The Daily Spin – Butterfield Bermuda Championship
RECAP
The ZOZO Championship played out well for me last week even though it felt like my team did not perform that well. I could have saved myself the sweat by using Hideki on my cash line as I had intended to do early in the week, but when I found the funds to stack Xander and Morikawa, I chose recent form over narrative. Sometimes, it is okay to go with your gut on narrative. We have seen over and over with Hideki since we have been covering the sport that he plays his best golf back in his home country. Regardless of his current form, he is in contention every time he returns to play in Japan. He was in contention at the Olympics, he was in contention two years ago at the ZOZO and when he’s taken the time to play in events on the Japanese tour, he’s notched several wins and Top-10s. Having watched him look lackluster in Vegas the previous two weeks prior to the ZOZO and generally not looking that impressive after his win at Augusta, I drifted away from using him in my main single entry and cash game lineup.
Fortunately, this did not come back to bite me. My team was a true stars and scrubs roster that I rarely use unless it is a no-cut event with a weaker than normal field as was the case last week. I stacked Morikawa and Xander and then filled in the other four spots with players that I thought could be serviceable, potentially provide some upside and hopefully stay off the bottom of the leaderboard.
My stack was a disappointment. Morikawa finished 7th which was fine, but Xander finished 28th, which in that field is awful. I was looking for two Top-10 finishes out of that pairing. It seemed inconceivable that they would finish anywhere outside of the Top-20 given the competition for the week, but a poor second round for Xander took him out of the mix early and he spent the rest of the weekend fighting just to get back to Even par for the tournament. If you had told me where these two would finish just before the start of the tournament, I would have figured that my team was in trouble. Fortunately, Xander was heavily owned while Morikawa was not which did help to mitigate some of the damage for me before looking over the scrubs that I landed on to fill out my roster.
Of my remaining four players, I was fortunate that none of them finished lower than 48th for the week. Even though Sung Kang was my lowest finishing player, he did it with some flair. He started the tournament with a three birdie streak and managed to make fourteen birdies for the week. With the course playing somewhat tough, these points added up quickly on DK and he outscored many players that finished in front of him from a fantasy perspective (on my team he outscored Harry Higgs who finished 39th and had the same number of DK points as Troy Merritt who finished 28th). Given his $6300 salary, it was a decent showing and provided some much needed salary cap space.
Harry Higgs entered the week on a nice run and was a popular play at $7500. He started off well enough, but faded over the final three rounds to finish 39th. It was not a terrible performance, but I did have hopes that he could finish a little higher. Troy Merritt was another really cheap play that I used at $6900. As the week wore on and I needed more cap space, I grew more comfortable with Merritt as the type of course suited his game well and though I knew he would not contend, it also seemed unlikely he would be a total bust. He finished 28th for the week which is about what I was hoping for going into the week.
My final player was Tom Hoge at $7k. I liked what I saw from Hoge in the playoffs and to start the new season and his tee to green numbers were really strong going into the ZOZO. He is the one player that I felt really outperformed his salary for me as he finished 17th for the week and added one three birdie streak as well as a bogey free round. In a no-cut event with a small field, I typically would not expect my cash game team to get to the cash line with finishes of 7th, 17th, 28th, 28th, 39th and 48th, but by the end of the final round, I had managed to get into the green with ease. That is part of what makes these fields fun during the fall. You really are not gaining your edge so much at the top where everyone will use the same handful of star players, but more so from sifting through the debris on the lower end and being able to pick out the players like Hoge or Merritt that get overlooked. This is a trend that is likely to spill over into this week and the rest of the fall.
Paloma Verde CBD
We have a new sponsor! If you have not tried CBD previously, but our curious, give Paloma Verde a looks this week. Paloma Verde CBD is a family owned business out of San Antonio, Texas run by Carlos and Vanessa Abelar. Cannabidiol or CBD for short, is a natural chemical compound found in the hemp plant and its cousin cannabis. CBD has a rich history and a variety of benefits ranging from reducing inflammation to helping you get a good night’s sleep, without any psychoactive effects. For me, using CBD has helped to reduce tension, relax during the day and I use the Sports Cream on my back and shoulder to help alleviate soreness when my muscles get tight.
My favorites that I personally use:
Strawberry Gummies – they taste great, absorb quickly and help to ease anxiety and keep me focused when I am working throughout the afternoon and evening.
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NFL SEASON
As most of you are well aware, the NFL season is here which means that Jeff and I are to kicking our third season with our site, Football Insider Edge! To say that the first two seasons were a big success would be a massive understatement as we’ve had a number of live finalists and many big GPP winners. If you enjoy our PGA content, then I can promise that you will love what we do with the NFL.
As subscribers to FGI, you are ALL ENTITLED TO A SUBSTANTIAL DISCOUNT on Football Insider Edge. Now that we are in Week 4, I want to open up a discount offer to everyone out there reading this. Use discount code – EDGE119 and select the Season Long + Betting Plan and you will gain access to the entire site for the rest of the season for only $119.99!!
You’ll have access to our lineup builder, wide receiver/cornerback matchup chart as well as Zach’s cash game focused column and Jeff’s GPP plays each week. We also provide Showdown columns for the Thursday, Sunday and Monday night games each week. As with PGA, we have a dedicated Slack chat channel devoted to NFL that is also included as a part of your subscription.
For those of you who opt to also add on our betting package, you’ll get access to what we consider one of our best offerings of the year with Jeff’s Proposition Bets for 2021 (will come out just before the start of the regular season when the sportsbooks release all season long prop plays). In 2019, although he did not hit on his long shot bets, he went 12-2 on his regular prop bets. He followed that up last season in 2020 by going 10-2 on his prop bets, improving his overall total to an incredibly impressive 22-4 over the last two seasons.
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