These WGCs sure are fun, huh? Elite fields, tough (but fair) courses, and a lot of movement on Sundays. In the span of an hour, I went from scooping all my games, to getting shut out, and finally back to cashing across the board. At one point, after bogeys from Bubba, Streb, Webb, Keegan, and Rose (3-putt from 10 feet, ugh), I shut the ol’ laptop down in disgust. Was a nice surprise when I came back to watch the final few holes.
I did pretty well this week, but these guys did really well:
themadasian74 (put the same lineup in twice, got 2/3 of the split) & nhdave
Bubba Watson (12.1%) $9,500 – 95
Jim Furyk (12.4%) $8,900 – 88
Robert Streb (28.8%) $7,500 – 87.5
Brooks Koepka (20.7%) $8,400 – 83.5
David Lingmerth (12.5%) $7,600 – 77
Danny Lee (19.5%) $7,700 – 75.5
That’s 506.5 points for $49,600. Pretty simple way to win a $40,000+. Pick guys who are good at golf and have been playing well. One interesting thing to note, the Drive the Green winners didn’t have Shane Lowry on their rosters. I brought up this possibility earlier in the week. Given the tight pricing and top-to-bottom field strength, getting 6/6 top-10 finishers mattered more than hitting the winner. It was an argument I made for potentially fading Spieth (even though I recommended him in my picks article), and that strategy ended up paying off big time. However, with DK pricing being so soft for majors, you might want to go the other way for the PGA Championship. I’ll talk more about that later in the week, though.
It’s the third straight week this tournament has ended in a chop. Given the incredible growth of this tournament and the sheer number of entrants, I think it’s fairly safe to assume this will be the norm going forward. There are two ways to go given this trend. Either you make sure you have a differentiation pick in every lineup you enter to maximize your chances at winning the thing outright, or you just ignore ownership, make your best lineups possible week-to-week, and let the chips fall where they may. I don’t really have a problem with either strategy.
Let’s take a look at what would have been the optimal lineup:
Bubba Watson $9,500 – 95
Jim Furyk $8,900 – 88
Brooks Koepka $8,400 – 83.5
David Lingmerth $7,600 – 77
Robert Streb $7,500 – 87.5
Shane Lowry $7,500 – 107
That’s 538 points on $49,400 spent. This is the second time since I’ve been doing this that the DTG winner was only one player away from hitting the optimal lineup for the week. Switch Lee out for Lowry, and boom: FLAWLESS VICTORY. Kudos to themadasian74 and nhdave, for sure. Nice work, fellas.
It was another really strong week for the expert consensus. Who knew crowd sourcing expert opinions could be so lucrative?
Expert Consensus
A+ – Brooks Koepka
A+ – Jim Furyk
A+ – Robert Streb
A – Danny Lee
A – Justin Rose
B – Billy Horschel
B – Jordan Spieth
B – Keegan Bradley
B – Marc Leishman
B – Patrick Reed
B – Paul Casey
C – Rickie Fowler
C – Sergio Garcia
D – Adam Scott
D – Hideki Matsuyama
D – James Hahn
D – Zach Johnson
F – Francesco Molinari
As you can tell from the grades, the Consensus did a much better job of identifying cheap talent than hitting on the high-priced studs. That said and given the tight pricing, those cheap plays were gold this week. If you used this player pool, I’m pretty sure you did well.
After getting nosed out for top honors last week, I nudged out the field this week (thank you, thank you). It pays to know the guy grading the picks. I made 13 picks, seven finished T-17 or better, nine returned “B” value or better, and I hit three of the six optimal picks for the week in Watson, Streb, and Koepka. I kind of whiffed on Scott and Martin, but they all can’t be winners, can they?
oreojenkins – dailyoverlay.com
A+ – Brooks Koepka
A+ – Bubba Watson
A+ – Robert Streb
A – Justin Rose
B – Jordan Spieth
B – Keegan Bradley
B – Patrick Reed
B – Paul Casey
B – Webb Simpson
D – Adam Scott
D – Ben Martin
D – Hideki Matsuyama
D – Zach Johnson
A little bit about my picks… When I put information out there, it’s genuine. Those were the guys I liked, and those were the guys I played. There is this idea out there that if the “expert’s” picks are so great, why don’t they just keep them secret and make all the money for themselves? It’s a valid question, and you should definitely consider the author’s motives for disseminating certain information. Although I play to win and I do alright for myself, DFS isn’t my main source of income and I’m not a high-volume, soul-crushing superstar like maxdalury (not even close). I play primarily for fun, and I don’t mind sharing information with you guys. In poker, it helps to be able to talk about hands with players who have games you respect. It doesn’t necessarily matter if they’re better or worse than you are; there’s value in learning how others approach specific situations. I’ve found the same to be true for DFS. That’s what I gain by putting my information out there. I have conversations on Twitter with DFS players who read my stuff, and we discuss why they like or dislike my picks as well as who they’re on or off. That’s part of the fun, right? The camaraderie? So now you know where I’m coming from, and hopefully you are able to gain something from reading about my picks.
A few quick notes before we get to the full expert grades. First, three other experts beat the Consensus: stlcardinals84 of rotogrinders.com, Seth Finkelstein of rotoballer.com, and Steve Krebs of dfsmancave.com. Only a couple experts each week beat the Consensus, so strong showings out of those three guys. Second, Michael Riek of rotowire.com was the only expert to recommend Shane Lowry. Really nice pick there. Finally, if you’re reading this and you make weekly PGA DFS picks and want to be included in the expert grading, send me a link to your site on Twitter @oreo_jenkins. I added sportsdegens.com to the expert pool this week, and I’m always looking to expand.
Now on to the full results…
Chris Durell – dailyfantasysportsrankings.com
B – Billy Horschel
B – Henrik Stenson
B – Jordan Spieth
B – Keegan Bradley
B – Paul Casey
B – Webb Simpson
C – Rickie Fowler
D – Hideki Matsuyama
F – Brendon Todd
F – Francesco Molinari
Daniel Dobish – dailyroto.com
A – Danny Lee
C – Sergio Garcia
D – Adam Scott
F – Brendon Todd
F – Francesco Molinari
F – Padraig Harrington
Steve Krebs – dfsmancave.com
A+ – Brooks Koepka
A+ – Robert Streb
A – Danny Lee
A – Justin Rose
B – Patrick Reed
C – Jason Day
D – Ben Martin
D – Hideki Matsuyama
F – Dustin Johnson
Josh DeMaio – DraftKings Playbook
A+ – Jim Furyk
A – Justin Rose
A – Lee Westwood
B – Billy Horschel
B – Jordan Spieth
B – Kevin Na
B – Marc Leishman
C – Kevin Kisner
C – Sergio Garcia
D – Adam Scott
D – Martin Kaymer
F – Phil Mickelson
Zachary Thompson – fansided.com
A+ – Brooks Koepka
A+ – Jim Furyk
A+ – Robert Streb
A – Danny Lee
A – David Lingmerth
A – Justin Rose
B – Charley Hoffman
B – Henrik Stenson
B – Jordan Spieth
B – Keegan Bradley
B – Marc Leishman
B – Patrick Reed
B – Paul Casey
B – Russell Henley
C – Bill Haas
C – Danny Willett
C – Graeme McDowell
C – Jason Day
C – Kevin Kisner
C – Rickie Fowler
C – Sergio Garcia
D – Adam Scott
D – Ben Martin
D – Charl Schwartzel
D – Hideki Matsuyama
D – James Hahn
D – Zach Johnson
F – Dustin Johnson
F – Hunter Mahan
F – Thomas Bjorn
F – Troy Merritt
Drew Phelps – fantasyalarm.com
A+ – Jim Furyk
A+ – Robert Streb
A – David Lingmerth
A – Justin Rose
A – Lee Westwood
B – Jordan Spieth
B – Kevin Na
B – Marc Leishman
B – Steven Bowditch
C – Jason Day
C – Rickie Fowler
D – James Hahn
D – Zach Johnson
F – Francesco Molinari
F – Ryan Palmer
Seth Finkelstein – rotoballer.com
A+ – Brooks Koepka
A+ – Robert Streb
A – Danny Lee
B – Henrik Stenson
B – Jordan Spieth
B – Keegan Bradley
B – Paul Casey
C – Graeme McDowell
C – Rickie Fowler
D – Adam Scott
F – Dustin Johnson
stlcardinals84 – rotogrinders.com (Daily Fantasy Foursome)
A+ – Robert Streb
B – Keegan Bradley
C – Danny Willett
C – Rickie Fowler
Michael Riek – rotowire.com
A+ – Brooks Koepka
A+ – Bubba Watson
A+ – Shane Lowry
A – David Lingmerth
B – Branden Grace
B – Henrik Stenson
B – Jordan Spieth
B – Keegan Bradley
B – Marc Leishman
B – Matt Kuchar
B – Webb Simpson
C – Jason Day
D – Adam Scott
D – Byeong-Hun An
D – Gary Woodland
D – Hideki Matsuyama
D – Joost Luiten
D – Martin Kaymer
F – Hunter Mahan
jlvaughan21 – sportsdegens.com
A+ – Brooks Koepka
A+ – Jim Furyk
A+ – Robert Streb
A – Ian Poulter
A – Justin Rose
A – Lee Westwood
B – Charley Hoffman
B – Henrik Stenson
B – Kevin Na
B – Paul Casey
B – Webb Simpson
C – Sergio Garcia
D – Adam Scott
D – Ben Martin
D – Hideki Matsuyama
D – Zach Johnson
F – Brendon Todd
F – Jimmy Walker
F – Ryan Palmer
thefantasygolf.com
A+ – Brooks Koepka
A+ – Jim Furyk
A+ – Robert Streb
A – Ian Poulter
A – Lee Westwood
B – Billy Horschel
B – Branden Grace
B – Kevin Na
B – Marc Warren
B – Matt Kuchar
B – Patrick Reed
B – Paul Casey
C – Bill Haas
C – Danny Willett
C – Kevin Kisner
C – Sergio Garcia
D – Adam Scott
D – Hideki Matsuyama
D – James Hahn
D – Martin Kaymer
D – Ryan Moore
D – Zach Johnson
F – Brendon Todd
F – Phil Mickelson
F – Ryan Palmer
I’m putting the final touches on my PGA Championship research… basically, I’m trying to figure out what to do with Rory. I’d definitely be interested in hearing thoughts on what you’re doing with him. If people are staying away, will you ever be able to get him this low-owned on a course he likes again? Something about Warren Buffett, fear, and greed… I’ll be back tomorrow with my picks article. Two winning weeks in a row, and I’m feeling good about the roster of golfers I have so far for this week. I’m planning on keeping the streak alive. Let’s get that cash. Thanks for reading.
oreo
