PGA Ownership Report: Sony Open

by Sean O'Donnell (hokie2009) Last Updated 2017-01-16 18:24:15

Here’s the data for this week’s $3 Birdie at the Sony Open!

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:

Yay! A full field! This is a much more “normal” analysis space for everyone I feel like, and 30% ownership this week means 30% ownership… ! If that makes any sense! Everything was very skewed with the short-field event last week! Let’s see what we’ve got!

Jordan Spieth (30% GPP, 20% Cash) – The elite of the elite in this field, Spieth commanded plenty of attention but really I don’t think anyone is disappointed at 30% ownership, if you expected him to be high – it could have been worse. I find it a little more curious that he’s that much lower in cash – the very-high-salary guys are ALWAYS lower in cash since people tend to build more balanced lineups (if you roster Spieth you might have to risk a 6th golfer who is more likely the miss the cut, IN THEORY), but, yeah – feels like a more stark drop-off. Spieth is, uh, “consistent” (such a dangerous and almost N/A word in golf) but the roster construction tendenies win out seemingly always.

Hideki Matsuyama (28% GPP, 24% Cash) – Talk about CONSISTENT. Matsuyama has been red-freaking-hot. Honestly I thought he’d be higher owned, in both formats. I DO agree with the concept that if this course does come down to putting – it’s a good as a time as any for him to come back to earth. But I really thought he’d be higher especially in cash. Six golfers were picked more often than him in cash games, but considering his price tag 24% is still fairly hefty. So, it makes sense. But to me his performance this week is one of the storylines. If he finishes top 5 again it’s definitely some extra-super-stratosphere stuff!

Charles Howell III (27% GPP, 72% !!! Cash) – HOLY GUACAMOLE, seven-tee-TWO percent owned in cash games! Heeeeeeee’s baaaaaackkkkk. Save for an injured stretch he has this reputation of early-season consistency and a super low price, and we typically expect him to be high owned (except for the stretch around an injury last Fall), but this is prettttttyyyy epicccc. At some point I kind of agree with it – I suppose? Take the free square. But it’s almost like wow do we still have a tangible edge basically playing 5 on 5? I suppose there’s an edge against the 28% who failed to roster him in cash. I think this also underlines the decided sharpening of contest-driven strategy amongst DFS’ers, as obviously people deliberately stayed off of him in GPPs because he was so ridiculously popular and perceived as under-valued. I personally didn’t play cash games this week (a cop out sure) but it will be veeeery interesting to see the peanut gallery if he does not perform!

Jimmy Walker (26% GPP, 23% Cash) – MISTER Honolulu himself, Jimmy Walker, definitely made a strong showing ownership-wise … he kind of floated around save for him PGA Championship breakthrough last year, but with his ability to win here – and you can’t win a GPP without the winner – it’s no surprise he’s in the top few owned in the $3 birdie.

Good luck everyone!