The Daily Spin – Genesis Invitational

RECAP

The WMPO did not disappoint me on Sunday as we had another fantastic finish which paid many of us off with a big outright bet win and just as importantly, kept me from having to watch one second of the pregame nonsense leading up to the Super Bowl which continues to get worse by the year. Once again, the final four holes produced a ton of great action as it seems that someone near the top of the board foolishly goes left or long off the tee and gets themselves into the water on the 17th hole.

What a great week overall for the player picks. Cash games once again were an absolute breeze. Outside of the AMEX, we’ve been on fire in cash games which is usually the case this time of year as it is my favorite portion of the schedule. When weather and hazards are not as problematic, then we can make our plays based purely on skillset and how golfers line up in the model. That is why the Florida stretch usually makes me tear the hair out of my head. Things can go south for a player so fast. While there are situations where this happens in the first 6-7 weeks of the season, it is less prevalent and usually takes a NeSmithian effort (new term that I am going to trademark).

We also get a lot of really loaded fields to start each new year so there is always a lot of depth to work with like last week. In my cash lineup, I had no problem getting Hideki, Xander and Scottie Scheffler onto a roster. All three of those guys ranked near the top of my model and all had a shot to win the tournament. While John Rahm and JT were both at the top of my model, it just did not make sense to pay up for them in cash games, not so much due to their performances, but just that in order for them to really pay off, they need a Top-3 finish in order to make up for how much you need to sacrifice in other parts of your team.

It was great to see Scottie finally break through for his first win. I thought he had blown it on 18 when he missed from around 6 feet, but he steadied himself in the playoff and made a nice putt the fourth time through on 18 (third playoff hole). Cantlay, who I loved in GPP contests due to ownership being on the low end for a lack of course history, totally gave the tournament away on the final two holes. He blew his chip shot on 17 and then could not sink a birdie putt from around 10 feet and then missed from around 8-9 feet on 18 to end up in the playoff. Overall, still another solid performance for the defending FedEx Cup champ and I expect big things for him this year.

Xander really had a lot of chances to win the tournament, but left a lot of shots out on the greens and hit a few head scratching approach shots at inopportune moments. Even with some of his struggles, he still had a makable birdie putt on 18 to get to -16, but missed it. Overall, he’s still striking the ball really well, but for some reason, he’s had a tougher time closing in recent seasons compared to in his earlier years. However, at a great price like 9700, a 3rd place finish was great.

Hideki seems to be back to himself this season. He has two wins already and added another Top-10 last week on a course that suits his style of play well. It looked like he might make a move on Saturday when the leaders near the top could not pull away, but he started off slow on Sunday and it took a while for him to get going. His putter had been really good in his first three rounds, but finally betrayed him on Sunday as he lost .8 SGP and did not have quite enough to threaten the top. He was still good for an 8th place finish so my stars went 3/3 in giving me exactly what I needed to get off to a great start.

The rest of my lineup was on the scrubs side, though I really like the players available in that range so I had plenty of confidence in using them. It was another wild ride with Keegan Bradley. He started off well on Thursday and was near the top of the leaderboard on Friday before a dumb water ball on 17 derailed his charge. On Saturday, he went into a complete tailspin shooting +5 on the front nine before finding two birdies on the back nine on holes that are not really set up for scoring. On Sunday, it did not appear that he would help our cause much as he started on the back nine and shot even par, but then managed to shoot -5 on the front nine including four birdies in a row from holes 3-6 and one more on 9 for some very unlikely fantasy points as he boosted himself to a 26th place finish. If you told me at the start of the week that Keegan would end up 26th, I would have taken it and ran. It’s just never an easy trip to get there with him.

Adam Hadwin really stood out at $6900 last week. He was playing well, had not missed many cuts this season and had made six straight cuts at the WMPO. He offered a lot of salary cap relief and the more I looked at him, the more comfortable I was with his ability to get to the weekend. For a while, he did much more than that as it looked like he would threaten for a Top-10 finish. Unfortunately, that did not hold up in the final round as his entire game fell to pieces and he nearly lost four strokes to the field. Once again though, he finished 26th, which had you told me that at the start of the week, I would have been pleased. Though his fall slowed me down on the single entry side with this lineup, overall I was pleased.

I got cute with my last golfer in using Nate Lashley. You folks know how much I enjoy a good narrative so when we had an Arizona golfer that lived in the area with two straight Top-20 finishes at that event and coming off of a nice performance at Pebble Beach, I just could not help myself for $6700. The key to the week for me was in getting three true studs in my lineup at the top so if it worked out with Lashley, it would have skyrocketed my lineup in GPP contests, but if it did not work, then I was willing to accept the missed cut if it gave me more shots to contend with a player in the upper range. I am not always comfortable making plays like that as I do not seem to run quite as pure as Stat Boy when I own a cheap golfer with very little ownership, but with the depth of the field and the storyline in play, I figured it was worth a shot. In the end, he did not hurt my cash lineup at all and I had another sweat free Sunday for DFS and there is never a better feeling than when the event goes to a playoff and you have outrights on both guys.

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