This article is part of our PGA Tour Stats Review series.
This week the PGA Tour joins up with the European Tour's Race to Dubai for a World Golf Championship event, the HSBC Champions in Shanghai. Here's our stats preview:
History Lesson
The defending champion is Dustin Johnson, who is not here due to his continuing leave of absence. He won by three over Ian Poulter. In 2012, Poulter beat Jason Dufner, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson and Scott Piercy by two, and in 2011, Martin Kaymer beat Freddie Jacobson by three.
Mickelson, Piercy and Jacobson are not in the field. It will be interesting to see how Poulter, in the news because of the comments in his new book and the Ted Bishop fiasco, reacts to the increased media attention. We don't recommend him.
None of these players has any large body of work on their side at the moment, so fantasy owners should probably stay away from all.
Who is Playing
The field includes 12 of the top 20 players in the world, including Rickie Fowler, Bubba Watson, Sergio Garcia, Rory McIlroy, Els, Billy Horschel, Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell, Justin Rose, Patrick Reed, Adam Scott, Jordan Spieth and Lee Westwood.
This group is an interesting mix of golfers who are on form and not on form. For example, McIlroy has taken a couple weeks off to prepare for his upcoming testimony in the lawsuit involving his former management company, while Scott is trying out new caddies. And that's just two of those players.
Our recommendations are Rose and Garcia.
Rose
This week the PGA Tour joins up with the European Tour's Race to Dubai for a World Golf Championship event, the HSBC Champions in Shanghai. Here's our stats preview:
History Lesson
The defending champion is Dustin Johnson, who is not here due to his continuing leave of absence. He won by three over Ian Poulter. In 2012, Poulter beat Jason Dufner, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson and Scott Piercy by two, and in 2011, Martin Kaymer beat Freddie Jacobson by three.
Mickelson, Piercy and Jacobson are not in the field. It will be interesting to see how Poulter, in the news because of the comments in his new book and the Ted Bishop fiasco, reacts to the increased media attention. We don't recommend him.
None of these players has any large body of work on their side at the moment, so fantasy owners should probably stay away from all.
Who is Playing
The field includes 12 of the top 20 players in the world, including Rickie Fowler, Bubba Watson, Sergio Garcia, Rory McIlroy, Els, Billy Horschel, Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell, Justin Rose, Patrick Reed, Adam Scott, Jordan Spieth and Lee Westwood.
This group is an interesting mix of golfers who are on form and not on form. For example, McIlroy has taken a couple weeks off to prepare for his upcoming testimony in the lawsuit involving his former management company, while Scott is trying out new caddies. And that's just two of those players.
Our recommendations are Rose and Garcia.
Rose finished fourth last week at the BMW Masters, shooting middle rounds of 65-64. He had just 27 and 29 putts in those middle two rounds while hitting 12 and 13 fairways and 15 and 16 greens, respectively.
Garcia, meanwhile, had a second-place finish at the CIMB Classic, another close call that featured a wayward drive on No. 10 into the trees on Sunday that led to an untimely double bogey. He finished the week T11 in greens in regulation.
Sanderson Farms Championship
There's an opposite-field event this week on the PGA Tour, the Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, Miss. Notables in the field include Robert Streb, the winner in Las Vegas, Ben Martin, the Frys.com Open winner, Padraig Harrington, John Daly, Tony Finau and others.
This is a crucial week for Reshuffle List players, so besides Streb and Martin, who are obvious picks, if your fantasy league includes this event, we recommend Finau (whose long driving we've written about in recent weeks), Hudson Swafford and Fabian Gomez.
Swafford has had a sensational start to his season, going T8-T18-T12 in his first three starts and ranks 10th in strokes gained-total and seventh in scoring average.
Gomez is also a strong selection as he finished T8 in his only start of the year, the McGladrey Classic, a week in which he ranked first in strokes gained-putting.
