Bubba week continues as the Tour heads to White Sulphur Springs, WV for the Greenbrier Classic. Watson represents the Greenbrier Resort and has a home on the property. I think it’s safe to assume he’ll be pretty comfortable this week as he goes for back-to-back wins. Here he is sitting in what looks like a deep and uncomfortable chair pimping the Greenbrier Resort:
The tournament is played on The Old White TPC Course, which plays at roughly 7300 yards (scorecard with layout). The fairways are relatively wide, and there is rain in the forecast. Looking ahead, targeting guys with length off the time is probably a solid strategy, but more on that later. This is the sixth edition of the Greenbrier Classic, so let’s take a look at the five guys who have won this event:
(Click on a winner to see the full leaderboard from that year.)
Angel Cabrera (2014)
Jonas Blixt (2013)
Ted Potter, Jr. (2012)
Scott Stallings (2011)
Stuart Appelby (2010)
If you took the time to click through those old leaderboards (not expecting you to), you’d see Jimmy Walker was near the top practically every year. Although he isn’t in the field this week, I think we can use his statistical profile to help predict results for those who are playing. Walker really excels in three areas: strokes gained: tee-to-green (27th), strokes gained: putting (1st), and driving distance (17th). That lines up with what the experts are saying, as you’ll see below.
There are a few other names that pop up all over those old leaderboards. Pat Perez and Brendon de Jonge have had some success at The Old White TPC. Neither have great length off the tee, but they are both above average in terms of strokes gained: tee-to-green and putting. Ted Potter, Jr. (not in the field this week) has had an enormous amount of success here. Potter’s profile doesn’t really align with the other golfers who have performed well in the past. His strengths are accuracy off the tee and scrambling. There are definitely different ways to attack this course, but on average, the guys finishing near the top tend to be longer hitters who also happen to be good putters. As an aside, guys who can drive it 300+ and putt well score better than the field? Who knew?!
One final thought, as mentioned above, there are a lot of names that show up at the top year after year, so you should probably consider course history more than you would in other weeks.
These are the stats the experts believe you should be honing in on accompanied by the top-5 on tour in the field:
Ball Striking
- Lucas Golver
- Jim Herman
- Paul Casey
- Will Wilcox
- Kevin Streelman
Driving Distance
- Charlie Beljan 309.7
- Bubba Watson 309.5
- J.B. Holmes 308
- Tony Finau 307.7
- Patrick Rodgers 306.6
Par 4 Birdie or Better %
- J.B. Holmes 20.99%
- Patrick Rodgers 20.25%
- Pat Perez 20.03%
- Sean O’Hair 19.78%
- Jason Bohn 19.34%
Strokes Gained: Putting
- Aaron Baddeley .735
- Zac Blair .631
- Troy Merritt .582
- Brendon Todd .576
- Russell Henley .569
Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green
- Bubba Watson 1.550
- Webb Simpson 1.528
- J.B. Holmes 1.241
- Paul Casey 1.204
- Lucas Glover 1.161
Finally, these are the names the experts believe you should be targeting:
- Bill Haas
- Brendon Todd
- Bubba Watson
- Charlie Beljan
- Graham DeLaet
- Kevin Chappell
- Kevin Kisner
- Kevin Na
- Morgan Hoffmann
- Robert Streb
- Steven Bowditch
- Tony Finau
- Webb Simpson
- Will Wilcox
That about does it. You’ve got another shot to turn $3 into $100,000 on DraftKings this week. Hopefully you can use some of this information to your advantage and come out on top!
