Russell Henley Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

In a week in which there is really not a ton to love in terms of top-end spends, Russell Henley is a golfer you can look to lean on due to a really strong course history. In his last five starts as the Houston Open, Henley has gained 57 shots tee to green. In addition to his win, Henley has 4 top 8 or better finishes at this course. One of the more impressive things about Henley is how consistent his play has been at this event over the last five seasons. In his last 20 rounds at The Golf Club of Huston, Henley is a combined 66 under par and with only 4 of those rounds at 71 or better ( par 72) this former champ makes for a great start in all formats this week.

As expected heavy storms blew through the Houston area last night. The PGA tour will delay the start of round one by two hours. At the time of this post, DraftKings is the only site to add additional time to roster lock. The PGA Tour media originally added just a one-hour delay, but soon came back with news that tee times would be delayed an additional hour. First-round tee times are now set to start at 10:20 est and for now DraftKings has rosters set to lock at the same time. We will update with more information when it becomes available.

With only 34 players in this week's field, tee times are condensed in such a manner that it's impossible to gain an edge by using weather in relation to starting time. All players will start on the first tee this week, and with only a two hour and forty minute gap between the first and the last tee time, there should not be any weather advantages this week. That being said we can look at the type of weather predicted this week. In his report, Roth calls for winds to reach the 15 to 20 mph range for the majority of the week. Even though Hawaii is beautiful this time of year, the wind is something that we can expect on this Island paradise. The direction of this wind could be key this week, as for now it appears that the majority of wind will come in from the east and possibly could come out of the northeast as well. If this holds true due to the layout of the course, the wind might actually favor a shorter hitter. And while the wind direction might not be reliable enough to predict, there is one thing we can look to exploit if it is, in fact, blowing hard this week in Hawaii. Good putters have an edge on the course in general, and windy conditions tend to magnify this edge. One really cool stat about this week to take into consideration is that since 1999 the eventual winner of this event has finished no worse than 4th in putts per round. Good putting is a must this week, and with the wind predicted to blow it's not a bad idea to give a bump to players who can roll the rock.

Russell Henley won his way into The Masters by taking first place last week at the Shell Houston Open. He's been trending up and cracked the top-10 at the Valspar Championship with a T9 finish four weeks ago. Russell has course history at Augusta National going 21-T31-CUT in his first three tries from 2013 through 2015. But perhaps the most intriguing reason to play Henley this week is his tee time and pairing. Henley is in the first pairing scheduled to tee off at 8:00 AM Thursday morning. It is the only pairing (barring WDs) scheduled with only two golfers. This pairing should play at a fairly brisk pace, certainly faster that all the other pairings consisting of three golfers. Henley's pairing partner is Daniel Summerhays. Henley and Summerhays have the best shot of completing the first round before the heaviest winds set in.