PGA Ownership Report: Valspar Championship

by Sean O'Donnell (hokie2009) Last Updated 2016-03-15 13:37:06

Here’s the data for the $3 Birdie for this week’s Valspar Championship!

Full field ownerships (for the $3 and more) 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:

So let’s hit the highlights and I’m going to jump back and add the $5 double-up to give us a glimpse at what cash game ownerships probably look like in most contests, as well as the $27 GPP!

So, obviously the first thing that jumps out to me is Jordan Spieth, and well… let me mention that my goal is to have this article out by noon eastern in general on Thursday mornings. And, well, it MIGHT already be too late for Spieth, and for that I apologize. He’s definitely taking a chunk of my GPP exposure with him, too. BUT. I find it interesting that once again we see people jumping on the really high-priced guys in GPP, but going balanced in cash. Spieth, Willett, and Stenson all see their exposures drop for cheaper alternatives when we flip over to the $5 Double Up page. I don’t see this THIS strongly every week but it’s definitely been a trend this season moreso than last season I’d say, for people to totally differentiate between their GPP and 5050 lineups. I think a year ago that was something the public didn’t do in any DFS sport as much as they do nowadays. I honestly thought that Willett or Stenson would be the starting point for most cash lineups but it seems like more preferred to go below $10,000 this week.

A few other storylines that caught my eye or I wanted to check up on (all ownerships are for the $3 birdie):

K.J. Choi 12.4% – I was a little outspoken in my criticism of the K.J. Choi course history play at the Northern Trust. I ate crow, and now we enter the honeymoon period with Choi’s DFS ownership IMO. So K.J. has been putting on his Big Boy pants and striking the ball amazingly for decent stretches this year, but this week he had his Big Boy salary to go with it, so I was really curious how it would shake out. He won a lot of people money last time out so why not let a little ride on him again!

Sung Kang 11.6% – This is another guy who has risen from nothingness to be a real force in recent weeks on these tough courses. I rode the wave for awhile but decided this was the week I needed to bet on the bubble bursting with the dramatic price increase. Also, people are catching on! Once again I was curious to see how a player who had treated DFS players so well recently would fare with a sharp price increase, and his popularity has shone through this week.

Mark Hubbard 8.5% – This is a golfer who has been touted off and on for several weeks now – starting with a made cut streak. Well, he’s pretty much failed to disappoint, except his ownership keeps hovering around the same mark. He’s on the radar but hasn’t seen his popularity continue to rise while he continues to deliver value. I’m not on Hubbard and haven’t been for this whole little run but I just find it curious to see, typically when a guy becomes public, he will stay public until he disappoints or his price goes way up. Hubbard has had neither happen but also has SOME HOW failed to take our nation by storm :) :) :)

Will Wilcox 5.4% – The People’s Champ? This one was fascinating because I think we get a measure of exactly how much a player touting himself on twitter can move the needle? LOL. I think it was a fine play this week especially in GPP, I honestly thought that Wilcox would move his own needle a little bit more than he actually did, so I kind of stayed away … and at this point early on, feel kind of lucky. BUT. Wilcox is a guy who to me you have to go 9 holes by 9 holes … not even week by week or round by round. He could put together a birdie or bogey streak at any moment.

Steven Bowditch 0.8% – I respect these 600-some-odd fine gentlemen who went back to the well with Mr. Browditch a LOT. And I mean that.

Good luck to everyone and let me know what you think or who else jumped out at you or was interesting in your own mind!