The final World Golf Championship event of the calendar year happens this weekend with the HSBC Champions. Sheshan International Golf Club in Shanghai, China is the site for the event.
Dustin Johnson blew powered through the course last year on his way to victory, posting 24-under and breaking the tournament record. Recent weather has softened the course and the greens aren’t particularly tough or fast, so DJ’s record could be in jeopardy.
We only have a couple events left until an extended break in the schedule for the remainder of the calendar year. It would be nice to climb a few positions and be towards the top when the Tour shows up in Hawaii in January.
This Week’s Fantasy Golf Picks
I have to go with the clear favorite, Justin Rose. Vegas has him at 11/1 odds. Top 5’s both last week at the BMW Masters, the Tour Championship, and here last year. Throw in his undefeated weekend at the Ryder Cup and it is clear he is playing some excellent golf right now.
The most popular fantasy pick this week by far is Sergio Garcia. Who can argue with the pick? He has finished in the top 10 in three consecutive tournaments, including 2nd place last week at the CIMB Classic. He won on this course in 2008 and finished top 5 last year. I haven’t used him at all this year, so I still have 10 starts. I can’t lose out on points if everyone else is picking him and continues to play well. Plus, if he cools off later in the year I will have missed a lot of points by saving his starts.
Ernie Els likes the Sheshan International course. He has two top 10 finishes here in the last four tournaments held here and T11 last year. He’s coming off a solid showing (T26) at the BMW Masters last week. The Big Easy seems to like WGC events as a rule also.
What does Vegas know about Joost Luiten that we don’t? He’s sitting at 40/1 odds along with the likes of Keegan Bradley, Louis Oosthuizen, and Chris Kirk. They must know that his last six tournaments have yielded four top 5 finishes including a win plus T13 at the BMW last week.
CIMB Classic Wrap Up
Daylight Savings Time ending over the weekend was a good reminder on how tricky time and time zones can be. Another reminder of how tricky time zones can be is waiting until Wednesday night to enter your picks on the fantasy site for a tournament in Asia only to find out the tourney has already started and you’re locked out from picking anyone.
Excluding the choice swear words and muttering to myself, let’s review who I would have picked and whether my advice to you was any good:
Lee Westwood had the best finish out of my fantasy picks. He finished T13, collecting 56 FedEx Cup points. A strong Sunday would have put him in serious contention.
Just outside the top 25 were Patrick Reed and Jason Dufner, both tied for 26th place. I was nervous about Duff, but he looks pretty good coming back from the neck injury. They each (would have) grabbed me 42 points.
Then there is K.J. Choi. Even par (71-74-71) going into Sunday, Choi was poised to prove himself a very solid value pick. Even an extremely modest 72 cracks the top 50. He proceeded to shoot a 7-over 79 for a T71 finish and one lonely FedEx Cup point.
I missed out on 141 points, registering 0 points for the tournament in the 3 Jack Almanac fantasy league. On the bright side though, the 0 is now dropped and the 90 points I picked up from the Shriners kicks in, so my net loss is only 51 points for being a bonehead. I can live with that.
Good luck this week.
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