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THE PLAYERS Championship - Round Two

FANTASY GOLF – Byron Nelson Championship Picks & Preview


GolfPGA

HP Byron Nelson Championship
Defending Champ: Sang-Moon Bae

Let’s see, two weeks ago I gave you a 50-to-1 J.B. Holmes at the Wells Fargo and followed that up with a recommendation to insert zee  German, Martin Kaymer into your lineup at The Players – and if you were as savvy as I, you padded your bank account at an 80-to-1 multiplier with that info. Basically, I’m spitting more HOT FIYA than Dylan at the moment. So, expect a letdown in Dallas. Apologies in advance – #SorryNotSorry. It’s not that I don’t have a good feel for the field this week, I do; there are just too many similar options to choose from, specifically in the Yahoo! B-List.

Now, if you tune into FNTSY Sports Network you’ll notice “Mayo’s Byron Nelson Power Rankings” scrolling on the right hand of the screen – in one of our many glorious tickers – yet there’s a great deal of disparity between said power rankings and my weekly picks. Yes, I expect Matt Kuchar, Jordan Spieth, Jimmy Walker, Harris English Ryan Palmer, Freddie Jacobson and Graham Delaet to all have a solid week, the issue is, they’re public picks. So, in true contrarian fashion, I’m opting to fade those four in favor of lesser known (and lesser taken), equivalent options in an attempt to gain points on the field.

Either way, we likely won’t know who was the proper pick until the 72nd Hole – things tend to come down to the wire in Dallas. The Byron Nelson Championship’s 17 playoffs are the most on Tour since 1968, and that isn’t including the 13 years that have been decided by one stroke. All we can really do is look back at past results and identify the types of players that have historically done well at Four Seasons. Generally, the winner is a player who dominates greens in regulation, proximity on approaches and scrambling. Driving distance and driving accuracy are always important factors, of course, but those traits haven’t been instrumental to victory the past few years. This isn’t the same rough the players experienced at Sawgrass last week; birdies can be made from the long grass.

HIT THE LINKS

The players did an anonymous poll. There are a lot of questions about Tiger.

“Dear people of Instagram, I have a real awesome ass, and what also appears to be an awful tattoo.” – Paulina Gretzky

If you really love golf, like really love it, there’s a high likelihood that you’re a stickler for rules. You’re that guy in your Fantasy Football league (aka Me) that not only drafts a constitution, but analyzes it at the end of year to make the proper amendments. If you are one of these people, you’ll enjoy this confusion over a Justin Rose two-stroke penalty over the weekend. If not, it’s a story involving old people attempting to understand technology, which is always an intsaLOL. Just remember: this is not ‘Nam, this is bowling golf, there are rules.

Tiger’s ex-wife takes shots at Tiger during graduation speech. Luckily for Tiger, it was just with words this time.

Alastair Forsyth’s caddie, Ian MacGregor, collapsed on the ninth fairway and died of an apparent heart attack at the European Tour event in Santo da Serra, Sunday. My guess, he’ll be buried in Scotland.

Without Tiger in the mix, The Players Championship ratings went lower than Kaymer.

Johnny Football got drafted, now he’s not playing in the Byron Nelson Pro-Am. What a bigshot!!!!!!

The next time you duff a shot just think about how Richard H. Lee, The General, is a professional golfer…

PICKS

Gary Woodland & Marc Leishman – Since I’m leaving Kuchar off my roster, I need some semblance of consistency in my A-list; enter Woodland and Leishman. Woodland’s best attributes are exactly what TPC at Four Seasons demands: an elevated greens in regulation percentage and pinpoint accuracy with short irons. He’s 27th in GIR% overall and sixth in proximity from 125 yards and in. And with his distance off the tee, Woodland will have plenty of opportunities to showcase that skill. Like, basically every hole. This is only a Par 70. Now, Leishman’s a bit of different story. By taking him, I’m breaking my rule on putting a modicum of faith in any person that spells their name Marc with a “c”. It’s soft. But Leishman consistently kills this course. He’s missed just one cut in five career starts, never finishing worse than 12th when qualifying for weekend play. Attribute a lot of that success to his irons, an area where Leishman’s been a Viking this season, ranking third on Tour in GIR% from 125-150 yards (82.35%).  And come on, it’s the year of the Aussie on Tour!

Keegan Bradley & Jason Dufner – Now to that B-List nightmare.  It’s soooooooooo stacked. There’s a compelling case to be made for almost ten guys in this group, but I’ve whittled it to down to four, as per my job. Let’s start with Bradley. He’s the true “must have” from all the options, an honor tough for me to bestow on any friend of Phil. Bradley owns the course record in Dallas, finished runner up last year and won in 2011. The course is just set up for what he does well. He ranks fourth in proximity from 50-125 yards and eighth from 225-250 yards, or 207.8-228.6m for all you metric heads out there. Compound that with his dominance on Par 3s and he has every aspect of the course covered; he just needs not to be so terrible with the putter. And I’m pairing Dufner up with Bradley as my starting duo. It hasn’t been the best year for Duff Man, but in two career starts at this event he has a T8 and a win. And, much like Woodland, he’s been deadly from 50-125 yards, sitting third in hole proximity from that range in 2014.

Dustin Johnson & Martin Kaymer – I’m going back to the DJ well; I dipped in a long stick, it’s not completely dried out yet. Sure, Johnson’s been off his game the past month, withdrawing from the Shell, missing the cut at Augusta, and flaming out after a solid opening round at Sawgrass – but that’s OK. Four Seasons meshes perfectly with his high GIR rate and, especially his 2nd ranked GIR rate from the rough – 64%. If he can keep his flat stick even relatively close to his season rate, expect to see Mr. Paulina on the leaderboard by the end of each day. And finally, after recommending Kaymer last week, why not get him in again? Obviously, he comes in scorching after his nail biter at The Players, but don’t’ forget, he managed a T5 here 12 months ago when his game was in zee toilet. Some may be jumping off the bandwagon after his big win, but I shant be one of those people.

Charl Schwartzel & Pat Perez Jimmy Walker – Schwartzel is a safety net. He earned a solo third last year, and is one of the most recognizable (and best) names in the field; meaning, he’ll also be a popular pick. So he’s getting a start on the bench. Instead, I’m rolling out my main man Pat Perez. There’s nothing special about Perez, except for always just kinda being around. He’s made 15 of 16 cuts this season, including 14 in a row. How, you ask? Putting. He’s 10th in strokes-gained on the green, resulting in the 25th best birdie average. He’s penciling in almost four circles on his scorecard per round, and he’s who you want starting Thursday and Friday. Perez is fourth on Tour in pre-cut scoring average. It’s these little tidbits that can prevent crushing bench mistakes. Just a reminder: resist the urge to use defending champ Sang-Moon Bae. The South Korean hasn’t finished any better than 34th since March and no player has successfully retained his title in Dallas since Tom Watson hoisted back-to-back novelty checks in 1979 and 1980. And, according to my menology, that was some time ago.

NOTE: Pat Perez isn’t lacing up the spikes in Dallas anymore, I’m replacing him with Jimmy Walker



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