Fantasy Golf Picks, Odds, & Predictions – The Fort Worth Invitational

Fantasy Golf Picks, Odds, and Predictions for The Fort Worth Invitational

2018 Fort Worth Invitational  Fantasy Preview

‘Wise Beyond His Years’ will be the predictable headlines on the news stands on Monday morning, but for once the quips fit the narrative.

Aaron Wise, the precocious 21-year-old, landed his first PGA TOUR title in just his 18th start at last week’s AT&T Byron Nelson; a truly remarkable feat that confirms his status as one of the brightest young hopes in the sport.

It’s a victory made all the more impressive by the fact that it came at a traditional British-style Links course at Trinity Forest, the new host of the Byron Nelson. Most had assumed that Links specialists would prosper – indeed, we had the likes of Leishman, Grace and Na in our draft – and they would all go on to finish inside the top-10. Perhaps Wise’s win marks out a potential British Open champion of the future?

Aaron Wise poses with the trophy after winning the AT&T Byron Nelson…

Aaron Wise poses with the trophy after winning the AT&T Byron Nelson at Trinity Forest Golf Club on May 20, 2018 in Dallas, Texas. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

The PGA TOUR stays in Texas this week and heads to rather familiar ground: Colonial Country Club, for the newly-christened Fort Worth Invitational, which you may know otherwise as the Crowne Plaza, the Dean & Deluca and other sponsorship-led names.

Colonial is unique in that it has hosted this tournament since its inception in 1946; only The Masters has been played out at the same venue for longer. The champions board features the names of Jordan Spieth and Ben Hogan, as one reminder that we are all aging rather fast!

This is the last stop off in Texas this season, and gives the players a final opportunity to win in the Lone Star State and slip into the prestigious plaid jacket, which previous winners have suggested is something of a thrill.

And with the US Open about three weeks away, time is running out for them to play their way into some kind of form ahead of the year’s second major.

Last Week’s Fantasy Results 

Aaron Wise’s astonishing win took pretty much everyone by surprise last week, but our top two picks of Branden Grace and Marc Leishman certainly did not disappoint.  We knew Grace excels on links-style courses, and that is exactly what he did on Sunday with a career tying 62 which left him with a whopping 128.5 fantasy points.

Leishman put up points all week and ended up in solo second with 132 points.

Marc Leishman of Australia plays a shot on the second hole during the…

Marc Leishman of Australia plays a shot on the second hole during the third round of the AT&T Byron Nelson at Trinity Forest Golf Club on May 19, 2018 in Dallas, Texas. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

Despite losing three of our seven picks to the cut, our two sleeper picks Kevin Na (T6/113 FP) and Kevin Tway (T9/99 FP) and even our top Tuesday Sleeper report pick Charles Howell III (T9) helped fuel a lot of our Premium Members over the cash line.

Here is a roster sent to us by one of our Premium Members. Despite losing Baddeley to the cut, they still cashed in nicely.

The Fort Worth Invitational 2018 Field

Jordan Spieth will be looking to continue a fine run of form at Colonial that reads 2-1-2 this week, although he faces some stiff competition.

Kevin Kisner is the defending champion and he too has posted three consecutive top-10s here, while Jon Rahm marked his debut at the venue with a T2 finish in 2017.

Justin Rose will make his first start here in a number of years, while US Open champion Brooks Koepka and Rickie Fowler will ensure the number of players ranked inside the top-20 of the world sits at seven, along with newly-crowned Players Championship victor Webb Simpson.

Both ends of the age spectrum will be represented with Keith Clearwater, the 1987 winner and a sprightly 58-years-young, teeing up alongside the gifted teenager Joaquin Niemann.

Jordan Spieth of the United States hits his tee shot on during the…

Jordan Spieth of the United States hits his tee shot on during the final round of the 50th annual AT&T Byron Nelson on May 20, 2018 at Trinity Forest Golf Club in Dallas, TX. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

This Week’s Course Preview

Colonial CC is customarily referred to as ‘Hogan’s Alley,’ in deference to the five-time winner here.

Originally opened in 1936, this layout hosted the US Open in 1941 after Perry Maxwell had gotten his hands on the John Bredemus original and tweaked the opening quartet of holes.

Numbers 3-5 are known as the ‘Horrible Horseshoe,’ with the Par 4 third a lengthy 483-yard affair that doglegs to the left around a huge tree. The fourth is a behemoth of a Par 3 – no less than 247 yards! – into an elevated green, while the fifth, traditionally the toughest hole on the course, requires two poker straight long irons to set up a birdie opportunity.

Colonial is a Par 70 that features just two Par 5s, and with one of those being the opening hole and just prior to the Horrible Horseshoe, making birdie here is a priority!

Tight, tree-lined and with 12 holes doglegging one way or the other, Colonial also features small Bentgrass greens; note the change from the Texan norm. The layout is littered with fairway bunkers, and water is in play on six holes.

This is a short and proverbial ‘thinking man’s’ golf course, with straight hitting, GIR peppering (or smart scrambling) and putting on quickish Bentgrass greens all needed in the winners’ armory.

A general view of the 18th green during Final Round of the DEAN &…

A general view of the 18th green during Final Round of the DEAN & DELUCA Invitational at Colonial Country Club on May 29, 2016 in Fort Worth, Texas. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

Weather Forecast for Fort Worth, TX

It’s shaping up to be a typically Texan week once more, with plenty of sunshine, hot temperatures and stiff winds.

The early forecast suggests there won’t be a repeat of Sunday in Dallas, where a torrential downpour delayed the action by a couple of hours.

The four days of the Fort Worth Invitational have an unerring similarity to them: temperatures ranging from 89-96 degrees, hours of sun and winds that slowly increase throughout the day to highs of around 12 mph.

Last Year’s Results from The Fort Worth Invitational

THE PLAYERS Championship winner, Webb Simpson, has been in decent form for quite some time, as evidenced by the fact that he led this tournament by two shots with just 18 holes left to play.

But as has been the former US Open champion’s Achilles heel – up until his triumph at Sawgrass a few weeks ago, he couldn’t see the job through and was eventually usurped by Kevin Kisner’s final round of 66.

Kiz made a huge par save putt to hold off the challenge of the likes of Jordan Spieth and Jon Rahm to land his second PGA TOUR title at -10.

Rahm had a birdie look to force a playoff but could only shave the edge, and he had to settle for a share of second alongside Spieth and Sean O’Hair on -9. Simpson completed the top-five at -8.

Highlights | Round 4 | DEAN & DELUCA

SUBSCRIBE to PGA TOUR now: http://pgat.us/vBxcZSh In the final round of the 2017 DEAN & DELUCA Invitational, Kevin Kisner birdied the first three holes on the back nine to take the lead and held on to win against a charging Jordan Spieth. The 71st DEAN & DELUCA Invitational is held at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.

Where to Play Fantasy Golf for The Fort Worth Invitational  this Week

Load up your favourite DFS site and you will notice the slate for the US Open is present and tantalizing like a golden carrot. So, there’s no time like the present to get your bankroll in order ahead of the season’s second major….

• PGA $400k Dogleg: With uncertainty over some of the players at the head of the market this week, why not trust your advanced understanding and research of DFS golf to pay dividends. There’s $100k to the winner in this $33 entry contest.
• PGA $1.25M Fantasy World Golf Championships Qualifier: It might be advantageous trying something a little different this week: this $5 entry contest guarantees the winner a ticket to the Fantasy World Golf Championships, with consolation cash prizes for the top 15% or so of entrants.

This Week’s Fantasy Notes for The Fort Worth Invitational

When you see a particular course has a rollcall of winners attached to it that includes Kisner, Chris Kirk, Zach Johnson, David Toms and Steve Stricker, you kind of know already about the type of player you need to be drafting.

Colonial serves straight hitters very well – even if they aren’t the longest off the tee. Kisner ranked first for Driving Accuracy last year, finding 71% of fairways, and yet was down at T39 for Driving Distance; an average of 293 yards.

Opportunities to let driver go really are few and far between at Colonial, and there is minimal advantage to the bombers with iron in hand either as they will need to rein in the power especially on the doglegged holes.

If you want to get in the mix to win any golf tournament then you need to be returning high GIR numbers; Kiz ranked second for this stat 12 months ago and shows that he at least gave himself some birdie looks at a track where consolidation is often the way forward.

Spieth ranked first for Putting Average here in 2017 – it’s been a while since he’s hit those dizzying heights, and Kisner also made plenty of putts in a decent all-round week for the Georgian.

Similarities with other tree-lined Par 70s on Tour abound, and the likes of the Genesis Open and the Valspar Championship can be permed for correlations.

And one surprising link that is gathering momentum is that between Colonial and TPC Sawgrass. The likes of Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia and Adam Scott have won at both venues, while the likes of David Toms, Zach Johnson and Kisner have won at Colonial and finished second at Sawgrass. Factor in Tim Clark, who won the Players and finished second here, and somebody like Webb Simpson, who of course has a Sawgrass triumph to his name and finished top-five at Colonial 12 months ago, and the plot thickens.

Our Top 5 (and Top 2 Sleeper) Fantasy Picks and Odds to Win The Fort Worth Invitational

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Fantasy Golf Predictions This Season (2017-2018)

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