PGA Ownership Report: CareerBuilder Challenge

by Sean O'Donnell (hokie2009) Last Updated 2017-01-21 17:54:40

Here’s the data for this week’s $3 Birdie at the CareerBuilder Challenge!

Full field ownerships (for the $3, the $33, and cash games) can be found here!

And we have a co-ownerships matrix that shows who the highest owned pairs of golfers were in this week’s $3 Birdie:

This week’s Career Builder Challenge has presented a different kind of challenge for us playing the ownership game on DraftKings! We’re settling into a little bit of a groove here with the third tournament of the 2017 calendar year, and this time we’ve got a little bit less “marquee” to deal with. I had a kind of hard time expecting who the exact chalk would be in a very strong way, and with nobody topping 30% in the $3 birdie, I think I can say the same for the field! Let’s look at some specifics!

Jamie Lovemark (26% GPP, 20% Cash) – The California Boy isn’t a total surprise, but I did not have him pegged as the highest owned GPP golfer by any means! Furthermore, it’s rare to see somebody so much lower in the $5 Double-Up. I honestly don’t have a hugely rational explanation there other than I think everyone who is playing at this point in the season, in this event (meaning the DraftKings contestants) are fairly dialed into similar thinking and similar resources. More on this later, though!

Jon Rahm (23% GPP, 45% Cash) – This is the guy who, if I had to pick, I would have pegged as highest owned coming in. Not really going out on a limb – as I’ve covered in this space before, he’s been consistently one of the top couple highest owned players in all formats since very early on in his career. Still shiny, with having delivered, especially in cash, far more often than he’s been cut in his short career – I still rode the Spaniard heavy this week despite expected high ownership. He comes in 2nd place in both the GPP and in Cash, but it’s worth noting that in the $33 contest (presumably SLIGHTLY more “serious” players … and I use that term very loosely!) Rahm was in fact the highest owned golfer.

Ryan Palmer (20% GPP, 62% Cash) – Yet another week where we’ve got an EXTREMELY high ownership for a golfer in cash games. We used to see this more often maybe 2 years ago I feel like, but for awhile I feel like things topped off around 50% more often than not. Palmer has a good history here, and while other guys might have a better history (Bill Haas), Palmer’s price tag was in that can’t-miss $8,000 zone that everyone builds their cash game lineups from … and simple fact is, I think the masses were hard pressed to pick 6 golfers in that range when building a balanced lineup and not click on Palmer. His GPP ownership isn’t really remarkable, which goes towards the trend I’ve been seeing of people purposefully balancing out their GPP exposures to players who are heavily touted!

Luke List (23% GPP, 35% Cash) – OH! MY BOY! How the mighty have … risen!? I’m glad to see one of my favorite bombers getting some recognition finally! I think the sky’s the limit for this guy, and he’s coming off a good Sony Open, but at $8600 I didn’t really mess with him this week! Round 1 has me put in my place slightly with him shooting -5 today, and I’m honestly rooting for him, but it was definitely a wake-up call to see him as the 3rd highest owned golfer in both GPP and cash games this week! Go Luke!

Charles Howell III (17% GPP, 14% Cash) – This one surprised me a LITTLE. I say that only because I always have expectations for Howell to be highly-owned, and he seems to always be a little higher-owned than I even expected! The price tag this week was much more competitive – I think in past seasons on the West Coast he’s been consistently (inexplicably?) $7500-$8500 and that’s when people really piled on the bandwagon! I’ve actually come around on Howell, as last year it seemed to me he wasn’t playing that well, but people played him just because he “always did well early in the season” and he delivered … this time through I feel like he’s playing well, and today he delivered – so we’ll see what happens! I think everyone who’s a Howell fan and picked him this week is THRILLED with sub-20% ownership in all formats!

Good luck everyone! I can’t wait to see what happens as we go round-and-round the CareerBuilder course carousel this week!!