The Daily Spin -DraftKings Preview- the Memorial Tournament

*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

Week one of two at Muirfield is in the books and it played out as an instant classic on Sunday afternoon. Of course, it was not televised live because despite the growth of the game over the last five years, the powers that be have not figured out how to deliver coverage to us based upon our demands. For some reason, even when the weather moves the schedule around, it becomes impossible to shift to live coverage any earlier on a major network or for the Golf Channel to negotiate a deal so that it can bring us full, live coverage instead of the major networks when the weather forces the rounds to start earlier than normal. The same thing happens every Friday on the Golf Channel as well. Everyone is excitedly sweating out the cut line and watching players around the line and then the clock strikes 5pm CST and coverage comes to a complete halt. We get shifted back to the studio for highlights that we have watched ten times already while live golf is still taking place that a huge portion of the its audience is still interested in following. It frustrates me to no end that the PGA has not been able to take advantage of the opportunity that is sitting in its lap. Yes, I understand that PGA Tour Live exists and yes, I know that I am able to watch the CBS Sports app over the weekend if needed, but if you are technology impaired like Jeff or my dad, you end up stuck watching it on your phone (Jeff, get yourself an Apple TV, sir) or not at all because you don’t want to download another app or do not know it is available (dad). I would tell all of you to express your outrage to the networks that cover the tour, but you would be wasting your time. These people have an antiquated model that has been in use since we were born and seem intent on sticking with it forever.

Getting back to golf, there was some amazing drama on Sunday as Justin Thomas choked away a three shot lead over the final three holes (yes, I put the black magic on him in a big way in Slack and on Twitter). He seemed to pull out a win in the playoff by hitting a 50 foot putt, only to have it answered by a 25 footer from Morikawa and then hit a very unlucky tee shot into the rough and ended up positioned behind a very thin tree with no direct sight to the pin. Morikawa, who was brilliant again with his irons mopped up an easy par and locked up his second career win.

I was pleased with the win as we went right back to Morikawa in our core for the week. We have to constantly be looking for opportunities following the rare missed cuts for top players and this one was a layup. Morikawa is only going to get better in the years ahead and if he can develop his putter, he’ll become one of the best in the world. We also enjoyed solid efforts out of Viktor Hovland, Gary Woodland, Ian Poulter, Patrick Cantlay and Kevin Streelman. All of those were players that we owned heavily who finished inside the T0p-10 for the week.

Unfortunately, there were a few misses in my core last week that need mentioning. Justin Rose was a complete catastrophe this past week. He lost over 6 strokes from tee to green and another 3.5 with his putter in just two rounds. Not one part of his game was spared as he ended up negative in all strokes gained categories for the week. I am not sure I can stomach another week, but his ownership numbers will be next to nothing for this upcoming tournament and his price will likely be under $9k. Can I tempt anyone into making an amazingly contrarian play? I am a chalk monster so it likely will not happen for me.

Marc Leishman also fell apart last week. He started off -3 on the front nine on Thursday and then it was all downhill from there. The one part of his game that had been great coming in, his irons, were terrible last week and his putting is still a problem. I like playing Leishman with a little form as he tends to stay hot when he gets some momentum which means I will likely not be a buyer this week. Finally, Joel Dahmen missed the cut by a mile and was never competitive. I really wish I had pulled the plug on this one earlier. His comp course numbers are terrible in ten starts. What took me off him late Wednesday when building my cash line was that one of our members in the Slack channel had seen a story that Dahmen had arrived to town late and had not touched a club since the Travelers. This is the kind of key information that pops up in Slack each week and is why I would implore all of you that have not joined it yet to come check it out and to chat among our many bright and friendly members. We talk about the weather, strategy, player pool selection and news that we see before and during the tournament. The guys who are in there often are really passionate about the game and eager to help each other out and cheer everyone on when someone is sweating out a potential big win.

As for my results, my cash team hit again this week which is always satisfying. I struggled to put together my roster, but settled in on Hovland, Kuchar, Niemann, Hadwin, An and Poulter. I wanted mostly players that had some courses experience as well as cut makers. Hovland was making his first start at Muirfield, but he’s been so good over the last month that i was happy to ride his success to another cash game win. The only miss was Benny An who played poorly on Thursday and seemed dead in the water, then shot -6 through 10 holes up to the weather delay to get back to -2, but then fell apart on the restart and finished Even on the tournament to miss the cut by two strokes. I squeezed a lot of value out of the team and the result was never really in doubt which makes for a much more relaxing weekend for me. I wish I had gone back and changed the Dahmen play once I heard the news about him in Slack so it did not hit some of you so hard, but I know a lot of you were able to rally and get past it which was good to hear. After seeing him for two rounds, I cannot imagine anyone taking a shot on him this upcoming week.

 

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