Collin Morikawa and Sungjae Im while staying away from Xander Schauffele so we got that going for us along with the fact that no one in their right mind picked Hideki Matsuyama. (Checks league results. . . DAMMIT!!!) None of our five straight-up gambling predictions came close to paying-off so what we lacked in success, we made up for by being very thorough.

The good news is that we now move to the Sony Open which is a tournament so predictable that Michell Wie once almost made the cut missing the weekend by one shot. Things have gotten a little more reliable since then with winners that include Justin Thomas, Cameron Smith, the aforementioned Mr. Matsuyama and this week's pick, Russell Henley, who has quietly risen to 17th in the world. He is of particular interest to us here as he backed-up that 2013 win with a runner-up in 2022 and a T4 last year.  

If it's not Russell, then it almost has to be Ben An who lost in a playoff last year after posting a T12 in 2023. Ben is another guy who's been grinding his way up the world rankings and is generally reliable on courses he likes. Yes Keegan Bradley offers a similar profile here but with more volatility (stock broker word alert!).

We've got some intriguing young guys ready to make a move like Matt McCarty, Luke Clanton and Patrick FIshburn and I all but guarantee you that someone like that will find the top ten but my gut is going with Joe Highsmith who hasn't finished lower than T16 in his last four starts. Also, we're going to start with the coolest last name first and then work backwards to Fishburn. 

Place	Player	Odds
Winner	Russell Henley	+2000
Top 5	Byeong Hun An	+500
Top 5	Sepp Straka	+800
Top 10	Andrew Putnam	+550
Top 10	Joe Highsmith	+650

One and Done Pick: Russell Henley

Russell displaying the classic understated
smile of a player who has finally arrived
. . . as a Fantasy Golf Report Pick.

Other Guy I'd Pick: Byeong Hun An

Sleeper Pick: Joe Highsmith

DraftKings Top Ten Values

Russell Henley	$9,900
Byeong Hun An	$9,400
Maverick McNealy	$9,200
Si Woo Kim	$9,000
Austin Eckroat	$8,700
Harry Hall	$8,100
Sepp Straka	$8,000
Andrew Putnam	$7,400
Joe Highsmith	$7,100
Sam Stevens	$7,100

I missed noting the recent passing of Rickey Henderson who Tim Kurkjian accurately calls one of the fifteen greatest baseball players of all time. Rickey was one of those athletes who is the only answer to an all-time great question which in this case is "who was the greatest leadoff hitter of all-time?" He scored the most runs and stole so many bases that the second place guy, Lou Brock, would've needed about ten more seasons in his prime to catch him (1406 to 938).

But that was only part of the story with Rickey who was born in the backseat of a car in Chicago. He suffered from no lack of confidence as indicated by his regular referral to himself as "Rickey" and he could just as easily have played in the NFL. He could often be overheard in the clubhouse telling sportswriter J.A. Adonde that "Rickey don't need no press today J.A." Legend.     

                                  THE RICKEY HENDERSON MEMORIAL

                                   HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE CHART

I took a hard look at Corey Conners this week based on his steady track record but just can't get my mind around a Canadian guy excelling in Hawaii. I keep picturing John Candy sweating on a beach. 

	DK Price	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020
Hideki Matsuyama	$11,000	T30	T48	1st	T19	T12
Corey Conners	$10,200	T57	T12	11th	DNP	T12
Russell Henley	$9,900	T4	T32	2nd	T11	MC
Tom Kim	$9,800	DNP	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
Keegan Bradley	$9,500	T2	MC	T12	MC	T12
Byeong Hun An	$9,400	T2	T12	DNP	DNP	DNP
Robert Macintyre	$9,300	T52	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Maverick McNealy	$9,200	T57	T7	T27	DNP	DNP
Sahith Theegala	$9,100	MC	DNP	T48	DNP	DNP
Si Woo Kim	$9,000	T42	1st	T55	T25	DNP
J.T. Poston	$8,900	6th	T21	T42	MC	MC
Taylor Pendrith	$8,800	T10	DNP	MC	DNP	DNP
Austin Eckroat	$8,700	T42	T12	DNP	DNP	DNP
Kurt Kitayama	$8,600	T24	T73	MC	DNP	DNP
Davis Thompson	$8,500	T57	T54	DNP	DNP	DNP
Luke Clanton	$8,400	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Brian Harman	$8,300	T18	T32	T48	T56	T32
Ben Griffin	$8,200	T30	T12	DNP	DNP	DNP
Harry Hall	$8,100	T42	T28	DNP	DNP	DNP
Sepp Straka	$8,000	DNP	DNP	T42	T25	T53
Billy Horschel	$7,900	T18	MC	T36	T7	DNP
Cam Davis	$7,900	T30	T32	T27	31st	T9
Chris Kirk	$7,800	T18	3rd	T27	T2	MC
Mackenzie Hughes	$7,800	DNP	MC	DNP	T19	MC
Harris English	$7,700	T10	T73	T55	T32	DNP
Tom Hoge	$7,700	MC	T41	MC	MC	T12
Denny McCarthy	$7,600	T24	T32	T48	DNP	DNP
Matt McCarty	$7,600	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Daniel Berger	$7,500	DNP	DNP	DNP	T7	T38
Eric Cole	$7,500	T13	T61	DNP	DNP	DNP
Thomas Detry	$7,500	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Andrew Novak	$7,400	MC	T12	MC	DNP	DNP
Andrew Putnam	$7,400	T10	T4	T27	MC	T57
M. Thorbjornsen	$7,400	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Seamus Power	$7,400	T74	DNP	T3	MC	DNP
Stephan Jaeger	$7,400	T18	T28	MC	DNP	DNP
Doug Ghim	$7,300	MC	DNP	DNP	MC	MC
Keith Mitchell	$7,300	T30	MC	T7	T14	MC
Lucas Glover	$7,300	MC	MC	T5	DNP	DNP
Michael Kim	$7,300	T42	MC	DNP	T65	DNP
Nick Dunlap	$7,300	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Nico Echavarria	$7,300	T66	T12	DNP	DNP	DNP
Patrick Rodgers	$7,300	T24	DNP	DNP	DNP	T32
Adam Hadwin	$7,200	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Adam Svensson	$7,200	T30	T41	T7	DNP	DNP
Emiliano Grillo	$7,200	T7	MC	MC	T47	T21
J.J. Spaun	$7,200	MC	T12	MC	MC	MC
Max McGreevy	$7,200	DNP	MC	MC	DNP	DNP
Matt Kuchar	$7,200	MC	T7	T7	MC	MC
Patrick Fishburn	$7,200	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Chandler Phillips	$7,100	T57	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Joe Highsmith	$7,100	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Mac Meissner	$7,100	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Mark Hubbard	$7,100	T57	MC	MC	T32	MC
Nick Taylor	$7,100	T7	T7	MC	T11	T32
Ryo Hisatune	$7,100	T30	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Sam Stevens	$7,100	T24	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
Gary Woodland	$7,000	MC	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
Justin Lower	$7,000	T74	DNP	64th	DNP	DNP
Lee Hodges	$7,000	DNP	DNP	MC	DNP	DNP
Rico Hoey	$7,000	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP	MC
Taylor Moore	$7,000	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Vince Whaley	$7,000	MC	DNP	T17	DNP	MC
Erik Van Rooyen	$6,900	T52	DNP	T20	MC	DNP
Jacob Bridgeman	$6,900	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Jake Knapp	$6,900	T70	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Patton Kizzire	$6,900	T13	76th	T42	T7	MC
Adam Schenk	$6,800	DNP	T67	MC	MC	MC
Ben Silverman	$6,700	T18	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Brendon Todd	$6,700	T30	T21	T48	T41	T21
Carson Young	$6,700	MC	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
Charley Hoffman	$6,700	T42	DNP	DNP	T14	MC
Joel Dahmen	$6,700	T72	DNP	MC	DNP	T12
Nick Hardy	$6,700	T42	T41	MC	T14	DNP
David Lipsky	$6,600	MC	T4	MC	DNP	DNP
Webb Simpson	$6,600	T66	MC	T61	T4	3rd
Luke List	$6,500	T66	DNP	DNP	MC	MC
Ben Kohles	$6,400	T52	DNP	T27	DNP	DNP
Taylor Montgomery	$6,400	T13	T12	DNP	DNP	DNP
Ben Martin	$6,300	MC	T32	DNP	DNP	T46

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