daily fantasy sports blog

Up this week is golf’s fifth major the RBC Canadian Open coming to us from Glen Abbey in Ontario.   Here’s a scorecard and a hole-by-hole tour if you want to get a feel for the course.  The Canadian Open is similar to the U.S. Open in that it rotates amongst different courses year-to-year, so don’t rely on last year’s results if you’re looking for course history.  These are the previous four winners at Glen Abbey (click their name for full leaderboards):

Brandt Snedeker (2013)
Nathan Green (2009)
Chez Reavie (2008)
Vijay Singh (2004)

Looking through those results, you’ll notice two things: 1) the fields aren’t all that deep/tough and 2) there are more ball strikers at the top than straight bombers.  Glen Abbey is more of a target course with relatively small greens and lots of bunkers.  Distance will always help (there are four fairly short par 5s, and distance will certainly help there); but to win this week, you’ll need to hit fairways and greens.  With that in mind, there are six stats the experts think you should be focusing on: GIR, Par 5 Scoring, Proximity, Sand Save %, Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, and Total Driving.  I’m throwing in Strokes Gained: Putting as a bonus; it’s something you should always at least be cognizant of.


GIR Leaders

  1. Stewart Cink 72.65%
  2. Jim Herman 72.38%
  3. J.J. Henry 70.48%
  4. Alex Prugh 70.32%
  5. Jim Furyk 70.20%

Par 5 Scoring Leaders

  1. Bubba Watson 4.45
  2. Brooks Koepka 4.52
  3. Matt Kuchar 4.55
  4. Aaron Baddeley 4.57
  5. Morgan Hoffmann 4.57

Proximity Leaders

  1. Jim Furyk 31.67′
  2. Jason Gore 32.17′
  3. Lucas Glover 32.58′
  4. Chez Reavie 32.58′
  5. Stewart Cink 32.83′
  6. Hudson Swafford 32.83′

Sand Save % Leaders

  1. S.J. Park 66.10%
  2. Luke Donald 65.00%
  3. Chad Collins 62.86%
  4. Matt Kuchar 61.68%
  5. Jonathan Byrd 61.36%

Strokes Gained: Putting Leaders

  1. Aaron Baddeley .854
  2. Matt Kuchar .633
  3. Brooks Koepka .588
  4. Matt Every .580
  5. Daniel Summerhays .565

Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green Leaders

  1. Bubba Watson 1.588
  2. Jim Furyk 1.419
  3. J.B. Holmes 1.197
  4. Lucas Glover 1.09
  5. Ryan Palmer 1.025

Total Driving Leaders

  1. Graham DeLaet
  2. Charlie Beljan
  3. Hudson Swafford
  4. Derek Ernst
  5. Davis Love III

Using those stats in conjunction with current form and course history, these are the names the experts believe you should be targeting:

  • Adam Hadwin
  • Brooks Koepka
  • Bubba Watson
  • Chez Reavie
  • Chris Stroud
  • Graham DeLaet
  • Greg Owen
  • Hunter Mahan
  • Jason Day
  • Jerry Kelly
  • Jim Furyk
  • Kevin Chappell
  • Luke Donald
  • Matt Kuchar
  • Ollie Schniederjans
  • Scott Piercy

That about does it for the preview.  Hopefully there’s some info here that can help you win some cash.  As always, best of luck this week!