Most-Picked Players: The Open, Barbasol

PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO In any other fantasy game, it would be harsh to judge investment profiles that resemble the ownership dispersion of the top 10 below, but in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO, it’s evident that many gamers don’t care about the influence of fractional fantasy scoring and that The Open Championship often requires more luck to succeed than usually minimally acceptable. I get that there are two schools of thought when ShotLink has the week off, but in Segment 4, we still have three no-cut tournaments and the PGA Championship among the remaining eight stops, all of which ShotLink will be there to document. More power to the gamers who navigate the land mines of Royal Birkdale, but if you don’t nab the winner or a couple of strong also-rans, here’s to at least hoping that you’ve blended in a couple of complements who you won’t miss when points are going to your opposition later. The slew of notables not grouped below includes Marc Leishman (16th, 8.1 percent), Justin Thomas (19th, 7.0 percent), Zach Johnson (21st, 4.7 percent), Jason Day (23rd, 4.2 percent) and Patrick Reed (30th, 2.9 percent). Bryson DeChambeau, who was the last man to qualify when he won the John Deere Classic, is 40th at 1.3 percent. NOTE: Rob’s Rating refers to where our Fantasy Insider slotted a golfer in his Power Rankings and other preview material. Golfers in the Power Rankings and outside the top 10 in most owned. PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done presented by SERVPRO – The Open Championship Love seeing Sergio Garcia atop the ownership percentages for The Open Championship. That’s where he belongs. You can count the number of reliable talents at THE PLAYERS Championship on one hand and the number of reliable talents at the season’s third major on the other. Garcia would be on both. Bravo. There are other sensible and timely choices who populate the top 10 – Rose, Fowler, Scott, Casey – but the devotion to Southport, England’s own Tommy Fleetwood is a recipe of regret. Consider your interest if he wasn’t a local. That he opened with 6-over 76 is beside the point in principle. The 26-year-old simply isn’t One & Done-worthy. He made sense only as the tandem in two-man games. Notables outside the top 10 include Dustin Johnson (12th, 2.8 percent), defending champion Henrik Stenson (13th, 2.7 percent), Phil Mickelson (14th, 2.4 percent), Brooks Koepka (15th, 1.5 percent), Matt Kuchar (16th, 1.5 percent), Marc Leishman (17th, 1.4 percent) and Jason Day (20th, 1.2 percent). PGA TOUR Fantasy One & Done presented by SERVPRO – Barbasol Championship One of the reasons I was drawn to fantasy golf in the 1990s was that I needed to learn about the rank and file, at least if I was going to be good at it. The correlation I drew then still applies today; that is, while most fans couldn’t identify an unknown in a crowd of two, gamers in team sports are more likely to be aware of and possess working knowledge of reserve infielders in MLB, backup running backs in the NFL and defense specialists in the NBA. So, why not the fellas on the fringe of the PGA TOUR? Additional events like the Barbasol Championship in Alabama serve up the opportunity for us to learn all about them, well, at least those who committed. Another benefit to its timing is that it’s contested concurrently with The Open Championship because it’s the only game in town for the second half of the day due to the intercontinental time difference. All of that said, it’s still smart to enjoy that educational process separately. How we choose to invest in our various formats should align with what got you here. So, it comes as zero surprise that Jim Furyk headlines the crop at Grand National. With Chad Campbell and Daniel Summerhays, the household threesome commands over 40 percent of the picks. Love the attention given to Jonathan Byrd, who slots seventh. Easy guy for whom to root and has made 228 cuts in a career that started in 2002, but he’s in his second season without fully exempt status on TOUR. His Past Champion status would have granted entry into the Barbasol, anyway, but a T5 at the John Deere Classic lifted both his prospects of reaching the FedExCup Playoffs (he’s 165th in points) and our interest this week. Notables outside the top 10 include Boo Weekley (12th, 1.5 percent), Matt Jones (13th, 0.9 percent) and David Hearn (16th, 0.7 percent).

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