That's Birdie All Day Long
The Core4
Sung-jae Im
Sung-Jae walks into this touranment with some momentum, and his ownership is currently not up to snuff. Two weeks ago Im finished 13th at the RBC Heritage. Now while the courses are different, there are some obvious similarities in that the approach game is a pivotal aspect in creating success. At the RBC Heritage, Im gained 3.5 strokes in approach and 4.9 strokes gained in tee to green. All of these correlate well to what I am looking at for players to dominate Copperhead. Im’s form isn’t as bad as one would think. Many daily fantasy players are looking at the Masters as the main rationale to fade him this week. Yet, you would be hardpressed to get me to agree that there is no way that Im does not have the same upside as many of the golfer’s in his pricing tier which includes Corey Conners, Louis Oosthuizen, Abraham Ancer and Joaquin Nimeann.
Overall Stat Model: 25th
Confi”Dance” Model: 19th
Aggregate Model: 25th
Power Rankings: 17th
Louis oosthuizen
Oosthuizen always comes with risk. It is the price you pay for rostering the South African who tends to withdraw at almost random. Still, we have not seen a lot of him recently with the exception of the Masters and last week’s Zurich Classic. If this were a third tournament in a row, it would be highly advisable to avoid him no matter how good his metrics looked. There are plenty of interesting things to note on Louie. Since January, he has not missed a single cut. His average finishing position is in the top-25, and the consistency is further evident in that he has finished top-20 three times which included two top-10’s. There is further comfort in that Oosthuizen has had past success here at the Valspar. If you elminate the missed cut in 2015, you are looking at an average finsihing poistion of 8th place in three tournaments in which he placed in the top-20. This includes a 2nd place finish in 2019 here at the Valspar.
Overall Stat Model: 36th
Confi”Dance” Model: 23rd
Aggregate Model: 29th
Power Rankings: 24th
Emiliano Grillo
The Cutline goes back to one of its favorite players, and surprisingly, it isn’t Tringale. Grillo is a man on a mission. While everyone loves Corey Conners and Jason Kokrak for plenty of solid reasons, Grillo has been inredible in his own right. At the RBC Heritage, we saw him surge on Sunday to finsih in 2nd place. During the round we saw him gain a sick 7 strokes gained in approach, and almost 11 strokes gained from tee to green. The obvious issue with Grillo’s game is around the green and the ever so volitile putter. Yet, as we have mentioned constantly on the show, Grillo loves tracks that present smaller greens that accent his strengths in his approach game. With the exception of The Players, Grillo is averaging a top-10 finish which includes the aforementioned RBC Heritage, Corales, The Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Puerto Rico Open. Grillo is sizzling, and as long as ownership stays low I am going to keep riding the money train.
Overall Stat Model: 18th
Confi”Dance” Model: 15th
Aggregate Model: 13th
Power Rankings: 14th
Ryan Palmer
The last time we saw Palmer play was at the Masters where he finished a boring 34th. Prior to that we saw a 17th place finish at the Valero Texas Open and a 17th at The Players. Still, even with this recent success we are witnessing Palmer going relatively unoticed this week. While we have not seen immense succes here at the Valspar with an average finishing position of 35th place, we know that he does have top-20 upside and the ability to win any tournament. At just $8500 on DraftKings, the 27th ranked golfer in the world is cheaper than Corey Conners, Jason Kokrak, Russell Henley, Bubba Watson and many more. The point being? He is ranked higher than all that were mentioned in the offical world golf rankings. I currenlty have Palmer projected to have the 15th highest total in DraftKings scoring, and take into account that he tends to do quite well in similar style tournaments. Palmer is coming in as a quiet 13%, which is surprising because we typicallly see these type of plays taking on more ownership. Take advantage of the reduced cost and the leverage while you can.
Overall Stat Model: 31st
Confi”Dance” Model: 21st
Aggregate Model: 23rd
Power Rankings: 21st
