Yahoo Fantasy Golf Contest Tournament Preview – AT&T Byron Nelson

Welcome to this week’s preview for Yahoo Fantasy Golf this week. After a great weekend where we had most of the Top 10 in our recommendations, we will look to keep the momentum going this week at the AT&T Byron Nelson. The site of the PGA TOUR’s AT&T Byron Nelson, TPC Four Seasons Las Colinas is situated on an award-winning golf resort located in Dallas, Texas. Originally designed by Jay Morrish with player consultants Byron Nelson and Ben Crenshaw, the course was given a dramatic redesign in 2009 by Champions Tour player D.A. Weibring and architect partner Steve Wolford. You’ll find large, undulating greens, tree-lined fairways, and a variety of creeks and ponds. It’s a Par 70 course that measures in at 7166 yards and like last week, has just two Par 5 holes that will be very key for players looking for birdie opportunities.

We will be dealing with poor weather once again this week. This has become a theme this season, particularly so for the tournament events that have taken place in Texas. We suggest doing your preparation work early and then taking a long look at the forecast on Wednesday night and Thursday morning before making your final selections. The course at first seems like it should be one for the accurate shot makers on tour. However, the longer hitters that play the event have strong track records. Players like Keegan Bradley, Morgan Hoffman, Dustin Johnson, Jason Day and Graham Delaet have all played well here in recent years. The two Par 5 holes present a chance for some much needed birdies and tend to be the easier holes on the course.

With narrower fairways and a lot of bunkers to work around, length and accuracy will play a role in the success or failure of each player this week. Rather than simply focusing in on bombers, we’ll look at those players who are the top ball strikers this week, meaning that they possess the best combination of length, accuracy and GIR. It will take a well rounded game to win here as Brendan Todd showed last year in winning the tournament. Ball striking, combined with Par 4 and 5 scoring and strokes gained tee to green will be our primary focus this week. If we can include players that excel on the greens, that will be a great bonus for us. Tournament history seems to be a reasonable indicator this week as most of the players that we will look at have had a fair amount of success here over the years.

A-List:

Harris English
Ryan Palmer

The A-List is again looking like a barren wasteland as the option are limited this week to 6 names, with only a couple of them being of any real interest. Our picks this week for the A-list are Harris English and Ryan Palmer. Neither guy is in great form right now, but that is not something that bothers us too much, particularly with limited options. Each player has the capability of playing well here as Palmer has played well in his last four starts here and English finished in the Top 20 two years ago. Palmer ranks 34th in ball striking, 14th in strokes gained tee to green, 35th on Par 4’s and 47th on Par 5’s. His form has been a bit off and his double bogey on 18 last Friday ruined a lot of GPP lineups, but we do not anticipate any hangover this week as Palmer will want to get himself back on track with a strong performance. English has been poor in his last two starts missing the cut at Zurich and at The Players Championship. He should be out of favor, but desperate to get back on track. He is 12th in ball striking, 48th in strokes gained tee to green and 25th in total strokes gained. He ranks 22nd on Par 4’s and 53rd on Par 5’s. This is as good of a week as any to use English as the course plays well to his strengths.

Other options: Dufner and Koepka

B-List-

Dustin Johnson
Jason Day
Charles Howell III
Matt Kuchar

We can breathe a bit again now that we are down to the B-List as we have plenty of options to work with this week. We are going to leave Jordan Spieth off of our recommendations this week only due to the fact that we have recommended him so often that at this point, you may have little of him left to use and we still have several big events left until the end of the season. Plus, in four tries, Spieth had not had the type of results that would make him a must start this weekend. Dustin Johnson, on the other hand, has not played in quite as many events this year, and picks and chooses where he will play during the year. Have you seen his wife? Yeah, we’d take extra time off for that as well. Johnson has been outstanding this year ranking 9th in strokes gained tee to green. His putting still leaves much to be desired, but he is 5th in Par 5 scoring and has three Top 10 finishes in five starts here.

Jason Day is another guy that has been pretty dependable all the way up until his last couple of outings. He got destroyed at the Match Play event and then completely collapsed in the second round of The Players Championship and missed the cut. He will pick it up this week and get back on track. He has three Top 10 finishes, including a victory here and his worst finish was in 2013 when he took 27th. He ranks 27th in ball striking, and has a good balance between strokes gained tee to green (29th), strokes gained putting (30th) and overall (13th). He ranks 1st in Par 4 scoring and 24th in Par 5 scoring. Day is an absolute ‘must start’ this week.

One player that is typically just a cut maker is Charles Howell III. The Byron Nelson tends to bring the best out of Howell. He has finished in the Top 20 in three of his last four starts including a 3rd place finish last year. He is not accurate off the tee, but hits it plenty far and hits greens. He’s 29th in strokes gained tee to green although his putting has been a weak spot for him. He’s solid on Par 5’s (32nd) and okay on Par 4’s (87th). In a softer field, this is a great spot for Howell to jump up the leaderboard.

Matt Kuchar has not been quite as sharp as previous years, but he has always performed well in his seven starts here. He has two Top 10 finishes and had never been below 42nd. He ranks 3rd in Par 4 scoring, 11th in Par 5 scoring and 20th in total strokes gained. He has struggled a bit more than usual off the tee and in hitting greens, but the shorter course should help get him back on track.

Other options: Spieth and Leishman

C-List-

Keegan Bradley
Morgan Hoffmann

The C-List is not long on options this week, but a couple players do stand out. Keegan Bradley has made the cut in all four starts at the Byron Nelson and won the event back in 2011. Outside of his putting, he has a strong game for the course. He’s 13th in strokes gained tee to green and 22nd in ball striking. He is 41st in Par 4 scoring and 37th in Par 5 scoring. His form this year has been unspectacular, but in the three events prior to The Players Championship, he seemed to be turning it around.

Morgan Hoffmann looks like he is very close to making the leap from young prospect to top level rookie this season. He’s missed just one cut in his last six events with two Top 10 finishes and a couple of other Top 30 finishes. He hits the ball long off the tee which helps him to score well on the Par 5 holes and he putts well. In two starts here he has a 5th and 16th place finish to his credit. Against this field, Hoffmann should be in the running come Sunday afternoon.

Other options: Charley Hoffman and Russell Henley

Best of luck this week!

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