The First Tee

While we enjoy a beautiful and patriotic 4th of July, we would like to send our thoughts and prayers to those in West Virginia where a terrible tragedy struck the state, canceling this week’s Greebrier Classic. Taking this into account I’ll give you my opening thoughts for The Open Championship, and highlight some players you may know playing in this week’s Scottish Open.

Weekly Roundup – Bridgestone

Seriously, where did DJ come from? He was absolutely non-existent Day 1 and 2, then all of a sudden Saturday arrives and he’s full of energy… Regardless of that, Jason Day lost the golf tournament; it was the first time in 6 tries that Day could not hold a 54-hole lead.

This week went against the grain, as all 3 big high dollar players performed. A DJ, Spieth/Day, Piercy, Chappell four player combo was very roster-able, and if you were able to do that I’m sure you did well.

Last Week’s Results

It was a pretty good week overall for me, and for players on the rise. Let’s take a look.

• Where I went Wrong- Not Enough DJ. The ownership percentage was low at around 18% and I wish I would have been closer to 25%.
• Where I went Right- Piercy, Chappell, Day & Spieth- My teams looked poised for some really good finishes until Day decided to blow it, maybe even worthy of earning the “breakout performer of the week” but sadly draft kings only pays out at the END of the golf tournament. To make up for it though, I was able to place 4th and 18th in the Euro League $3, 25k tournament. My first top-10 finishes since The Players Championship.

Player Ownership Analysis

This section will be dedicated to following the major players in DFS Golf, as with a lot of other facets in life it’s important to stay up to date on what the “pros are doing”. Here I’ll take a look into each of their exposures for the week, what worked, what didn’t, and a few other facts and figures on the previous week’s contests.

SaahilSud – Even a complete fade on Brooks Koepka couldn’t help our resident big volume player as he failed again to accomplish much by owning no shares of Dustin Johnson. He took a balanced approach in terms of ownership, but that couldn’t help him either.

• Results:
o $3- 150 Entries entered: Best Finish- 4676th
o $33- 150 Entries entered: Best Finish- 430th
o $300- 25 Entries entered: Best Finishes- 37th , 53rd , 79th

• Players Used-
o $3- 31 Players used
o $33- 31* Players used
o $300-26 Players used

• Player Own %- $3 & $33
o Jimmy Walker- 54%
o Kevin Na- 37%
o Jordan Spieth- 34%
o Rickie Fowler- 34%
o Hideki Matsuyama- 32%
o Zach Johnson 30%
o Charley Hoffman- 26%
o Brandt Snedeker- 25%
o Jim Furyk- 24%
o Bubba Watson-22%

Jetblackx – Fowler was in the field, so it is no surprise that Jetblackx was all over him again. A good Sunday did help him have what looks to be at least a breakeven week. Also a complete fade on Brooks Koepka helped his cause immensely.

• Results:
o $3- 0 Lineups entered this week. Wonder if he forgot to enter all his lineups or just simply didn’t want to participate?
o $33- 150 Entries entered: Best Finish- 124th
o $300- 8 Entries Entered: Best Finish- 41th, 46th, 62nd, 75th

• Players Used-
o $3- N/A
o $33- 44 Players used
o $300-20 Players used

• Player Own % $3- 433
o Rickie Fowler-87%
o Jimmy Walker- 75%
o Kevin Na- 63%
o Smylie Kaufman- 48%
o Jason Day- 37%
o Charl Schwatzel- 37%
o Justin Thomas- 22%
o Dustin Johnson- 8%

PriestApp– A second straight great week for this user, and if Day had held on to win it would have been so much better. Lingmerth, McGirt, Day, Chappell and Piercy were his top 5 guys owned overall. Wow, that’s a whole bunch of top 7’s packed in those 5 players. Also he was able to overcome a 22% weighting on Koepka.

• Results:
o $3- 150 Entries entered: Best Finish-98th ,102, 147th, 230th
o $33- 150 Entries entered: Best Finish- 9th, 11th, 14th,23rd ,29thx 2, 35th , 37th , 60th
o $333- 25 Entries Entered: Best Finish- 1st, 2nd, 3rd…wow super impressive. 10th, 26th, 44th , 53rd , 81st.

o Players Used-
o $3- 43 Players used
o $33- 43 Players used
o $300- 29 Players Used

• Player Own %
o David Lingmerth- 34%
o William McGirt- 30%
o Jason Day- 30%
o Kevin Chappell- 28%
o Scott Piercy- 28%
o Hun-An- 28%
o Jim Furyk- 25%
o Matt Kuchar- 23%
o Brooks Koepka- 22%

Emile Heskey– Returning to the list after a few weeks, this user took the high ownership approach to an extreme. If his extremely high owned golfer named Mr. Day didn’t blow the tournament, the week would have been much much better than it actually turned out.

• Results:
o $3- 150 Entries entered: Best Finish- 3172th
o $33- 150 Entries entered: Best Finish- 284th
o $300- 22 Entries entered: Best Finish- 72nd

• Players Used-
o $3- 37 Players used
o $33- 37 Players used
o $300- 18 Players used

• Player Own %
o Jason Day- 99.3%
o Hun-An- 72%
o Berger-57% (Ouch)
o Brandt Snedeker- 53%
o Scott Piercy- 53%
o Emiliano Grillo- 38%
o J.B. Holmes- 36%
o Kevin Na- 34%

I_Slewfoot_u – A regular high roller, with an okay, but not great week who was hurt by Daniel Berger, but held his own with some of the other players he rostered for the week.

• Results:
o $3-150 Entries: Best Finish-2970th
o $33- 150 Entries entered: Best Finish-43rd, 134th
o $300- 25 Entries Entered: Best Finish- 49th, 76th

• Players Used-
o $3- 43 Players used
o $33- 53 Players used
o $300-33 Players used

• Player Own %- $3 As example… He changed his strategy in the $33 using more players, with lower ownership % on the top guys.
o Bubba Watson- 45%
o Hideki Matsuyama- 45%
o Rickie Fowler- 36%
o Jason Day- 30%
o Paul Casey- 30%
o Jb Holmes- 30%
o Charl Schwatzel-30%
o Daniel Berger- 29%
o Jimmy Walker- 25%

Ob1knoby– Our Jedi of the week last week used his winnings to play the max on the $3 but again did not participate in the $33.

• Results:
o $3-150 Entries- Best Finish- 17107…Ouch.

• Players Used-
o $3- 16 Players used

• Player Own %
o Smylie Kaufman- 94%
o Russell Knox- 75%
o David Lingmerth- 74%
o JB Holmes- 74%
o Shane Lowry- 55%
o Jason Dufner- 49%
o Charl Schwatzel-47%
o Patrick Reed- 32%

ButBongoFiesta– An interesting handle for this user, but regardless of that he had a heck of week in both the $33 and $3. Let’s take a look at how he did it.

• Results:
o $3-90 Entries- Best Finish- 16thX2
o $33- 40 Entries- Best Finish- 2nd, 47th , 150th

• Players Used-
o $3- 29 Players used
o $33- 29 Players used

• Player Own %
o Brooks Koepka- 55% (WHAT!)
o KT Kim- 45%
o Dufner- 40%
o Younghan Song- 40%
o Branden Grace- 39%
o Scott Piercy- 38%
o Jim Furyk- 38%
o Jason Day-30%
o Billy Hurly- 38%
o Spieth & DJ-20%

The Scottish Open/Opening Thoughts on the British Open

The aforementioned floods in West Virginia move the only Draft Kings contests to the Euro Tour. Luckily for us DFS fans, a lot of guys we know will be playing at The Scottish Open this week. The tournament is being held at Castle Stuart Golf Links in Inverness Scotland. This marks the third time it has been held here and there have been some very recognizable names crowned as champions including, Phil Mickelson, and Luke Donald.

After the Scottish Open the players will head about 3 hours south for The Open Championship. The event will be held at Royal Troon Golf Club for the 9th time and the first since 2004 when it was won by Todd Hamilton. The course plays as a par 71 and measures just shy of 7200 yards. The course will not play terribly long for most of the players in the field. The Claret Jug can only be won by a golfer that stays calm and measured, according to the official site of the British Open, but keep in mind the last three times that The Open was played here the winning scores were, -10, -12 and -9. Royal Troon is a true links style course that forces the players to be accurate off the tee and have the ability to scramble. I’ll give you the full list of stats and players on the rise in next week’s edition of The First Tee.

Player Focus – Scottish Open

Another Great week for the “Players on the Rise Segment” as it had both the first and second place finishers in DJ and Piercy. Lowry and Dufner were disappointments, and Furyk and Kaufman performed marginally well. Last, but not least, Vaughn Taylor did not disappoint with a good amount of birdies and the eagle on day 1. Let’s see if I can pick it when it counts for the next edition of the Millionaire Maker.

Some Names you’ll recognize playing in this week’s Scottish Open:

• Henrik Stenson – $12,200 Coming off a win in his last appearance Stenson comes in hot to Castle Stuart. Be weary of his high salary this week.

• Brandon Grace – $11,600 Grace has been really solid as of late, but by far the highest salary we’ve seen him have.

• Phil Mickelson – $10,900 A former champ here @ castle stuart Phil comes off a great Sunday @ the Bridgestone.

• Patrick Reed – $10,200 Recent performance has been lackluster for Patrick as he’ll look to shake of the cobwebs prior to the Open.

• David Lingmerth – $9,300 A great showing last week @ the Bridgestone David comes in playing very well.

• Danny Lee – $7,500 A “Postage Stamp” week, a term coined by the founder of this site, Zach, Lee was never engaged. His salary reflects that so be weary of a repeat performance.

• Jamie Lovemark – $6,800 At first glance this seems like a fantastic value. His loan Euro League start was at the BMW Championship where back to back 77’s on the weekend took him out of contention. I love the value here and have been waiting for him to breakthrough. Maybe this is the week he does it.

Heading South – Fades

I was a right on with Hideki last week as he had a terrible showing, but Paul Casey had decent week. We’ll pick back up next week.

That’s it for this week be sure to follow me on Twitter @DFSXpert23 for some fun facts and info!