Welcome to Playing the Tips!
Each week this will be the one-stop resource to soak in all the picks from our fantasy staffers at Rotoworld.com.
Here is a quick rundown of what sites and formats we will cover each week:
Page 1 will feature all of our selections for GolfChannel.com and Yahoo! Fantasy Golf.
Page 2 will go over One-and-Done as well as Daily Fantasy Golf picks.
Page 3 will take a look at the European Tour, with the Fantasy Race to Dubai.
Now for the picks...
GolfChannel.com Fantasy Golf
Josh Culp
Last Week: 485.5 points
Last Week Rank: 1,095
Jason Day ($32,200)
Rickie Fowler ($32,000)
Bill Haas ($13,200)
Zach Johnson ($11,400)
Kevin Na ($6,600)
Keegan Bradley ($3,800)
ANALYSIS: Bradley is basically free at sub-$4K. He can rack up birdies and eagles on the par 5s and we have no cut line to worry about. ZJ and Day are both past champs here, so there is plenty of course experience here.
Ryan O’Sullivan
@RyanGolfBlogger
Last Week: 483 points
Last Week Rank: 361st
Justin Thomas ($33,200)
Jordan Spieth ($33,300)
Kevin Kisner ($18,700)
Tony Finau ($6,000)
Bryson DeChambeau ($4,000)
Ollie Schniederjans ($3,400)
ANALYSIS: Grabbed a top-400 finish at the Dell Tech, an impressive feat in this huge contest. Looking to keep it rolling with a top-heavy Spieth-Thomas combo.
Mori Yoshimoto
@Bears3423
Last Week: 323 points
Last Week Rank: 9,849
Jordan Spieth ($33,300)
Justin Thomas ($32,200)
Ryan Moore ($10,600)
Ian Poulter ($8,300)
Kyle Stanley ($8,100)
Keegan Bradley ($3,800)
ANALYSIS: Riding the hot-hand combo with Spieth and Thomas at the top. After that, loading up on some golfers that have a good track record on the cold-weather putting surfaces (bentgrass).
Yahoo! Fantasy Golf
*Make sure you check our Twitter accounts for any updates before the first tee ball flies on Thursday. Change in weather, tee times, etc. can always lead to last-minute changes and we will let you know through our social media channels.
Josh Culp
“Future of Fantasy”
Last Week Points: 138
Segment Points: 1,669
Segment Rank: 18,404
Season Points: 4,906
Season Ranking: 9,183
Group A
Rickie Fowler (2): Great combination of current form and course history (top 5 in his last trip to Conway Farms).
Jason Day (9): Talk about start mismanagement. I know Day has had a down year, but no way it’s iptimal to still have nine starts remaining.
=SUPER SUBS =
Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy
Group B
Justin Rose (2): Back-to-back top 10s, let’s keep riding this form into the finish line.
Hideki Matsuyama (2): Rattled off four straight top 15s not too long ago, but he’s overshadowed now. Should get back in the mix this week.
Matt Kuchar (1): A steady Eddie. Going to trust Kuchar to keep his name near the top of the leaderboard all week.
Francesco Molinari (4): One of the most underrated talents due to lack of wins. Still, he’s a steady tee-to-green talent that is still getting comfortable in the States. Already ran out of Spieth and Casey starts.
=SUPER SUBS=
Jordan Spieth, Paul Casey, Justin Thomas
Group C
Zach Johnson (6): Not a sexy name, but we’re teeing it up in the Midwest. ZJ was born in Eastern Iowa, loves the Iowa Hawkeyes, and this is just a few hours from that whole scene. Played Conway Farms back in college and also won here back in 2013. Very comfortable.
Henrik Stenson (7): Back in action after getting two weeks of rest. Should love the fact that he can safely stow his driver for most of the round at Conway Farms.
=SUPER SUBS=
Brooks Koepka, Sergio Garcia, Jon Rahm
Ryan O’Sullivan (O)
“The Golf Aficionado”
Last Week Points: 190
Summer Segment Points: 1,832
Summer Rank: 3,588
Season Points: 5,215
Season Rank: 813rd
Group A
Dustin Johnson (2) and Rickie Fowler (3)
Group B
Justin Thomas (6), Paul Casey (4), Hideki Matsuyama (3) and Jordan Spieth (1)
Group C
Jon Rahm (2) and Henrik Stenson (6)
Mo Yoshimoto
“@BearsGolf3423”
Last Week Points: 188
Segment Points: 1,767
Segment Rank: 8,553
Season Points: 5,249
Season Ranking: 555
Group A
Patrick Reed (7) and Dustin Johnson (2)
Group B
Paul Casey (3), Justin Thomas (4), Hideki Matsuyama (2) and Justin Rose (5)
Group C
Jon Rahm (4) and Henrik Stenson (9)
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Daily Fantasy Sports [DFS]
I will be giving out selections for one team each week.
These lineups will be entered into a large-entry Guaranteed Prize Pool. That means we need to take a risk or two, in order to separate ourselves from the field.
I would also advise you to change a roster spot or two if you are trying to enter this lineup yourself. Duplicate entries are no fun.
FanDuel Picks:
FanDuel is back and they have a new format. You no longer have to split your lineup into pre-cut and post-cut sections. A very good change, so let’s see what we can put together.
Rickie Fowler ($9,200): Top 15s in six of his last eight worldwide starts, the other two still landing as top 25s.
Jason Day ($9,100): Has two top 5s here at Conway Farms including a win. He doesn’t care how the course is setup or how the weather hits, he just loves this layout.
Zach Johnson ($6,400): A past champ at Conway Farms, he also had experience playing the course back in college.
Ryan Moore ($6,200): A WD in his last event, he’s still searching for his steady form since returning from injury. This could be a good venue to do that, as he can lean on a pair of top 30s already on his resume.
Hideki Matsuyama ($9,100):
Was en fuego just a month ago, but now he’s a forgotten man. Don’t let him slip through the cracks.Keegan Bradley ($5,800): His elite off-the-tee play sets up plenty of scoring chances. With no cut to worry about, that sounds great to me.
With two spots remaining, we have $14,200 to finish out the squad. Some options I like include: Xander Schauffele, Justin Rose, Francesco Molinari, Bill Haas, Kevin Na, Henrik Stenson, and Rory McIlroy.
DraftKings Picks:
Justin Rose ($8,500): After a mini mid-season slump, he’s rattled off back-to-back top 10s to open the Playoffs.Matt Kuchar ($8,200): A reliable cog in the lineup. Kooch has top 20s in 8 of his last 10 starts.
Kevin Na ($7,900): Much like Kuchar, Na doesn’t have the length to attack courses but he still handles lengthy holes with elite long-iron play and stellar short game.
Francesco Molinari ($7,400):
A tee-to-green machine, Molinari should be a quick learner at Conway Farms. He keeps it between the pipes which keeps his floor pretty high.Kevin Kisner ($7,200): Welcomed the birth of his second child (first son) last week. Should be riding high on life fumes as he arrives to a course that requires steady approach play. That is where Kisner excels.
One-and-Done
Each week I think aloud to provide you with my One-and-Done selection as well as a few alternatives. Fade or Follow? You decide!
Had Louis Oosthuizen finish T30 in my last time out. Looking to finish strong, except I’m wasted all the big guns. Definitely some room for strategy improvments next year.
For Conway Farms we have just two tournaments of course history. Still, let’s take a look and see who stands out:
Jason Day (WIN-T4)
Zach Johnson (T13-WIN)
Jordan Spieth (T13-T16)
Ryan Moore (T28-T11)
Daniel Berger (RUNNER-UP)
Keegan Bradley (T28-T16)
Charl Schwartzel (T8)
Rickie Fowler (T4-T39)
Henrik Stenson (T10-T33)
Hideki Matsuyama (T7)
From there, let’s hit the magnifying glass backwards to look at weighted long-term performance on the PGA TOUR and Euro Tour since 2014:
Rory McIlroy
Jordan Spieth
Dustin Johnson
Henrik Stenson
Jason Day
Hideki Matsuyama
Jon Rahm
Rickie Fowler
Justin Rose
Sergio Garcia
The golfers that check both boxes (course history and long-term performance) include: Jordan Spieth, Henrik Stenson, Jason Day, Hideki Matsuyama, and Rickie Fowler.
As expected, I’ve used all of these names.
Instead, I will expand my search and look at a metric I call “Weighted Top-5 Probabliity.” This looks at the average strokes gained performance of a golfer (per event) and then adjusts to the strength of field to say whether it was worthy of a top 5 against a TOUR-average field. It then weights the more recent performances more heavily.
The top-25 list of Weighted Top-5 looks like this: Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Henrik Stenson, Jason Day, Patrick Cantlay, Jon Rahm, Justin Rose, Hideki Matsuyama, Paul Casey, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, Matt Kuchar, Sergio Garcia, Charl Schwartzel, Kevin Na, Marc Leishman, Phil Mickelson, Daniel Berger, Louis Oosthuizen, Bill Haas, Kevin Chappell, Francesco Molinari.
Combining that list with recent form, I will choose Kevin Chappell this week.
Season Tracking
Wins: 2
Top 10s: 14
Top 25s: 19
Missed Cuts: 10
Total Picks: 42
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Fantasy Race to Dubai
Dave Tindall is our main man in Europe. In addition to his weekly previews of European Tour events on Mondays, he’ll share his selections and analysis for the Fantasy Race to Dubai at EuropeanTour.com.
Format: Pick 6 golfers. Players accumulate points based on Race to Dubai (R2D) points earned. Captain’s points are doubled. Unlimited team changes can be made each week.
Team Tindall (Team name: YESSIR!)
Last week: Was one of the 33% to get winner Matt Fitzpatrick on board so a jump of 250 spots.
Pos: 2318
Ryan Fox (captain): Four top 10s in his last five starts outside of the majors, the Kiwi should be able to battle the forecast wind and rain too. Will gamble and make him skipper (double points).
Joost Luiten: Superb record in his home event with two wins and T5 in last four years. Bad weather forecast could hurt him though.
David Horsey: Four top 10s in the KLM Open, including T4 at this venue last year. Runner-up in Denmark recently so some nice converging trends.
Tom Lewis: Once led The Open and really finding his game in recent weeks. Has some of the best greens in regulation figures in the field of late.
Paul Dunne: Looking likely to win soon and, in fierce winds, led the 2015 Open at St Andrews after 54 holes when still an amateur. Could need those skills this week.
Kiradech Aphibarnrat: Back to form in Switzerland last week and can handle bad weather too. Another hitting his irons well which is always a good fit for a course designed by Monty.
Matt Cooper is part of our European team. He contributes to player news, and he’ll share his selections and analysis for the Fantasy Race to Dubai at EuropeanTour.com. He was the winner of the Ladies European Tour’s Fantasy League in 2011.
Team Cooper (Team name: NormanStanleyFletcher)
Last week: I’ve finally emerged from the August doldrums and am now full expecting (hoping) that a wet sail will see me fly towards the finish.
Position: 1,319th
David Horsey (captain): Admitted on Twitter that he’s no fan of Crans so was pleased with T30. Second before that in Denmark and T4 last year in this event.
Joost Luiten: Top six in four of his last six KLM Open appearances including two wins, and knocked some rust off last week in Crans (T30 with three good rounds marred by a poor third lap)
Dylan Frittelli: His start in Prague and finish in Crans suggest he’s getting back into the swing of things after a hangover post-maiden win in Austria.
Ashun Wu: Lots to like about his form. T23 in Denmark with a 65 and 67 in there, then T9 last week with a final round charge.
Bernd Wiesberger: Not the machine he once was, but what better place for the magic to return that a venue he was second at last year?
Adrian Otaegui: Will to overlook the MC in Crans after the maiden win. His form leading up to that was superb and he pegged a couple of very good laps here 12 months ago.
