Fantasy Golf: The Players Championship Preview

I actually enjoyed the first two seasons of Full Swing in spite of the pedantic commentary from arguably the least intriguing media personalities in all of sports who only slightly tainted what was otherwise a pretty good account of a tumultuous time in golf. There is no logical explanation for why anyone would pay Dan Rappaport and Amanda Balionis to talk about anything in a documentary setting that doesn't involve nepotism and/or a threat of blackmail. I recognize that part of the goal is to present golf to a non-golfing audience but that doesn't mean you have to dumb it down to the level of explaining how a doorknob works to a thawed-out caveman. 

With that being said, I have been watching Season 3 and good god it is brutal beyond words. Now they've decided to dress everyone from the clearance rack at Banana Republic and added some "influencers" including Paige Spiranac who would freely admit that she's not on the show for her decorated professional golfing resume or her eloquence. Apparently Netflix took a look at their product and said "you know what we need . . . ugly shirts and boobs." 

It's not an exaggeration to say that the show would be instantly improved if all commentator scenes were replaced with the video of Fred Couples hitting one-handed shots while talking on his phone. Though to be fair, just about everything would be improved by that. 

Maybe the Gary Woodland episode will salvage an unmemorable season that tried to cast Rory McIlroy as a golfing Hamlet wrought with conflict and occasional melancholy and then swerved into asking us to give a shit about whether Wyndham Clark would make the Olympic team and how Bryson DeChambeau was able to transcend the fairway ropes and become a C-List social media superstar. 

Ultimately what the show revealed and what the TGL has recently confirmed is that these people just aren't really that interesting. It's not surprising considering their fame is derived from the fact that they're good at hitting a ball into a hole. Don't get me wrong. I still love watching them try to do it. I just don't care about what they do with the rest of their time.  

GOLF ANALYSIS

The traveling shit show continues for the FGR as we shied away from Russell Henley last week in favor of Patrick Cantlay who produced one of his classic "I'm just not that into it" efforts. So the plan this week is to go with less thinking and more gut instinct. What could go wrong? (Don't answer that). 

I'm starting by including Scottie Scheffler in the conversation even though I don't really believe that even he can win three times in a row on a quirked up golf course like TPC Sawgrass but this has more to do with the guys chasing him. Rory has taken a couple steps back since winning at Pebble Beach, Xander is coming-off an injury and Collin Morikawa has shown no indication that he's comfortable here. Even Ludvig Aberg seems to have been glitching a bit lately leading us to speculate whether he's really just the product of telling AI to build a golfer out of Steve Elkington and Henrik Stenson.

Once you get past Scheffler, the picks are eclectic by design but geared toward guys who have shown some affinity for the course. Most notable among them is Wyndham Clark who lipped-out a putt to get into a playoff last year. He's been steady enough in his last three outings for us to easily picture him ruining Sunday for me an everyone else who sees him as a slightly less likable and dynamic Bryson DeChambeau. 

The other more optimistic scenario that I could see unfolding is Tommy Fleetwood getting his first PGA Tour win. He had back to back top tens here in 2018-2019 and hasn't finished worse than T22 since the British Open. If I wasn't so convinced that I'm being punished by the golf gambling gods, he'd be my pick but I don't wan to ruin this for him.

Place	Player	Odds
Winner	Wyndham Clark	+6000
Top 5	Shane Lowry	+700
Top 10	Sepp Straka	+400
Top 10	Corey Conners	+400
Top 20	Tom Hoge	+600

A brief explanation on listing Doug Ghim as our sleeper below but not making him the Top 20 pick. DraftKings has him as a big underdog based on their salary cap number but he's only +300 to finish Top 20 so we had to look elsewhere for value. We're currently sweeping the FGR office for bugs.  

One and Done Pick: Wyndham Clark

I'm going to hate myself on Sunday
no matter how this turns out.

Other Guy I'd Pick: Tommy Fleetwood

Sleeper Pick: Doug Ghim 

DraftKings Top Ten Values 

Scottie Scheffler	$12,800
Hideki Matsuyama	$9,900
Tommy Fleetwood	$9,800
Wyndham Clark	$9,400
Shane Lowry	$9,100
Sepp Straka	$8,600
Corey Conners	$7,900
Brian Harman	$7,600
Aaron Rai	$7,100
Doug Ghim	$5,600

Email the Fantasy Golf Report here.

This week's chart serves as a quick reference guide for those financial advisors who find themselves fielding some awkward phone calls lately (which would be all of them). Just try to avoid the quaky Ben Stiller voice when reassuring your clients. 

                                       THE STRONG TO QUITE STRONG

                                    HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE CHART

If you've been reading closely this year, then you recognize that there has been much money to be made off the players that I write about but don't end-up picking. This week that player is Si Woo Kim. You're welcome.

	DK Price	2024	2023	2022	2021	2019
Scottie Scheffler	$12,800	1st	1st	T55	MC	DNP
Rory McIlroy	$11,500	T19	MC	T33	MC	1st
Xander Schauffele	$11,100	T2	T19	MC	MC	MC
Colin Morikawa	$10,500	T45	T13	MC	T41	DNP
Ludvig Aberg	$10,200	8th	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Justin Thomas	$10,100	MC	T60	T33	1st	T35
Patrick Cantlay	$10,000	T68	T19	MC	MC	MC
Hideki Matsuyama	$9,900	T6	5th	DNP	MC	T8
Tommy Fleetwood	$9,800	T35	T27	T22	MC	T5
Sungjae Im	$9,700	T31	T6	T55	T17	MC
Daniel Berger	$9,600	DNP	DNP	T13	T9	T67
Russell Henley	$9,500	MC	T19	T13	MC	MC
Wyndham Clark	$9,400	T2	T27	MC	MC	DQ
Sam Burns	$9,300	T45	T35	T26	MC	DNP
Tony Finau	$9,200	T45	T19	MC	MC	T22
Shane Lowry	$9,100	T19	T35	T13	8th	MC
Viktor Hovland	$9,000	T62	T3	T9	MC	DNP
Maverick McNealy	$8,900	T9	T60	T46	MC	DNP
Jordan Spieth	$8,800	MC	T19	MC	T48	MC
Will Zalatoris	$8,700	MC	73rd	T26	21st	DNP
Sepp Straka	$8,600	T16	T65	T9	MC	DNP
Tom Kim	$8,500	W/D	T51	DNP	DNP	DNP
Taylor Pendrith	$8,400	MC	T69	T13	DNP	DNP
Robert Macintyre	$8,300	MC	DNP	DNP	MC	DNP
Si Woo Kim	$8,200	T6	T27	W/D	T9	T56
Jason Day	$8,100	T35	T19	MC	T35	T8
Byeong Hun An	$8,000	MC	T35	DNP	MC	T26
Min Woo Lee	$8,000	T54	T6	DNP	DNP	DNP
Corey Conners	$7,900	T13	MC	T26	7th	T41
Davis Thompson	$7,900	MC	68th	DNP	DNP	DNP
Adam Scott	$7,800	T45	71st	MC	T48	T12
Thomas Detry	$7,800	T62	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
Keegan Bradley	$7,700	MC	MC	5th	T29	T16
Denny McCarthy	$7,700	T35	T13	T60	T55	T41
Cameron Young	$7,600	T54	T51	MC	DNP	DNP
Brian Harman	$7,600	T2	T44	T63	T3	T8
Matt Fitzpatrick	$7,500	5th	MC	MC	T9	T41
Alex Noren (Out)	$7,500	T19	MC	T26	MC	MC
Sahith Theegala	$7,400	T9	74th	MC	DNP	DNP
Harris English	$7,400	T19	MC	DNP	DNP	MC
Nick Taylor	$7,300	T26	MC	DNP	T48	T16
Max Greyserman	$7,300	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Cam Davis	$7,200	MC	T6	MC	MC	DNP
C. Bezuidenhout	$7,100	T13	T13	DNP	T41	DNP
Aaron Rai	$7,100	T35	T19	DNP	DNP	DNP
Keith Mitchell	$7,000	73rd	T35	T13	MC	T47
Akshay Bhatia	$7,000	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
J.T. Poston	$6,900	T45	MC	MC	T22	T22
Kurt Kitayama	$6,900	T19	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
Billy Horschel	$6,800	MC	MC	W/D	T58	T26
Lucas Glover	$6,800	MC	T51	MC	T48	MC
Ben Griffin	$6,700	MC	T35	DNP	DNP	DNP
J.J. Spaun	$6,700	T64	MC	MC	DNP	W/D
Max Homa	$6,600	T64	T6	T13	MC	DNP
Rickie Fowler	$6,600	T68	T13	DNP	MC	T47
Max McGreavey	$6,600	DNP	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
Harry Hall	$6,500	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Brian Campbell	$6,500	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Nick Dunlap	$6,400	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Justin Rose	$6,300	MC	T6	MC	DNP	T8
Jhonattan Vegas	$6,300	DNP	MC	MC	T61	T3
Stephan Jaeger	$6,200	MC	T44	MC	DNP	DNP
Charley Hoffman	$6,200	MC	DNP	MC	T17	MC
Tom Hoge	$6,100	T54	T3	T33	T22	T30
Austin Eckroat	$6,100	T45	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Mackenzie Hughes	$6,100	T26	MC	MC	MC	DNP
Beau Hossler	$6,000	MC	MC	MC	DNP	MC
Matthieu Pavon	$6,000	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Jake Knapp	$5,900	T45	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Michael Kim	$5,900	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP	MC
Eric Cole	$5,700	MC	T27	DNP	DNP	DNP
Nicolai Hojgaard	$5,700	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Mark Hubbard	$5,700	T31	T35	DNP	MC	DNP
Chris Kirk	$5,600	T26	MC	MC	T48	T56
Adam Hadwin	$5,600	MC	T13	T9	T29	MC
Doug Ghim	$5,600	T16	MC	T6	T29	DNP
Patrick Rodgers	$5,600	MC	MC	MC	T65	77th
Adam Svensson	$5,500	MC	T13	DNP	DNP	DNP
Matt Kuchar	$5,500	MC	MC	MC	MC	T26
Alex Smalley	$5,400	MC	T65	DNP	DNP	DNP
Erik Van Rooyen	$5,200	MC	DNP	T13	DNP	DNP