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Sony Open Review & American Express First Look | Stats, Trends & More!
💳 Swipe, Tap or Insert
Sony Open Review & American Express First Look | Stats, Trends & More!
Good morning! The TOUR heads back stateside to kickoff a run of incredible golf. Palm Springs, Torrey Pines, Pebble Beach, Phoenix, Riviera!! Let’s go!
(I’ll be at Torrey, Phoenix and Riviera if you want to say hello)
If you, like me, had a Hayden Buckley ticket last week — I’m gutted for ya. But sometimes, golf happens. We’ll continue the process and keep knocking on the door.
💰 Last Week’s Optimal Lineup
🤢 Most Concerning Missed Cut
There were only four golfers priced $10,000+ last week and three of them missed the cut. How concerned should we be?
Tom Kim was 28.79% owned, the highest on the slate. He lost a staggering 6.69 strokes putting, the worst putting week of his career. On the plus side, he gained 1.69 OTT and another 2.13 on APP. Over the first two rounds, he was the 12th best ball-striker in the field. Concern: 2/10
Sungjae Im was 26.18% owned, the second highest on the slate. Im lost 2.66 strokes on approach, his worst two-round performance since the 2021 Charles Schwab Challenge. He coughed up another 0.92 strokes off-the-tee, ending a streak of 15 straight tournaments gaining OTT. Concern: 6/10
Jordan Spieth was 15.87% owned and was the first round leader. His Friday was horrendous, losing 5.8 strokes to the field — the ninth worst round of his career.
Concern: 0/10 (he kinda does this, right? at least he was FRL)
🙋♂️ Waiver Claims
If you’re playing season long fantasy golf, the waiver wire is going to be your best friend. The constant churn of your last few roster spots will ensure you have as many starters as possible each week. Here are some highly available options:
David Lipsky (available in 45% of leagues) - withdrew from the RSM Classic to end his 2022, but finished T22 in Houston and T10 in Mayakoba in the two previous starts. His WD ended a streak of four consecutive cuts made. He was at it again last week in Honolulu finishing T4.
Ben Taylor (62% availability) - The Englishman was in the mix all weekend long, finishing T4. That shouldn’t be much a surprise considering he made 6/7 cuts in the fall with (3) Top 25s — highlighted by a 3rd place finish in Houston.
Kevin Yu (64% availability) - Statistically one of the best ball-strikers this season but man … is he volatile?! He piles up fantasy points. Despite finishing T21 last week, he was the 12th highest scoring fantasy player.
🔁 Course Rotation SZN
The next three PGA TOUR stops will feature of total of eight different courses. The American Express and the Pebble Beach Pro-Am will feature 54 hole cuts instead of the standard 36 hole cuts. Yes, it’ll be weird. Yes, some guys will get unlucky with weather or course order. Yes, we will be missing stats from some of the courses.
However there will be plenty of edges in Showdown, Jock MKT, matchups and a variety of other formats. We will talk more about it each week but here’s a taste of the best “Course Rotation Players” in the field this week:
🏥 Xander’s Back is Back
Xander Schauffele is one of the five (!!) Top 10 players in this field. He withdrew after WDing in Maui with a back injury. Here’s the latest update on his status:
🏥 Korn Ferry Tour Season Kickoff
The junior circuit kicked off their season on Sunday in the Bahamas. The first two events will run Sunday through Wednesday — presumably to find some better coverages windows against the PGA TOUR and NFL Playoffs.
There are a bunch of guys who will be bouncing back and forth to the PGA TOUR so get used to these names. Reminder that you can view KFT data on RickRunGood.com.
