Jim Furyk Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

Does Furyk make the core plays more often than he should? Probably, but that doesn’t mean that the numbers are lying. While I like to chase narratives and gut plays, it’s important to have a base when it comes to your decision-making. Having a model that you can trust is important and seeing as how I created my model, I obviously trust it. In this field, Furyk is ranked second in strokes gained approach, fifth in the hole yardage breakdown, and 11th in strokes gained total on Bermuda grass. He is the 14th ranked golfer in my model this week, yet he’s the 48th most expensive on DraftKings and the 41st most expensive on FanDuel. That screams value, yet his ownership projection is sitting around 10%.

The reason why he’s not on everyone’s radar this week is two-fold — he’s not a sexy play when it comes to DFS. He’s been around forever, he doesn’t hit the ball very far, and he doesn’t make a ton of birdies. At this course, experience and patience helps, you don’t need distance, and it’s more important to avoid bogeys than to make birdies. The second reason he’s getting overlooked is that he’s missed back-to-back cuts. I’m more than fine overlooking this given the fact that on each of those Fridays, he birdied his 17th hole to get inside of the cut line and then bogeyed his final hole to miss the cut on the number… in both events. That’s variance more than bad form. Look for Furyk to bounce back in a big way on a course where he posted a top 10 last year.

I don't expect Furyk to be low owned this week, but the old man narrative always seems to cap his ownership. Similar to Knox, everyone views Furyk as a safe bet to make the cut. That's certainly true and he probably doesn't bring a ton of win equity to the table at this stage of his career (although he nearly won The PLAYERS last season). What everyone overlooks is that in this price range, a top 20 finish will more than pay off his salary. You aren't targeting Furyk because you think he will win, you target him as the fourth or fifth golfer in your lineup. He posted a T14 here last season and followed it up with a T28 finish at the U.S. Open here. He's accurate off the tee, one of the best in the field on approach, and he doesn't make bogeys. He also likes putting on Poa Annua, which could be a big factor this week. He hasn't played a lot of golf recently, but the last time we saw him he gained nearly seven strokes on approach at the RSM Classic.

Furyk has been a regular feature of my article and he has rarely let us down. When you think of the type of golfer that should perform well at Pebble Beach, Furyk fits the mold perfectly. He hits fairways at a high clip, he’s one of the best iron players in the world (ninth in strokes gained approach in this field), he avoid bogeys, he’s a good scrambler, and he has historically putted well on poa greens. He’s been in solid form all season and like Webb, is always live at non-driver courses. He nearly won the PLAYERS earlier this season. This sounds like I’m exaggerating, but it’s true — I would pay $1,000 more for Furyk on each of the DFS sites this week.

It seems now that the Ryder Cup is behind him, Furyk has resurfaced as the world-class player he was several years ago. I do take some pause with Furyk (in some ways more so his caddie Fluff) being as this his fourth event in a row, but generally you can’t predict a player’s level of fatigue so let’s not try. Furyk has been extremely consistent all year with his last 3 finishes being 13-33-27. These may not sound impressive but these all came on drastically different courses. Last week he gained another 5.8 strokes with his Approaches, was #1 in GIR and rates in the 89th percentile for my weighted Key Proximity model. As far as Pebble, Furyk finished 14th at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am earlier this year, granted he also played Spyglass and Monterey Peninsula during that event.

Furyk is a former winner on this course and he comes into the event in solid form. Plus, I owe it to him to write him up for the third straight week, as he was a part of my two big GPP wins over the last two events. Furyk is ranked ninth or better in this field in strokes gained total, strokes gained approach, proximity from the key ranges, and bogey avoidance. I play him at every event where being a bomber isn’t required to compete. It feels like he’s a little overpriced across the industry, but he’s in solid form and we are dealing with a weak field.

Furyk is the one of four “Team RBC” members that I am tagging as GPP options this week, as he is sponsored by RBC along with Dustin Johnson, Brandt Snedeker, and Adam Hadwin. The grizzled veteran never seems to get a lot of love in national circles any more, but Furyk has been playing steady golf this season. He had a rough stretch in late April and early May where he missed three cuts in a row, but he has otherwise made nine cuts in a row with six top 20 finishes in that stretch. That’s more upside than Furyk generally gets credit for, and he’s a fine fit for Hamilton. Despite his increasing price tag, Furyk is a solid play this week.

My model seems to love Furyk each and every week. He’s had a very solid season overall and we can forgive him for his two recent missed cuts. He was in the bad weather draw at the RBC Heritage and then he missed the cut on the number at the PGA Championship, which was played on a bomber’s course. He bounced back nicely with a T13 last week and if we look past the last few years, he has excellent course history at this event. He’s won here and has a number of top 10 finishes. He’s one of the best on tour with his long irons and he’s very good at scrambling.