First Cut-

Whether this is your first time reading, or you’re a Tour Vet, the First Cut should have something for you. In this “First Cut,” we’ll cover a wide variety of topics in a short amount of time! Ultimately this article should serve as a guide for the week and what’s to come.

Here’s what you can expect to see in the article:

Tournament Intro
Course Preview= By the Numbers, Course Guide
DFS-Preview- Sweat-sheet/Contest Preview
Statistical & Player Preview

Tournament Intro: Arnold Palmer Invitational.

One week in Florida, and we had four glorious days of weather and challenging golf. PGA National golf course roared, as it kept the winning score in the single digits while providing possibly the best drama all year. Something maybe the majors, specifically the USGA should look at it. You don’t need unplayable conditions to have a good solid well run, exciting golf tournament. I expect something very similar this year at Bethpage Black in may for the PGA Championship, a course that will undoubtedly be more way aesthetically pleasing than PGA National, while producing similar scoring.

Anyways, enough of my “pro golf course” anecdotal, let’s move onto this week. The Arnold Palmer draws a fantastic field, as it usually does, as one of the premier events on the schedule outside of majors and The Players & WGC’s. This year it draws in 15 of the top 30 golfers int he world.

This Week’s Course(s): Bay Hill

Course Commentary:

The bombers angle will be back out in full force this week as the player can take advantage of four par 5’s. The scoring average here fluctuates between the 9th hardest and 36th hardest courses on tour over the last four years. It’s average is somwhere in the mid-’20s so, it should have a cut right around even par, or one over. The signature hole is the 18th hole a 458-yard par four framed by a lake on the hand side framed by the rock wall surrounding the entire green.

Scoring Averages and yearly rank:

72.32 +.32
15/50

Course Numbers:

Par 72, 7,400 yards

Last years #s:* So the weather was very windy last year, and the rough was exceptionally long. Around twitter, it was being dubbed as the #hondamassacare. I’ve included 2017 numbers as well for a little more clarity.

Winning Score: -18
Top 5 Score- -10
Cut Number- +1 or a two day total of 145 made the cut.
Easiest Hole: 16th
hardest Hole: 2nd
Best Chance at Streaks: 3-7

DFS Sweatsheet & Scorecard

DFS Preview:

A full preview on the best contests offered in the industry this week.

A bump up in the $5 this week. The other two remain the same. FD will post tomorrow morning.

Player & Statistical Preview:

Player Preview:

This space will merely highlight the golfers competing and their OWGR. For full-field regular events we’ll list out the top 25 ranked golfers by OWGR:

This Weeks top 25:

Much different look to this field compared to last, as we only have 6 of the top 25 golfers in the world and 8 of the top 30. Compared to 28 of 30.

Statistical Preview:

The PGA Tour has a set of “statistics” that measure golfers performances vs. each other/the rest of the field. Here is the information on “Strokes Gained” from the winners of the API for the last five years

Commentary:

All of the Florida swing will give us plenty of data to go off of. This one it’s pretty clear its a second shot golf course, even with the par 5’s we’ve seen plenty of “non-bombers” win here. The approach is key as well as putting. I’m listing in the putting from last week since its the type of grass surface this week.

For now, that’s all. I’ll be updating the article the more info we get! Around 5:00 PM EST will be the next one.

Until then,

Cheers! As always message me on Twitter or in the Slack Channel if you have any questions.

Author

Jason Rouslin

Jason established his roots in the littlest state that could...Rhode Island. But after 29 years of bitter cold, and only being able to play golf 4 months a year, upended those roots and moved to Florida. Now four years later, Jason is a husband to Sarah and father of two boys, James & Myles. A dog and more specifically Lab lover (Bella), he dedicates his time to serve as the lead of PGA content at Awesemo.com. In the time he is not diving into the PGA stats and covering this week's current tournament, you can find him researching and trading stocks, on the golf course, at Disney World, on a hike, or somewhere in between. Want to chat? Have a question about Golf/Stocks or anything else? Hop on twitter and give him a message @dfsgolfer23. You can also contact Jason by emailing [email protected].