In making the cut at the Masters, Tiger Woods’ only reward is more suffering

Tiger Woods has not ruled out picking himself as a playing captain for next year’s Presidents Cup in Australia should he fail to automatically qualify. Woods was named captain of the U.S. Team over eight months ago for the biennial event against the Internationals that will be held on December 12-15, 2019 at Royal Melbourne Golf Club. At the time he was in the early stages of a comeback from back fusion surgery. Since then he has elevated his game back to winning form, taking out the TOUR Championship for an 80th career PGA TOUR title, and playing well enough to throw up the possibility he could join Hale Irwin (1994) as just the second playing captain in Presidents Cup history. “I’m part of the team either way, okay,â€� Woods said during a reconnaissance mission to Royal Melbourne this week. “I want to compete. I want to play. Being a vice captain the last couple years, you realize you really don’t control the play. You have to sit back and watch. And as a player and as a competitor, you want to always be in control and be able to compete and play.â€� But with just eight spots on the roster going to automatic qualifiers – and with Woods currently sitting 16th on the list – a playing position could hinge on one of four captains’ picks. Woods declared the decision would be one for him to mull over with his assistant captains and most importantly the eight automatically qualified players but he had no aversion to being part of that conversation should form warrant it. Given a new rule stating players only need to play one session prior to singles, Woods could effectively pick himself, and hide himself, if he desired. “After the TOUR Championship, we’ll have our top eight guys, and hopefully I’ll be part of the top eight. If not, then myself and my vice captains are going to have to figure out – as well as the other top eight players – who are the next four guys that will be best served to be part of this team, to come down here and compete,â€� he said. “I’m going to have to defer a lot of information to my vice captains and get a lot of their opinions and also my team, whether or not I can play and do both roles.â€� Woods envisages Royal Melbourne will play much like it did in previous Presidents Cups held at the venue in 1998 and 2011. The 1998 event remains the only outright win the International team has claimed. Each individual Cup, each individual team, has their own uniqueness and their own character, and that’s what’s fun about being a part of these teams, that you’re building relationships that you never thought you would have, and relationships that last a lifetime. “The way the golf course is set up and the way it’s played, it’s very similar to what we face at an Open Championship, so I think guys who play The Open Championship venues well are going to be successful here at Royal,â€� the three-time Open Championship winner said. “It is one of the greatest golf courses in all of the world. The layout is fantastic. It’s very tough. It’s tricky. They’ve lengthened a couple of the holes. But nothing major. Normally over the course of time, a lot of golf courses get modernized, get lengthened, change different angles, add bunkers, whatever it may be, but they haven’t done that at Royal. It’s the same golf course.â€� Making the team without the need for a pick could be a tough ask for Woods given he has already acknowledged a reduced schedule is in his future. Woods finished his 2018 playing commitments last week at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas last week and the soon to be 43-year-old admitted his 19 events was a toll he was unable to handle effectively. “I won’t be playing as much as I did last year. … That was just too much for my body to handle and I was not physically prepared for it,â€� Woods said. “I hadn’t trained for that, so we’re going to make some adjustments for next year.â€� Either way Woods hoped he would be able to put a stamp on his team and believes there will be no hangover or fallout from the U.S. loss in the Ryder Cup this year where Woods was 0-4. “This is a totally different team, totally different players,â€� he said. “We could have a different core of guys. Obviously we have a lot of guys in their 20s that have made the last couple teams but you just never know. “Each individual Cup, each individual team, has their own uniqueness and their own character, and that’s what’s fun about being a part of these teams, that you’re building relationships that you never thought you would have, and relationships that last a lifetime.â€�

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The elites (minus Tiger Woods, Rickie Fowler, Francesco Molinari, Lee Westwood and Bernd Weisberger) are golfing in Memphis for the 2019 World Golf Championships- FedEx St. Jude Invitational. TPC Southwind, home of an abundance of water balls, is the host course, as it was for the FedEx St. Jude Classic since 1989. Known for its narrow fairways, water hazards and long par 4s (seven measure more than 450 yards), players will need to gain both off the tee and through their irons if they’re going to challenge the top of the leaderboard. Average Driving Accuracy (54%) and Greens in Regulation (58%) are almost 10 percentage points lower at TPC Southwind than the average course on TourTOUR, and in the past eight years, only one winner has finished worse than 16th in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee for the event. On approaches, no champion has finished outside the top 20 the year they raised hoisted the novelty checkthe trophy. Two of the past three champs, Daniel Berger (2016) and Fabian Gomez (2015) topped the list for Strokes Gained: Approach that week; Dustin Johnson was second to only Robert Garrigus a year ago with his irons when he won by six strokes. Now, that WGC status hasn’t just elevated the field in terms of talent; it’s changed the way we need to approach this event from a DraftKings perspective. While getting all six golfers on your roster through the cut is the bare minimum required to compete for the biggest prizes every week, no cut events, like WGCs, are completely different. All players will accrue 72 holes of scoring, so you need to be cognizant of duplicated lineups with such a small field. Leave $200-$500 of your $50,000 DraftKings salary cap on the table and duplicate rosters should no longer be a problem. This safety net also allows for a myriad of roster constructions. Since the lowest priced players are guaranteed 72 holes, many might merely start at the bottom, save all the salary cap and splurge on the very top-end talent. That’s a viable strategy this week, but if you’re going to go cheap, make sure your players are prolific birdie makers. Since DraftKings scoring rewards a birdie/bogey stretch more than a par/par stretch, the top DraftKings scorers of the week might not resemble the actual leaderboard. Additionally, by going so low in the pricing, you give up win equity, as winners of WGC events are rarely long shots. If you can stomach avoiding the top three or four most expensive players in Memphis, the ability to build a strong, balanced squad is likely the better approach. Targets From The Range Justin Thomas ($10,700) A loser of Strokes Gained: Putting in his past seven measured events, maybe a return to Bermudagrass is exactly what JT needs to take advantage of his recent elite ball-striking. Despite the putting woes, Thomas remained a viable threat overseas with a top-10 finish at the Scottish Open and a T11 at The Open Championship, and this venue and setup play to a lot of his strengths: Bermuda greens, no cut and a par 70. Five of his nine TOUR wins have come at no-cut events. Hideki Matsuyama ($8,900) Like Thomas, Matsuyama is another player who does some good work at no-cut events. Already a winner of two WGC events, both in 2017 at the WGC-HSBC Champions and WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, Matsuyama has been lingering on the precipice of a win for ages now. Before failing to see the weekend at The Open, he’d gone a full calendar year without a missed cut, and he enters Memphis with 20 consecutive events gaining strokes with his irons. An untrustworthy putter always has held Hideki back from consistent, elite results, but he’s in the midst of the best putting stretch of his career, having gained in six consecutive measured starts; all top-25 finishes. Bryson DeChambeau ($8,800) Bryson caught the early flight home from Royal Portrush after a mediocre Open, but no need to dwell on that too much. In his two starts previous, DeChambeau churned out consecutive top-6 finishes that saw his ball-striking return to elite levels. Hopefully that’s something that is consistent stateside. Quality results haven’t manifested themselves in his previous two turns at TPC Southwind, but those weren’t due to poor ball-striking. In each of his two starts, Bryson gained with his driver and irons; he just couldn’t put it together with the putter. Hopefully, this time around, with an extra few days of prep versus most in this field, and now at a value, DeChambeau can get his game together across the board. Max Homa ($6,400) While getting to greens and everything onward from there can be a mixed bag, Homa almost definitely will gain with his driver. He’s gained more than 2.5 strokes against the field off the tee in four of his past seven starts and actually had gained against the field with his irons in six straight before a calamity at the 3M Open. The results haven’t been inspiring since his breakthrough win at Quail Hollow in May, but this will be his first time back on Bermudagrass since that victory. Maybe that can cure his putting woes; it’s the only surface he’s been a positive putter on against the field in his career. Additionally, among the bottom quadrant of the field, it’s essentially him and Corey Conners who rate out in the top 25 in Birdies or Better gained and par 4s gained. With all four rounds to work with, expect an overflow of extra birdies versus the others in his range. Read more daily fantasy analysis from Pat Mayo and others on the DraftKings Playbook. I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is ThePME) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.

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