Fantasy Golf Picks, Odds, and Predictions – 2015 Hyundai Tournament of Champions

This Week’s Tournament Preview

This week brings us the 2015 Hyundai Tournament of Champions, and along with it, the excitement all PGA TOUR and fantasy golf fanatics feel at the start of a new year of events. After what felt like a decade since Billy Horschel held the FedExCup trophy, we’re finally into 2015 with the kickoff of the first premier event of the wrap-around season.

All told it’s been a seven-week break between official FedExCup points events and now the PGA TOUR heads back to sunny Hawaii before moving into the west coast swing. This will be the 17th straight year that Kapalua has been January’s first event but this year the TOUR pushed the schedule back a week to give players a chance to recover from New Years and other personal events.

Returning TOC champion Zach Johnson and two-time TOC winner Geoff Ogilvy (2009-10) will be the only Kapalua champions in the field this week. This tournament traditionally has a stacked leaderboard with past champions looking to start the year off on a good note, so look out for some competitive golf this weekend.

The Field

Reigning FedExCup champion Billy Horschel will join Jason Day and Masters champ Bubba Watson to headline a field made up of 34 tournament winners from the 2014 calendar year. Don’t forget that Bubba jumped to 4^th in World Ranking after winning the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions in November, making him the highest ranked player in the field. In total, there will be seven players participating this week who rank within the World top 20.

You’ll also see a bunch of TOC first timers this week with recent winners from the fall series like current FedExCup leader Robert Streb, Ben Martin, Sang-Moon Bae, and Nick Taylor. Also be on lookout for 2014 Valspar Champion John Senden, who returns for the first time since 2007.

Here is the full field for this week’s Hyundai Tournament of Champions:

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The Course

The Plantation Course at Kapalua measures in at 7,452 yards and plays as an unusual par 73. The course opened back in 1991 as the very first Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw collaborative projects.

This beautiful cliff-side course sits atop the West Maui Mountains and comes lined with breathtaking views and extreme wind gusts, which we saw two years ago when the TOUR was forced to shorten the event after many wind-related delays. Although the wind comes into play, evidence shows that the winners of this event still manage to post great scores with six of the past seven editions having winners coming in at no worse than 18-under.

The event’s long ball hitters will use the wind to their advantage to shorten this course, so be on the lookout for big hitters off the tee and solid scramble players.

Photo via TravelGolf.com

Weather Forecast for Kapalua, Hawaii (from weather.com)

Round 1 will see relatively low wind with the infamous wind gusts at Kapalua not appearing until rounds 2, 3m and 4 – topping out as high as 21mph on Sunday.

Rain should not be a factor this week, but don’t be surprised if you see a minor drizzle on Saturday afternoon. Overall the course should be pretty dry and true and the weekend wind gusts should allow for some 350-yard drives, if not more.

We’ll factor in these long-ball hopefuls as we make our selections in the picks segment below.

2013 Results

We nailed this one last year, picking both the winner (Zach Johnson) and the runner-up (Jordan Spieth) in a well-contested event. We also managed to pick up three other T6 finishes for a total of $2.6 million in fantasy earnings to kick off the New Year.

That year Zach Johnson notched his 11th career victory after draining three birdies on the back nine to card a 7-under 66 in the final round. He finished one shot ahead of the charging Jordan Spieth. Johnson’s back nine birdies proved crucial to keeping the event just out of the reach of Spieth who birdied 17 and 18.

The 2014 Hyundai TOC was a nail-biter to the last stroke with a total of five players holding a share of the lead on the final day.

For more, here is wrap-up of Round 4 from last year’s edition of Hyundai Tournament of Champions:

Zach Johnson wins at Hyundai: Highlights from final round

In the final round of the 2014 Hyundai Tournament of Champions, Zach Johnson shot a 7-under 66 to win by two strokes. Check out more PGA TOUR videos http://www.youtube.com/pgatour For complete coverage of the Hyundai Tournament of Champions . 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 (Golf Channel)
  • Friday 4:30 pm – 10:00pm EST
  • Saturday 1:00 pm – 7:00 pm EST
  • Sunday 2:30 pm – 9:30 pm EST
  • Monday 4:00 pm – 8:00 pm EST
• Radio Broadcasts (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.COM)
  • Friday 5:00 pm – 10:00 pm EST
  • Saturday 2:00 pm – 7:00 pm EST
  • Sunday 5:00 pm – 10:00 pm EST
  • Monday 2:00 pm – 8:00 pm EST
• Mobile Broadcasts
  • Simultaneous coverage on the Golf Live Extra app for iPhone and iPad.

This Week’s Fantasy Notes

We can expect some solid tee shot action this week as the Plantation Course at Kapalua offers some of the widest fairways on TOUR. That said, a long ball hitter may have a slight advantage, especially if the wind is at his back.

Even though the Plantation Course is a par 73 (making it the only one the PGA TOUR), both sets of 9 come with a fair amount of challenge.   Although the stat has its merits, we won’t be weighting our selections this week heavily on strictly long hitters because the course only averages a little more than 280 yards off the tee – which is not high number for a TOUR venue. So look for short and more accurate tee-to-green players to also make a possible run this week.

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Our Top 5 (and Top 2 Sleeper) Fantasy Picks and Odds to Win the 2015 Hyundai Tournament of Champions

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Top 5 Picks/Odds to Win the 2015 Hyundai Tournament of Champions

• Matt Kuchar (Golficity Odds 6/1): Kuch is our horse for the course this week as the veteran comes into one of his favorite venues finishing no worse than T9 in his last four tries. Coming off a T9 at the Hero World Challenge a few weeks ago, Kuch looks to have his game in top form as he looks to take on a track he knows like the back of his hand. Call him Mr. Consistent, because that is exactly what he is at Kapalua. Kuch is also coming off another banner year with 11 Top 10s last season, which marks the second time he’s done that in his career. Look out for Kuch on Maui Island this week and on TOUR all season long.
• Chris Kirk (Golficity Odds 10/1): Most would favor Zach Johnson or Bubba in this spot, but Kirk has stayed hot since his DB Championship win during the playoff run in 2014. He finished T7 here in his debut a few years back and followed that up last year with a T16 after putting up a 73 in the final round. Since his playoff win in September, Kirk has two Top 5s and continues to impress the Golf World. He’s a solid addition to any roster this week.
• Jimmy Walker (Golficity Odds 14/1): When you have the opportunity to put a member of Team Harmon on your roster in a 34 man field, it usually is a no-brainer. Walker started his run last year in the beginning of the season winning his second event (of three) in Hawaii…but not at Kapalua. In fact, Walker finished T21 here last year. Regardless, we’ve been following all of Jimmy’s moves over the off season and he looks to be polished for the new year.
• Bubba Watson (Golficity Odds 18/1): Bubba may be feeling the hangover from his 12-days of Bubbaclaus, but the 2014 Masters champion won three times last year, including his most recent WGC HSBC Championship. Bubba can historically be hit or miss, and this week he has a huge premium on his salary cap value, but with a T4 here last year and some wind at his back, this guy has the potential to put up record numbers.
• Zach Johnson (Golficity Odds 25/1): Not quite sure we love ZJ this year, but given his experience here at Kapalua we’re going to run with him this week. Although he comes in as the defending champion, we’d gamble with the four names above before picking Zach. He seems to have consistency on there courses where he’s been able to pull in wins (like Deere Run), so if you need another name this week grab him, but don’t bet the farm on him.

Sleeper Pick/Odds to Win the 2015 Hyundai Tournament of Champions

• Billy Horschel (Golficity Odds 30/1): Billy has stayed hot since making golf headlines last fall with his monumental 3-event run which started as a choke to 2nd place, a win, and another win. The new father, and now extremely wealthy golfer, finished T6 here last year after leading the pack after 36 holes. Not many fantasy players will opt for Billy this week, so you have a good chance to run away with some extra fantasy earnings/points with a strong showing. Billy Ho also comes into Hawaii fresh off a T8 at Tiger’s Hero Challenge a few weeks ago.

Salary Cap League Sleeper Pick/Odds to Win the 2015 Hyundai Tournament of Champions

• Russell Henley (Golficity Odds 50/1): To some, the obvious sleeper here might be Geoff Ogilvy, a guy who won this event in 2009 and 2010, but the times have changed. Henley had a rough year in 2014 (besides his playoff win at the Honda Classic), but he has two top 5s in his last five starts and comes with a very attractive price value in most fantasy leagues. Look for Henley to be a solid super-sleeper pick this week.

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Fantasy Golf Predictions YTD Stats: 2014-2015 Season

• Tournaments Played 2014-2015: 6
• Total Fantasy Dollars: $4,254,316 (Average = $709,052/week)
• Total Top 10s: 10 out of 35 players picked (28.57%).
• Total Top 3s: 5 out of 35 players picked (14.29%).
• Total Missed Cuts: 4 out of 35 players picked (88.57% made the cut).

Remember to visit the The Clubhouse and our private Facebook group to discuss this week’s picks for the 2015 Hyundai Tournament of Champions with other Premium Members.

(Cover Photo Credit)