The Daily Spin – RSM Classic

Before launching into the column this week, I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge a huge win for the FGI community from this past weekend. Long time member, Brent Epstein (DK – eppy99) took down the NFL Millionaire Maker contest for a cool $1,021,052.62. It is so much fun to see a loyal member take down a score like that and we loved seeing the FGI logo up on top of the leaderboard. If you have yet to check out our NFL coverage, be sure to take advantage of our offer below for a nice discount on the rest of the season!

RECAP

Last week did not go very well for me. I tried to get cute with a weather wave team and it backfired on me. Had I been awake early and taken the time to do a full wind check before lineup lock, I could have saved myself potentially, but in the end, the guys that missed the cut for me had a very positive grade going into the week and a great track record of making cuts so sometimes, you just take the loss and move on.

I am not entirely sure what to make of Harold Varner III after last week. He was atrocious on the final nine holes on Thursday and drawing dead going into Friday. He completely melted down on a Par 5 hole making a quad and from there it was over. It was his second missed cut in a row and a disappointing end to the fall for HVIII after a solid finish to last season and a strong start through his first three events of the fall. Usually, going right back to a player that has been hot after missing a cut works out well, but in this case, I wish recency bias would have clouded my mind.

The other two missed cuts for me were even more surprising. Between Joaquin Niemann and Christiaan Bezuidenhout, there was one missed cut in 45 starts going back to the beginning of last season. Now that number is three in the last 47 starts. Both of them were in position to make the cut near the end of the second round on Friday as play was called for the day, but Saturday was not good for either man. CBez shot +2 over the last three holes and Niemann shot +3 over his final five holes. I thought I would have two missed cuts and a shot at getting into the money, but 3/6 was too much to overcome. If Niemann is going to lose 1.8 strokes in a round off the tee/on approach, he’s going to be in trouble and that was what happened in the second round. His putting was terrible as well which was not entirely unexpected. CBez was uncharacteristically bad with his short game last week. I knew he was in trouble when he three putted from inside 20 feet on the 6th hole on Friday (15th hole of play), missing a 4.5 foot par putt. He’s never very good off the tee or with his irons so he needs his usually reliable short game to be there for him to get to the weekend.

My other three golfers that made the weekend were okay. Joel Dahman made a nice charge on Sunday to work himself up to a 5th place finish which was a nice surprise. He’s played well since getting his win last season so it is encouraging to see him continue to strike the ball so well. Talor Gooch started off great, shooting -5 in the first round, but was awful the final three rounds, firing an uninspired +11 the rest of the way, falling all the way back to 60th place. It was not any one area, but each part of his game at different points that gave him fits. It was disappointing to see it all fall apart after a great first round and a really strong opening four tournaments this fall. Finally, I went with Mito Pereira who was back to a price point that made him more affordable for cash games and he made the cut and finished 29th. What made his tournament weird was that he was really off of his normal strong tee to green play, but putted better than I ever remember from previous weeks. He finished 10th in the field in SGP versus 49th in SGTG where he typically excels. We kept waiting for his putter to heat up to catch up to the rest of his game and when it finally did, the rest of his game let him down.

All in all, I felt good about the process. The players that missed the cut have all been really reliable so it was surprising to see all three miss the weekend. I was only around 20-30 points short of the cash line so getting just one more to through the cut would have gotten me another win.

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