DJS123
Well-Known Member
WELCOME EVERYONE TO THE 2013/14 GOLF SEASON!!
In what used to be known as the fall series, the PGA has decided to just start the season early and we'll begin with this week's event, the Frys .com Open. This event has been played since 2008 but held at Cordevalle Golf Club in San Martin, CA since 2010.
This course sets up as a 7368 yard par 71 that is one of many designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. In the past 3 years the winners and scores have been 2010 Rocco Mediate -15, '11 Bryce Molder -17, last year Jonas Blixt -16. A course rating of 75 and a slope rating of 142 we can see this will be a good test for the players.
A fairly long course we'll look at driving distance over accuracy with some wide fairways. The par 3's will be challenging and a variety of long and short par 4's will have us look at par 3 & 4 performance. Of course with any RTJ Jr design we have a lot of strategically placed bunkers having us look at sand save % and other 'beach' stats. Some of the other key stats this week will be GIR, proximity to hole, all around ranking and putting numbers.
The last three years of course history, form and performance is also relevant. One thing I noticed in early research is Rocco Mediate is the only player in the field to have played this event AND made the cut each year at this course since 2010, sort of meaningless but interesting. He did win here in '10 and is around 500/1 if you like long shots but is unlikely to make our card this week.
The field is quite weak with many of the 'names' resting up but we have a good, young competitive group here that are looking to make some money and pick up some FedExCup points. 500 points, a ticket to Augusta and close to a million dollars will go to the winner. Young Japanese phenom Hideki Matsuyama will headline the field this week which also includes last years champ Blixt, Gary Woodland, Jimmy Walker, John Peterson, Billy Horschel and Marc Leishman among others. I'm excited! Let's get to it!!
TO WIN
**Top Play**
1 Unit Play
*Billy Horschel 20/1
~On paper, Billy Ho should’ve got the trophy already! Unfortunately betting golf is not quite that easy. At 20/1 we are definitely getting a good price and his game sets up beautifully for this course. He had a great 2013 campaign making 22/26 with eight top 10’s including a win a runner up and a T3. He also T4 at the U.S. Open and played his way into the Tour Championship and finished T7. He has played this course before, took a T7 in ‘11 before a T29 last year after weekend rounds of 73 & 71 set him back. His game and confidence are solid and I think he’ll be right there on Sunday. Let’s take a look at some of his key stats for this week. Total Driving 6th, GIR 27th, All Around 8th, Total Putting 2nd, Ball Striking 11th, Scoring Average 30th. Where he is lacking is the par 3’s which could give him some trouble this week, in 2013 he ranked 152nd on tour in Par 3 Performance. If he can make pars instead of bogies on the difficult holes he’ll have a good shot at a win this week.
