Fantasy Golf Tournament Preview- Northern Trust Open

OVERVIEW

The playoffs begin this week in Jersey at Liberty National, host of the 2013 edition of this same event (then called The Barclays). The course was designed by Bob Cupp & Tom Kite in 2006 and has some tremendous views of Lady Liberty (hence the name). It’s a long, challenging course measuring just under 7,400 yards. The fairways are narrow, and the greens are small and undulating. Ball striking will be a huge factor this week as players will have mid to long irons in hand on approaches and if they miss their spots, the ball could roll off the green – thus making scrambling an important stat to keep in mind. When looking at the leaderboard from 2013 we see a slew of great ball strikers and primarily “bad” putters in Adam Scott, Graham DeLaet and Gary Woodland at the top, which means we shouldn’t shy away from our #brand plays. For One & Done purposes, I’d look to burn anyone at the top of the board that you haven’t burned yet with the exception of Jordan Spieth. If you’re trailing by large margin, I wouldn’t shoot too far down the odds boards to find your player. Guys like Finau, Fleetwood, Reed (continues to churn out good results without having a round where he takes himself out of contention), Leishman, Wolff, Kuchar and Molinari are all players I’d look to be playing if you’ve burned everyone else around them.

 TOURNAMENT BACKGROUND

• The Course
• Liberty National
• Par 71
• 7,300 yards
• Bentgrass greens
• Location: Jersey City, NJ
• Past Champions:
• 2018: Bryson Dechambeau -18 over Tony Finau [Ridgewood CC]
• 2017: Dustin Johnson -13 in a playoff over Jordan Spieth [Glen Oaks]
• 2016: Patrick Reed -9 over Sean O’Hair & Emiliano Grillo [Bethpage Black]
• 2015: Jason Day -19 over Henrik Stenson [Plainfield CC]
• 2014: Hunter Mahan -14 over Jason Day, Cameron Tringale & Stuart Appleby [Ridgewood CC]
• 2013: Adam Scott -11 over Graham DeLaet, Tiger Woods, Justin Rose & Gary Woodland [Liberty National]

 KEY STATS TO TARGET

• Strong Emphasis – SG: Ball Striking (OTT + APP), Birdie or Better %, Par 5 Scoring
• Important – P4 Scoring 450-500, APP 200+ yards, APP 175-200 yards, Scrambling, Fairways Gained

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