This week’s St. Jude Classic serves as the perennial opening act for the second major of the year. I like to break up the players in this week’s field into two groups: (1) Players tuning up for next week’s US Open (2) Players looking to win the St. Jude Classic. Part of the reason it’s a good place to ‘warm-up’ for the US Open is that it’s tough. At a par of 70, it’s annually one of the hardest on Tour and rewards precise play, keeping the ball in the fairway, and hitting small greens. There are some big names in the field and it should serve as an exciting precursor to a highly anticipated US Open.

 

Feel free to contact us with suggestions on fantasy content and enjoy the weekend!

 

How it works:

  • My Guy: If I’m picking in a one-golfer league, and had to just pick one…he’s the guy.
  • Stripes: “Man, I was striping it today” as the big guy (TW) likes to say. Call these guys my “favorites” each week.
  • Wildcard: All in the name. Enough said.
  • Shank: I hate to even say this word, especially on a golf course, so as you can imagine these are guys to avoid.

 

My Guy:

Dustin Johnson

  • 2012 champion here at TPC Southwind
  • T8 and T13 in his last two events (AT&T Byron Nelson and the Memorial Tournament)
  • Strong form this year- 7th in the FedEx Cup rankings
  • 1st on the PGA Tour in driving distance (a whopping 317.6 yard average)

 

Stripes:

Harris English

  • Previous winner (2013)
  • Missed his chance to qualify for the US Open which may spark him towards earn a ‘W’ this week
  • Top 25 last week showed his form may be coming back (key word: ‘may’)

 

Billy Horschel

  • T13 at the PLAYERS and T11 at the Memorial.
  • Finished T10 at this event in 2013 and T6 in last year’s edition
  • Playing sharp golf and hitting his irons well – 15th in greens in regulation percentage

 

Phil Mickelson

  • Should give this one a good go to prep for next week’s US Open
  • Runner-up in 2013 and T11 in 2014
  • T4 at the Wells Fargo Championship in May

 

Wildcard:

  • Russell Knox
    • Currently 20th in Driving Accuracy, 8th in GIR, and 2nd in Proximity to Hole
    • Top 25s in his last two events

 

Shank:

Steven Bowditch                  

  • If you’re still trying to ride his high from his unlikely win in Texas, stop
  • Factor in his 80 on Sunday last week, and the fact that he missed 8 of 11 cuts from January through the start of May of this year and he quickly becomes an afterthought