The windy, Texas trend continues this week as the PGA Tour heads to Colonial Country Club for the DEAN & DELUCA Invitational. Below are this week’s fantasy golf rankings, along with three One and Done fantasy league options and betting lines that caught my attention.
AT&T Byron Nelson finishes
Billy Horschel defeated former #1 in the world, Jason Day, in the first playoff hole of the Byron Nelson this past Sunday. Horschel, who ranked 25th in last week’s rankings, picked up his first win since 2014.
Our Byron Nelson rankings was one of our best to date! Nearly half (12) of our top 25 players finished the tournament in 20th place or better.
Rank Player Finish
1 D. Johnson T13
2 T. Finau T13
5 S. Garcia T20
8 J. Dufner T13
9 S. Kang T20
15 M. Leishman T13
17 L. Oosthuizen T18
19 B. An T5
20 B. Cauley T5
22 S. Piercy T20
23 S. O’Hair T5
25 B. Horschel 1 (Won)
DEAN & DELUCA Invitational | Breakdown
For whatever reason, the DEAN & DELUCA Invitational, like THE PLAYERS Championship, annoyingly spells out its name in caps lock. The D&D, not to be confused with Dunkin Donuts, has a somewhat weak field as many of the world’s best will be in England playing the Euro Tour’s BMW Championship.
Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas has been the host of this event since 1946, making it the longest running non-major Tour event held at the same site (thanks Wikipedia). Also, since 1989, the event has changed its name more times than Roseanne in the ‘90s, having sponsors such as Crown Plaza, Bank of America and MasterCard throughout that span.
Similar to TPC Four Seasons last week, Colonial CC is another par 70 course. Seven out of the twelve par 4’s fall between 400-450 yards, so that is a key stat to keep in mind this week. Also, Colonial has some of the smallest greens on Tour. Approach and scrambling should be properly weighted as well.
You’ll probably hear “Horrible Horseshoe” thrown around a lot during TV coverage because announcers like to hear themselves say things like that. This nickname derives from holes 3 thru 5 which historically rank within the top four of the hardest holes on the golf course. Any player that can survive these three holes at even par or better is sure to be a “ringer” in daily fantasy lineups. Speaking of horrible…
I will be targeting golfers who have a good course history at Colonial – Dufner, ZJ, Palmer – in my DFS lineups. Recent form is also a must when constructing a roster. Players like Cauley and Finau have impressed lately and should have a good chance to contend here.
DEAN & DELUCA Invitational | Fantasy Golf Rankings
The DEAN & DELUCA fantasy golf rankings are provided by @Sgrignoli3 – PAS contributor and statistician. The rankings are derived from year-to-date player statistics extracted from PGATour.com. The weighted stats for this event can be found below the rankings. Player salaries are based off of DraftKings.com and FantasyDraft.com. The right end column has a variance in salary rank between these two DFS applications.
**Disclaimer: PGATour.com is used as source for all player statistics. Stats are extracted on Mondays of tournament week and calculated for rankings by our statistical expert. If there happens to be a numerical error, blame them not us. Also, European Tour statistics are NOT included in the rankings calculations.
The top weighted player statistics for the DEAN & DELUCA include:
-Strokes Gained: Approach = 20%
-Birdie or Better % = 20%
-Strokes Gained: Off the Tee = 10%
-Proximity = 10%
-Ball striking = 10%
-Par 4 Scoring = 10%
-Strokes Gained: Around the Green = 10%
According to the model, Martin Laird, Ryan Moore and William McGirt are the best valued DraftKings plays in our top 25 when compared to FantasyDraft pricing. For FantasyDraft lineups, Chris Stroud, Graham DeLaet and Scott Piercy have the best values based on salary.
DEAN & DELUCA Invitational | One and Done Picks
My top 3 One and Done options for the DEAN & DELUCA:
1) Marc Leishman
2) Ryan Palmer
3) Jason Dufner
Already used: Brandt Snedeker, Dustin Johnson, Adam Scott, Bill Haas, Charles Howell III, Henrik Stenson, Rory McIlroy, Russell Henley, Jordan Spieth, Kevin Kisner, Branden Grace, Daniel Berger, Francesco Molinari, Sergio Garcia, Charley Hoffman
Year-to-Date earnings = $3,780,830
DEAN & DELUCA Invitational | Betting Odds
Here are the odds I like as of Tuesday night. Be sure to check out my Twitter @Eddie_ThePAS on prior to Thursday morning for my final bets of the week.
First Round Leader:
Streelman +12500
Piercy +15000
Stuard +15000
To Win:
Perez +4000
Leishman +4000
Hadwin +4400
McGirt +5000
Stanley +5500
Taylor +8000
O’Hair +8000
McDowell +9500
Stroud +20000
Weekley +22500
Varner III +31500
@Eddie_ThePAS