PGA DFS Core Plays: CJ Cup at Shadow Creek
Top-ranked grinder, Notorious, breaks down his favorite daily fantasy golf plays at various salary ranges for the coming week’s golf tournament. Who should you be building around? Find out below.
CJ Cup at Shadow Creek
Even though I’m a big fan of the Asian swing each year where we get to sweat golf at night, I am extremely excited for this week’s event. Shadow Creek is ranked as the number one golf course in Las Vegas and a top 30 course in the world in Golf Digest. Before we get into the course specifics, let’s quickly cover last week’s results. It was another week of carnage and a week with a surprise winner — Martin Laird. With big names like Patrick Cantlay and Matthew Wolff near the top of the leaderboard after Saturday’s round, it made Laird’s Sunday even more impressive. He hit one of the best bunker shots I have ever seen for an eagle and then made one of the craziest up and downs on the 17th hole. He ultimately won in a playoff by making a birdie on that same hole. Big congrats to the PGA Tour veteran and big congrats to Will Zalatoris, who secured his PGA Tour card with yet another top 10 finish.
When you think of golf in Las Vegas, you think of desert golf with plenty of “native areas” similar to TPC Summerlin. If you knew nothing about this week’s event and just turned on the television to the golf coverage, you would think the event was in North or South Carolina. If you haven’t done it yet, scroll through the pictures of each hole on the main PGA Tour site. This is an incredibly lush course that features water hazards on nine holes and a ton of trees. This course is well off the strip and was originally bought by Steve Wynn and designed by Tom Fazio. Until Wynn sold his business in 2000, this course was essentially used as a way to thank high rollers and celebrities for staying at his hotels. Even now, it costs $500 per round and sees very little foot traffic which keeps the course in pristine condition.
We obviously don’t have any course history to work with this week, so I expect to look at results from desert courses for comparison (TPC Scottsdale and TPC Summerlin). Based on what I’ve seen from pictures and the quotes I’ve read from golfers, I do not expect this to play like a desert course. I am personally looking at courses like Augusta National, Quail Hollow, and Muirfield Village. All three courses are lush, they all feature plenty of water, and they have contoured greens. Additionally, Shadow Creek has plenty of elevation changes and honestly, a few courses that look like they could be added to Augusta National. Rather than trying to force a course fit when we don’t have actual data to work with, I am looking to play the best plays this week.