Jeff’s Hardcore Core- Valspar Championship

Could golf be any better than it is right now? Tiger is back and has been competitive with signs that we might see some greatness still left in him. All the young guns that have massive game and seem to be competing every single week like Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Jon Rahm, etc. And now we have the most popular player in the game today and PGA legend Phil Mickelson back in the winners circle after a four year hiatus. The state of golf really could not possibly be in a better state. Just thinking about guys like Tiger, Phil, and Bubba playing at a high level heading into Augusta makes me excited. If you have the vacation time, you might want to take off April 5th and 6th (Thursday and Friday) and make it a four straight days of couch time, because this year could be an all-timer.

As I mentioned, Phil Mickelson defeated Justin Thomas and his own demons to win the WGC Mexico and continue his great play over the past month. I am happy for Phil and the positivety that him winning brings to the game, but damn I wish we could get a Core member into the winners circle one of these weeks. Yet another week where many members of the core danced around the top spot for the entire week including Thomas (2nd), but also guys like Cabrera Bello (T3) who had a legit shot to win and others like Garcia (T7), and Dustin Johnson (T7). Even others like Finau, Schauffele, Perez, and Paisley held a top spot at some point. One pick I wanted to point out specifically is Paul Casey. I generally do not select him as part of my Core because of his propensity to have a limited upside. Last week however his price was to enticing to pass up. I was confident his floor was T15 and he had an upside of a Top 8 finish. It didn’t look good for most of the week, but in the end he did exactly what we thought and finished T12.  I do feel like he will nab a win at some point, so you will see I have him below in my core again this week.  So who were the guys who crippled us? How about Justin Rose. He looked solid the first two days and I thought he would be contending the weekend, but he absolutely fell through the floor and was not competitive and cost too many of my lineups badly. His great round on Sunday was not enough to salvage the week. That pick was a complete whiff. Fitzpatrick was another guy who really let me down as I had high hopes for him last week. Finally, Gary Woodland was an anchor for about 12% of my teams. I honestly cannot tell you how a guy wins an event one week and then proceeds to be completely lost for multiple weeks after that. Woodland was awful on a course that was a tremendous fit for him, so I think we really need to be wary of him moving forward.

This week we have the Valspar Championship, which is a really fun course and a really fun event. Copperhead GC is a difficult course with quite a bit of trouble. Of course the Snake Pit (holes 16,17,18) play as one of the very toughest closing stretches on the PGA Tour circuit. This track is another one that is going to benefit more accurate players by putting a premium on positioning. Two of Copperheads Par 5s feature double doglegs and bombers are not going to get the advantage that they normally gain. I liken this course a bit to Harbourtown (RBC Heritage) in that shorter, more accurate players can compete. If you look at results for both events side by side, you will see a lot of the same players have had success. The pricing seems to be on the tighter side again this week, although I do not find it as difficult to build lineups this week as compared to last week.

Jeff’s Strategy & Hardcore Core- Valspar Championship-
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