The Daily Spin – The Honda Classic

RECAP

As I tearfully leave the west coast swing behind, I have to let out a deep sigh as we move on to the Florida swing as four of the next five events will be in the Sunshine State. I need to prepare myself emotionally for the types of things that will bring me pain on shot tracker in the weeks ahead. Be ready to see: Shot 1 275 yards to water, lots of squares and double squares and rounds that go right off the rails just at the moment when everything starts to seem okay. The Honda Classic is always a tough event with the winner in the mid to low single digits most years and where it is tough to go through a career without having a few blemishes on the course history chart for even the best golfers here.

Before we go all the way to Florida, we should look back one last time at California where we had another great event at Riviera over the week. Sadly, in cash games, things did not go my way, but I did find some profits to make up for it in GPP contests as I had close to 20% Niemann and 13% Cam Young so I had a few teams that showed up well. However, in cash games, I had to make the same mistake that I always promise myself to be done with every year in that I paid up in a marquee event when I did not need to do it.

I thought that there was enough depth to the field last week so that I could get away with paying up for Jon Rahm. He’s been playing so well that even though his putting has not been perfect, I thought he was in line for an easy Top-10 and maybe could even contend again. I came off of my Rory/Hovland pairing and that ultimately buried me as Rahm barely made the cut and waited until Sunday to mount any sort of move. Once again, he was excellent off the tee and on approach, but terrible around and on the greens…ugh,  Even playing that badly in his short game, he still managed a 21st place finish so he was not the reason I lost, but he certainly did not do his part to help salvage my roster.

After Rahm, I dropped down to Will Zalatoris at a nice price of 8800. He played okay, but never really made a move and finished 26th, not great, not awful. He dropped three shots over the last seven holes or it could have been a much better result. His putter held him back once again. Had I known that there would have been so much scoring, I may have shied away from Will as Riviera usually plays a little tougher and he’s not likely to win an event where a lot of birdies are required. Once again, he did not lose it for me, but definitely did not provide any extra upside.

Once I had spent up for Rahm and then Zalatoris, I had to work down into the value range and while plenty of my picks below $8k killed it, I landed on a couple that blew up in my face. Talor Gooch caved in quickly on Thursday. Riviera can kill a player quick if they lose focus and over a few holes, it all came apart for Gooch. He was awful in all phases which was frustrating as he’s been so good all season and had missed just two cuts while also having seven Top-25 finishes. He’d been great at Riviera in three previous starts so it just was not his week. He was heavily owned once Fitz WD so all was not lost quite yet, but it put me in a deep hole.

I was always playing Paul Casey at $7,600. That is a silly price for a player of his caliber who has consistently played well at Riviera and other tough courses on tour. He played well and finished in 15th place, a great finish for his salary. With his irons and consistent cut making ability, I will roster him every single time he hits this price point. He was brilliant on approach again, finishing 6th in SGAPP with only his putter holding him back.

Lanto Griffin was next up for me at $7200 and though he started poorly on Thursday, he shot a 66 on Friday to make the cut and gave me enough points to pay off his salary with a 39th place finish. We did not need him to score huge points, but since I was already behind, he did not do anything to help me catch up. He’s been playing well this season and Riviera has been a nice spot for him so he’ll continue to be on my radar in 2022.

Last and least, Adam Hadwin rounded out my roster. He was another golfer that was playing well coming into the event and had a very strong course history at Riviera. He had made nine of ten cuts coming into the tournament and had not missed the cut at Riviera in seven career starts. His putting started out badly and did not improve much on Friday. His irons were downright terrible on Friday as he totally imploded after missing a 16 inch putt and lost five shots over five holes before pulling himself together to go -2 on the back nine. It was the knife in my team that put the official end to my cash game and single entry team. I still like the lineup overall. Gooch and Hadwin still look like reasonable plays so sometimes things just do not work out. Fortunately, Team FGI smoked it this weekend as Nick hit Niemann at 60-1 for an outright win that many of you tailed. Bo Fulton won $100,000 in the $4,444 GPP and David Kotler won $10k in the $888 GPP. Those were just a few of the highlights for the week as I saw and heard about countless green screens and plenty of winning stories.

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