Expert picks for the Safeway Open

The stars are out this week in the World Golf Championships – Dell Technologies Match Play at Austin Country Club in Austin, Texas. The course is a par 71, measuring 7,108 yards and will be on TifEagle bermudagrass overseeded with Poa Trivialis. Like TPC Sawgrass a couple of weeks ago at THE PLAYERS Championship, Austin Country Club is a Pete Dye design. The tournament starts on Wednesday and ends with the final match on Sunday. Past winners since the tournament moved to Austin CC include Jason Day, Dustin Johnson ($10,000), Kevin Kisner ($7,600), Bubba Watson ($7,200) and defending champion Billy Horschel ($8,800). Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $750K Pitch + Putt [$200K to 1st] (Match Play) FORMAT The 64-player field are seeding via world ranking with the top 16 forming the A pool, the next 16 in the B pool, the next 16 as C pool and the last 16 as D pool. From there 16 groups are then randomly assigned with one A, B, C and D player in each. Each group of four players will play their group opponents over the first three days, Wednesday – Friday. The player with the highest point total (1 point for winning a match, 0.5 point for tying, 0 for a loss) after the group stage advances to the Round of 16, which will begin the straight elimination section. Saturday will be the Round of 16 and the quarterfinals. Sunday will hold the semifinals in the morning followed by the final and a third-place match in the afternoon. STRATEGY Another Pete Dye design presents another test of precision golf. Austin Country Club sports deep pot bunkers, undulations throughout fairways and greens, and resembles a links style layout. The course also has its lowlands and highlands, and players like Jordan Spieth ($8,900) have mentioned that the two nines play like two different courses. The front nine is tighter, playing inside a canyon, before the back nine opens up for the stunning views and water holes. All Pete Dye courses demand precision with the approach shot, but we could also be leaning towards Strokes Gained: Off the Tee more this week. Gamesmanship is a factor in match play. Triple bogeys don’t carry the same negative weight as they do in stroke play, but driving it past your opponent and playing your second shot based on what your opponent does is advantageous in this setting. The course doesn’t just suit the bombers, but when Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson win here, we should be taking notice. Again, those players need to survive the tight early holes, where Kevin Kisner has shone, before it opens up to their strengths. Austin CC can also play windy, which is why we’ve seen golfers like Johnson, Scottie Scheffler ($11,000) and Sergio Garcia ($8,300) play well here. Most daily fantasy lineups go ‘chalk’ every year, choosing the top-seeded golfers at this tournament. It’s easy to think the top golfers will advance with relative ease, but as we’ve seen in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament this year and seasons past, the top seeds can lose early or fail to advance to the finals. Since 2017, the most top seeds to advance out of the group stage is five, and only one No.1 seed has won the event in Austin (Dustin Johnson, 2017). Also, only once has the final match been contested by two top-16 seeded players (No. 16 Louis Oosthuizen and No. 2 Jason Day). Match play is highly variant, so embrace the chaos this week; it should be fun. Tyrrell Hatton ($9,200) The good thing about Hatton is that he didn’t gain many strokes on the greens last week en route to his top 25. That shouldn’t be a net positive, but Hatton was gaining an unsustainable amount of strokes on the greens over his previous two tournaments before Valspar Championship and wasn’t gaining a ton via ball-striking. At the Valspar, Hatton gained the sixth-most strokes through approach and 1.64 off-the-tee, the improvement we (and he) were seeking. If we include only past winners in the field, since 1999 their average number of starts in this event before winning is 5.5, with Johnson having the most (eight) and Horschel having the least (four). This week will be Hatton’s fifth start here, and he’s coming in with form, finishing T21 at Valspar, 13th at THE PLAYERS Championship and runner-up at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Group 13 could be a tough draw for Hatton, but Daniel Berger ($9,800) is 3-9 at this event over his previous six starts. Si Woo Kim ($7,100) is fantastic on Pete Dye courses but also struggles in match play, with a 3-7-3 record at Austin CC. Kevin Kisner ($7,600) While Spieth is a potential sleeper in Group 6, Kisner ultimately gets the nod. He’ll need to get past Justin Thomas ($10,700), but the 2019 winner of this event isn’t going to back down from any competition. Since 2016, Kisner’s record is 16-6-1 with a 67% winning percentage. Compile that with his record at this tournament since 1999 and Presidents Cups, Kisner has the highest win rate of any golfer in the field (70%). His recent top-5 finish at TPC Sawgrass, another Pete Dye course, proves Kisner should be on the shortlist of golfers to roster this week. Cameron Young ($7,000) There’s an excellent chance Young will go under rostered because he has to face Jon Rahm ($11,300) and Patrick Reed ($7,500), who everyone loves in this format. Rahm and Reed are not playing up to their expectations coming into this event, and Young could exceed everyone’s expectation of him, especially if he’s going to be hitting second the majority of the time with how well he hits it off the tee. A near win at The Genesis Invitational, followed by a top 20 at PGA National (Honda Classic) and top 15 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, should give us confidence this ‘young’ golfer has the resolve to beat some top brass in Texas. Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $750K Pitch + Putt [$200K to 1st] (Match Play) Put your knowledge to the test. Sign up for DraftKings and experience the game inside the game. Place your golf bets at DraftKings Sportsbook or by downloading the DraftKings Sportsbook app. All views expressed are my own. I am an employee of DraftKings and am ineligible to play in public DFS or DKSB contests. The contents contained in this article do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skill and judgment in building lineups. 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AUGUSTA, Ga. – Tommy Fleetwood’s wife Clare battled for a peek of her husband all day. Marc Leishman’s wife Audrey used her short stature to her advantage when politely asking to push through the ropes at Amen Corner a few times before giving up. Even Tiger Woods’ own mother – who knows every shortcut and special viewing secret at Augusta National – was unable to get more than a few glimpses of her boy. Welcome back to the Masters, Tiger. As expected, the patrons moved in a wave, engulfing the 10:42 a.m. trio of Woods, Leishman and Fleetwood at every turn. Those walking along would routinely merge into those who had chosen to stake their claim on a viewing spot ahead of time. As each grandstand was passed, the unmistakable rumble of footsteps evacuating the structures would begin. Everyone wanted to see Tiger, and plenty wanted to show their affection. At Augusta National, only players, caddies and the bare minimum television cameraman get inside the ropes. There is no special treatment. And so standing back behind crowds — 30 and 40 deep at places — were family members and friends and media. There were even a few members in Green Jackets walking a hole or two. “I don’t really expect to see any shots,â€� Clare said early in the round. “But it is a good day for a walk.â€� Fleetwood’s wife recounted how they had been talking prior to the tee times being announced and she had voiced getting Woods would be the worst-case scenario – and then sure enough the times flashed on the screen. “Worse case for me!â€� she quickly reminded her man. Fleetwood himself enjoyed the marquee group and fought hard to a nice even-par round. Leishman immediately decided to treat the scenario as a positive. “If I can’t handle it now, I mean I never will,â€� Leishman said of the masses. “But the way I looked at it, if you’re going to win here, you got to play in front of crowds like that, with energy like that. “So I looked at it as a positive and preparation for later in the week.â€� The admiration started early for Woods, who claimed “the nerves really were just normal. I wasn’t flying high. I wasn’t jittery, I wasn’t any of that stuff.â€� They stood and cheered for him at the range when he arrived just under an hour before his tee time. When he signed a glove for a man in the disabled viewing section he got his first raucous cheer. The seas parted from the clubhouse door to the practice putting green and the crowd encouraged voraciously as his tee time neared. They stood and hollered a little more as he was introduced on the first tee for the first time since 2015. And it continued as he marched down the opening fairway in a seemingly endless chorus until one clever patron broke up the Woods love-fest with a very audible “Marc you’re the man!â€� — making all three break into a giggle. Woods returned the love by hitting his opening shot – and a few others – outside the ropes. It meant he would ply his trade right amongst a select few lucky patrons. At one stage, they were a little too eager. With Woods looking to punch a shot from well right of the 11th fairway he moved everyone well back. But once he made contact with the ball they surged forward and into the path of the shot, stopping it from chasing toward the putting surface. “It was a great shot there. Unfortunately people ran out and it clipped them. Otherwise it’s just short right of the green, an easy up-and-down from there, where I was trying to leave it,â€� Woods said after the round. On the course, Woods was a little more animated and agitated but otherwise he was certainly loving being back in major championship golf. In the end, Woods’ 1-over 73 wasn’t overly special, but it was better than it could have been as he fought back hard from some mistakes. It was no secret everyone out there wanted a charge. They wanted a low number. You could feel the collective will of the crowd trying to push short putts forward or errant shots back on line. They wanted to roar. There was an early one thanks to a birdie putt on the third hole, but back-to-back bogeys sucked the life back out of the throng. They lifted again at the par-3 sixth hole when Woods hit it tight off the tee. But he failed to convert, and the sighs reverberated around the pines. A run of pars came before the hordes of people were bummed with a bogey on 11 and a water ball into Rae’s Creek on 12. Failure to birdie the par-5 13th also hurt. But those who stuck around were rewarded on the 14th hole when Woods made his second birdie of the round. They let him know even if it was more a roar of relief. A more pronounced reverberation came on the par-3 16th – the sight of his infamous chip-in in 2005 – when he coaxed in another birdie. And while a red number start didn’t materialize – they still stood on the 18th green and warmly welcomed the four-time champion back. “The crowds have been incredible. It’s been awesome this entire comeback,â€� Woods admitted after finishing the day in a tie for 29th. “I could have easily let it slip away. And I fought hard to get it back in there, and I’m back in this championship. There’s a lot of holes to be played.â€� You can bet those with weekend tickets certainly hope he is right.  

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There were lots of amazing things about Tiger Woods’ 15-shot victory at the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, starting with the fact that no player has won by 15 or more shots on the PGA TOUR since 1948. Johnny Miller and Tom Watson were among those calling it the best golf ever played; others have argued it ranks among the most dominant sports performances ever, if not the most dominant. Woods beat the field average by a career-best 29 strokes for the week. But it was his putting, in particular, that still confounds those who were there. “He had some Jedi powers; he could pretty much will the ball in the hole,â€� says Jesper Parnevik, who played the first two rounds that week with Woods and Jim Furyk. “And sometimes I could swear he did because I would think the ball was going to miss or already had missed, and it would go in sideways. That’s some strong-ass, Obi-Wan Kenobi/Jedi stuff going on. RELATED: Tee times for Rounds 1-2 | Nine things to know about Pebble Beach | Writers’ roundtable: Bold predictions “It was almost as if he was making the putts with his mind instead of his putter.â€� Woods, then just 24, was at the height of his powers. He’d won 11 of his previous 20 starts on TOUR and would win not only this major but the next three (the so-called Tiger Slam). Still, there was nothing quite like what he did at Pebble, especially on the fickle greens. His putting that week has taken on an almost mythical quality as he returns to the fabled seaside course in search of his 82nd TOUR win, which would tie Sam Snead’s record, and 16th major title. It started with his marathon session on the practice green at Pebble on Wednesday night – he, ahem, didn’t like the way the ball was rolling into the hole – and paid immediate dividends.  Woods one-putted 12 times in his opening-round 65 (24 putts total) and would one-putt 20 of the first 38 greens despite surfaces that John Huston called the bumpiest he’d ever seen. Fans on site and at home watched in awe. And as with Brooks Koepka at last month’s PGA Championship at Bethpage Black, playing partners shook their heads in a combination of wonder and despair. Parnevik admits he was so overmatched, it became a running joke, he and Woods laughing as the lesser player scuffled his way around the course. The Swede already had won twice that year but was in considerable pain and about to go in for much-needed hip labrum surgery that would keep him out of action until the TOUR Championship. “I was pretty much crippled and couldn’t get onto my left side,â€� he says. “I hit it knee-high every shot. It was probably the best golf ever (by Woods), and I couldn’t make contact, so it was kind of funny trying to compete with this guy.â€� (Parnevik shot 73-80 and missed the cut.) Still, while the five-time TOUR winner Parnevik was a lost cause, he and his then-caddie, Lance Ten Broeck, marveled at what they were seeing from Woods.   “First of all, we were impressed with how he played, but what was really impressive was the complete certainty with which he holed out from everywhere,â€� says Parnevik, 54, who now plays on PGA TOUR Champions and won the 2016 Insperity Invitational. “You could tell he had zero doubts in his mannerisms, that he was going to make everything.â€�   After taking just 24 putts in the first round, Woods, in the fog-delayed second (69, 29 putts), made a 30-footer for birdie in the semi-darkness at the 12th hole just before officials halted play Friday night. He never had a three-putt. Jedi powers? Perhaps. The tournament predated ShotLink, so ball-position data is not available, but it has been reported that Woods didn’t miss a putt from inside 8 feet. Furyk said he made 8-footers like they were 2-footers. And while seaside poa annua greens are famously quirky, and more accurately a mix of different grasses (poa, bent, fescue) plus flecks of sand, Woods seemed to intuit every bump and wobble. The 2000 U.S. Open also predated the Strokes Gained: Putting stat, but you can guess who would have led it. Woods was sixth in the field with 110 total putts, but first in Greens in Regulation (51/72) by a mile. In other words, the five players with fewer putts – Nick Faldo, Lee Porter, Loren Roberts, Padraig Harrington and Lee Westwood – were more often chipping up close for one-putt par saves, the kind of thing that the SG: Putting metric exposes as smoke and mirrors. Woods, meanwhile, was putting for birdie 71 percent of the time. Next best that week: Fred Couples and David Toms at 61 percent. “The guy drives the ball better than anyone I’ve seen,â€� Faldo said back then. (Woods easily led the field in Driving Distance, averaging 299.3 yards.) “And he putts better than [Ben] Crenshaw. When you put that together, he’s hard to beat.â€� Runner-up Ernie Els was 10 behind as he and Woods teed off in the final round, and later acknowledged he knew he had no chance. He said Woods and the rest of the field were not even in the same ballpark. “If I played out of my mind,â€� Els said that Sunday afternoon at the media center, “I probably still would have lost by 5, 6, 7.â€� Someone then referenced the 1862 Open Championship when Old Tom Morris won by 13 strokes. That had been the previous biggest winning margin in major championship golf. “If you put Old Tom Morris with Tiger Woods, he’d probably beat him by 80 shots right now,â€� Els replied. “Hey, the guy is unbelievable, man. I guess he’s the first guy to ever go into double figures in a U.S. Open. As you say, to win by 15 strokes, biggest margin in a major. I’m running out of words. Give me a break.â€� Nineteen years later, the dominance that Tiger displayed that week still remains vivid in Parnevik’s mind. “Not only did he have all the shots but he hit all the shots,â€� Parnevik says. “He hit it high, low, right, left – every shot he hit was pretty much different from the shot before. “He was playing with full certainty about not only where his ball was going to go, but that he was going to win every week. That’s what so great about the younger guys and the new crowd getting a glimpse of it today. It’s not what it was, but they’re at least getting a tiny understanding of it, how he’s been able to come back.â€�

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