Fantasy Golf Preview: Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial
Recap Byron Nelson Championship:
I think the Byron Nelson officials must have put the fantasy golf leaderboards on the golf course instead of the real ones and my guys ended up choking under the pressure. At one point on Sunday I had the lead in both the Draftstreet $11 GPP and the FantasyFeud Qualifier before things took a turn for the worse. 3 out of 4 in the blog made the cut with James Driscoll performing the best for the price. Had English finished better on Sunday, he could have contended for the title. Jason Day was a bit of a disappointment while JJ Henry again let me down big time. All in all it was a good week on Fantasy Feud (again) and a bad week on Draftstreet (again).
Preview Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial:
The fourth and final Texas tournament of the year will take place this week in Fort Worth at Colonial Country Club, which will play to a par 70, 7,204 yards. Zach Johnson is the defending champion with a 268 total on a golf course he has dominated throughout the years. Jason Dufner was runner up by one shot after the infamous 2 stroke penalty Johnson incurred on the 72nd hole.
I don’t think you can put much stock into a poor finish by golfers last Sunday afternoon due to the winds being so breezy on the fairly tight golf course. Shots that are barely missed are easily compounded in those types of winds and can lead to much higher scores. Of course, golfers that finished well only reaffirms one of two things, either their ball striking was close to perfect or they were making every putt they looked at. Both of which are obviously helpful this week as well. As of now, the weather looks to be sunny with winds only reaching 12mph throughout the week.
Let’s take a look at some golfers:
Scott Piercy (DS – $17,055): Piercy is a guy that is either right on or way off. He’s only made seven cuts this year out of 12 events (excluding Match Play), but in those seven he has finished in the top 25 six times. Aside from Schwartzel, whom I will get to later, I think Piercy’s ball striking was better than anyone else last Sunday. He hasn’t played here since 2010 when he missed the cut, but for this price he is at least worth a shot in a GPP lineup if not double ups as well.
Ryan Palmer (DS – $18,871): I always seem to look at JJ Henry and Ryan Palmer for the Texas tournaments. Fortunately, I will spare you the JJ Henry writeup, but I really like Palmer this week. He’s born in Texas, raised there, college there, lives there now, and always seems to play pretty well in this swing. He’s coming off a T33 at the Byron Nelson and a T5 at the Players. He only has three missed cuts in 13 events with three finishes inside the top 10 this year. Palmer has a T5 here in 2012 and T31 in 2011.
Charl Schwartzel (FF- $193,000): I’m really surprised Charl isn’t the 200k priced player this week, but I think this pick is just like the Tiger pick at the Players Championship; it’s almost a must to take him. If Schwartzel could’ve putted at all last week, Sunday in particular, he would have easily won. His ball striking was the best of anyone especially in the wind gusts up to 40mph. He’s made 7 of 7 cuts this year with his worst finish being a T55 at the Players. Most recently he finished T3 last week and has a handful of other finishes in the top 25. Yes, it is his first time at this event but I look for him to have another high finish if not win.
Henrik Norlander ($10,000): While the young Swede started the year poorly (four of six missed cuts), he has turned his game around nicely. Norlander has made six cuts in a row with a pair of top 20s in that stretch. Last week a couple errant shots and poor putting cost him as he ended up finishing T54. His ball striking has been on form in the last month and I look for it to continue this week.
Greg Owen: I usually only list 4 picks but I had a weird dream that Greg Owen won this week. I don’t normally dream about golf and especially not PGA Tour golf, but I just want to have it official incase he does end up winning, LOL.
Good Luck this week and don’t forget to check for withdrawals. I will leave a note in the comments if any of the golfers I write about withdraw until Wednesday night at 8pm leading up to the tournament