Fantasy Golf Tournament Preview – PGA Championship

OVERVIEW

Golf’s final major is here, it seems like just yesterday we were talking about the Masters and all of a sudden, the PGA Tour season is winding down. I’ve listed the past champion form leading into the event the year they won below, and I think outside of Walker the thing to take away from the form leading in is that these players were all playing well leading in and took advantage of courses that suited their games. JT won on Quail which is an OTT course that rewards precision with the approach shots, Day was on fire in 2015 leading in and after winning the PGA, his length off the tee set him up with mid to short irons which helped him stop the ball close to the hole (he also putted extremely well that week), Rory took advantage of a driver friendly course and Dufner’s ball striking and strong putting (not normal) allowed him to beat Jim Furyk. So, with that information, we need to apply that to this week to identify the winner, as well as the other five players in our lineups to win the millionaire maker (and other contests). Bellerive has hosted PGA Tour events in the past, most recently the 2008 BMW Championship and some others back in the day. The course played shorter (6,900 yards) and was a par 71 at the time, but I think we can gleam some things from looking back at the leaderboard. Camilo Villegas started out hot fire with a 65 and never looked back (he did not go “full Camilo”). Filling out the Top 10 was Dudley Hart, Jim Furyk, Anthony Kim, Stephen Ames, KJ Choi, DJ Trahan, Tim Clark, Hunter Mahan, Aaron Baddeley, Freddie Jacobson, and Steve Stricker. For the most part we’re looking at ball strikers as only AK47 possessed a strong off-the-tee game at the time. Freddie was a strong scrambler in his heyday, and we know what Badds & Stricker have been good at over their career – putting. This tournament has produced some odd ball, one-off winners, but for the most part I think we see either an elite player win this week or someone who’s on the path of becoming an elite player (I know, going out on a limb there). In order to get this out early so you can start your research, I’ve excluded finishing places from the current form for this week’s WGC Bridgestone, I don’t think how players finish this week has much of an impact on how they’ll play next week, just as we saw Poulter mail it in all Friday at The Open, and then come firing back in Canada and so far, this week in Akron.

 

TOURNAMENT BACKGROUND

• The Course
• Bellerive Country Club
• Par: 70
• Yardage: 7,300 yards
• Greens: Bentgrass
• Location: Louis, MO
• Past Champions:
• 2017: Justin Thomas -8 over Francesco Molinari, Louis Oosthuizen & Patrick Reed [Quail Hollow]
• 2016: Jimmy Walker -14 over Jason Day [Baltusrol]
• 2015: Jason Day -20 over Jordan Spieth [Whistling Straits]
• 2014: Rory McIlroy -16 over Phil Mickelson [Valhalla]
• 2013: Jason Dufner -10 over Jim Furyk [Oak Hill]
• Past Champion Form (leading in the year they won):
• JT: 28^th – MC – MC – MC
• Walker: 14^th – MC – 16^th – MC
• Day: 12^th – WIN – 4^th – 9^th (also went on to win his next event after the PGA)
• Rory: WIN – WIN – 23^rd – 15^th
• Dufner: 4^th – 26^th – MC – 4^th

 

KEY STATS TO TARGET

• Strong Emphasis – Ball Striking (SG: OTT + SG: APP), Scrambling, SG: Putting
• Important – Current Form, SG: OTT, Birdie or Better, Par 4 scoring

 

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