The Daily Spin – DraftKings Preview – 3M Open

*Note – On Slack chat, be sure to join each of the channels. When you join, it starts you in the #general. Be sure to join #current-pga-event, #support, #feature-request, #euro-tour, #pga-championship

Most of the talk takes place in the #current-pga-event room during the week so if you’ve only been in the general room and wondering where everyone is at, click on ‘Channels’ on the left side of the screen and that should bring up the list of available channels to join.

Recap

What a turn of events from one week to the next. Last week will go down as one of the more surprising tournaments of the year. When the PGA plays at the same course two weeks in a row, you would expect the course to at least feel somewhat familiar from one week to the next, but in the case of Muirfield, it felt like siblings, only so different that one was clearly adopted. The course played longer than the previous week and even more punitive for missing the fairway. Strangely, some players that had looked awful the prior week like Ryan Palmer and Jordan Spieth, completely turned things around in just a few days for strong finishes. Other players that had been outstanding the week prior were terrible last week. Plenty of elite players were humbled, with DJ putting on a really special performance in putting up back to back 80s to end his week with a flourish.

To top it off, Jeff lost out on $20k dollars on Sunday during the big showdown contest on another PGA special for a bogus penalty call on Jon Rahm. We talked about this on the podcast, but I am still baffled by how the PGA can make rulings like this after the round has been completed. The first problem is the use of a zoomed in camera. If the tour is willing to use this for every golf shot for every player throughout the tournament, then that puts a standard in place across the board for all golfers to deal with. However, if it is something that is only going to apply to the last couple of groups on the last day or two of a tournament, then that is a problem. You should not have one set of standards in place for only a handful of players at any given time during a tournament.

The next problem I have with this is that you cannot wait until after the round to make this call. In fact, if it does not get called before the next hole, then it is in the past and done. Much like instant replay in the NFL, you do not get to review a call after the game and take points off the board at that point. If the ball is snapped without a review, the opportunity is gone. Making the call before Rahm and Palmer got to 17 would have created a whole new dynamic the final two holes. Rahm’s advantage would have been only two shots and his demeanor would have been totally different…likely pure rage. Who knows what happens from that point onward as the pressure would be much higher with two holes to play.

Finally, this cannot be a call made after the round is over. Sure, Rahm was a total ‘gentleman’ about it after the fact when the two shots did not mean anything to the final result. Imagine if he had won by only one or two strokes and then that happened. Chaos would have ensued. Rahm would have been anything but a gentleman and I do not think Slugger White would have had the guts to stick to his guns in calling a penalty, which means that the call he made on Sunday was silly and set a poor precedent moving forward, though this is a trend for the PGA in making poor rulings that diminish the game and infuriate the fanbase.

My cash game team was not able to get the job done for me this week. I thought I would have a good shot of getting my full roster to the weekend, but Ian Poulter could not hit a fairway or green, especially on the Par 5 holes on Friday and missed the cut after a Top-10 finish the week prior. Similarly, Joaquin Niemann made too many mistakes on his last nine holes, manufacturing a couple of terrible bogeys out of thin air and missing the cut on the number. I likely would have needed both to make the cut to have a shot over the weekend as Gary Woodland and Patrick Cantlay both struggled the final two days, fumbling away promising starts. Kevin Streelman finished in the Top-10 at the Workday, but 58th last week and Abraham Ancer finished 52nd so it was a tough week for cash. There were a lot of landmines for the week to work around. Hideki had one of his worst events on record. Berger blew his first cut since October. Paul Casey collapsed on Friday and missed his first cut of the season. Bryson fired a 10 on a Par 5 and missed the cut after looking invincible coming out of the break. There were landmines everywhere it seemed and although I owned many players that finished near the top like Norlander, Finau, Fitz, Day and Matt Wallace, they were all secondary or sprinkle plays so I did not have near the volume to get them on enough rosters together which doomed me for GPP contests as well. All in all, a tough week, but that is to be expected throughout the season. Credit to Jack for kicking things up a notch and some very challenging weather over the last couple of rounds for making Muirfield play like a major level course last week.

Sign up for an FGI account today to see the rest of this post.