I may never forgive Russell Henley for what he did to me last week at the Byron Nelson.  The dude just did not have it on Thursday and couldn’t get back into contention on Friday.  I really felt good about last week and he just ruined all of my plans for domination.  It is time to move on and get into Dean & Deluca Invitational.

Just a quick side note, I was looking over my article from this tournament last year and I can’t believe a year ago I wrote this article from Paris, France while on vacation with my wife.  What a difference a year makes, today my wife is seven months pregnant and can’t travel anywhere.  She’s very depressed about this.

Here’s what you need to know about what used to be known as the Colonial.  It is the longest running non-major event held at the same site, since 1946.  We’ve got a field of only 128 invitees which means in general you can take more risks in your lineups.  There are only 100 players who have a legitimate chance of winning this weekend and the Top 70 plus ties will make the cut.  If you remember 15 years ago, this is the tournament that invited the first woman to participate in a PGA Tour event, Annika Sorenstam. 

Colonial Golf & Country Club is a short Par 70 measuring out 7,204 yards.  It is a real test with very tight fairways and small bentgrass greens.  The short hitters are in play on this course and you’ll notice that throughout my playbook.  We’re looking for accurate fairway drivers, good ball strikers with the ability to get the ball in tight to the pin (better known as proximity), and always a solid putting stroke.  Jordan Spieth is built for this course, just look at his history here and that’s why he’s the highest priced player on the board.

You really need to have a combination of course experience and success before reaching the top of the leaderboard at the Dean & Deluca.  Since Sergio Garcia won this event in his debut back in 2001, among the tournament’s champions, only Adam Scott in 2014 hadn’t record at least one top-15 finish in a prior edition and only Steve Stricker in 2009 also hadn’t logged at least one top 10.  If you take out Jordan Spieth’s win last year, another common trend among the previous winners of this event is being seasoned.  Seasoned is the nice way of calling these players older.  All the previous 14 winners were at least 30 years old, five were at least 42, including Kenny Perry twice in 2003 & 2005.  The average age among these men was 37.86.  Spieth was only 22 but had already played in this event four times.

If you missed the announcement from FanDuel, they have canceled their Golf Game for this weekend’s event.  The official word from the company is, “There are no golf contests this week as we prepare to announce big changes to FanDuel Golf.  In the meantime, check out any of our other sports available in the lobby.”  I personally had mixed results on FanDuel and I’d like to see them retool the product.  We can all hope that they mean what they say when they tweeted, “There will be more details on the golf refinements available next week.  We promise it’ll be worth the wait.” 

GOOD LUCK THIS WEEK!  

UPDATED AT 9:15PM ET

HERE ARE YOUR WEEKEND OPTIMAL LINEUPS ON DRAFT KINGS:

GPP #1

Jordan Spieth $10,000
Tony Finau $8,200
Emiliano Grillo $7,900
Chris Kirk $7,800
Danny Lee $7,700
Nick Watney $7,600
 
GPP #2
 
Jon Rahm $9,900
Sergio Garcia $9,700
William McGirt $7,800
Scott Piercy $7,500
Harris English $7,400
Billy Hurley $7,400

 

DFS PGA PLAYBOOK:

PLAYERDRAFT KINGSBREAKDOWN
Jordan Spieth$12,000Defending Champ making his 5th Trip to Colonial. He also had a 1 stroke loss in 2015.  Scoring Average of 67.31.
Paul Casey$10,200Consistent as they come with Top 25s in his last 4 Starts and 6 of his last 7.  Ranks 10th in GIR & 5th in Scrambling. 5th trip to Colonial (2 Top 15s) 
Matt Kuchar$10,10010th Trip to Colonial with 3 Top 10s including a 2nd in 2013 & T6 in 2016.  T9 Last Week (Led the field in GIR)
Kevin Kisner$9,7004th Trip to Colonial with a T5 in 2015 & T10 in 2016.  Scoring Average of 67.7 in last 8 rounds.  15th in SG:TG & 16th in Proximity.
Marc Leishman$9,300Don't like paying this much but can't argue with 7/7 Cuts Made with 3 Straight Top 30 Finishes Here. T13 Last Year & T13 Last Week. LOVES THE TEXAS WIND!
Jason Dufner$9,0009th Trip to Colonial with 3 Top 10s (2nd, P2, & T6 last year).  He also has 8 Top 25s with 11 straight cuts made this season.
Adam Hadwin $8,4003rd Trip to Colonial with a T5 in 2015 & T22 in 2016.  Scoring Average of 68.2.  He's made 14 straight cuts. 17th in SG:TG & 4th in Scrambling.
Chris Kirk $8,200Won here in 2015 before that was 5/5 Cuts Made with a T5 in 2012.  Struggled to start the year but had a T12 at the Players  
Ryan Palmer$7,900This MEMBER at Colonial just Owns this track.  Boring play but 14 Trips with 3 Top 5s since 2012.  10th in SG:TG. 
Emiliano Grillo$7,800Only 2nd Trip to the Colonial (T55 in 2016) but he's only missed 1 Cut all season.  Gotta like him sitting at T46 in Greens Hit & 24th in SG:TG.
Pat Perez$7,60012 Trips to Colonial with 4 Top 10s including a T5 in 2015.  He's got a Win, T2, T3 & T4 among his 9 Top 20s this season.
Lucas Glover$7,500Contrarian play because of his lack of Course History but has played here a LOT and has had a really sneaky good season coming off a T6 at the Players.
Sung Kang$7,4006 Straight Cuts Made (4 Top 20s, 2nd at the Shell).  T20 at the Byron Nelson. T46 in GIR, 34th in SG:Putting & 26th in Adjusted Scoring. Third trip to Colonial.
Kyle Reifers$7,300Best Finish of 2015-16 season was a 5th at the Colonial.  Finished T20 last week at the Byron Nelson (Ranked T10 in GIR & Proximity)
Charley Hoffman$7,300One of my favorite values of the week. 8/8 at the Colonial with 3 Top 20s since 2012.  Scoring Average of 69.2 in 31 Rounds. 42nd in SG:TG & 31st in Birdie or Better %
Ben Martin $7,2003/3 Cuts Made at the Colonial with a T21 in 2014 & T10 in 2015.  He needs a strong 3 months to keep his PGA Tour Card.
William McGirt$7,1005/6 Cuts Made at the Colonial with a best finish of T21 in 2014.  Playing well with a T22 at the Masters, T3 at Harbour Town, & T22 at the Players.
Chris Stroud$6,900Colonial has been friendly to him with Top 15 Finishes in 4 of his last 5 Trips. Scoring Average of 68.83. 3 Top 15s Finishes this season.
Danny Lee$6,900Got this one right last week with a T5 at the Byron Nelson (Ranked T2 in Greens Hit & 9th in Proximity). 4/4 Cuts Made at Colonial with Top 25s in last 2 Trips.
Martin Laird$6,600Missed his 1st Cut Here in 6 Trips last year but has 2 Top 10s at Colonial and playing much better this season with 3 Top 10s.  

DRAFT KINGS OPTIMALS:

DRAFT KINGS CASHPRICE
Jordan Spieth$12,000
Marc Leishman$9,300
Ryan Palmer$7,900
William McGirt$7,100
Danny Lee$6,900
Martin Laird$6,600
  
DRAFT KINGS GPPPRICE
Kevin Kisner$9,700
Adam Hadwin$8,400
Chris Kirk$8,200
Emiliano Grillo$7,800
Pat Perez$7,600
Charley Hoffman$7,300

ONE & DONE PLAY:

ONE AND DONE PLAYFINISH
SBS - Jimmy WalkerT9
Sony - Charles Howell IIIT8
Career - Bill HaasT17
Farmers - Brandt SnedekerT9
Waste - Brendan SteeleT16
Pebble - Phil Mickelson65th
Genesis - J.B HolmesT34
Honda - Graeme McDowellT14
Mexico - Alexander NorenT55
Valspar - Ryan MooreT18
Palmer - Zach JohnsonT66
Match - Sergio GarciaOut of Sweet 16
Puerto - David HearnT17
Shell - Lee WestwoodMC
Masters - Justin Rose2nd
RBC - Kevin KisnerT11
Valero - Charley HoffmanT40
Wells Fargo - Adam ScottT36
Players - Martin KaymerT69
Nelson - Dustin JohnsonT13
D & D - Pat Perez???