Yahoo Fantasy Golf Contest Tournament Preview-WGC Bridgestone Invitational

Welcome Yahoo Contest Players to another tournament preview, it was certainly a surprising finish to last week’s tournament with Troy Merritt, coming out of nowhere to coast to a victory. Overall our Yahoo picks were amazing with guys like Bill Haas, Justin Rose, and Jason Bohn all being our top picks in their respective lists and all finishing in the Top 5.  Ladies and gentleman that is not easy to do. We will continue to work hard to provide you the absolute best Yahoo contest picks anywhere.

After a couple weeks of tournaments that featured very mediocre fields, this week and next week we get to watch all of the very best in the world. This week is the WGC Bridgestone Invitational held at the south course of Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. This event was sponsored by NEC through 2005 (World Series of Golf before that) but Bridgestone became the tournament sponsor in 2006. The field consists of about 75 players, which include the Top 50 in the world, playing members of the last Ryder Cup, and tournament winners of worldwide events since the prior year’s tournament with an Official World Golf Ranking Strength of Field Rating of 115 points or more. Unlike last week where the Quicken Loans National had been played at different courses in the past, Firestone Country Club has hosted the tournament since its inception (except 2002). Tournament history will thus go back to being an important factor that we analyze closely. Firestone Country Club is a Par 70, has two Par 5 holes, four Par 3 holes, and measures 7,400, which is about the same distance as last week’s Quicken Loans National and one of the longer courses played all year. The South Course includes several long par-4 holes and the Par 5 16th hole measures 667 yards, which is one of the longest holes in existence.

The statistics we will be analyzing this week will include strokes gained tee-to-green, total driving, greens in regulation, Par 4 scoring, and long approach shots. Eight of the holes measure between 450-500 yards. Last year 48 of the 70 players in the field averaged driving distance between 280-305 yards. Quick math tells us a lot of approach shots from the majority of the field will be between 175-200 yards, so we will look at approach shots from that distance, except for those guys who drive the ball over 305 off the tee like Dustin, Holmes, Day, Watson, Scott, etc. Those guys approach shots will be closer and they will be able to use their 9-iron or wedges. Great putting is always necessary for those who want to crack the Top 10 in these events with stacked fields. Three of the four Par 3 holes measure between 200-225 yards, so we will need to look at that statistic as well.

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A-List:

The Favorites:

Adam Scott
Henrik Stenson
Bubba Watson
Sergio Garcia
Jim Furyk
Our top A-List pick this week is Adam Scott. We recommended Scott for The Open Championship, and he had a legitimate chance to win late on Monday, but a few missed putts from close range derailed him and he finished T10. He clearly has his game back on track since he went back to the anchor putter and got Steve Williams back as a caddie. However his only other appearance in the past month and a half was a T4 at the U.S Open so we do not have a real large sample size. As always he is an elite ball striker, we just need his putter to be ok. He has a great track record here with an 8th last year, 14th in 2013, 45th in 2012, and a championship in 2011. Too much usage will not be an issue for Scott in the Yahoo Contest so we will utilize him in this spot. We also like Jim Furyk this week. Furyk has a 4th at the RBC Canadian, T30 at The Open Championship, T42 at The U.S Open, and T5 at Memorial in the past two months. He ranks near the bottom in distance (170th), but makes up for it in accuracy (11th in driving accuracy and 24th in greens in regulation). All together he ranks 7th in strokes gained tee-to-green, which puts him high in our book. He knows Firestone County Club real well and has a tremendous amount of success here in the past with a 15th last year, 9th in 2013, 2nd in 2012, 23rd in 2011, and 6th in 2010. Bubba Watson is an interesting option as he has been playing well lately with a runner-up finish at the RBC Canadian Open, T13 at Greenbrier, and win at Travelers. His hiccups come on tough courses with non-ideal weather conditions, thus his MC at The Open and the US Open. Firestone Country Club is not nearly as difficult as St Andrews or Chambers Bay, so Bubba has a chance. The only thing that worries us a bit is his tournament history where he has put together some mediocre showings having never cracked the Top 15. Still he is an elite talent who can compete as long as he does not have to face any adversity. Finally, we have to mention one of our favorite players on tour and that is Brooks Koepka. He is an elite talent and someday he is going to be ranked in the Top 5 in the World, mark my words. A T18 at RBC Canadian, T10 at the Open, T22 at the Scottish Open, and T18 at the US Open mark his last four tournament results. Koepka’s statistics are outstanding ranking 8th in driving distance, 140th in driving accuracy, 14th in greens in regulation, 34th in strokes gained tee-to-green, 8th in strokes gained putting, and 37th in total driving. He is young, but has the ability to compete and win now as he showed at the Phoenix Open. We like him to continue to flourish and produce a great result this week.

Our Picks: Scott, Furyk, Watson,
Sleeper Pick: Koepka

 

B-List:

Jordan Spieth
Jason Day
Dustin Johnson
Rickie Fowler
Justin Rose
Hideki Matsuyama

The B-List sure is fun in these top events isn’t it? All the elite guys makes a difficult decision to be made. We are going to keep our top pick as Jordan Spieth. We realize this is not a bold prediction, but we are not going to avoid him because he is the obvious choice. Our main goal is to be correct and we think Spieth has a tremendous chance at winning this event. We last saw Spieth barely miss the playoff at The Open and the week before that win the John Deere. Of course he has also won The Masters and U.S Open this year, so he is more than capable of beating the best fields. His only appearance in this tournament was last year and he took 49th, but he is the best in the world right now so the past is not going to factor into our thinking. He ranks 82nd in driving distance, 69th in driving accuracy, 40th in total driving, 33rd in greens in regulation, 3rd in strokes gained tee-to-green, and 6th in strokes gained putting. Now the only problem could very well be usage of Spieth, so if you are unable to choose him because of that, we recommend you pivot to Rickie Fowler. Before the start of the season, we ranked Fowler as one of the guys we really liked coming into this season and expected him to win at least one tournament. Well, the start of the season produced very underwhelming results for him, but lately he looks to have regained the form he had last year. We all know he won The Players, but since then he also grabbed a win at the Scottish Open. He was not real impressive at The Open Championship with a T30, but he was locked in last week at the Quicken Loans. His game really fits Firestone Country Club as he has the distance, but is also accurate ranking 45th in driving distance, 59th in driving accuracy, 131st in greens in regulation, 53rd in strokes gained tee-to-green, 131st in strokes gained putting, and 10th in total driving. Excelling in those statistical categories, you would expect good results here for Rickie in the past and he has with an 8th last year, 21st in 2013, 60th in 2012, and runner up in 2011. Another guy we really like is Justin Rose. In his last 7 events he has a T4 at Quicken Loans, T6 at The Open, T27 at the US Open, runner-up at Memorial, MC at The Players, win at Zurich and runner-up at The Master. Those are amazing results and he has two Top 5s in this event the last three years and it is hard to imagine he doesn’t have another one this week. Finally we would be remised not to mention a guy who is on fire lately, with a win at the RBC Canadian, T4 at The Open, and T9 at the US Open.  In case you hadn’t guessed it that is Jason Day. Frankly he seems to show up at big events and as long as he is healthy, has one of the best chances to win this event. Day ranks 2nd in driving distance, 170th in driving accuracy, 25th in greens in regulation, 25th in strokes gained tee-to-green, 21st in strokes gained putting, and 65th in total driving. He has not had a tremendous amount of success here in the past with a MC last year, 53rd in 2013, 29th in 2012, 4th in 2011, and 22nd in 2010. He is however healthy right now and never played this well in his career so we expect another Top 5 out of him this week with a legit chance to win. Our sleeper pick is a top notch talent that is capable of winning this thing, which is saying a lot considering the strength of the field and that is Martin Kaymer. He appears to be trending in the right direction after his awful start to 2015, as he finished 4th in the French Open before his appearance in St Andrews. He is a real boom or bust type of pick this week, and virtually nobody will selct him with the other choices in the B-List. He tends to trend nicely before he scores a big win, as he did last year at The Players Championship and US Open. He has had some mixed results at the WGC Bridgestone in the past with a 56th last year, 9th in 2013, 29th in 2012 and 2011, and 22nd in 2010. Because of his terrible start to the season, his season long statistics are skewed. In his last several events they have improved tremendously and we think he has the opportunity to surprise people this week.

Our Picks: Spieth, Fowler, Rose, Day
Sleeper Pick: Kaymer

 

C-List:

The Favorites:

Patrick Reed
Keegan Bradley
Kevin Na
Branden Grace

It is hard to tell what people are thinking, but we would assume that Keegan Bradley will be widely popular this weeks Yahoo contest just based upon his tournament history. He has three straight Top 5s in this event and people are going to know that, we think. Beyond his tournament history there is not much to like about Bradley this season which is why we are going to elect to bypass him and go with a couple others. One of those others is Patrick Reed. Although he is ranked #18 in the world, Reed might not be on everybody’s short list this week, because has not posted a Top 10 since mid-March. He has not been playing poorly however with a T16 at the Omega Masters, T20 at The Open, T29 at Greenbrier, MC at Travelers, and T14 at the U.S Open. In his only appearance in this tournament, Reed took 4th last year. He ranks 78th in driving distance, 179th in driving accuracy, 173rd in total driving, 111th in greens in regulation, 35th in strokes gained tee-to-green, and 14th in strokes gained putting. Now Reed is a big name but there are a couple other guys that we think have a chance to jump up this week into the Top 10 and one of them is Russell Henley. A nice 2015 so far has produced 16 made cuts in 19 events played with three Top 10s including a 3rd at Hyundai, 4th at Shell, and 5th at 5th at Greenbrier, so he has some upside. He also looked good in his last outing with a T20 at The Open. Henley has some experience on Firestone Country Club and delivered a 41st last year and 27th in 2013. He ranks 42nd in driving distance, 47th in driving accuracy, 77th in greens in regulation, 107th in strokes gained tee-to-green, and 7th in strokes gained putting. We are looking for a guy who can surprise in the C-list and think Russell Henley is a possibility. We liked Brendon Todd as one of our recommendations last week before he pulled out of the Quicken Loans. In his three years on the tour, Todd seems to play some his best golf June to August, which might mean he is comfortable with the heat from his Georgia days. This year has been no different as Todd has caught fire with a T12 at The Open, T6 at Greenbrier, and T15 at Travelers in his last three events. Last year he took at unexciting 45th, which is his only appearance at the Bridgestone. Statistically Todd ranks 187th in driving distance, 7th in driving accuracy, 80th in greens in regulation, 46th in strokes gained tee-to-green, 4th in strokes gained putting, and 94th in total driving. As we have seen in the past, Todd’s putter can get scorching hot and if it does, he will be able to be a factor in this tournament. Finally, we are going to recommend Danny Lee. Outside of the U.S Open and The Open Championship, Lee has played tremendous golf over the past month and a half. The fact that both Opens were on links style courses leads us to believe that was the problem for Lee. Outside of those he has a T4 last week, T3 at John Deere, win at Greenbrier, and T25 at Travelers. As with Kaymer his season long statistics do not tell the entire story with Lee, since it has been just lately that he has caught fire. He is a very good putter and ranks 33rd on the PGA Tour and ranks 83rd in strokes gained tee-to-green.

Our picks: Reed, Henley, Todd
Sleeper Pick: Lee

 

As always best of luck this week in the Yahoo contest and please continue to let us know how you are doing.

-Fantasy Golf Insider

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