A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier

OVERVIEW
If you thought last week’s field was trash the Greenbriar Classic says, “hold my beer”. With the focus being on gearing up for the Open Championship and Independence Day in America many American pros have decided to take another week off. Bubba and Phil are both here because they own property within the Greenbriar community, Xander is defending champion so he basically has to be here (in a sense), and Finau has played well here in two tries so it makes sense that he’s back for another round.

The Greenbriar is a tree lined parklands course with pretty wide undulating fairways and is 2,000 feet above sea level – meaning the ball will travel a bit further this week. There are only two par 5’s, and both of them are on the back, so it may be advantageous to stack players going off the back nine this week for the first day once tee times are released. Primary scoring will be coming from Par 4 scoring, so it seems fairly obvious to target strong P4 Scoring players. The fairways and greens here are fairly easy to hit, so I don’t think targeting more accurate players off the tee is a strategy you’ll hear this week. Instead I’d look primarily at strong ball strikers who putt well on slower Bentgrass greens. The past winners here are a mixed bag of one hit wonders and guys who have won multiple times during their career, some have even used this event as a springboard to launch their career, so it may be wise to target someone who’s been trending all year and looks like they could be an upper echelon player for years to come.

TOURNAMENT BACKGROUND

o The Course
• The Old White TPC
• Par 70
• 7,300 yards
• Bentgrass greens
o Location: White Sulphur Springs, WV
o Corollary Courses: TPC River Highlands (Travelers), TPC Quad Cities (John Deere)
o Past Champions:
• 2017: Xander Schauffele -14 over Robert Streb
• 2016: No tournament due to flooding
• 2015: Danny Lee -13 in a playoff over David Hearn, Kevin Kisner, Robert Streb
• 2014: Angel Cabrera -16 over George McNeil
• 2013: Jonas Blixt -13 over Steven Bowditch, Matt Jones, Johnson Wagner & Jimmy Walker

KEY STATS TO TARGET

o Strong Emphasis – SG: Ball Striking/APP, Birdie or Better %, Par 4 Scoring
o Important – Scrambling, P4 Scoring 450-500y, APP 175-200y, APP 200+y, APP 150-175y

Sign up for an FGI account today to see the rest of this post.