The Daily Spin – DraftKings Daily Fantasy Golf Preview – Tour Championship
Where did the season go? Each year the golf season seems to go by in a blur as we finish covering our fourth full season of the PGA Tour. As golf winds down here for a couple of weeks before kicking right back off in October, I want to thank all of you who have been with us for the journey over the years. I feel so fortunate to be able to do something that I love and that we have such a great community here at FGI to share it with.
It’s interesting with golf in that this event really does not feel at all like the peak of the season in any way. The buildup before Augusta, the excitement around how the course will play at the US Open and the tradition of The Open Championship all seem to dwarf the FedEx Cup Playoffs. It would be like sprinkling in the most important games of the football season intermittently throughout the year and then having little fanfare for the playoffs and Super Bowl. I was a little nervous about the schedule changes coming in 2019 when they were first announced, but now, in looking at the way the season ends each year and the way that it gets run over by the freight train that is known as the NFL, I am now excited to see if the changes can reinvigorate the playoff format and keep more eyes on golf towards the end of August when it will not have such staunch competition.
It’s a shame that this event does not generate more excitement as East Lake really is a premier golf course in terms of what it demands of the players each year. The style is reminiscent of the way that many US Open courses are setup each year in that it is a long, 7,300 yard plus course with narrow, tree lined fairways and firm, fast Bermuda greens. The length of the course is such that players will not be able to attack by leaving their driver in the bag all week, which will create an interesting dynamic for those players that cannot find the fairway. Most of the holes on the course are fairly straightforward without a lot of water or doglegs that would present tricky angles for the players to navigate, but there is a huge difference in whether or not you are able to hit greens in regulation based upon being in the fairway or the rough. More so than most others, this is truly a ball strikers course. As you would expect from the length of the course, the Par 4 holes are going to be challenging with eight of them being at least 440 yards and one actually coming in at a whopping 520 yards. The Par 3 holes are also on the long side this week with the shortest coming in at 197 yards. The two Par 5 holes on the course will be about the only times when players have legitimate scoring opportunities, but even the Par 5, 18th hole is on the long side at 590 yards so there are no gimmes this week and I am expecting the winning score to be somewhere around the -10 range overall. We are looking for players who can keep the ball in the fairway and those who excel in their approach play, particularly from the longer distances.
In thinking about strategy for the week, I would probably avoid cash games completely. They are not going to play much different than GPP events with only 30 golfers teeing it up this week and many of the most popular players in the middle range may be 50% owned or higher. If you really believe that the chalk is wrong this week and you have the one or two players that will stand out that everyone else is overlooking, why not take advantage of that in GPPs this week? If you play cash with this type of lineup, you are likely to either finish near the very top or the very bottom of the standings. If that is the case, why just play to double your money? The chalk is going to be so thick this week that a unique roster construction process that hits on a key contrarian play or two would catapult your teams to the top. If it is going to be an all or nothing type of week, I will be sticking to the GPP contests as short slates have been a spot where we’ve had some good fortune over the last few years.
Key Stats
Strokes Gained Tee to Green: 30%
Strokes Gained Putting: 20%
Birdie or Better Percentage: 20%
Driving Accuracy: 10%
Proximity: 10%
Scrambling: 10%
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