Fantasy Golf: The RBC Heritage Preview

By the time I publish this, there probably won't be much left to say about Rory's gut-wrenching win that hasn't already been said. You could legitimately make the case that, in one round, he hit two of the worst shots in golf history along with three of the best and that wouldn't even include the two drives on 18 which is a brutal tee shot even before you add the pressures of, (a) trying to closeout the Grand Slam, and (b) trying to recover from just gagging the chance to closeout the Grand Slam. 

After everything that led-up to last Sunday, it had to unfold in almost Shakespearean fashion. Between the extended major draught, dealing with an onslaught of unwarranted bullshit for taking a stand against LIV, being sold-out by his own commissioner, criticism of his caddie who also happens to be his best friend, marital troubles . . . the list goes on. Then there were the recent heartbreaks at the last two U.S. Opens which he had in his grasp and the 2022 British Open where he picked the wrong day to get stuck in neutral as Cameron Smith blew past him for the Claret Jug. The fact that it happened at St. Andrews just provided an extra sting.

On his podcast, Eddie Pepperall discussed not just Rory's resilience which is now legendary but also his courage to keep going back for more. The man had twenty-one top tens in majors between his win at the 2014 PGA Championship and last Sunday. They weren't all close-calls or crushing defeats but that's twenty-one times he brought enough game to win a major only to leave disappointed. That's a lot of falls off the horse, even for a professional athlete.     

I'm not sure when I became an unabashed Rory fan but it was probably around the time of the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont when the USGA left Dustin Johnson twisting in the wind on the back nine with an unresolved ruling. (If you've forgotten what a complete debacle that was, I wrote about it here). Most of the announcers were stepping on rakes trying to justify it and Paul Azinger stood-out in particular which was a prelude to his buffoonish 2023 Ryder Cup performance that probably cost him his job.   

As soon as it became clear that the USGA was going to potentially screw D.J., Rory tweeted, "This is ridiculous... No penalty whatsoever for DJ. Let the guy play without this crap in his head. Amateur hour from @USGA." First of all, I think we can all agree that "amateur hour" is an underused dig so well played there by McIlroy but, more importantly, he used his star power to call-out some obvious bullshit in the moment. No carefully crafted statement reviewed by an agent or a publicist. He saw it, knew it was wrong and said so. Think about how rare that is, especially among golfers who are notoriously scripted.

There are a lot of Rory haters out there and that is certainly their prerogative though I've never heard a credible explanation from any of them that wasn't soaked in jealousy or driven by a nefarious agenda. I see him as a flawed man who isn't afraid to speak his mind regardless of the consequences and never stops getting up after being knocked on his ass and I'm rooting for that guy all day.  

GOLF ANALYSIS

It's almost embarrassing to claim last week as a success because I was so loud wrong about Rory never winning the Masters but that's what it was with Corey Conners' top ten (+330) and Harris English's top twenty (+300). As they like to say, there are no pictures on the scorecard despite the fact that most scorecards include many pictures. I guess not questioning golf cliches is an unwritten rule in the same way that you never ask a Navy man if he'll have another drink. . .    

Now we move to Hilton Head along with every retiree who traded the warmer weather of Florida for neighbors who are sane. This is still a Signature Event so we've got a loaded field on a pretty good golf course that's yielded strong leaderboards two years in a row. Last week we took an overly analytical approach and it yielded Collin Morikawa as the winner. I'll save you the obvious Wall Street line here and just say that won't be happening this week. 

What little analysis we did has us back to ignoring Scottie Scheffler. Not because we don't think he's great but the fact is that he hasn't won since the Tour Championship and he hasn't won a non-bullshit event since the Travelers Championship almost ten months ago. And we're not going to count the Olympics because, (a) it's not a PGA Tour event, and (b) it was played in France so how much could it really matter?

Instead we're going to bank on Sungjae Im riding his Masters momentum, Daniel Berger continuing his career comeback and Matt Kuchar doing his typical Southeastern thing where the tea is strong and the tipping is weak. No I'm never letting it go. Ever.   

Place	Player	Odds
Winner	Patrick Cantlay	+2000
Top 5	Sungjae Im	+650
Top 10	Daniel Berger	+320
Top 10	Brian Harman	+400
Top 20	Matt Kuchar	+300

One and Done Pick: Sungjae Im

If you're still relying on this
site for a pick of the week, there
are some numbers you can call.

Other Guy I'd Pick: Patrick Cantlay 

Sleeper Pick: Matt Kuchar

DraftKings Top Ten Values

Xander Schauffele	$10,400
Patrick Cantlay	$10,000
Shane Lowry	$9,600
Sepp Straka	$8,800
Sungjae Im	$8,700
Daniel Berger	$8,300
Akshay Bhatia	$7,700
Brian Harman	$7,600
Matt Fitzpatrick	$7,200
Matt Kuchar	$6,000

Email the Fantasy Golf Report here.

Since we now won't see Bryson DeChambeau until the PGA Championship, let's send him off with a parting shot in honor of his sad sack remark following Sunday's final round. You almost have to give Bryson credit as no one undoes goodwill and reverts back to clown status faster. 

THE RORY WAS MEAN TO ME

HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE CHART 

Harbour Town clearly has it's favorites. In addition to the recommendations above, everyone from Jordan Spieth to J.T. Poston seems to have multiple top ten finishes since 2020. It's like a goddamn Cheesecake Factory menu. 

	DK Price	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020
Scottie Scheffler	$13,100	1st	T11	DNP	DNP	DNP
Ludvig Aberg	$11,000	T10	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Collin Morikawa	$10,900	9th	T31	T26	T7	T64
Xander Schauffele	$10,400	T18	4th	DNP	DNP	T64
Justin Thomas	$10,200	T5	T25	T35	DNP	T8
Patrick Cantlay	$10,000	T3	3rd	2nd	MC	DNP
Corey Conners	$9,800	T44	T31	T12	T4	T21
Russell Henley	$9,700	T12	T19	MC	T9	MC
Shane Lowry	$9,600	T64	T67	T3	T9	MC
Tommy Fleetwood	$9,400	T49	T15	T10	MC	DNP
Jordan Spieth	$9,200	T39	2nd	1st	DNP	T68
Jason Day	$9,100	T18	DNP	DNP	DNP	MC
Viktor Hovland	$9,000	DNP	T59	DNP	DNP	T21
Sepp Straka	$8,800	T5	MC	T3	T59	T33
Sungjae Im	$8,700	T12	T7	T21	T13	MC
Robert Macintyre	$8,500	DNP	DNP	DNP	T59	DNP
Wyndham Clark	$8,400	T3	T29	T35	64th	T64
Daniel Berger	$8,300	DNP	DNP	T21	T13	T3
Min Woo Lee	$8,200	DNP	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
Maverick McNealy	$8,100	DNP	MC	T26	T4	T58
Justin Rose	$8,000	T44	T25	DNP	DNP	T14
Denny McCarthy	$7,900	T28	T25	T56	T13	MC
Aaron Rai	$7,900	DNP	T48	DNP	DNP	DNP
J.T. Poston	$7,800	T5	MC	T3	MC	T8
J.J. Spaun	$7,800	DNP	MC	MC	DNP	MC
Akshay Bhatia	$7,700	T18	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
Keegan Bradley	$7,700	T55	T48	DNP	DNP	DNP
Si Woo Kim	$7,600	T18	MC	T42	T33	MC
Brian Harman	$7,600	T12	T7	T35	T13	T28
Bud Cauley	$7,500	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	MC
Michael Kim	$7,500	DNP	DNP	DNP	W/D	MC
Byeong Hun An	$7,400	67th	DNP	DNP	MC	MC
Davis Thompson	$7,400	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Sahith Theegala	$7,300	2nd	T5	T70	DNP	DNP
Taylor Pendrith	$7,300	DNP	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
Matt Fitzpatrick	$7,200	T28	1st	MC	T4	T14
Harris English	$7,200	T28	T63	DNP	MC	T17
Tony Finau	$7,100	T12	T31	DNP	DNP	T33
Tom Hoge	$7,100	T18	MC	MC	T25	MC
Will Zalatoris	$7,000	T44	DNP	DNP	T42	DNP
Sam Burns	$7,000	T44	T15	DNP	T39	MC
Stephan Jaeger	$6,900	T18	MC	MC	DNP	DNP
Lucas Glover	$6,900	T33	MC	T48	T33	T21
Rickie Fowler	$6,800	T18	T15	MC	DNP	MC
Billy Horschel	$6,800	DNP	MC	T21	T25	MC
Max Homa	$6,700	T55	MC	DNP	DNP	T41
Andrew Novak	$6,700	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Jacob Bridgeman	$6,700	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Mackenzie Hughes	$6,600	T39	MC	MC	T52	T70
Thomas Detry	$6,600	T28	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
Ryan Gerard	$6,600	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Patrick Rodgers	$6,500	T5	T19	DNP	MC	MC
Adam Scott	$6,500	DNP	T31	DNP	DNP	DNP
Max Greyserman	$6,500	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Eric Cole	$6,400	T33	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Nick Taylor	$6,400	T49	T41	MC	MC	DNP
Sam Stevens	$6,400	DNP	MC	DNP	DNP	DNP
C. Bezuidenhout	$6,300	T28	T19	DNP	T33	T28
Gary Woodland	$6,300	T64	T31	DNP	DNP	T62
Ryo Hisatune	$6,300	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Cameron Young	$6,200	T62	T51	T3	DNP	DNP
Austin Eckroat	$6,200	17th	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Joe Highsmith	$6,200	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Sami Valimaki	$6,200	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Chris Kirk	$6,100	T10	T41	MC	T7	DNP
Cam Davis	$6,100	T49	T7	T3	T25	DNP
Mattieu Pavon	$6,100	T49	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Adam Hadwin	$6,000	T42	MC	T26	MC	T41
Nick Dunlap	$6,000	69th	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
Matt Kuchar	$6,000	DNP	T19	T3	T18	T41
Brian Campbell	$6,000	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP