The First Tee – The Sony Open
Personally, the golf took second place for me this weekend, and no I’m not talking about football. I’m talking about the views and shots the camera crews were showing of this beautiful golf course. Man, it really was a treat, and the golf wasn’t half bad either. If you read my column last week, and followed my recommendations you more than likely had a good week. For once I followed my own advice, so I did okay.
DraftKing Pro Results: This week, complimentary of The Fantasy Fanatics, I have been able to add in the highest dollar GPPs. This is a good indication of what the pros are doing to build their lineups. As was the case this week, the ownership % in the 5300 and 1060 has an exact trickle-down effect on the smaller buy in GPPs.
JAE686- Well, he must have either liked the pricing or just missed golf all together, as our top player was back at it.
- Results:
- 3/4 Dollar Entries: 150
- Best Finish: 503rd
- 33 Entries:70
- Best Finish: 53rd
- 300, 333 or 400 Entries: 5
- Best Finish: Did not have a lineup in the top 25
- 1060-9th
- 5300-5th
- 3/4 Dollar Entries: 150
- Golfers Used: 30
- Matsuyama-50%
- Grace-42%
- DJ-42%
- Knox-36%
- Day-30%
- Moore/Mcgirt-29%
- Dufner/Herman/Vegas/Hoffman-24%
- Spieth-20%
- Justin Thomas-20%
- Players Used & Ownership-
- Average Core 4 Ownership Total: 166%/400
- Average number of players Used: 45
- Average High Ownership: 40
SaahilSud – Pretty good week overall as Saahil took down the highest dollar GPP of the week.
- Results:
- 3/4 Dollar Entries: 150
- Best Finish: 304th
- 33 Entries:150
- Best Finish: 40th
- 300, 333 or 400 Entries: 5
- Best Finish: 14th
- 1060-4th
- 5300- 1st
- 3/4 Dollar Entries: 150
- Golfers Used: 20
- Day-81%
- Bubba Watson- 69%
- Thomas/Taylor-49%
- Pat Perez-45%
- Dufner-41%
- Moore-35%
- Si Woo Kim-32%
- Players Used & Ownership-
- Average Core 4 Ownership Total: 265%/400%
- Average number of players Used: 28
- Average High Ownership: 85%
Jetblackx –Not a great week for this user. He’ll look to get back on track in the first full field tournament of the year.
- Results:
- 3/ 4 dollar Entries: 150
- Best Finish: 3184th
- 33 Entries: 150
- Best Finish: 316th
- 300, 333 or 400 Entries: 2
- Best Finish: Did not have a lineup in the top 25
- Golfers Used: 17
- Day-82%
- Walker-75%
- Grace-66%
- Vegas-52%
- Hoffman-49%
- DJ-47%
- Thomas-22%
- Players Used & Ownership-
- Average Core 4 Ownership Total: 278%/400%
- Average number of players Used: 40
- Average High Ownership: 68
- 3/ 4 dollar Entries: 150
FlavorFlav- Still nothing here. Let’s see if he returns for the Sony. If not, he’s out.
Sesar Palachey: Last week’s results may have given his bankroll a bit of a hit. Only participated in the 3$ birdie.
- Results:
- 3/4 dollar Entries: 150
- Best Finish: Did not have the winning line up.
- 33 Entries: N/a
- Best Finish: N/A
- 300, 333 or 400 Entries:2
- Best Finish: N/A
- Golfers Used: 32
- Matsuyama-46%
- Knox-42%
- Snedeker-41%
- Reed-36%
- Hahn/DJ-29%
- Walker-28%
- Thomas/Spieth/Perez-25%
- Players Used & Ownership-
- Average Core 4 Ownership Total: 190%/400%
- Average number of players Used: 40
- Average High Ownership: 63
- 3/4 dollar Entries: 150
Juan Shen– One of only 5 users to max enter both the 3$ and 33$. A new user we must keep an eye on.
- Results:
- 3/4 dollar Entries: 150
- Best Finish: 830th
- 33 Entries:150
- Best Finish: 87th
- 300, 333 or 400 Entries: N/A
- 3/4 dollar Entries: 150
- Golfers Used: 30
- Grace-50%
- Matsuyama-48%
- DJ-43%
- Knox-38%
- Moore/Mcgirt-30%
- Vegas-27%
- Players Used & Ownership-
- Average Core 4 Ownership Total: 180%/400%
- Average number of players Used: *NA
- Average High Ownership: *NA
Jakz101– The last of the 5 users that maxed both the $33 and $3 tournaments. A previous winner of the Sunday Millionaire Maker in football this season, you can catch Eric @ericCrain on Twitter for some good conversation about pretty much anything. Not sure if he’s new to golf or not, but I loved his Thursday screen shots. As my new colleague here at FGI, Geoff, said “Remember friends, we are in the business of Sunday Heroes not Thursday Warriors”. Whether you’re new or old to DFS, we know that there are 4 days, and you can’t win a tournament on day 1 but you can certainly lose it.
- Results:
- 3/4 dollar Entries: 150
- Best Finish: 639th
- 33 Entries:150
- Best Finish: 57th
- 300, 333 or 400 Entries: 1
- Best Finish: 0 in the top 25
- Golfers Used: 18
- Gribble-100%
- DJ-79%
- Bubba-55%
- Hoffman-44%
- Walker-39%
- Vegas/Herman-38%
- Si Woo Kim-30%
- Jason Day-29%
- Players Used & Ownership-
- Average Core 4 Ownership Total: 280%/400%
- Average number of players Used: *NA
- Average High Ownership: *NA
- 3/4 dollar Entries: 150
Jrozzinri– I decided to finally include myself in here. I want you guys to know what I’m doing each week for full transparency. I had a decent week across the board as I profited in all smaller (3,9,33) dollar GPP contests with a bunch of top 50’s.
- Results:
- 3/4 Dollar Entries: 150
- Best Finish: 269th
- 33 Entries:63
- Best Finish: 32, 32, 37
- 300, 333 or 400 Entries: 2
- Best Finish-***8th
- Golfers Used: 32
- Gomez-59%
- Matsuyama-49%
- Spieth-48%
- Thomas- 44%
- Perez-44%
- Snedeker-30%
- Players Used & Ownership-
- Average Core 4 Ownership Total: 210%/400%
- Average number of players Used: *NA
- Average High Ownership: *NA
- 3/4 Dollar Entries: 150
Contest Stats & Trends: In this section, I’m going to provide some quick stats and trends and sometimes a few peculiar facts.
- The most duplicated lineup was 252 times by 98 users.
- A user ARaven52 entered the same lineup 94 times and 150 in the 33$ dog leg and times in the 3$ birdie, respectively. That lineup failed to cash.
- Branden Grace and Jonathan Vegas were owned by 9 of the 10 $5300 lineups entered. They were also the highest owned golfer in almost every other contest as well. This is a correlation I feel will continue to happen.
- The winning lineup in the $3 was from a user that entered 150 lineups, however second place and third place went to a gamer that entered 10 lineups and 1 lineup, respectively.
- In the $33 many of the top lineups came from users with very few entries. The most anyone had was 28 entries and that user came in 4th. After him, only 2 other users and myself had more than 10 entries that came in the top 40. SaahilSud came in 40th, the best finish for anyone that max entered the contest.
Sony Open Stats & Trends
As you guys know I try and provide useful information on the upcoming course, and try to identify golfers through their game who might be a good fit for the course. I’ll also try and identify any trends from each course if they have them. Last week with such a small field we were able to highlight JT once, Matsuyama 4 times, Spieth twice, and Pat Perez Twice.
Course Specifics:
Par: 70
Length: 7044 yards
Stats:
- Birdie or Better*- Always
- Spieth, Matsuyama, Palmer, Walker, Thomson/ Web Guys- Bryan/Potson/Blaum/Mullinax/Hagy
- Tee 2 Green- I love this stat I think it’s a good indication where a golfer’s game stands.
- Rose, Matsuyama, Casey, Simpson, Woodland
- Strokes Gained Approach to Green-
- Na, Matsuyama, Simpson, Casey, V.Taylor
- Strokes Gained Putting-
- Spieth, Kisner, English, Summerhays, Molder
- Par 4 Scoring- Spieth, Snededker, Mcgirt, Na, Simpson/ Web Guys- Potson, CT-an, Bryan, Bluam, Hagy
- 150-200 approach shots- 54% of approach shots are taken from this distance. Much higher than most other tournaments.
- Wilkinson/Van Aswegen/ Beger-150-175
- Berger/Matsuyama/Palmer-175-200
Trends:
- Average Winning Score- -18
- Average Cut Score- -2
- Stats from last year’s winner- 150-175 approach shots/ Strokes Gained Putting
Player Focus: Nailed it. Whoever followed my advice, and hey maybe even entered the 6 guys I mentioned, they would have scored 615.50 DK points. Good enough to cash in almost every event and even some top finishes in the higher dollar/small field contests.
- Percentage of Picks that Made the Cut – N/A
- Number of Winners Picked – 1
- Number of Weeks with a Top 10 Picked – 3
Players: Top 5 guys and a pick to click this week.
- Jimmy Walker- $9,900 I would have loved to see him at 9000 and not 9900, but regardless it’s still a pretty good price for a guy coming off a pretty good week overall at Kapalua, a two-time winner in Ohau, and a game that seems to be trending upwards, I like him for this price.
- Pat Perez- $8,000 Riding this train until it derails. I don’t think it will. 30th 7th 1st 3rd in his 4 starts since shoulder surgery. Love where this guy’s game is. Throw that in with a 7/8 record here with 2 top ten’s, this is a great price range for him.
- Charles Howell- $7,800 Want to talk about a course horse? Well Howell is your guy. Ready for this? 8/8 with 5 top ten’s. 4/5 were top 5s. This will be his first start of the 2017 season so there might be a little rust there, however it’s really hard to overlook his course history and his overall solid game.
- Kevin Na- $7,700 Kevin comes with a really nice record here as well 6/8 with two top 10s, and having spent the last 8 weeks at home with his new daughter, I expect to see a renewed sense of energy. I expect a top 10 for Kevin this week.
- Jerry Kelley- $6,800 A wise old vet once said, no I have no idea what they said but, Kelly is on his way to the champions tour soon, but don’t let him fool you, he’s a baller. 6/8 here in Honolulu with 4 top 10s. Pretty darn good. His limited starts left on tour, I’m sure he will want to make the most of them.
Pick to Click:
- Jordan Spieth- $11,500 Take away 3 holes and make them pars, and he sits at -23 right now. He led the field in birdies and had a stellar 8 under 65 on Sunday, bogey free might I add. His game seems to be there, now, as a friend so eloquently put it, if Spieth gets his mental game, he’s far better than anyone else.
Fades: As you guys know you can’t play everyone 100%. So, here’s who I’m fading this week. Well they didn’t really work out, or against you so I’m giving myself a total draw for last week.
- Justin Thomas- $10,600 Jeez I’m sorry Justin. I think his game is incredible and he’s playing fantastic golf right now but he’s been quoted as saying “Winning takes a lot out of you” so I’m going to take that to heart and say he doesn’t get into contention this week. Until I see him turn that next corner, I don’t think he’s got the mental game to win back to back weeks yet at least he seems to think so.
- Luke List- $7,700 Too much for him. 0/2 here, can’t use his brute strength to his advantage, I don’t’ really see a reason to play him much this week.
Name Making their first Draft Kings Appearance:
- Daisuke Katoka- $6,400 This golfer can be seen mostly on the Japan PGA Tour, but has played in the Sony Open back in 2015. He’s playing some pretty good golf on the Japan tour lately with a couple of top 10’s, but the competition fails in comparison to what’s going to be in Honolulu this week.
- Brent Grant- $6,000 This teenager is here by way of the Monday qualifying for Hawaiian born golfers only. For perspective, he shot 73 to qualify, so as cool as it is for him to play in this and how much I wish I was him, there’s no reason to roster him in your lineup. I’m surprised DraftKings even included him normally they don’t include Monday qualifiers.
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