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: The WGC-Match Play
The Florida swing is finally over, and now my seasonal depression hits, for oh I’d say about two weeks… But before we go to Georgia for the best week of the golfing year, we’ve got a duel tournament week this week, followed by a rather mediocre tournament in San Antonio the following week. This is the second year the tour has decided to come back to Austin for the WGC-Matchplay championship.
This Week’s Course(s): Austin Country Club
Course Commentary:
Another PETE DYE awaits us in Austin, at Austin Country club. Deep pot bunkers, not quite as deep as we’d see over the pond in the UK, and of course the Dye signature undulating turf, create another “target golf” style of play. It is a rather short par 71, unlike last weeks par 71, it should feature plenty of more wedge shots and birdies this week.
Since we have no data on this course, here’s a scorecard broken down by the average approach:
Scoring Averages and yearly rank:
- N/A
Course Numbers:
- Par 71, 7,360 yards
- Winning Score: -N/A
- Top 5 Score- N/A
- Cut Number- N/A
- Easiest Hole: N/A
- hardest Hole: N/A
- Best Chance at Streaks: N/A
DFS Sweatsheet & Scorecard
N/A
The winning lineup in the $5 last year and $444
DFS Preview:
Pretty decent sized contests for this match play event. A little less than a normal week, but we have a DUEL contest week on DK.
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:
WGC Event so most if not all of the top 50 in the OWGR are here to compete.
Statistical Preview:
No statistical data is available for this tournament, so we’ll post the finalized bracket: and group stage
Commentary & Specific Match Play Strategy:
The Group stage which was introduced a few years ago has made this tournament like a FIFA World Cup style, and I like it better than the NCAA style, plus, it’s much better for DFS purposes. One very interesting thing is that both Rahm and DJ struggled here, after battling it out a couple of years ago… Rory also struggled.
The most important aspect of this tournament is, of course, the pairings party tonight at 5 pm. The strategy in any DFS-Golf contest is to have your golfers play the most holes possible. I.e., getting in the final four… So, with that, we will need to maximize the chances and probabilities of having four of our six golfers selected to make that last four. It will require filling out brackets, and ensuring each of your golfers are in different “quadrants” for the first four selected.
With your final two selections is where you can try and differentiate and use game theory. You want your six golfers to at least make it to the round of 16, but you could get away with stacking a group in the *higher* dollar buy-ins. For example, if you end up with the final four- a missed cut* (did not make the round of 16), and a guy that got knocked out in the round of 16, you will likely have a chance to win — just a theory. We’ll dive more into this as the week goes on.
For now, that’s all. I’ll be releasing my preview for the “Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship” in a little over an hour from now. It’ll be live at http://awesemo.com/pga/firstcutDR .
Until then,
Cheers! As always message me on Twitter or in the Slack Channel if you have any questions.