Fantasy Insider: Fantasy golf advice for THE NORTHERN TRUST

Hey! Remember us? Yeah, so you’re wish didn’t come true in the offseason. It’s still Glass and Rob analyzing the PointsBet boards for PGA TOUR Pick ‘Em Live. Better luck next time. Then again, Rob put up a decent fight last season to keep his card. He recorded two top 10s among seven top-30 finishes in this game. The highlight was the solo third on the timeliness of the rain at the conclusion of The Honda Classic. It no doubt aided in Sepp Straka hanging on for a breakthrough victory. Rob’s a lifelong Chicago Cubs’ fan, so it’s not the first time he’s benefited from weather late in a competition. Glass forever is the formidable foil, which is just how he likes it. He has Rob exactly where he wants him, or something like that. Our fellas haven’t wasted any time in latching hope to the shiny new toys, er, the latest Korn Ferry Tour Finals graduating class for the Fortinet Championship. As always, they’ve baked strategic advice and tips into their analyses below. Register for PGA TOUR Pick ‘Em Live here and monitor Rob’s and Glass’ progress as Influencers. For a broader explanation of the format and FAQs, click here. TOURNAMENT TO WIN Rob … Austin Eckroat (+12500) Not that anyone remembers – well, except for me – but I’m fresh off shutting out Glass in the 2021-22 season finale, so I open 2022-23 with the honor. That said, Glass totally has the right idea here. I’m done with limping in with odds shorter than five digits because even when my pre-tournament choices have been in contention on a Sunday and without me touching the dial, the odds have been longer on Sunday. I vow, never again. I’ll call Glass’ sophomore with Eckroat the rookie. He was the runner-up at the KFT Championship just down the road from Glass in The Crossroads of America. Rollovers of KFT studs into the fall portion of the TOUR schedule has been the real deal over time, so in this last experience of the phenomenon, I want to hop on for a ride. Glass … Brandon Wu (+12500) California love usually reigns here and so does painting fairways and greens. The Stanford alum sat 63rd in fairways hit and 19th in greens in regulation on TOUR last season, and he won’t be overwhelmed by his surroundings. With a pair of top-10 paydays and four of six finishes of T30 or better, he is trending in the right direction. As always with this early decision, start high and work your way back down, if necessary. TOP 10 Glass … Will Gordon (+1100) I’m not shy endorsing bombers this week and there are plenty entered. His second tour on TOUR sees him roll into town in fantastic form. A pair of T5s preceded his win on Poa annua at Albertsons in the KFT Finals. Grinding out cuts in the next two events of the Finals suggests he’s not settling this time around. Rob … Justin Suh (+550) Here’s where we need to be sharp about our selection. With this bet historically opening during a reasonable hour in the U.S. after R1, but then infrequently at the same hour after R2 and R3, I want to open with a strong foundation who I believe will shorten after he signs his first scorecard as a member of the PGA TOUR. Suh is everything we want, so I was going to figure out a way to slot the KFT points leader times two into a bet. I’d have been elated with, say, +400. TOP USA PLAYER Rob … Maverick McNealy (+1600) At last check, Eckroat was +8000, which is favorable, but we don’t know how often this bet will unlock, if at all. Before you consider griping, remember, this is gambling and we’re all in it together. Homa is No. 1 in my Power Rankings – he should be as the defending champion and home-state stud – but in respect to the potential that he’s looking ahead to his debut in next week’s Presidents Cup, I’m sliding down to the No. 2. McNealy was the runner-up last year and Silverado is almost as comfortable a stage as its regional neighbor and his personal haunt, Pebble Beach. He’s among the best on TOUR without a victory, but he doesn’t need to win to yield coinage. Glass … Scott Harrington (+15000) Not his first rodeo as he’s cashed in both previous visits to Silverado (T36-T23). Has no problem sending it and his aggregate total of 20-under doesn’t have me panicking. Yet. Good news is the market can be timed over the weekend – if you handle it – and adjustments can be made. Let’s hope that’s not the case in Week 1! ROUND 1 LEADER Glass … Patrick Rodgers (+10000) Five straight entered, five straight paid. The last two have been 68 and 67 so I’m looking for another low one, this time off the second group Thursday morning. The former Stanford player is teeing it up here for the ninth consecutive season so I won’t have to worry about him being motivated getting out of bed. Always dream early so that you can find reality later in the day. Rob … Cam Davis (+6000) Silverado is the most equitable in terms of its nines and how every hole lines up within them. So, there’s no reason to consider either side of the course as the opening half among the morning wavers. With the tournament in my time zone, I don’t have to worry about this window closing before I’m lucid, so it’s nice to know that it’s not entirely a lottery ticket. The Aussie was lighting the world on fire for four months, so he’s a no-brainer to get after it out of the fifth threesome going off 10. Sure, like others, he might be distracted by what’s on deck at the Presidents Cup, but all we care about here is one round. I also believe in thinking less about the action in favor of letting the body and muscle memory do its thing, so therein lies the experiment. NOTE: While Glass and Rob typically stick with their selections as detailed in Pick ‘Em Preview, they are allowed the right to make changes at any time.

Click here to read the full article…

DETROIT — Nate Lashley completed an unlikely wire-to-wire victory in the Rocket Mortgage Classic on Sunday for his first PGA TOUR title. Lashley closed with a 2-under 70 to finish at 25-under 263 and win by six shots, the margin he took into the day after opening with rounds of 63, 67 and 63. The 36-year-old Lashley’s parents and girlfriend were killed in a plane crash 15 years ago. He dabbled in real estate after graduating from the University of Arizona, quit playing professional golf several years ago and resumed playing in PGA TOUR circuits. “Without my parents, I wouldn’t have started playing golf when I was little,” said Lashley, who began playing when he was 8. “They did everything to help me have a career.” Monday qualifier Doc Redman shot a 67 to finish second. Rory Sabbatini (68) and Wes Roach (68) were another stroke back. Lashley slipped into PGA TOUR’s first event in Detroit as an alternate Wednesday. The Nebraskan took full advantage, shooting a career-low 63 in the first round to take a lead he refused to lose at Detroit Golf Club. Lashley stayed atop the leaderboard with a 67 on Friday and gave himself a cushion with another 9-under 63 Saturday. On the brink of breaking through during his second PGA TOUR season, his sister, girlfriend, buddies and family friends flew to Detroit to join him. Brooke Lashley, who lives near her brother in Arizona, was in awe of as fans followed and cheered for her little brother as they stood along the ropes from tee to green. “I’m sure a lot of these people didn’t know him a couple days ago,” she said, standing near the No. 8 green. “He’s doing all he can to focus, but this is so incredible. It’s foreign to him because he’s never had this much attention. He’s never played in front of a gallery like this with TV cameras all over the place.” In 2014, parents Rod and Char Lashley and girlfriend Leslie Hofmeister, all of Scottsbluff, Nebraska, were missing for three days before their bodies and the wreckage were found near the 13,780-foot Gannett Peak in Wyoming after watching him play in a tournament for the University of Arizona. “It rocked our community,” recalled Helen Reinhardt, a family friend from Nebraska. Reinhardt and her husband, Jim, boarded a charter plane in Nebraska that stopped in Minnesota to pick up Lashley’s girlfriend and arrived in the Motor City on Sunday. “It’s great to be here to watch his dream come true after watching him play in the Dakotas Tour and work his way up to here,” said Jeff Peck, one of about a dozen of Lashley’s friends at Detroit Golf Club. Lashley made a living as a real estate agent after graduating from Arizona and his playing career started, stopped and resumed again. He won the Waterloo Open, a professional tournament, in Iowa in 2011 and quit competitive golf the next year. When Lashley was flipping houses, he thought his playing career was over. Lashley gave the game another shot, playing on the PGA TOUR Latinoamerica circuit in 2015 and moved up to what is now called the Korn Ferry Tour two years later. He made his PGA TOUR debut last season in his mid-30s, but he had to end his year after 17 events because of a knee injury. He tied for eighth in February in the Puerto Rico Open — played opposite the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship — for his only top-10 finish previously on TOUR. He started the tournament No. 132 in the FedExCup standings. Lashley would’ve had to collapse and one of the contenders would’ve had to have a sensational performance to put the final result in doubt. Neither happened. Lashley played it safe, putting together a conservative round that kept his comfortable lead. He made a slow-rolling, downhill putt from 15 feet to birdie the first hole. At No. 3, he started confidently walking toward the cup before his 10-foot birdie putt went in to put him at 25 under. “The birdies on 1 and 3 really calmed me down,” Lashley said. Lashley had two bogeys on the front nine — one more than he had the previous three rounds — and coasted to victory on the back with two birdies and no bogeys. Family and friends stood near the edge of the green as he closed out the round. Lashley’s girlfriend and sister, choking back tears, went onto the green to give him a hug. “I’m just real emotional,” he said later. “I’m just thankful I got in the tournament.”

Click here to read the full article…

Shaun Norris carded a 70 in his final round to win the DP World Tour’s Steyn City Championship with 25 under par on Sunday.

Click here to read the full article…