PGA DFS Core Plays: Palmetto Championship
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.
The Memorial Tournament
Fantasy golf can provide the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows. I was sweating a made cut from Chris Kirk on Friday and he miraculously birdied three of his final four holes to move on to the weekend. Like everyone else, I always feel like my golfers never make those amazing runs on Friday so I was on cloud nine. At the time, I had Jordan Spieth and four other golfers in the top 15 on the leaderboard. With all six golfers through the cut, I was already counting my GPP money. Unfortunately, Kirk and Brandt Snedeker decided to play golf like me during the final two rounds and Spieth was unable to hold his lead against Jason Kokrak. My main lineup ended up falling just short of the cash line in my biggest contests. I bring this up to vent and make myself feel better, but also because I know this happens to many of you on a weekly basis.
This week we turn our attention to the Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio. This is always one of my favorite events of the year because the course is a tough test of golf and it has one of the strongest fields that we see in non-majors all season. Muirfield Village will look a bit different this time around, as Jack Nicklaus decided to “take one last bite of the apple” and make some adjustments to his pride and joy. The redesign of the course included the following: lengthening of 153 yards, modification of every bunker on the property, moving seven of the greens, adding significant contouring to 12 of the greens, and resurfacing all tees, fairways, and greens with bentgrass (Jack didn’t like the poa annua that was starting to creep up into the greens). They also narrowed the fairways, which will lead to even more approach shots being hit from the rough.
Historically, this has always been a second shot golf course. You didn’t need to be super long off the tee, but it didn’t hurt if you were hitting fairways. The greens have always been tough to hit on average and scrambling is an even tougher test. I have always put the largest weights on strokes gained approach and strokes gained around the green for this event. With the course now reading over 7,500 yards on the scorecard, we’ll see a few more approach shots hit from over 200 yards (especially on the par threes). Usually new greens take a year or two before they soften up, so it could be tough for golfers to hit these greens with consistency (especially from the rough). I like looking at bentgrass putting splits, but use them as more of a tiebreaker. Ultimately, I expect a challenging golf course that will test every aspect of a golfer’s game tee to green.
Windfinder Forecast
Cut Rule:
- Top 65 and ties (120 golfers in the field — >54% will make the cut)
Key Statistics (In Order of Importance)
- Strokes Gained Approach
- Strokes Gained Around the Green
- Strokes Gained Off the Tee or Good Drive %
- Bogey Avoidance
- Strokes Gained Putting (Emphasis on Bentgrass)
Yardage Specialists (Muirfield Village GC)
- Xander Schauffele
- Collin Morikawa
- Patrick Reed
- Corey Conners
- Bryson DeChambeau