Charles Howell ov Xander Schauffele and/or Jason Dufner (I like both the matchups...I'm only playing Howell ov Dufner)
Schaufele had the dramatic win at the Tour Championship, and that’s what everyone remembers, but the fact is he hasn’t been great since then. 3rd at the CIMB Classic, but then 72nd at the Nine Bridges, 46th, and the HSBC Champions, and 22nd last week at the Tourney of Champions. Charles Howell meanwhile has 3 top 20 finishes in the last 4 tournaments he’s played in, but the big thing for this play is tournament history. Charles Howell has 8 top 10 finishes in his last 13 tournaments here. 8th last year, 13th the year before, no missed cuts here…Xander has played here once, that was last year and he missed the cut. The last couple years, Howell has started the year strong, and then kind of fades a big in march and april. So I’m going to take Howell, who is healthy, and is in the part of the year he plays good, and is at a course he loves to play.
Jason Dufner played decent last week, but last weeks 11th place finish was his best finish in the last 12 tournaments he’s played in. He’s played here 9 times, and only has 1 top 10 finish and 3 missed cuts, including a missed cut last year.
Hudson Swafford ov Jimmy Walker
Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. Get busy living or get busy dying. Ask not what your country can do for you…ask what you can do for your country. Always bet against a professional golfer who has had lyme for almost a year, and just gave it to his wife.
You can go over all the stats you want, you can look at course history, recent performance…but all I know is that Jimmy Walker still has lyme disease, a recent article said that he seems to have finally settled on a treatment program, but he still isn’t 100 percent. He played one tournament in the reach around season, and that was the Shriners Open, and he shot +5 and missed the cut. He also missed the cut here last year. Hudson Swafford isn’t a world beater, but he does actually seem to like this course. 13th, 9th, and 8th 3 out of the last 4 years here.
Chez Reavie ov Bill Haas
I feel like Bill Haas should be better than his performances show, and I feel like he gets a pass…the guy obviously has talent, but if his last name wasn’t Haas, we wouldn’t think of him in this light of being a great golfer. No wins last year, 4 top 5s, 5 missed cuts, 13 finishes outside the top 30. So we get this matchup Haas vs Reavie, and just because of name value, immediately we think Haas. But let’s look at some of the numbers. To finish the 2017 season, Reavie finished ahead of Haas in 4 out of the 5 tournaments they played in together. At the beginning of the year, Reavie finished ahead of Haas in 3 out of the first 4 tournaments they played in together, including the Sony Open where Reavie finished 8th, 3 shots ahead of Haas. And in the reach around, Haas only has one decent finish which was 17th at the Safeway Open, Reavie finished ahead of Haas in that tournament, Haas also has a 62nd and a missed cut…Reavie has 3 top 15 finishes in the reach around, and his worse finish is 24th.
Bonus Play
Kevin Tway ov Jonas Blixt
Name the tournament that Jonas Blixt won last year to get his entry into the Tournament of Champions. Zurich Open…where they have partners. Take out the Zurich Open…including the reach around, Jonas Blixt has finished ahead of Kevin Tway in a tournament one time. That was the Memorial. The only reason this isn’t a big play is that Tway missed the cut at this tournament last year, but then again so did Blixt…so I’m just betting that Tway has gotten better since last January. Blixt was terrible last week, he didn’t finish better than 54th in the reach around, one round under 70 in his last 18…
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