Fantasy Golf Picks, Odds, and Predictions for the Genesis Open
2017 Genesis Open Fantasy Preview
Needless to say, we’re on quite the winning streak! Our Premium Members are carrying around fatter wallets today given that our top fantasy picks Matsuyama and Spieth each took home trophies in the last two events.
Our second consecutive fantasy win saw Jordan Spieth lead basically from wire-to-wire to remind everybody just how good a player he is, while other favorites Jason Day and Dustin Johnson failed to get better than within 5 strokes of the title.
With the victory Spieth becomes the youngest ever player to win three times on the PGA TOUR by three or more shots, and the second youngest of the modern era (behind Tiger) to win nine times on Tour. His stats so far this season, particularly in his approach play, have been outstanding, and we were very confident he would re-enter the winner’s circle sooner rather than later. Happily for us it was last week!
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So now the 23-year-old will attempt to emulate Justin Thomas in going back-to-back at the Riviera Country Club in the Pacific Palisades, the host for this week’s renamed Genesis Open (you may remember it as the Northern Trust Open). A strong field will once again do battle in California with three players coming in on the back of wins (Spieth, Hideki Matsuyama, and Sergio Garcia) locking horns with the likes of Dustin Johnson and Jason Day. Needless to say, it should be another fine week of golf on the West Coast.
Last Week’s Fantasy Results from the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am
In case you’re new to our Premium Service, we offer a tool with our predictive algorithm known as the GPFP (Golficity Projected Fantasy Points). Just to give you an example of how effective this tool is, here are the Top 3 in GPFP that our members saw last week prior to the event kicking off:
This tool has proven to be highly effective this season as evidenced by last week’s performance as we now all know Spieth won and finished with 122.50 Fantasy Points—not a bad forecast at 123.03! As for the other two guys on the list, Rahm finished T5 while Kisner finished T10.
We had all of the reasons to bet the ranch on Spieth last week and boy are we glad that we did. His twenty-three birdie week (with only four bogeys) and 1st place finish were enough to help DFS fantasy owners bank some cash as others bet heavy on Day and Johnson. Here’s a quick recap of what we said about Spieth going into last week:
When he burst onto the scene as golf’s latest phenom, Jordan Spieth was known for his unparalleled putting capabilities; regardless of what he did from tee-to-green, it was as if his putter had a magical ability to get him out of trouble and convert scores.
This season, something slightly different is afoot. Spieth is pinging greens and not putting at his best, but we expect that theme to be turned around when he returns to his favorite Poa Annua surface this week.
The 23-year-old bagged a sneaky top-10 at the Phoenix Open last week without threatening, but the signs were exciting: he gained an impressive +1.932 strokes on the field from tee-to-green and +1.791 on approach. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to see that on a trio of courses where driving doesn’t matter so much, if Spieth is hitting greens AND putting well then he is going to go mighty close to the trophy.
The eight-time PGA TOUR winner has played in this event four times with a string reading 22-4-7-21.
We’ll be doing everything in our power this week to make it three weeks in a row heading into the Genesis Open!
The 2017 Genesis Open Field
As mentioned earlier, we have three players in red-hot form coming into this one. Spieth, for obvious reasons, Matsuyama after his WM Phoenix Open triumph two weeks ago, and Sergio Garcia, who took down the European Tour’s Dubai Desert Classic. Add into the mix DJ and Day, who both found varying degrees of form at Pebble Beach last time out, and we could have a real barnburner on our hands.
There’s plenty more to savor too. We have Bubba Watson, winner at Riviera in 2016 and 2014, looking to remind the world of what he is capable of, Justin’s Rose and Thomas, Brandt Snedeker on the back of two top-10s, another two-time Riviera champ in Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed, Brooks Koepka, JB Holmes, Branden Grace….the list goes on in this deep field.
This Genesis Open is shaping up to be something extra special.
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This Week’s Course Preview
After a couple of rotational-course jaunts on the West Coast, it’s kind of nice to be back to the one course format at the stunning Riviera Country Club.
Riviera is a bit of beast of a track for its Par 71 mark at 7,322 yards, and is home to some outstanding features in golf course construction: who doesn’t love the bunker that resides in the middle of the sixth’s green! The driveable Par 4 tenth offers up eagle opportunities galore too.
The make-up of the course is unusual too, with Poa Annua greens once again the focus alongside the Kikuyu surfaces of fairway and rough. These are commonly found in South Africa, and can prove a particularly menacing threat when wet.
Like Pebble Beach, the greens are small at Riviera and thus hard to hit, and with some fairly daunting run-offs and gradients putting the ball near the flag is going to be as difficult as ever. So finding the right lines off the tee – plus accurate iron play – is essential. It should be a fantastic test of this excellent field’s abilities.
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Weather Forecast for Pacific Palisades, CA
Grabbing a Thursday morning tee time could be the key to a strong start here. First up we have almost perfect scoring conditions: sunshine, no rain, no wind to speak of and a bit of humidity just to help ball flight. Throughout the afternoon the wind is forecast to escalate to around 10 mph so the first groups out have a clear weather advantage if the forecast is correct.
Then on Friday….the rain comes. We have a 95% chance of rain forecast first thing Friday morning with 10 mph winds, and this theme continues throughout the day. The breeze will get stronger (up to 20 mph) and the precipitation is not expected to relent.
The forecast for the weekend is mixed too, with bouts of rain and strong gusts in the mix. It could get rather interesting once again, as it did in Pebble Beach last week.
Last Year’s Results from the Genesis Open (prev. Northern Trust Open)
Last year, the eventual champion, Bubba Watson, put himself in the hot seat pretty much from the get-go with his opening salvo of 66, and that was only bettered by a sizzling -8 from Camilo Villegas, who incredibly led by three shots heading into Friday. The Colombian could not quite hold it together for the weekend.
The left-hander continued his march to a second Riviera title by posting four scores in the 60s, and while he had illustrious company at the top of the leaderboard – Adam Scott and Dustin Johnson joined Jason Kokrak in contention – Bubba ended on a hot streak by birdieing two of his last three holes, with Scott and Kokrak both faltering down the home straight.
This Week’s Broadcast Schedule
Television Broadcasts
Thursday-Friday, 2-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel).
Saturday, 1-2:30 p.m. (GC), 3-6 p.m. (CBS).
Sunday, 1-2:30 p.m. (GC), 3-6:30 p.m. (CBS).
Mobile Broadcasts (PGA TOUR LIVE):
Thursday-Friday, 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. ET (featured groups), 3-6 p.m. (featured holes).
Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. (featured groups).
Sunday, 11 a.m.-6:30 p.m. (featured holes).
RADIO: (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com)
Thursday-Friday, noon-6 p.m. ET.
Saturday, 1-6 p.m.
Sunday, 1-7 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com).
Where to Play Fantasy Golf for the Genesis Open this Week
With such a wide open and varied field this week, player ownership is likely to be reduced. This is your chance to go in DraftKings hard!
PGA $350K Birdie: A sweet $25k is up for grabs for the winner of this $3 contest, and if you finish inside the 38,000 places then you’ll win a prize of some description. You can do that, right?
PGA $40k Albatross: Enhance your chances of victory in this single-entry contest. $12 gets you in to battle for the $4k top prize, with the top 15% of finishers doubling their money.
This Week’s Fantasy Notes for the Genesis Open
This really is a tough event to fathom out, as the range of winners (Bubba last year to Steve Stricker and Aaron Baddeley in ’11 and ’10) doesn’t really offer anything consistent. In the last five renewals the winning scores have ranged from -16 (Bubba last year) to -6 (James Hahn in 2015) so perhaps the extremity of the weather will dictate the lowest total once again.
So what did Watson do so well? He was excellent from tee-to-green as you might expect on a test like this, gaining 2.411 strokes from T2G, and his approach play was very strong too (+1.694). His putting was also effective, but then when your short game was as hot as Bubba’s was 12 months ago then the short stick is less relevant; indeed, the likes of Matsuyama, Marc Leishman ,and JB Holmes all bagged top-10s a year ago despite being ice cold on the dancefloor.
This could be a test where a score of around -10 could get the job done if the weather forecast is to be believed, so going low on the Par 5s and avoiding mishaps on the Par 4s will be key. Bubba played the longer holes in -9 and the regulation in -2, and with six of the Par 4s weighing in at over 450 yards and being wind affected, we are going to look to the ‘accurate bombers’ off the tee, if such a thing exists.
Bubba hit 70% of greens but only 50% of fairways, so Scrambling becomes an important stat this week too.
Our Top 5 (and Top 2 Sleeper) Fantasy Picks and Odds to Win the Genesis Open
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Fantasy Golf Predictions This Season (2016-2017)
Tourneys Played '15 -'16
0
84 Picks
Season Earnings
$0
$739,164 average
Total Top 3s
6 out of 84 picks
Total Top 10s
18 out of 84 picks
Total Top 25s
33 out of 84 picks
Total Winners Picked
2 out of 12 events
Total Runners-Up Picked
1 out of 12 events
Total Made Cuts (Includes Sleepers)
60 out of 84 picks
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