This article is part of our PGA Tour Stats Review series.
While the Olympic men's golf tournament is going to capture much of the golf world's attention this week, we cannot overlook the John Deere Classic on the PGA Tour, the second-to-last event of the regular season. Jordan Spieth is the defending champion, but, even though he did not go to Rio, he has chosen not to defend his title as to not be a distraction.
Most fantasy leagues do not appear to have Olympic golf as part of the schedule, so we won't touch on it heavily here. I'll quickly give guys I like this week: Bubba Watson and Patrick Reed for the Americans, Henrik Stenson (for obvious reasons), Anriban Lahiri from India and Sergio Garcia, who has a chance to erase a multitude of demons and woe with a gold medal this week.
I also think Justin Rose can really sneak under the radar along with B.H. An.
My medal picks:
Gold: Bubba Watson
Silver: Henrik Stenson
Bronze: Anirban Lahiri
The Deere
You gotta go low. You have to make birdies. You have to keep moving forward. This is one of those weeks where if you're not in the 60s every day you feel like you're moving backward. With that in mind, here are the birdie average leaders for this season in the field this week.
Robert Garrigus - 4.00 birdies per round
Andrew Loupe - 3.97
Michael Thompson - 3.97
Jamie Lovemark - 3.81
Adam Hadwin - 3.79
My pick by far in this category is Robert Garrigus.
While the Olympic men's golf tournament is going to capture much of the golf world's attention this week, we cannot overlook the John Deere Classic on the PGA Tour, the second-to-last event of the regular season. Jordan Spieth is the defending champion, but, even though he did not go to Rio, he has chosen not to defend his title as to not be a distraction.
Most fantasy leagues do not appear to have Olympic golf as part of the schedule, so we won't touch on it heavily here. I'll quickly give guys I like this week: Bubba Watson and Patrick Reed for the Americans, Henrik Stenson (for obvious reasons), Anriban Lahiri from India and Sergio Garcia, who has a chance to erase a multitude of demons and woe with a gold medal this week.
I also think Justin Rose can really sneak under the radar along with B.H. An.
My medal picks:
Gold: Bubba Watson
Silver: Henrik Stenson
Bronze: Anirban Lahiri
The Deere
You gotta go low. You have to make birdies. You have to keep moving forward. This is one of those weeks where if you're not in the 60s every day you feel like you're moving backward. With that in mind, here are the birdie average leaders for this season in the field this week.
Robert Garrigus - 4.00 birdies per round
Andrew Loupe - 3.97
Michael Thompson - 3.97
Jamie Lovemark - 3.81
Adam Hadwin - 3.79
My pick by far in this category is Robert Garrigus. Garrigus contended last week at the Travelers – he finished T5 – and ranks fourth in strokes gained-approach to the green, the setup stat for birdies. If you're looking for a great sleeper this week, this is it.
The Favorites
By far the two favorites are past champions Zach Johnson, who is from this area and treats this as his fifth major, and Steve Stricker. Of those two, although Johnson is a great pick and I'll probably start him as well, I really recommend Stricker.
The part-time player has seen a bit of a resurgence this season, finishing T2 in Memphis to get into the Open and PGA Championships where he finished fourth and 42nd, respectively. He's 91st in birdie average, 12th in scoring average, first in strokes gained-around the green and, to no one's surprise, second in strokes gained-putting. I like him this week.
Wesley Bryan
This field is relatively weak but we do need to highlight Wesley Bryan, who won for the third time this season on the Web.com Tour last week to earn a Battlefield Promotion. It's arguably the worst time to get it – there are only two weeks in the regular season and he needs to basically win or go 2nd-2nd to make the FedEx Cup Playoffs, but he's arguably the hottest guy in this field and has nothing to lose.
On the Web.com Tour this season he ranks first in putting average, first in birdie average and first in scoring average, all key stats for this week.
Weather
This week in Silvis, Ill., the weather will be very nice with sunny skies, light winds and temperatures in the 80s (except for Thursday where it will be in the 90s). Friday has a chance of thunderstorms.
