Fantasy Golf Picks, Odds, & Predictions – The Barclays 2015

Fantasy Golf Picks, Odds, and Predictions for The Barclays 2015

The Barclays 2015 Fantasy Preview

The FedExCup Playoffs are back after yet another long and exciting PGA TOUR season and once again the event will be held right in our own backyard at the beautiful Plainfield country Club in Edison New Jersey.  Remember, the season might be winding down but there’s still plenty of DraftKings, Fantasy Feud, and other excellent fantasy action left in 2015!

World No. 1 Jordan Spieth will play his first event since capturing the world’s top spot and he will be joined by an elite field of 124 players in a fight live and play again in next week’s Deutsche Bank Championship.  Both Day and Spieth, who finished 1-2 at the PGA Championship, will certainly capture the bulk of the media attention this week so look out for plenty of fantasy rosters with their name’s on top.

Jason Day comes in as probably the hotter of the two players as he has won two of his past three starts and even notched a T12 in between at the Bridgestone.  But Jordan is no slouch either, posting top 4 finishes in five of his last six starts which included a US Open win.

Because of his mountain of FedExCup points, Spieth can technically sit out the next three events and still be in decent shape for the final, but the points will quadruple this week (and throughout the playoffs) so even with his lead going in you can imagine the standings changing quickly with every shot.

Rory McIlroy is another player that can run away from the field this year but decided to take a seat this week to rest the ankle one more time—this actually helps us make our picks a little easier this week!  Rory didn’t quite make a run at the PGA but looked better than most anticipated coming off of his recent ankle injury.

Keep in mind this week that only the Top 100 in the FedExCup standings will make it to next week’s Deutsche Bank Championship.

Last Week’s Fantasy Results

Very few would have predicted that Davis Love III would come out on top at the Wyndham Championship so you have to hand it to the 51 year old.  The victory catapulted him right into the FedExCup Playoffs at the most crucial time and left guys like Tiger Woods hanging up their cleats for the season.

Fantasy wise, all seven of our picks made the cut last week but our best finish was our Horse Pick Brooks Koepka who came in with a solid T6 and put up a strong fight to get into the Top 3 before getting jumped over by a handful of players.

With the 38th (and final regular season) event in the books, we’re happy to report an average weekly fantasy earnings amount just above $1.1 million for the regular season, including an impressive 215 made cuts out of 266 fantasy picks (81%).

The field this week gets smaller and more challenging so we’ll be coming fully prepared with our best picks for the Barclays.

The Field

The field which is usually at 125 will see only 119 players this week and it will be headed by FedExCup points leader Jordan Spieth, who will play his first event as the No. 1 ranked player in the world.  Adam Scott won his first event as World No. 1 and a lot of Spieth fans are hoping for the same.

PGA Champ Jason Day will also look to continue his dominance as a few big names like Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia decide to take the week off.

Chris Kirk, who had a very impressive run in last year’s playoffs has missed a lot of time due to a broken hand but will be back this week for some playoff action.

Here’s the full list of who you can expect to tee it up at Plainfield Country Club this week.

The Course

Plainfield Country Club measures in at 7,012 yards and will play as a tricky par 70 this week.  This course was founded in the late 1800s and initiated as what was called the Hillside Tennis Club before Donald Ross came in and put his magic touch on it.

This course served as the site of the 1978 U.S. Amateur, the 1987 U.S. Women’s Open, and is now hosting its second PGA TOUR event with the first being the 2011 Barclays where Dustin Johnson won a 54-hole shorted event caused by Hurricane Irene.

We had a chance to test out Plainfield at the PGA TOUR Media Day two weeks ago and boy does this track have its challenges.  The rough is thick and shaggy so we’re putting a premium on accuracy off the tee (as well as putting).

The green here at Plainfield CC are very challenging, lightning quick and not very big.  “Putting maestros” will fare better than most here on a tough, fast and dry New Jersey track.

Side note: The Golf Podcast hosts Frank and Mike will be live on site this week previewing the event with the show airing Sunday August 30th on iTunes.

Weather Forecast for Edison, NJ

Weather forecasts could not be any better for the Barclays this week as Golficity’s hometown event is expected to see nothing by sunshine and warm weather.  Expect a hard and fast, yet true rolling Donald Ross Design track this week with no threat of wind, rain, or another hurricane like 2011 which forced this venue to close up shop after only 3 rounds.

Last Year’s Results from The Barclays

Hunter Mahan pinched a two-year winless drought by winning the 2014 Barclays at Ridgewood Country Club last August.  He went on to card a 6-under-par 65 after taking the outright lead with an impressive 10-foot birdie putt at No.15 which erupted the crowd.

Mahan fought off Jason Day (68), Stuart Appleby (65), and Cameron Tringale (66) to go on and win his 6th career PGA TOUR event and where he was surprised by his wife and child on the 18th green on Sunday.

For more, here’s a video recap of the 2014 Barclays:

Hunter Mahan rallies to win at The Barclays

In the final round of The Barclays 2014, Hunter Mahan finishes with a bogey on No. 18 and to his surprise is greeted by wife and daughter as he claims his sixth PGA TOUR win. . SUBSCRIBE to PGA TOUR now: http://pgat.us/vBxcZSh Welcome to the official YouTube channel of the PGA TOUR.

This Week’s Broadcast Schedule

• Television Broadcasts 
  • Thursday – Friday: 2:00 pm – 6:00 pm EST (Golf Channel)
  • Saturday: 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm EST (Golf Channel)
  • Saturday: 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm EST (CBS)
  • Sunday: 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm EST (Golf Channel)
  • Sunday: 2:00 pm – 6:00 pm EST (CBS)
• Radio Broadcasts (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.COM)
  • Thursday – Friday: 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm EST
  • Saturday – Sunday: 1:00 pm – 6:00 pm EST
• Mobile Broadcasts 
  • Simultaneous coverage on the Golf Live Extra App for iOS and Android.

Where to Play Fantasy Golf for The Barclays this Week

This week we’re sticking to the $3 entry since we’ve received no news of any major sized prize pool event for this first playoff round.  We have to think a big event may spur up in the next round or perhaps for the TOUR Championship, but we have no news as of yet.

• PGA $425K DRIVE THE GREEN [$100,000 TO 1ST!]: Same idea as previous weeks as a simple $3 entry gets you a chance at $100K.  Our email has been buzzing with Premium Members writing us tell us about their success in this event over the past two months.  We’re going to advise you take a few cracks on this one to give yourself the best chance.

This Week’s Fantasy Notes for The Barclays

With a limited field of golfers—all of whom have either won or have played so exceptionally well all year that they made it to the playoffs—it’s important to treat each of these next four weeks as majors.  We’re employing a more technical strategy this week, one we have used in the past and have had success with, although this time we’ll share some of the secret sauce.

We’ll matchup two players in their respected “skill divisions” and pick the best player to win this week so that your DraftKings roster gets the best horse pick, best $9K pick, best $7K pick, best sleeper, and so on.

Our staff played Plainfield CC two weeks ago and we have a pretty good idea (after a 6 hour conversation with 20 year veteran caddies) of what type of player tears this course up.

We’re also giving you a few sample rosters this week, after all, it’s the playoffs!

So, let’s begin with Jordan Spieth and Jason Day.  Who do you pick and who do you bench?

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Our Top 5 (and Top 2 Sleeper) Fantasy Picks and Odds to Win The Barclays

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Top 5 Picks/Odds to Win The Barclays

Jordan Spieth or Jason Day?

Jason Day (Golficity Odds 3/2 FPPG: 91.59 GPFP: 114.49 Salary:$11,500): We love Jordan Spieth and we know that he is capable of winning this event with only six clubs in his bag and one shoe on, but sometimes you have to pick the better player as your horse pick since you cannot have two in a salary cap league.  Day is coming off of an emotional win at Whistling Straights and usually we steer clear from recent winners simply because they could be “burnt out.”  We’ll make an exception for Day this week since he’s super rested, beaming with confidence, and playing the best golf of his career.  He’s won twice in his last three starts and one of those finishes was a T10 (Firestone).  At his first Barclays at Plainfield in 2011 Jason finished T13 but course knowledge is irrelevant here since the event only stopped here once.  Day can pick apart these greens and attack the pins here no problem.  Again, we love Spieth and we think its a coin flip with the edge to Day.  Take Jason plus the extra salary cash for better lower tier players.

• GIR Rank: 22nd
• Driving Accuracy: 173rd
• Putting Average: 2nd
• Driving Distance Rank: 3rd
• * Most Notable Stat: Birdie Average: 1st

Dustin Johnson or Justin Rose?

Justin Rose (Golficity Odds 8/1 FPPG: 75.41 GPFP: 82.19 Salary:$10,900): Being a past champ for Johnson doesn’t matter much here and he’s been anything but clutch lately.  Sure DJ he can charge up a leaderboard to finish T7 in a major (PGA Championship) but he hasn’t been able to string together four solid rounds.  Check out his scores on Thursday and Friday versus the weekend at both The Open and the WGC -Bridgestone.  As for Justin Rose, this guy is due for a big win and this is the stage where he can get it done.  He’s finished no worse than T6 (Open Championship) in his last four starts and finished T6 here in 2011.  Rose owns the Top 5 spot in a bunch of stats and is trending towards winning.  He could even be a solid pick for the outright winner of the FedExCup (5th in points).  By the way, we figured out a pretty good way to get Day and Rose on your roster without filling the rest with scrubs (see sample roster below).

• GIR Rank: 8th
• Driving Accuracy: 57th
• Putting Average: 17th
• Driving Distance Rank: 14th
• * Most Notable Stat: Birdie Average: 3rd

Bubba Watson – Rickie Fowler – Brooks Koepka?

Bubba Watson (Golficity Odds 12/1 FPPG: 85.30 GPFP: 105.77 Salary:$9,900): While we’ve loved having Brooks and Rickie on our squad we can only pick one in this spot and the stats don’t lie here.  Brooks would have been our second choice and a possible switch out for a B roster, but Bubba is a clear top pick to the the FedExCup this season and we believe he’ll come out of the gates sprinting.  We love him on this course for a few reasons, a couple of which are the fact that he ranks first on TOUR in strokes gained tee-to-green as well as the well known fact that he hits the ball a mile.  When he control all that distance Bubba is deadly and his confidence carries him to the podium.  If his putter doesn’t show up he could get lost in the mix; so we’re praying that club finds its way to Jersey.

• GIR Rank: 32nd
• Driving Accuracy: 154th
• Putting Average: 62nd
• Driving Distance Rank: 2nd
• * Most Notable Stat: Strokes Gained Tee-To-Green: 1st

Furyk – Matsuyama – Casey – Snedeker?

Jim Furyk (Golficity Odds 25/1 FPPG: 63.04 GPFP: 68.72 Salary:$8,600): The next two guys we want this week are Furyk and Casey.  Furyk tends to peak as we move into the fall and he’s putting together a really solid year with five top 10s including a win and only one missed cut in 15 events.  Although he’s unfamiliar with the track, we’re not going to let that get in the way of our picks this week.  This guy knows how to scramble (a stat thats key in a difficult rough-ridden Jersey golf course) and he ranks first in rough proximity (which is the average distance remaining to the hole for all approach shots hit from the rough).  Furyk may not be an obvious choice this week so go out on a limb and take the old man; he loves these tracks.

• GIR Rank: 28th
• Driving Accuracy: 21st
• Putting Average: 161st
• Driving Distance Rank:  168th (short hitter but very accurate).
• * Most Notable Stat: Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green: 4th

Paul Casey (Golficity Odds 32/1 FPPG: 67.40 GPFP: 53.22 Salary:$8,700): We’ve lost faith in Matsuyama and we haven’t been to fond of Snedeker after last week’s performance—despite his 61 in Round 2.  Casey is fresh off a a T3 at Sedgefield last week where he came in with an impressive T5 in GIR.  He’s probably the hottest trending player in this salary range and arguably one of the best players on TOUR without a win this year.  Casey comes in ranked fifth in GIR which is absolutely key for Plainfield Country Club.  He also has two second place and two third place finishes this season, so he’s no stranger to success in 2015.  Casey has good distance off the tee, finds fairways and throws darts at greens.

• GIR Rank: 5th
• Driving Accuracy: 78th
• Putting Average: 119th
• Driving Distance Rank: 35th
• * Most Notable Stat: Scoring Average:  GIR: 5th

Sleeper Pick/Odds to Win The Barclays

Robert Streb or David Lingmerth?

Robert Streb (Golficity Odds 40/1 FPPG: 69.22 GPFP: 64.33  Salary: $7,900): Streb fell victim to the Presidents Cup points “mis-tally” recently and moved further out of the Top 10.  We love that he has this fire to motivate him and the fact that he could actually win the FedExCup (currently 6th in points) is enough to keep him driving.  Streb has three Top 10s in his last five starts and eight top 20s in last nine, and he knows how to hit greens in regulation.  He’s an overall solid ball striker with some distance off the tee and we think PCC is a good course for him.

• GIR Rank: 11th
• Driving Accuracy:  125th
• Putting Average: 55th
• Driving Distance Rank: 37th
• * Most Notable Stat: GIR Rank: 11th

Salary Cap League Sleeper Pick/Odds to Win The Barclays

Justin Thomas – Danny Lee – Jimmy Walker?

Danny Lee (Golficity Odds: 50/1 FPPG: 62.09 GPFP: 60.85  Salary:$7,700): Walker has cooled off considerably and Justin Thomas made us a little nervous last week.  Lee on the other hand has been very consistent with four Top 6 finishes in his last six starts including a win.   His stats aren’t anything sexy but this young gun is breaming with confidence heading into his second career Barclays (T38 last year).  Lee has a legitimate chance of making the President’s Cup team and has the chops to win a big event like this.  If anything, at only $7,700 he can be a real fantasy points hero for you if he finishes in Top 5.  His putter can easily move him into the Top 3 in FedExCup points after this week if that club stays hot.

• GIR Rank: 110th
• Driving Accuracy: 76th
• Putting Average: 11th
• Driving Distance Rank: 153rd
• * Most Notable Stat:  Total Birdies: 1st (411)

We’ll share some more solid ideas for guys ranked in the $6K range in our Tuesday Sleeper Report.

Sample DraftKings Roster With Both Day and Rose:

Sample Roster with Day Only:

Sample Roster with Rose Only:

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Last Week’s Fantasy Results for the Wyndham Championship

• Brooks Koepka (Golficity Odds 8/1): T6 ($174,825)
• Brandt Snedeker (Golficity Odds 10/1): T43 ($18,360)
• Justin Thomas (Golficity Odds 18/1): T56 ($12,204)
• Harris English (Golficity Odds 28/1): T31 ($30,626)
• Will Wilcox (Golficity Odds 35/1): T26 ($39,960)

Last Week’s Sleeper Pick to Win the Wyndham Championship

• Austin Cook (Golficity Odds 48/1): T43 ($18,360)

Last Week’s Salary Cap Sleeper Pick to Win the Wyndham Championship

• Vaughn Taylor (Golficity Odds: 66/1): T47 ($14,526)

Fantasy Golf Predictions YTD Stats

[skill_bar heading=”Total Top 3s” percent=”13.15%” bar_text=”35 out of 266 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 10s” percent=”25.18%” bar_text=”67 out of 266 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Winners Picked” percent=”31.57%” bar_text=”12 out of 38 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Runners-Up Picked” percent=”36.84%” bar_text=”14 out of 38 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Made Cuts (Includes Sleepers)” percent=”80.82%” bar_text=”215 out of 266 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Major Winners Picked” percent=”100%” bar_text=”4 out of 4 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″]

Remember to visit the The Clubhouse and our private Facebook group to discuss this week’s picks for The Barclays with other Premium Members.

Cover Photo by @thebarclaysgolf on Instagram