Fantasy Golf Tournament Preview- Wells Fargo Championship
OVERVIEW
I’m going to try something a bit different this week in the preview section as I feel like I’ve gotten into a rut with this article. In the past I’ve basically done my standard research for the article where I target key stats and base my suggestions off who is currently meeting that criteria. I don’t think my suggestions have been terrible this year as I’ve been able to highlight several winners, but I want to be better and I want you all to be better as well. Anyone can tout the hot players or the chalk, but in order to win GPPs and sweep cash games we need to do something different, so this is my attempt to help all of us do that. This week I’m taking more of an in depth look at who’s won, how, and who came close to winning to better identify who should play well this week. When looking at the past winners from 2003 on (for this event only, not the PGA Championship as the course was setup a bit differently than usual), we see that this tournament has produced seven winners via playoff (I’m not sure how this helps us, other than from a betting perspective). In that same time frame, seven winners have also been major championship winners – Toms [PGA], Vijay [Masters, PGA], Furyk [US Open], Tiger [double grand slam winner], Rory – two-time winner here [US, Open, PGA], and Lucas Glover [US]. JB Holmes, Derek Ernst, Glover, O’Hair all are typically poor putters in relation to the field average, but possess strong ball striking games. When looking at the runners-up at this event, we see the same thing for the most part. Webb Simpson [US Open], Patrick Rodgers, Jim Furyk (2x runner-up as well as former winner), Rory (see above), Phil [Masters, Open Champion, PGA], Glover, Bubba [2x Masters], Ben Curtis [PGA], Sergio [Masters] all possess strong ball striking skills and have moments of brilliance with their putter which have propelled them to victory on several occasions (majors in parenthesis). Roberto Castro, David Lynn (2x runner-up), DA Points, Jonathan Byrd, Trevor Immelman [Masters], Aaron Oberholser and Robert Gamez are the less consistent players who have carried the torch over the years to give hope to longshots in this event over the years. Don’t be afraid to target these types of players, especially those who have had some success in majors. For the most part, this course is vulnerable to players who gain strokes off the tee (driving distance), have superior ball striking skills and we should be putting a strong emphasis on those types of players this week. It might be a coincidence, but the two majors that seem to correlate the most to winning this event seem to be The Masters & US Open, so keep that in the back of your mind when finalizing your rosters. One last note before we get into the picks, the course recently changed their greens from Bentgrass to Bermuda and we know certain players perform differently on different grass types, so blindly following course history this week is not recommended as past results were played on a different putting surface. In some cases, the course history may still align, but we should be aware of the changes.
TOURNAMENT BACKGROUND
o The Course
• Quail Hollow
• Par 71
• 7,500 yards
• Bermuda greens, overseeded with Poa Trivialis
o Location: Charlotte, NC
o Corollary Courses: East Lake GC (TOUR Championship), TPC Scottsdale (WMPO), Bay Hill (API)
o Past Champions:
• 2017: Brian Harman -10 over Dustin Johnson & Pat Perez (played at Eagle Point Golf Club, not Quail Hollow)
• 2016: James Hahn -9 in a playoff over Roberto Castro
• 2015: Rory McIlroy -21 over Webb Simpson & Patrick Rodgers (dominating performance by Rory)
• 2014: JB Holmes -14 over Jim Furyk
• 2013: Derek Ernst -8 in a playoff over David Lynn
KEY STATS TO TARGET
o Strong Emphasis – SG: Ball Striking, SG: OTT, Birdie or Better %, Par 5 Scoring
o Important – SG: Putting, Scrambling, 3 putt avoidance, Scrambling, APP 200+
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