Jeff’s Hardcore Core- U.S Open

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I think I have had Daniel Berger in my Hardcore Core just about every damn week this season except for last week when he finally wins, that figures. Overall it was the first under-performing Core in a while. 8 of the 13 made the cut, with quite a few disappointing performances. I really felt like Gary Woodland would continue his strong play and take advantage of a weaker field this week, but he was awful. Reifers and Wilkinson were also incredibly disappointing considering how great of form they had coming into the week. There were a couple of good performances, including the top 3 (DJ, Phil, and Brooks) all finishing in the Top 5, old man Goosen continuing to play well finishing T12, and Campbell and Toms both putting up reasonably good efforts.

We now can officially dive into U.S Open research and man am I excited. Obviously a stacked field, tough course, and another edition of the millionaire maker are all reasons to get excited this week. I will remind you not to get carried away on milly maker entries and be disciplined with your bankroll. If the contest fills you will have to best 200,000 other entries so it is basically a lottery ticket and the top prize sucks up such a huge percentage of the prize pool that it is not a great investment. Be sure to play the cash games as they are always very profitable for major tournaments. The optimal lineups that the model produced this week look real good, so be sure to check them out in Zach’s Daily Spin this week.

I am sure some people would disagree with me, but I believe looking back at U.S Open history is important. Sure, the individual courses change every year, but the level of difficulty is usually at the most difficult that these players see all year no matter what course it is on. The greens are usually speedier than any other course played throughout the year and the rough always thicker. The ability to deal with adverse conditions and level of difficulty is difficult to measure. However, when you look back at tournament history you will see definitive trends with certain players. Scoring is going to be tough to come by (maybe even over par for the week), and guys are going to have to deal with it. It is not a coincidence that some players play well year after year, despite the fact that the course is different. I personally like good putters in a U.S Open (lag and overall). Some folks will say because the difficulty is so high, that it levels the playing field, but I disagree. Names like Day, Snedeker, Kuchar, all great putters seem to perform well year in and year out. Another thing that doesn’t show up in any statistics other than tournament history is the ability to deal with the fact that it is a major championship. Can you say pressure? Those who are able to overcome the stress that comes with a major championship also are evident by looking at history. Obviously this week, everybody is thinking about the millionaire maker contest. We study the winning lineups to try and find any nugget of information we can use. Based upon the results in the past we need to most likely have all six players finish in the Top 10. For The Masters, here is what the winning lineup looked like:
Paul Casey 7,700 16.30 T4 80
Hideki Matsuyama 9,100 12.90 T7 73.5
Troy Merritt 5,600 3.30 T42 40
Jordan Spieth 12,300 9.60 T2 101
Lee Westwood 7,300 2.70 T2 90.5
Danny Willett 8,000 16.80 1 93.5

Although Troy Merritt finished T42, the lineup had the winner, two players tied for second, fourth, and seventh. In other millionaire maker lineups of the past most have all six in the Top 20, if not Top 10. Enjoy the milly maker for what it is and take a couple shots at life enhancing money. Best of luck to all of Team FGI this week and let me know if you have something brewing on Sunday.

Day
McIlroy
Spieth
Matsuyama
Garcia
Grace
Kuchar
Reed
Snedeker
Westwood
Kaymer
Berger
Schwartzel
Horschel
Cabrera Bello
Hoffman
Wood
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