Inkster will designate players to handle concessions

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – The season of championships continues tomorrow with the opening round of the PGA Championship. Plenty of storylines have dominated the early part of the week and here PGATOUR.COM’s writers tackle some of the big questions in the much-anticipated lead up. Tiger Woods is the talk of the town. What do you see from him this week? BEN EVERILL (Staff Writer): I expect Tiger will play well, but not well enough to win. Something tells me the rust from not playing might kick in just enough to keep him 3 or 4 off the lead throughout the week, keeping us hopeful of a charge that just might not eventuate. SEAN MARTIN (Senior Editor): He’s obviously won here before but I think this long, wet course will be a bit too much for him. He’s not the TOUR’s big hitter anymore. He has to play more of a finesse game. This week will be about brute strength. CAMERON MORFIT (Staff Writer): A guy who hadn’t won a major in almost 11 years suddenly wins two straight? At 43? With a fused back, in cool weather? Yeah, that might be too much to ask for. The time off (one month) and the physical demands of the course plus good vibes (’02) and good form add up to a T12 finish.   REALTED: Quick look at the PGA Championship | Rethinking Tiger’s future | Tee times, Rounds 1 & 2 | Spieth seeing positive signs MIKE McALLISTER (Managing Editor): He’ll play well. I expect him to be in the mix on Sunday. But I don’t expect him to win. Going to be difficult to recreate the kind of magic (and fortune) we saw at Augusta National. HELEN ROSS (Contributor): I think he’ll play well but to expect another epic Masters-like performance is simply too much to ask. Look for his name on the leaderboard but not on the Wanamaker trophy for the fifth time. Whose career would be most impacted by a win this week? EVERILL: Jordan Spieth. Winning the career grand slam in the midst of a serious form slump would be an incredible story and elevate his status into an elite club. MARTIN: Rickie Fowler. He has seven top-10s in the last 20 majors (dating to the 2014 U.S. Open). That’s the sixth-most in that span. Everyone ahead of him on the list has won a major in that span. Fowler’s time has to be near, right? MORFIT: Everyone sees Rickie Fowler as a major talent, and he says he sees himself that way, too. Actually winning a major, though, would leave no doubt in his mind and set him up to take his career to the next level. McALLISTER: Jordan Spieth’s. Not only would he complete the career Grand Slam – becoming just the sixth player to do so — but getting back in the winner’s circle will help quiet the critics. Of course, any first-time major winner would also be on this list, particularly a veteran such as Matt Kuchar. ROSS: Jordan Spieth. Finishing off the career Grand Slam would be huge for anyone, but in this case if could be a massive confidence boost for a player who hasn’t put together 72 holes of his best stuff in a while.  Which will have a bigger impact, the length of the course (7,459 yards) or the length of the rough? EVERILL: The length of course. If you can’t give it a serious poke out here you basically have no shot. Trying to compete with long irons into greens against guys with short irons will prove near impossible. MARTIN: It’s 7,459 yards that’s playing more like 7,700 yards because of the cold, wet conditions (though the sun is shining Wednesday). I think the rough will be the biggest factor, though. This course is already long enough. I think the rough only exacerbates the long hitters’ advantage. Having 140 out of the rough is a much easier proposition than 180. MORFIT: The length of the course. Kerry Haigh and his staff haven’t been able to do much with the rain, but they plan to top the rough today. That’ll make it more playable, but still brawny. I walked 16 holes out there and was reminded just how long this place really is. Shorter hitters can forget it. Medium-length hitters will have to be deadly accurate with fairway woods and utility clubs. A long hitter definitely wins. McALLISTER: Length of rough. The key will be to stay out of it. ROSS: It’s sort of like picking your poison, isn’t it? Longer hitters are certainly the favorites but if they can’t find the fairways, that advantage will be neutralized. Even Dustin Johnson, among the longest of the long, says he hasn’t hit more than a 9-iron out of the rough. Brooks said the winning score could be a few shots under par. What do you think? EVERILL: I agree with Brooks. The course is long, the rough is heavy… there are mistakes waiting to happen around every corner. It’s a par 70… I think four rounds near or just under par will have you well in the mix for a Wanamaker. MARTIN: I think 6 under par is a good target. The winning score in the U.S. Opens here was 276 and 277. Both of those were played in wet conditions. The PGA is traditionally a little bit easier. MORFIT: What does he know about winning majors? Oh, wait. That’s right. I guess I’ll go with Brooks. McALLISTER: Who am I to disagree with Brooks? I don’t see somebody going super-low, but neither do I see the winner finishing over par. ROSS: That certainly wouldn’t surprise me. Yes, the Black Course is a beast but 10 under won in 2012 when the FedExCup Playoffs kicked off there (although it played to a par 71 that week). Which is more likely, a player wins his second major or a player wins his first major … or someone wins their 16th major? EVERILL: A player wins his second major. Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose, Patrick Reed, Adam Scott… I like the look of this quintet here this week. Brooks Koepka might have other ideas though. MARTIN: I think the odds are in favor of a first-timer. Fowler, Matsuyama, Schauffele, Fleetwood, Rahm, Bryson, Casey, Finau, Cantlay. There’s plenty of strong candidates to get their first major. MORFIT: The most likely scenario is someone (goes by Dustin Johnson) wins his second major, but I’m not ruling out big-game hunters Fowler, Jon Rahm and Xander Schauffele, all of whom would be winning their first. McALLISTER: Can I add another option – multiple-major winner? I’m thinking Koepka (three majors) or McIlroy (four majors). ROSS: I look for a first-time winner to hoist the Wanamaker Trophy. Someone like Rickie Fowler or Jon Rahm or Xander Schauffele comes to mind.

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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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